Newbie PvP ISK generation

[Starting with an aside: I've had this in draft for a few days, and I keep revisiting the rankings and tweaking them. This is a very subjective list which changes from day to day, but if it's going to be posted it has be considered finished at some point - and today is that day.]

One of the issues with following a destructive life in Eve as a nub is that it can be quite expensive - not in the big scheme of things, but initially at least there are more ISK outgoings than income and this is obviously not a situation that can continue for any length of time. Being short on ISK is a pain, forcing players to break Eve rule #1 and leading to "engagement hesitation" (I just made that term up but I think it's descriptive enough).

As one of the members of the corp's public channel is happy to repeat, "PvE is for alts", so what can a new player do to keep their wallet at a healthy level without resorting to too much PvE?

The options for ISK generation (including PvE activities) I can think of are the following:

1. Missioning
2. Manufacturing
3. PI 
4. Mining
5. Trading
6. Incursions
7. Wormholes
8. Exploration
9. Ratting
10. Scamming
11. Ninja Salvaging and looting
12. Ganking and griefing
13. PvP
14. Buy PLEX
15. Corporate Infiltration

All of these activities can be performed adequately with pretty low skill levels as long as the appropriate mechanics are understood (although some may not be too profitable without reasonable skills). Even running incursions can be done with low skills if you're a bit underhanded about it (although I believe characters whose names are similar to mine tend to be excluded from many incursion fleets. Oh noes!)

Note that there can be significant overlap between these different revenue streams; manufacturing / trading often go together, as do raw material extraction (mining, salvaging) / manufacturing, and wormholes / PI, etcetera.

My take on these different options (these are all my own opinions, you should try things out if you're looking to generate some ISK and decide for yourself which you like and which you don't). I've rated them based on how much fun they are (as far as I am concerned - this basically is the same as the likelihood of finding PvP whilst doing the task) but also how much ISK they generate versus how much time they take (both in-game time, and training time) - for a new character (less than 6 months old).


1. Personally I'm not a fan of missioning. It takes too long as far as I am concerned, although skilling up enough to be able to run level 3 missions can be done quickly and generates sufficient ISK:hour to support a Rifter habit. In addition, sometimes people in small salvaging boats insist on coming in to your mission pocket trying to steal things. Blowing these up after they've stolen from you can be funny.

Rating: 4/10, would do if desperate but to make real money takes a long skill plan (although see ninja salvaging later).


2. T2 / t3 manufacturing is pretty much out of the question for a newbie due to the insane levels of skills that are needed (and often significant up-front investment). People say there's no money to be made in t1 manufacturing, and as a rule they're right although if you're careful and do your research you can find profitable t1 lines for manufacture. Of course that involves "market research" which may or may not be worth your time.

Rating: 2/10, lots of work for razor-thin margins (if you're lucky). Might be worth it if you can find a free source of mined ore but it's probably more profitable (and a damn sight quicker) just to sell the ore.


3. PI is pretty much free money. Unfortunately in hisec it's very little free money, but the returns are better in lowsec or nullsec (and best in wormhole space). Expect pointy ship on hauler PvP action if you're doing this in low or 0.0 space.

Rating: 3/10, the money isn't great unless you can do it in null or wormhole space - which is unlikely for new characters.


4. Mining... this is covered in the newbie tutorials so I'm not going to give any description for it, and even the amusement of hanging your drones out on aggressive to whore onto killmails of failed ganks doesn't make up for the tedium.

Rating: 0/10. No... just no. I already spent more time on it than I want to by writing these, and the above, sentences.


5. Sometimes referred to as "real pvp" by those engaged in it, trading is basically setting up buy orders to buy stuff, then selling said stuff at a price that gives some return. Can make lots of ISK with little effort, can also lose lots of ISK with little effort.

Rating: 3/10. It's pretty easy to generate a few million ISK with low levels of startup capital and time investment, but to make serious returns you need serious investment (more in ISK terms than time terms). More likely to be productive for ISK generation after some game time.


6. Incursions, whilst time consuming, do generate decent revenues. Thought to be the preserve of highly trained characters with pimped out fits, there may be ways to get into incursion fleets without so much training (bear in mind that most incursion fleets only look at people's ship type and fittings to decide eligibility. Whilst you can't fake a ship, you can fake its fittings).

Note that if you're in a corp that has ongoing wars, you won't be accepted into incursion fleets anyway.

Rating: Unknown. I've never done any incursions.


7. Wormholes combine (potentially) the "best" of PvE with PvP opportunities. Can be run by characters with low skills (nominal scanning skills and I guess ideally Drake skills at a minimum) for reasonable amounts of ISK (remember, the ISK is all in the salvage in Sleeper sites so you'll need somebody that can do that. Training salvaging isn't a total loss though since it can be used for ninja salvaging too). PvP in wormholes is closer to nullsec mechanics than anything else, and helps you hone your directional scanner skills as well as your probing skills.

Rating: 8/10 mainly because of the PvP opportunities in addition to the ISK from running Sleeper sites.


8. Exploration helps train those scanning skills too, and can be lucrative - very lucrative if you're lucky. If you explore in lowsec systems the returns have been buffed recently and there's a chance to get some PvP in at the same time.

Rating: 8/10 due to either A) easy ISK in hisec, or B) reasonable ISK return and PvP opportunities in lowsec.


9. If you're flying around different asteroid belts looking for PvP or griefing targets, you may as well try some ratting whilst you're at it. Bounties in hisec and lowsec aren't very good, although the chance of finding PvP during the exercise makes up for that in lowsec systems. To maximise ISK you really need to be doing this in null sec, and it's something a green pilot can get into quickly as long as you have the temerity to risk going in to null. The money is in the battleship bounties and in particular the faction spawns when you get them. It's boring as hell and if you find any PvP as a newbie in null, the chances are you'll be bubbled and podded. That said, null is pretty safe once you're inside (unless traveling through choke points) and getting in and through choke points isn't impossible if you fit a cloak. Remember to keep an eye on local - if you can find an out of the way system with nobody else in local, rat to your hearts content and head to a safespot (and cloak) if local spikes.

Rating: 6/10 due to the boredom factor of ratting, and risk of getting in and out of null. If you have jumpclones available, it's well worth moving one to some decent null system once you find one and just leaving it there for when ratting for sec status or ISK is needed (or just make sure you're not on CVA's KoS list and rat in Providence).


10. Market and contract scamming is the act of promising the world and delivering a marble (for a price!). Opportunities to scam are everywhere; ransoming ships or pilots you've overpowered (not a scam unless you blow them up after anyway), CSPA shenanigans, or just good old Jita market scams. Use your imagination, learn how the contracts and markets work, and you too could be rolling in monocles.

Rating: 3/10 if you just sit in Jita or Amarr all day spamming local, but gets a few plus points if you manage to pull something decent off (say selling shuttles for 8m ISK, or buying a Machariel for 80m ISK) but too variable to rely on. Get scams set up early, and don't expect a quick return even though the return could be very good indeed when (more likely if, in my experience) it does happen.


11. Ninja Salvaging and looting basically involves finding missioners or PvP battle sites, and salvaging the wreck fields. Taking loot from the wrecks will make you flashy red to the legitimate owner and could well lead to PvP of your own (although for this to work well you need a decent set up maybe involving multiple accounts). You'll need reasonable probing skills to find mission sites, other than that only salvaging skills are needed. More complete information can be found in Kahega's guide, or Captain Charismatic's video guide.

Another option is to sit somewhere that other people are ganking and steal the loot from their targets (think Jita undock, Perimiter to / from Jita gate, etc.) - this is likely to lead to wardecs :)

Rating: 8/10 since its so quick and easy and can lead to PvP opportunities.


12. Ganking and griefing. Identify juicy targets (ship scanners and cargo scanners are essential for this, passive targeters are recommended) and either blow them up with cheap (note: this is a relative term, based on the expected value of modules and cargo that hopefully drops from the target) suicide ships (make sure to have somebody that can loot standing by) for ganking, or bait them into giving you aggression for griefing.

Rating: 5/10. I keep having to remind myself that this is an overview for newbies. With that in mind the chances are the kind of ships that can be ganked or griefed are unlikely to lead to nice drops. That said, with patience and sufficient support, you will find t1 haulers carrying around cargoes with enough value to justify the gank - but you are going to need patience.


13. PvP can definitely be an ISK generating proposition, if you can kill enough ships with decent enough drops (and scoop the loot) without losing too many of your own.

Rating: Since this is supposed to be a list of ways to make ISK for newbies to fund PvP I'm assuming PvP is not already self-sustaining, so it doesn't really make sense to rate it. I'm not sure why I even put it on the list to be honest :)


14. Buying PLEX is the quickest and easiest way for a new character to get their hands on ISK. Some people consider it a cheat, some people say they can't afford it, and for some it's just against their principles. But nobody can say it's not easy and quick.

Rating: 10/10 for speed of getting decent amounts of ISK (decent for a nub anyway) if you want to go that route.


15. Corporate Infiltration takes a long time (get in corp, build trust, plan the heist, steal the loots) but can provide big payouts. Captain Charismatic has a guide for corp infiltration, too. A clean (i.e. with few, preferably no, links to your PvP character) alt account will be needed.

Rating: Unknown. I've not tried this personally (yet - watch this space) so I'm not giving a rating.


Sorting these by my own rankings, with the "best" at the top (where there's a tie, the order is alphabetic), gives us the following ISK generation schemes:

1. Buy plex (10/10)
2. Exploration (8/10)
3. Ninja salvaging and looting (8/10)
4. Wormholing (8/10)
5. Ratting (6/10)
6. Ganking and Griefing (5/10)
7. Missioning (4/10)
8. PI (3/10)
9. Scamming (3/10)
10. Trading (3/10)
11. Manufacturing (2/10)
12. Mining (0/10)

Along with PvP itself, Incursions and Corporate infiltration which I've not rated.

I'd love to know if there are any other options I've overlooked, thoughts?