ISK makes the spaceships go around. How do you make ISK in EVE? Many a new EVE player has wondered about how to make ISK to be able to buy a battleship. Or a freighter. Or even bigger.
There are many different ways to make ISK, but it may seem difficult for a new player to see through the maze and confusion when just starting the game. I will try to give an overview of ISK making activities. This does not include everything, but a selection of things I have tried in game.
This has often been the first experience for new players in EVE. Some players quit after this. Some stay with missions and some switch to other activities. There are corporations organized around doing missions and other corporations are organized around making life hell for corporations that do missions. Decent ISK, but be careful not to fall into the faction/officer module optimization trap.
Mining:
Mining is also a starter activity in EVE. Same pattern as with missions. Some quit, some stay and some say: “Argh never again, miners must die”. But mining is the most important activity in EVE. No minerals, no spaceships. Period. Good ISK in mining, if you mine in a group. There is a big difference in yield, when you are in a fleet with mining boost.
Exploration:
Lots of possibilities in exploration. Search Youtube to find ships, fittings and strategies for exploration in high, low, and null-space. Exploration in wormholes is a big part of EVE lore and there is a lot of ISK to be made in wormholes albeit with risk from player and NPC wormhole residents.
Trading:
Buy low and sell high. There are trade stations and trade hubs in EVE. The two biggest are Amarr and Jita. Effective trading is fairly low skill point intensive. If you like numbers and graphs, then trading might be the thing for you. Buy 1 or 2 PLEX and start with that as an investment in trading. Big numbers, if you are clever and patient.
Marked speculation:
I have included this one, because it is one of the biggest money makers in EVE. When there is a patch, there might be changes to ships or modules. As an example the Inferno patch brought massive changes to mining ships and huge profits to players who had invested in mining ships. Confessions of a ISK trillionaire on using patch speculation for making BIG ISK.
Production:
Take minerals, build stuff and then sell it. There are many different ways of optimizing your profits. Just remember to look at your local market where you are building your items. Can you increase you profits by selling local or exporting your goods and selling at trading hubs? Minerals are not “free” just because you mined them yourself. It costs time to mine. Learn the difference between selling to buy orders and setting up your own sell orders. Station traders are yelling at me right now.
Ganking:
Welcome to EVE. BLAM. There is money in shooting players who do not read about the game and who fly in highly populated mission hubs and who use transport highways. The officer fitted mission running Raven Navy Issue has almost become cliché. Right after officer RNI are players who undock freighter and jump freighters in Amarr and Jita during highly advertised ganking events. Welcome to Hulkageddon, Burn Jita and Burn Amarr.
Hauling:
There are dedicated corporations that only fly freighters and jump freighters. God love these people who fly the slowest ships in EVE. Make a contract and other people move your stuff. Big null sec alliances set up logistic wings and logistic corporation only to move ships and modules in and out of null sec for their members. A video from Fanfest 2015 about big time hauling.
Ratting:
You can earn good ISK by flying to asteroid belts and shooting the NPCs that spawn in them. It used to be little crosses, now there are many icons. You can also warp to anomalies and maybe receive an escalation to a site with more ships to shoot, along with a potential high value drop at the end. Escalations vary a lot in reward but can be very lucrative. Then there is ratting in wormholes. This is done in an organized fleet where you can force the NPC to spawn additional ships by warping capital class ships into the site. This is extremely profitable, but you need skills and good knowledge of the game.
Hot-dropping:
Hot-dropping is like ganking, but in null space. Just as mission runners in high sec use expensive modules, anomaly grinders in null sec also use bling Rattlesnakes to optimize ISK/hour. Then other players use black ops, T3 and stealth bombers to hotdrop on afk ratters in null space. There is no guarantee of phat loot, but when you hit the jackpot and the loot fairy is generous, then you can dock up with a few billion in drop loot. Classic hotdrop: http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=29458201
Salvaging:
Some players salvage after they have completed a mission site or a ratting anomaly. All income from sites in wormholes come from loot and salvage from the wrecks. It is also possible to scan down mission runners and loot their sites or fly around low-sec and loot and salvage wrecks next to gates. The main income is T2 rig building materials from T2 wrecks.
Moon mining and reactions:
Materials used in T2 production are created from reactions using mined moon materials from low-and nullspace. Higher reactions are extremely valuable and are used to finance entire alliance SRP programs. This is very rarely open to single players due to corporation mechanics, but with a bit of research, you can set up your own corp and POS in high-sec. Buy the moon materials on the market, set up your own reactions and sell them on for profit.
Please tell me in comments how you make your ISK.
PS. I hereby declare obligatory derogatory comments about carebears, miners and ratters too predictable. Enjoy EVE.
