Strep’s Throat Noise

There are  few things that I had to learn on my own when I first started EvE but WISH I had known from the get-go, things that had I had known them, I’m sure I would have made a lot more ISK early on and advanced a lot quicker in the game. So, I will share what I was taught in my early days of my first corp and things I learned on my own that will help the recent newcomers to EvE. (Things I have also taught all my new recruits since then)

1. Mining - **Veldspar & Scordite in High sec are the highest ISK per minute ratio right now.  Most new players have no idea what to mine and think that because it’s the most common ore as in its description that  it won’t be worth much, but because your mining lasers can pull more units per cycle and it weighs generally next to nothing so you can hold more of it in your hold and therefore get more units per mining run.   Some people will tell you “OH NO, get omber or whatever because mexallon (ie.) or whatever is worth more per unit.  Sorry to say, but you won’t as many units per minute  and when ISK / Minute is broken down.. Veld and Scordite are the way to go in high sec for new players.  Hell even guys who can fly a Hulk can make 18million or more in 1 hour of mining.  **Correction thanks to Ashireka who gladly pointed out a great website to get the ISK/m3 rate for each ore type, link in the comments 

   I would also like to add that these are great for relatively new players because as a miner the skills needed to process them are either generally already done, or much easier to get early on, depending on your career path you chose at the beginning.

1. Salvaging - I didn’t learn anything about salvaging until weeks after I started and I really wish I did.  The sheer number of ISK you make from selling the items you get from salvaging wrecks is monstrous compared to what those early agents pay for level 1 missions.  Learn how to use a Salvager early on and you’ll thank yourself.  Also, learn how to use a Tractor Beam early on as well, it will make salvaging so much easier.
2. Skills & Implants- Another thing that I wasn’t really aware of and not giving much direction in the tutorials of the game is how implants work, what slots are for what and how they help.  I didn’t know right away that by adding attribute points to your character through implants it could literally shave hours, if not days, off of skill training, and on top of that, most pilots don’t know to get ALL of their learning skills up at the beginning.On top of that, I didn’t know about the setting “Show all skills that you can Currently train” in the settings area of the skill character sheet.  Click on this and it will show you all the skill books you can buy and train at that moment.  I encourage to get all the skills listed in the Learning section to level 4, and then more skills will appear and get those up to 3 at least as well.  You’ll thank yourself once again.A program called EveMon will actually tell you what learning skills you should learn to get the ship you want to fly or item you want, and it will even tell you what learning skills you should have to make getting that ship or item even faster.  Get that program NOW! It’s quite easy to use.
3. Contracts - One good way to make money with your first hauler is to run courier contracts for not only your corp (I’m sure CEOs love a guy that will haul stuff from one place to another for them, for a small fee), but most new players are unaware that there are PUBLIC contracts in New Eden from dozens of corps looking for some poor sucker to transport goods for them, and they pay well.
   • Click on the contracts tab on the left of your screen above the Map button
   • Click on the “Available Contracts” tab
   • Change the View section to “All regions” or “Entire Region” depending on how far you are willing to travel to pick up something
   • Change the type to Courier
   • Hit the “Get Contracts”

   This will show you a plethora of contracts in the area you selected, where to pick up stuff and where it’s going, how much cargo room you need, how much the reward is and how much collateral you need to put down on the contract in case you don’t finish it or end up losing it. So if you have enough ISK to cover the collateral and can make an easy million or two..Go for it!!  Things to watch out for? You Ask?  Well, if the route of the haul takes you through low security space or 0.0 space you could very well lose your ship and your collateral, which means big losses.  So open up each potential contract and view the route and the pick up and destination carefully, you can show info on all of them.  Stick to high security if you can, and make sure your ship has enough room to carry it all in one shot.

4. Medical Clones-  the tutorial of the game when I started lightly touched on this subject, but I don’t think enough because I’ve come across many recruits that had NO idea what I was talking about when I mentioned upgrading their medical clone.  Your medical clone is where you appear when you die or get podded in space.  It’s like a new YOU waiting to be activated, should your current self die (so yes, you are immortal.)If you travel to stations around you, you will notice that some of them have Medical icons, and in there you will see your current medical clone, how many skill points it holds, and where it’s located in New EdenIf you open up your character sheet, your current amount of skill points will be displayed at the top under all your info, and your medical clone skill points maximum.  If your current skill points are HIGHER than the medical clone maximum, then when you die, your skill points will DROP to the maximum that the new body can hold.  THIS IS BAD! Corrected as per a great comment from Ix Forres below..“If your medical clone is, say, a clone grade alpha (800k or so SP max) and you die with, say, 40ish million SP, you won’t lose all of it. The skill with the most skill points in will drop down half it’s SP, I believe- for most higher level pilots, this means your Racial Battleship V skill drops to IV and you get to do another month of training. Sucks, but not as much as losing everything would- a month is a pain in the arse (believe me), but losing 40mSP to forgetting to press a button would be a bit much even by EVE’s standards.”So make sure you are always aware that your medical clone is upgraded to hold a number HIGHER than your current skill points.Now, most people say, ‘well why not just get a really high skill points medical clone since they are so cheap?’  Well this is true for industrialists and people who don’t venture into low sec/0.0 at all, and who do not engage in PVP where you can be podded. But people who do, will end up dying frequently early on, and so wasting money on a medical clone that holds millions more skill points more than the one JUST above your current base is really… a waste of ISK.  So just buy the the clone at the bottom of the list as it is generally always the next step up from your current skill points.  I do believe you can never downgrade your clone, so don’t worry about it. Just keep an eye on that.  I believe even your character sheet will have your Medical Clone in red if it needs upgrading.
5. Last but not least… Autopilot is NOT your friend.  All to often I hear of pilots who are lazy and decide to take their hauler full of stuff through high security space from one place to another thinking they are safe.  Get in the habit of setting your destination and manually warping to 0 to each “Next destination” gate you see in the top left.  Also the next gate will be colored gold in your overview.  And the reason I say this you ask??!!!  Suicide Kills.   Even in high sec you are not 100% safe.  There are pilots who will gladly lose their ship to Concorde for unlawfully attacking you, just so they can kill you before that happens, and generally have someone else waiting with them to grab your stuff from your wreck, especially if it is worth a lot more than the ship they just lost.So don’t do it.   I speak from experience..Autopiloting brings you 15km from the gate, and you slowly crawl towards it, giving Suiciders ample opportunity to scan your cargo and kill you.  At least jumping to 0, you can jump through the gate quickly if this happens, and they cannot follow you.

That’s pretty much some of the basic things I wish I knew starting, so hopefully I just made a newbies day just a little bit easier

Cheers