R&D Agents

Each state has a set of corps which have R&D agents.  These are special agents that are not really for missioning but are a left over from an old system of distributing Tech 2 blueprints.  Now days they are a source of Datacores, the essential components in invention.

Corps that have R&D agents are as follows;

• Amarr - Carthum Conglomerate, and Viziam
• Caldari - Ishukone Corporation, Kaalakiota Corporation, and Lai Dai Corporation.
• Gallente  -  CreoDron, Duvolle Laboratories, and Roden Shipyards
• Minmatar - Boundless Creation, and Core Complexion Inc.

An R&D agent has a list of sciences in their agent details.  The agent is capable of starting a research project in one of those sciences.  For example an agent may have Mechanical Engineering as one of their sciences.  That agent can then research Mechanical Engineering.  When an agent starts a research project they start accumulating Research Points daily.  You may then cash these research points in at a later date to get datacores matching the science you where researching.  That is, to get Nanite Engineering datacores you must do a Nanite Engineering research job.  Datacores now cost 100 RP and some 10,000 ISK each.  Research agents just keep accumulating RP points without your interaction but you can make them go a little faster.  They will offer you a mission once per day and if you complete that mission you get a day's worth of RP points.  These missions are either Courier (with a small package) or "Get me some tritanium" missions so they are dead easy.  You don't have to do them though for the agent to keep working.  That makes R&D agents the most passive ISK generation in the game.

The RP you get per day is dependent on several factors.  First is the level of the agent.  They come in levels 1 - 4.  The higher the level of the agent, the higher your standings must be with the agent's corp and faction.  You must also have the science you want to researched trained.  The higher your science level, the more RP you get.  Lastly, the agent is sensitive to standings and quality.  that means more standings = more RP.  Also getting the social skills that affect agent quality and reputation up will increase your RP rate a bit.  Now with pretty good skills and standings, and level 5 in the science, I'm getting 117 - 119 RP/day from level 4 agents.

To get more than one R&D agent you need to train Research Project Management.  You get another agent each level.  The last level takes forever though so even I don't have it yet.

R&D agents used to be the only steady source of datacores in the game.  However, recent changes now mean that people can exchange LP for datacores at Militia agents.  At the time of writing, the new system is so recent that the market is still fluctuating to reflect the change.

Jump Clones

Jump clones are one of the benefits of getting standings with a corp.  They are an extra body which you can occupy and move around as normal but can have a different set of implants and be kept in a different place.  In fact that is the main use for jump clones; preserving implant setups and getting around quickly.

To get a jump clone you need to either have;

1. Standings of 8.0 with an NPC corp that has medical bays (not everyone does).
2. Your corp has 8.0 standings an NPC corp that has medical bays.
3. Docking rights and medical bay rights at a station in null sec.  These rights are assigned by an alliance.

You need to have at least one level trained in Infomorph Psychology to get a jump clone.  You can have one spare body per level.  Once made you can move the body anywhere you want by jumping into it and flying there as normal.  You may also have a different set of implants in each body.  This means you can have a body for skill training with +5 attribute implants, a body with a Snake implant set and a body with no implants for PvP as an example.  Having a spare body with no expensive implants for PvP is the most common use for a jump clone.

A pilot may jump between clone bodies once per 24 hours.  That total not once per body.  This is a great way to get across large distances quickly.  I have a character that is a market seller and she jumps between two different markets and sells in places 28 jumps apart without travelling.  People who live in null sec or wormholes often have a jump clone in empire so they can buy skills and equipment easily.

You can't keep all your clones in the one station.  It causes issues and you should get an error message if you try.  There doesn't need to be a medical bay on the station you have your jump clone though.  It can be anywhere.  You should also make sure your respawn point (or medical clone) is not on a station you have a jump clone as it causes issues.  I'm fairly sure you will get an error message if you try to do this.

Jump clones last until you destroy them.  That means you should make them when you are able in case you need them later.  They cost nothing to leave in a station and cost less than a million to make.  They are a worth while investment as you may find yourself in a war tomorrow and you don't want to risk your +5 implants on a station camp.

There are now new skills that affect jump clones.  Advanced Infomorph Psychology adds an extra jump clone per level to a total of 10 clones.  Infomorph Synchronizing reduces the cool down period for the next jump by one hour per level allowing you to jump every 19 hours at level 5.

Exploring Exploration

Whether its in high sec, low sec, null sec or a wormhole, exploration can be extremely profitable.  The problem is that it is also extremely fickle.  You are a slave to the randomness of the whole thing.  I've gone two weeks without a serious find and then had nearly a billion ISK drop in five hours high sec work.  Null sec can be billions from a single site if you are lucky and exploration is a way of life in a wormhole.  In this guide I'll concentrate on high sec exploration as most new explorers will start there.

You should have had an introduction to exploration during the tutorials. I still recommend that you have a look at YouTube for some of the latest scanning tutorials.  Much has changed since Odyssey was launched.  I haven't found a tutorial I liked but when I do I'll link it here.

Skills You Need
Fortunately for rookies, there are only a few skills you need to train for scanning.  However those skills make a world of difference.  Here is a list of useful skills;

• Astrometrics - This skill reduces the time probes takes to scan, Increases the strength of probes and reduces the deviation of results.  It highly worth while training to 4 at least.  You also need it for the other skills.
• Astrometric Acquisition - Reduces the time probes take to scan.  Not the most useful of skills.
• Astrometric Pinpointing - Reduces the Deviation on scan results.  That means the indicated guess on the signal location will be closer to the real location.  Makes it harder to lose a signal.
• Astrometric Rangefinding - Increases probe strength.  This is the most useful of the scanning skills but I get by in high sec with it trained to 4.

There are also a few skills needed for the complexes you will find.

• Hacking - Needed to do Data Sites.  Level 4 is enough.  Lets you use a Data Analyser.
• Archaeology - Needed to run an Relic Analyser unit.  Used in Relic Sites.

Navigating the Solar System Map
When you are scanning for exploration sites you will spend a lot of time in the Solar System Map.  Getting around can be tricky but there are some tricks that will help you speed up your scanning efforts;

• Holding the primary mouse button (normally left) and moving the mouse will rotate the view around a central point.  This is usually a planet or something similar but you can select the pivot point by clicking on the item in the map.  I usually click on a probe or the signal I'm scanning so the view centres on that.
• Holding the secondary mouse button (normally right) and moving the mouse will pan the view of the map.  
• You can grab the edge of a probe bubble and drag it in or out to change the probe range of all probes.
• If you hold the SHIFT key down you will get the option to move or change the range of a single probe at a time.

These Are the Signals You Were Looking For
Some pilots get a little confused about what you are looking for in exploration.  Your Scanning interface can find several things; Ships, Structures Cosmic Anomalies and Cosmic Signatures.  Anomalies are simple combat sites that can be found with the on-board scanner of any ship.  They will always show in your scan results at 100% if the tick box is selected next to the filter.  These aren't the real prizes in high sec but are a steady source of income in null sec. The do have a chance of spawning a faction enemy which may have some nice loot and there is a smaller chance of they will escalate into a private exploration site called an expedition.  More on those later.

Ships and structures are used for PvP operations mostly.  However some people do  scan out high sec mission sites to steal loot or gank mission runners.

The thing you are really after are the Cosmic Signatures.  These are more likely to have faction spawns and special loot in them.  They can also escalate into expeditions as well.  You should create a filter on your scanner interface that only shows Signatures.  This will save you hassle scrolling through a bunch of sites you don't want.

When scanning there are a set of different results you can get.  These tell you how close you are to finding a site.  Scan results can be;

1. A red globe – means only one probe is in range of the site and the sites is somewhere in the globe.
2. A red circle – means two probes are in range and the site is near the circle edge.
3. Two red dots – means three probes are in range near one of the dots.
4. a single red dot - means four or more probes are in range but the signal is not strong but is near the dot.
5. A yellow inverted triangle – means 4+ probes are in range and the signal is strong. You should get a signal type about now.
6. A green inverted triangle – means you have 100% fix on the location and can warp to it.

Exploration sites spawn randomly in systems during the game "day".  You can scan a system and then come back two hours later and find new signals.  I find that if you clear out sites in a system by making them despawn, there is a greater chance of there being new sites when you come back.  For this reason I occasionally do the less valuable sites just to clear them away so I can come back later

Working With Probes
There are two types of probes to work with in exploration.  Core Scanner Probes and Combat Scanner Probes.  They do the same thing with a few small differences.  Core scanner probes can only find Signatures.  The combat probes can also find ship, POS, and other structures.  However the difference you need to worry about is the scan ranges.  Combat probes can manage 64 AU - 0.5 AU but core probes can do 32 AU - 0.25 AU.  That means you need core probes to find the weakest signals.  The lack of upper range is rarely an issue.  At the time of writing, Sister's Core Scanner Probes are the absolute best you can get.

My usual procedure when scanning is to open the solar system map and flick through the filters to refresh the system pre-scan.  This should show all the Anomalies in system and any Cosmic Signatures in system.  When you go to the solar system map you should see a red globe for each Signature in system.  This is a rough approximation of where the signal is.  There is one more clue though.  Signatures are usually within 5 AU of a planet.  So look for where the red globes intersect with planets.  Those are your likely scan locations.   I then launch probes in the Pinpoint Formation (second last button on the scan panel).  This launches eight probes in a 4 AU pattern that is good for scanning.  The area in the middle where all the probes overlap is your scan area.  Move the probes so that scan area is centred on the planet you have chosen.  Don't forget to look at the scene from the side on view to get the z-axis right.

The new Interface for probes now automatically applies changes to all probes in the group.  When you move the probes, you move them all while still in their pattern.  You can also change the probe range and all of them will change.  Furthermore, when you change the probe range the probes will move in or out automatically to maintain the pattern.  This makes the whole thing much quicker to do.  If you need to move a single probe, hold shift and the individual probe Markers will come up.  At this stage I haven't found a good reason to do this.

When your probe cluster is centred on the location you want to scan, hit the scan button.  A little timer happens and then you get your results.  The probable results are as listed above.  If you have the single point markers then you can reduce the range on your probes and move the new scan area over the icon.  Scan again.  Keep going until you have the signal at 100% or you reach 0.25AU without getting it.  With low skills or poor equipment its quite possible to have signals you can't find.  However try moving probes closer or scanning again in case its just a unlucky scan.

If your signal disappears after a scan then you may have had a wild deviation in your last scan.  I typically leave the probes in place and bring the range out two ticks.  Then scan again.  I have found that if a signal is at the very edge of a scan area (that overlap in the middle) then you can get some wild deviations which will send you chasing shadows.  If you think this is happening then expand the probe range out so that it covers the whole area you have seen the signals in.  For me I normally go to 8 AU or sometimes 16AU to just get a confirmed signal to chase.  This is rare though.

Types of Exploration Site
There are five "groups" of Cosmic Signatures.  They are Combat, Wormhole, Relic Site, Data Site, and Gas Site.  Here is a brief description of each;

Wormholes
Wormholes can provide a great deal of ISK but they are extremely dangerous.  First off they are null sec so its anything goes in that space.  Second, local does not show anyone unless they talk.  That means you have no idea who else is in system with you.  Third, a lot of wormholes are owned by someone.  By this I mean that someone has set up a POS and is farming the system.  They get annoyed with people taking what they see as theirs.  There are no beacons to sites in wormhole space.  You will need to scan out all the sites you do with either probes or the on board scanner.  Lastly the rats are different.

Sleepers are the rats in wormholes and they have a different AI to normal rats.  They will choose the weakest target to attack, switch targets during a fight and attack drones and logistics ships.  They also do their damage to your weakest resistance value and they tank all damage types equally.  You can solo Class 1 and 2 sleepers but above that you need friends.  The most common approach is the spider tank.  Everyone in the fleet has the same tank, eg a buffer shield tank.  They also all fit a remote repairer.  When one person is attacked, all the others in the fleet put their remote repairer on the victim.  This means the victim gets the repair ability of 3+ repairers while not using cap.  This approach takes some teamwork so practice with friends in advance.

Next, there is no actual money in wormholes.  The cash doesn't magically appear in your wallet.  You will have to salvage every wreck and get the stuff to empire to get a payout.  That makes you vulnerable again.  The items dropped by sleepers have a set value in empire but certain salvage items are worth a lot of money and you are trying to get as many of them as possible.

Lastly, the wormhole you came in through is your lifeline.  Make sure you bookmark both sides before warping away.  Wormholes can disappear based on time or how many ships have been through them.  Wormhole corps often close wormholes deliberately.  You may find yourself in a wormhole with no way back to empire.  For this reason, you should always have a scanning ability in a wormhole whether its a probe launcher on your ship or and alt in a probe ship waiting under cloak.  There are only two ways to get out of a wormhole without a probe launcher; get someone to help you or self destruct your ship and pod.  Don't rely on the first one.

Its my opinion that wormholes are for small gangs of organised people not soloers.  Rookies should avoid them like the plague.  The risk is not worth the payout for a low skill character.  They are something for later in your career.

Gas Site
These are gas mining sites or sometimes sites relating to booster production.  To date I have never found one in high sec but the ones in wormholes can be worth a lot of money. Gas mining is a special skill and takes a bit of money to get into.

Relic Sites/Data Sites
Relic and Data sites never have rats.  They are usually some scenery and several objects you can access to get goods.  Relic sites provide tech 1 and tech 2 salvage and sometimes blueprints and skill books.  Data sites provide decryptors, datacores, parts for Interfaces as well as blueprints and skill books.  They also have a batch of basic loot which is NPC trade goods.  It is possible to scan these can with a cargo scanner.  The result will show you the unique items in the can.  The rest will be trade goods.  Decryptors and Datacores are good money.

To access a Relic node you need a Relic Analyser.  To access a Data node you need a data Analyser.  This takes you to a mini-game where you hack the can.  The interface is a collection of linked nodes.  You may reveal a node by clicking on it.  You can only click nodes adjacent to the ones you have revealed.  However there are obstacles.  These are Firewalls.  They have a Coherence and Strength score.  To defeat them you use a virus who's stats are dependant on your equipment and skills.  Your virus has a Coherence and Strength as well.  When you attack a firewall/virus you do your Strength in damage to the Firewall's Coherence.  If the Firewall is still there, it then does its Strength to your Coherence.  That ends the tick.  If you run out of Coherence you fail the hack attempt.  So far I've found you get two tried in high sec before the node self destructs (no area damage).  There are different kinds of Firewall so you need to read their details.  Also there are items which can help you.  Read the mouse over text when you see an icon.  be quick though, you have a time limit but I don't know how long it is.

The goal is to find the System Core and destroy it.  That will open the can.  The general strategy I've used is to go around the outside of the pattern revealing every node you can before attacking any firewalls.  You should find a few useful tools along the way.  Usually the core is on the outside but not always.  Once you reveal everything you can you can choose which firewalls to fight.

Once you open the can, things get frantic.  The Can sprays the loot out in all directions.  These show as little green/white/yellow circles with crosses on them.  Green means they are in range of your built in tractor beam and you can suck it aboard.  White means its out of range.  Yellow means you are busy.  Flashing ones are about to go pop.  A single ship cannot collect all the items by itself but fleet members can help.  The "spray cans" are named with a general type which gives you an idea of the contents.  You will need to learn these.  I only know that Parts cans hold the decryptors and datacores and Data cans have the blueprints.  When the mini tractor beam brings in an item it shows its icon for a minute above your cargo button on the HUD. 

Combat Sites
Combat sites are where the real money is for high sec explorers.  There are two kinds of combat sites;  DED deaspaces which have a difficulty rating out of 10 and ordinary combat sites.

DED ratings are 1/10 = frigates, 2/10 = destroyers, 3/10 = cruisers, 4/10 = battlecruisers and 5/10 and up are battleship zones.  The gates wont let bigger ships get into these complexes.  However, the gates work on hull size so a tech 2 frigate can get into a DED 1/10.  I use a HAC (Ishtar) to do exploration and that lets me into all but two sites I can find in high sec.  As a special rule, Strategic Cruisers cannot enter 3/10 or 4/10 sites.  You can find 4/10s in high sec but 5/10s are low sec only.  DED sites usually have bosses at each level or cans containing the loot.  Some require you to destroy a structure.  The loot is a overseer's effects and often some faction modules.  The bosses sometimes salvage into tech 2 loot too.  I've had one site drop over 300 MISK in loot in high sec so these can be rich finds.  The tougher sites need some serious tanks and DPS to complete.  They are probably out of reach for new pilots trying to solo them.  Call in your friends and work together on them.

The other combat sites usually have a faction spawn at the end.  That means one of the elite rats for the faction appears.  They have the chance of dropping faction modules or implants and they salvage into tech 2 salvage.  These sites also have the chance of "Escalating" into an "Expedition".  More on Expeditions below.  The faction rats can drop some serious money but the expeditions lead up to a faction loot drop.  Its hard to say which is more profitable.  These sites sometimes have ship size restrictions too so its worth using a cruiser size ship so you can get into most of them.  The Evelopedia has some great information on all these sites so look up the name of the site you found before doing it so you don't miss out on loot.

Combat sites have the potential for a lot of ISK worth of loot.  That means there are a lot of people looking for them.  I have found that at least half of the people I've bumped into doing a complex have competed with me for the site.  They race ahead trying to be the one to get the loot at the end.  I've even had people steal the loot out of my can at the end.  You need to decide how you will deal with these people.  Most will be set up in very powerful ships.  Often you wont have a warp disruptor to deal with thieves.  Personally I find people who contest a site that they didn't find first to be just short of pirates. Don't salvage these sites as you go.  Bookmark each room and race to the final loot drop.  Then when the site despawns you can warp to your bookmarks and salvage uninterrupted.

The combat sites you find in a region will be either against the local pirate faction or Rogue Drones.   While the rogue drone sites consistently drop overseer's effects they rarely drop faction loot.  The "boss" drone does salvage into tech 2 salvage but that's about it.  They aren't worth a great deal compared to the pirate sites.  However it is worth clearing them out so that new sites can spawn later.

Expeditions
An expedition is a set of linked complexes.  You will get a message pop up when you trigger an expedition giving you some story info.  The destination for the expedition will be in your Journal under Expeditions.   When you get to the system you must right click -> warp to the expedition site.  You can't warp a fleet there so you will need to tank the first bit yourself until your friends get there.

Each expedition site has a faction rat which can drop faction loot or implants or blueprints.  There is also a percentage chance that the next step in the expedition will be triggered.  The last step is often in low sec but has the chance of some good faction modules as loot.  Again these expeditions are detailed in the Evelopedia so research them in advance.  I have discovered that I can solo all high sec expeditions except the final step of one in my ishtar.

So far the final step of most Expeditions have been in low sec.  They don't always drop loot too so you must weigh the risks with the benefits.  Check the  Evelopedia to get an idea what you have to do. 


Cosmic Anomalies
I have recently gained an appreciation of Cosmic Anomalies.  For starters you don't have to scan them down.  I often put my ishtar in one and let the drones clear it while I scan the system.  However the main reasons for doing them is A) they can spawn a faction rat with nice loot and B) they sometimes escalate into a private DED zone.  The later one is rare so don't be too depressed if it doesn't happen to you.  However with exploration you want to maximise the number of faction rats you encounter and kill since each has the chance of good loot.  Thus I tend to clear Anomalies as I find them.  They can also be done in a good cruiser or assault frigate.  In null sec they are a major income source but high sec only gives you a small amount of bounty.  Its the loot you want.

So far all but one of the escalations I've got from Anomalies have been in low sec.

Running Missions for Fun and Profit

Missions come with several benefits to attract pilots to them.  There is the cash rewards and the private and personal rats that combat missions provide.  Missions also provide Loyalty Points (LP) which my be traded for faction ammo, modules, ships or implants.  Lastly, missions provide standings with both the corp you are working for and the faction the corp belongs to.  I have a section on standings later.

Missions come in three basic types; Distribution, Mining and Security.  The mission type determines the activity you must perform to complete the mission. Here is a quick summary of the types.

Distribution
These missions are about moving something from one place to another.  Some can be done in a frigate while others will need a top tier hauler to achieve.  The biggest cargo I've seen was 40,000m3 but it was able to be split into smaller parts allowing for multiple trips.  There are no rats and these missions can almost be done AFK.  The only danger these missions have is that you are sometimes sent to low sec to collect or deliver something.  Check the Low Sec Missioning section for hints on this.

Mining
Mining missions are exactly what they seem.  The agent asks you to mine and bring to the station a set amount of an ore.  No need to refine it.  The ore is usually a made up variety and is worthless otherwise.  The site you are supposed to get the ore is a private deadspace zone.  There is usually just enough ore in the site to meet the mission requirements.  Make sure you get it all or you will fail the mission.  The deadspace belts can still spawn rats so take some protection with you.  From what I've heard the money to time ratio on these missions are pretty poor.

Security
This is where the real money is.  These are combat missions.  You are sent to a deadspace site to kill every rat or to retrieve something.  There is usually a lot of bounty in the rats and mission rewards for a level 4 mission can be a couple of million.  Furthermore, the wrecks and loot can come to a tidy sum too if you salvage the site.  We'll look into Security missions further later in the post.

The Benefit of Standings

Corp standings are gained when you complete a mission.  You can lose standings if you fail missions.  Faction standings come from special missions like the Career Agent Missions or Storyline missions.  You get a storyline mission every 16 normal missions.  You will be notified of it via the notifications interface.  There are a number of skills which help with the gain of standings.  Most notably, is the Connections skill which will instantly put up your current standings with any corp you have positive standings with for each level trained.

There are a number of things tied to corp and faction standings.  The first is what level agents you may access.  As you go up in standings you can access the more valuable agents.  Here is a little table showing standings needed for each agent.

Agent Level      Standings
         1                 Anyone
         2                     1.0
         3                     3.0
         4                     5.0
         5                     7.0

Please note that if you train Connections to level 3 or 4 and do a couple of level 1 missions for a corp you should be able to jump straight to level 2 missions.  This is a great way to get ahead.

Having standings with a corp also affects thing like your tax on refining ore and placing sales and purchase orders.  You can see these values in the Market and Refining screens.  Lastly you need a standing of 8.0 to install a jump clone.  Jump clones are fairly useful especially if you plan to PvP occasionally as you can preserve your implants in one clone and use another.  If you are trying to get jump clones make sure that the corp you are working for has medical bays on at least some of their stations.

Faction standings can be substituted for corp standings for the purposes of accessing mission agents.  That means with a faction standing of 7.0 you will be able to use any agent that faction has.  That's pretty useful if you move about changing corps or such.  There are also some COSMOS agents that give you faction ships if you have high enough faction standings.

If your corp plans to install a POS in empire high sec space the corp must have a faction standing equal to 10 x sec rating of the system.  That means a faction standing of 5.0 to install a POS in a 0.5 system.  Corp standings are calculated from the average unmodified standings of all contributing corp members.  Contributing members are members that have some standings (+ve or -ve).  That makes it pretty hard for a corp to get a POS without some serious effort.

If you want to join the militia you will need some faction standings.  The Militia Window will tell you how much.  Last time I checked it was 0.5 but they may have changed that.  There was also a deal that you could join the militia any time in the 30 days after you complete the Advanced Combat Career Missions.

You are allowed to refuse one mission per agent every four hours without penalty.  After that you will lose standings if you turn down a mission.  Its a hefty chunk too so think twice about it.

If you do combat missions you will find some missions are against another state. That is, the enemy in the mission is from Gallente or Amarr etc.  Doing these missions will cause you to lose Faction standings with the state you are shooting.  Kill a Caldari ship and your Caldari State standings will go down.  When your effective faction standing reaches -5.0 the navy in that state will attack you on sight.  This gets really annoying especially if you change corps or travel a lot.  When I realised this was happening I stopped doing missions against the states by turning them down.  This sometimes meant I had to go find another agent for a few hours but I can still travel anywhere in Eve.  You should make a decision early in your career whether to accept the faction standings loses or avoid them. 

You can share the corp standings you get from a mission with other fleet members.  In fact you can share the payout too.  The benefit of this is you can help a friend gain standings with a corp by running your own missions and sharing the rewards.  This works well if you are running level 4s.  You cannot share faction standings from missions in any way.

Mission Levels

Mission levels are a guide to how difficult they are and how rewarding they are.  Level 1 missions pay fairly badly whereas level 4 missions can be worth up to 20 MISK each (bounties and loot included).  Level one combat missions are meant for a frigate or destroyer to complete.  Level 2 combat missions are for a cruiser.  Level 3 equal battlecruiser and level 4 are for battleships or advanced ships like strategic cruisers.  Level 5 missions are always in low sec and usually need a team to complete.  There is some debate as to whether level 5s are worth the effort.  The typical goal is to reach level 4 missions and start earning serious ISK.

The Level system for Distribution and Mining missions is a guide to how difficult it is to complete the missions.  Expect Level 4 mining missions to want a high level barge to mine.  Level 4 courier missions will either go to low sec a lot or need a big hauler.

Doing Security Missions

Most people will want to do security missions.  They are the best money and are the least boring.  That's not to say they don't get repetitive.  There is a limited number of different missions and you will get the same set fairly regularly.  This has an advantage, you can plan ahead.  There are many web sites available to detail the missions you will encounter and its always a good idea to research a mission before undocking.  Here is a site I recommend http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=MissionReports .  Check out the number and type of rats you are facing in each mission.  Find out what damage type the enemy is weak to.  Find out what damage type you will be exposed to.  Most importantly, find out if any rats will warp scramble you.  Fortunately, scrambling rats don't show up until level 4 missions so new pilots can relax a little.  However it does illustrate one of my primary rules of PvE.  Kill the frigates first and fast.  This is because it will be the frigates that web or scram you and that is what will get you killed.

Another tip for running missions is to align to a celestial object like a gate, station or the sun.  If you are facing that object and moving at your best speed you can warp to that object almost instantly.  That saves you time when things are going pear shaped.  Having to align and get to warp speed is often too much time.  Decide in advance when you are going to bug out.  That time will depend on your tank.  Its too late to say "maybe I better leave" when you go into structure.  Armour tanks should be one their way out at 20-25% armour.   Shield tanks should be leaving at about 25% shields.  You can always come back when you recharge.

Make sure you note in the mission briefing if you are supposed to bring something back.  The items usually drops in a can or wreck from the last rat but check the mission info in the website first.  Nothing is more annoying than having to go back to the mission site a second time.

The briefing for a mission appears in your journal.  If you open the briefing and then minimise it, the briefing will pop up when you complete the mission.  This is useful sometimes when you just have to kill a certain rat.

There is often some money left lying in space after a mission.  I'm talking about the wrecks from the ships you killed.  They often contain something or can be salvaged into salvage materials.  A destroyer with tractor beams and salvagers is great for this but nothing beats the Noctis for this job.  If you salvage your missions then training for the noctis is a must.  Its tractor beams can go out past 80km.

A pro tip for Salvaging a site.  You can make a bookmark in each room of the mission then turn in the mission.  You can then come back to each bookmark by warping straight to them.  The wrecks will still be there but the mission site will be gone.  No need to travel between gates.  You can also avoid losing the time bonus this way.

The security rating of the system your agent is in affects the value of the rats and the mission rewards.  That means its better to mission in 0.5 than in 0.7.  Finding a nice out of the way spot for missions is a good move.  I'm not telling you where I go.

The rats from opposing states don't have bounties.  Instead they drop dogtags.  These tags can be turned in at Navy stations for ISK or can be used to buy items from the loyalty point store.

People Being Rats

Mission runners usually just want to do their stuff.  However your mission zone is not completely private.  A ship with combat scanner probes can find your zone.  This happens a lot in major mission hubs like Dodixie.  The prober comes into the site and starts taking loot and salvage.  Of course he is flagged as a thief for taking stuff (salvaging is not theft) however attacking them is usually the wrong move.  The Thief is most likely baiting you into a fight.  He'd let you kill his little ship and then come back with a fully kitted combat ship.  They often have friends too.  You should also know that most PvE fitted ships fair very poorly in PvP.  Wrong design philosophy.  The best option is to salvage everything before he gets it.  Personally I'd recommend finding somewhere quieter to run missions.

Missions in Low Sec

I don't think you will ever get a mining mission that sends you to low sec.  If you do, refuse it.  The risk is not worth it.  For distribution missions its often ok to run low sec.  Check the blog on Surviving Low Sec and Eve Survival Skills.    Safespots and Escapes are most useful to you. Use a cheap ship if you can.  If you have spare low slots on your hauler then fit some warp core stabilisers to make scramming you hard.

Pilots doing Security missions are very vulnerable in low sec.  Many pirates will be carrying combat probes and will look for you if they see lots of wrecks on the directional scan.  They will often wait for you to be engaged with a whole room of rats before jumping on you.  For this reason its usually better to get an agent that is a long way from low sec.  Agents next to low sec systems will send you there often regardless of their level.

Don't fit a cloak and think you are protected.  Cloaks don't work if you are targeted by anything.  That means rats too. Cloaks are useful for warping to a safearea and hiding until the pirate goes away.  Other than that they have limited use.

Consider getting a friend to watch the gate to the mission zone for you.  They can site cloaked or be 100km+ from it and just watch.  If something turns up you get more time to warp out.  Make sure you have aligned to a gate or planet and kill scramming frigates so you can warp out immediately.  Never warp to a moon in low sec.  POS are allowed to kill on sight in low sec so you should avoid them (POS are always at moons in case you didn't make the connection).

Warp Core Stabilisers sound like a good idea for low sec but they give you a -50% penalty on both lock on time and lock on range.  That will make the mission harder.  If you are jumped by a gang the stabs wont help anyway.

Loyalty Point Stores

You gain loyalty points for completing missions (also for other things in the militia).  These can be traded on the Loyalty Point Store on the corp stations.  The list of loyalty points that you have can be found in your journal.  LP can be used to buy faction ammo, faction modules, faction ships and implants.  Some items will require other bits besides the LP.  Essentially LP are another income source.  You will need to do some calculations and research to work out what is the best Isk/LP rate.  Many pilots just use LP to keep themselves stocked with faction ammo.  However you can make some good money from LP.

LP stores are now the main source of tech one implants like the attribute enhancing implants.  Some missions drop implants though so check the market before you buy from a LP store.  Some implants are cheaper on the market.

The Militia uses loyalty points in a more expansive manner.  I'm investigating this and it will probably end up in another blog entry.

Getting Busy With Industry

Industry is a complex and intriguing activity in Eve.  Just about everything players use is built in some manner by other players.  This drives a flourishing and expansive economy which itself is nearly unique in MMOs.

Types of Industry
There are a number of different types of industry or manufacturing.  This guide will touch on those you are likely to get to in your early career.  Here is a list of the different manufacturing "systems" in the game.

• Tech 1 manufacturing - Building tech 1 modules, ammo, rigs and ships
• Invention and Tech 2 manufacturing - Inventing and building tech 2 modules, ammo, rigs and ships
• Planetary Interaction (PI) - Mining planets and building materials on planets.
• Moon Mining and Reactions - Extracting materials from low sec moons and using reactions to make advanced materials. Requires a POS.
• Polymers and Hybrid Components - Use gas and materials from wormholes.  Requires a POS.
• Reverse Engineering and Tech 3 Construction - Obtaining Tech 3 blueprints and building the subsystems and hulls.  Requires a POS.

Of the set, Tech 1 manufacturing, rig construction and planetary interaction are the easiest and cheapest to get into.  They also require relatively fewer skills to start and don't need access to special facilities like POS.  The others are included here so you know they exist.

Blueprints
Just about everything you want to build needs some kind of blueprint.  Even PI has "blueprints" or schematics but they are built into the manufacturing facilities.  Fortunately for the Rookie industrialist, the bulk of blueprints are available on the market or on contracts.  These are almost entirely tech 1 blueprints and range in price.  You will need to work hard to afford a battleship blueprint.

Blueprints come in two basic types; Blueprint Originals (BPOs) and Blueprint Copies (BPCs).  A BPO can be used as many times as desired without it ever running out and may also be researched to improve it or copied.  An original will state that it is an original in the attributes.  Beware of people misrepresenting copies as originals.  A BPC can be use for manufacturing up to the number of runs on the copy.  Then it disappears.  BPCs are also needed for Invention which is the current mechanism to create tech 2 BPCs.  Some Tech 2 BPOs still exist from the old days but they are now worth multiple billions of ISK an are beyond the reach of a new industrialist.  BPOs have a darker colour than the BPCs so they can be quickly distinguished.

Blueprints have some stats that define how good it is at its job.  The Material Level of a blueprint is a measure of how much waste is used when constructing an item.  Material Level is usually called Material Efficiency in game and abbreviated to ME.  The higher the number the better.  There is however a point of diminishing returns where the cost to research further does not justify the savings. For example a Carrier blueprint with ME 4 is considered ideal whereas a module might go to ME 100 to be efficient.  The Bill of Materials will tell you how much material is needed for the current ME of the blueprint.

Production Level (called Production Efficiency or PL by players because it made more sense) is a measure of the time taken to produce something.  This indirectly leads to a cost from the construction facility.  However, empire construction facilities charge so little for manufacturing that this is rarely an issue.  only things that take a long time to build really need PL research.  Again higher the better.

 The Bill of Materials tab will show will have a number of tasks on it.  This one has Manufacturing and Invention.  Each tab tells you what skills and materials you need to perform that task. For example the materials and skills to build a single armour hardener is shown in this image.  Each tab will have different details.  Some BPOs require special skills and materials to copy or research.  Check for this before buying a BPO in case you are unable to use it.  Some blueprints produce more than one item per run.  This shows on the Attribute tab where it says "Produces".  This is common for ammo and fuel blocks.

Special blueprints like Reactions and Polymers don use ME or PE.  This is because they are run in a special POS array.  Just be aware that not all blueprints are created equal. PI doesn't have a research component either so its viable as a starting industry.

New industrials are often faced with the daunting task of buying BPOs and then waiting for them to be researched enough to be profitable.  There is an option for you.  People make business of copying well researched blueprints and selling them on the contracts market.  You can start out by buying BPCs that are already profitably researched and work up to the privately owned blueprints down the line.  Make sure you do your sums though.  You don't want to pay your whole profit margin to buy those blueprints.

Essential Skills
The skills you need depend on the things you want to build.  The most important skill of all is Production Efficiency (in the Industry section).  You must get this to 5 as soon as you can because you will be wasting materials with every build until you do.  When you have production efficiency lower than 5 the bill of materials will show you two values for each item.  The first is what you will need and the second is what you would use at production efficiency 5.  While this skill is low your are losing your profit margin to wastage.  Fortunately its an easy skill to learn.

You get one build "slot" with the Industry skill.  Thereafter you get one for each level of Mass Production and one for each level of Advanced Mass Production. If you get MP at 5 and AMP at 4 you will have a respectable 10 build slots.

For pilots looking into Planetary Interaction, the above skills are not used.  Start by getting some levels in Planetology and Remote Sensing so you can start investigating planets.  Next get Command Centre Upgrades to 5.  I say this because this skill dictates how many structures you can put on a planet.  If you start out with a lower rating you are disadvantaging yourself and you will have to redesign later.  You then need Interplanetary Consolidation.  Each level of this skill gets you another planet beyond the minimum of one. A serious network needs all six planets but that can wait.  Get Planetology to 4 and Advanced Planetology to 3 or 4.  This skill allow your to better determine the location of material deposits on the planet so it helps to find the sweetspots for mining.

Invention and tech 2 building take a lot of science skills.  Invention is more a long term goal and I'll cover it more later.

Getting the Stuff
For all manufacturing you will need to obtain the materials for the job.  Many industrial mine their own minerals but you can Buy most materials from the market.  I highly recommend you use buy order to obtain anything from the market.  There are plenty of people who do not have the patience to wait for minerals to sell.  They quicksell to the best buy order at their station.  If fact you can get some great deals on minerals and other materials buying away from the hubs.  Miners love quiet backwater systems and hate transporting their minerals to market.

the truth is trying to get all the materials you need personally is logistically improbable.  For starters, Nocxium, Zydrine and Megacyte don't occur naturally in high sec.  They have to be brought in from low or null.  You will have to buy them.

Next problem is getting the stuff to your chosen manufacturing facility.  There are dozens of public manufacturing stations.  You can find them on the Science and Industry screen under the Installations tab.  you will probably need some kind of industrial ship to move your stuff.  Train for the one that suits you.  Alternative you can use courier contracts to pay other people to move your stuff.  This is the only way to insure your cargo but you do have to pay a decent fee or it wont get done.  Warning: Never transport an expensive cargo in a flimsy ship, especially on autopilot.  If your cargo costs more than the ship needed to blow up yours then people will suicide gank you to get the cargo.  Remember that a destroyer can manage to take out a hulk or industrial before CONCORD kills him.

Building the Item
Once you have collected the materials and blueprint in the one place you can put the build job on to cook.  You can start the process by right-clicking on the blueprint.  You will have done the example tute in the Career Agent missions.  Here's a quick step by step:

1. Right click on the blueprint and select "Manufacturing".
2. Select the "Pick Installation".
3. Assuming you are using a Station Factory, set the Range to "Current Blueprint Location" and the Type to "Public".
4. In the bottom panel, select the next available Assembly Line.  (double click to select).
5. If you are using corp resources, set the input and output hangars.  Otherwise skip this bit.
6. Set the number of Production Runs you wish to build.
7. Select OK.
8. You should see a summary of the build job.  If everything checks out, select "Accept Quote".  The job now starts.
9. Use the Science and Industry >> Jobs panel to monitor your job progress.
10. When the job is done, select it and push "Deliver".  The product and BP (if not used up) will appear in your hangar (or the corp hangar you set).

Empire installations are cheap and highly accessible.  You can queue your jobs on the ends of other people's jobs if you need to.  No need to wait for an empty slot.   When the job is done you will have to deliver it.  It should be put into the hangar it is set to go to. 

Don't get ideas of setting up a POS and using manufacturing arrays.  For most arrays this incurs a 10% wastage on the build adding to costs.  Its cheaper to build in a station unless you are in null sec or a wormhole.  There are exceptions to this rule but they are for advanced manufacturing.

Planetary Interaction
Planetary interaction starts with some research (as all manufacturing should).  You need to find out three things.  What is material is available, what can be made from it and what is profitable.  It helps if you do PI in your nearby region so you will be looking for likely planets in and around your base of operations.  At this point I should mention that high sec has poorest planets followed by low sec, null sec and the best yields come from wormhole space. Factor this (and the risk) into your calculations.

We classify materials from moons by their tier.  The stuff you get out of the ground is referred to as "raws".  All raws have a single tier 1 item they are turned into.  It is better to extract and process into tier 1 on the same planet due to space considerations.  If you want to build tier 2 or 3 items consider creating a build planet where you bring the tier 1 items and land them into your production line.  I have managed to make my low sec planets run tier 1 and 2 on one planet but it needed planetary upgrades 5 to do it.

There is a useful PDF for planning your PI at the following site http://www.eve-online-fan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Eve_PI_Diagrams_v1_4.pdf .  I recommend POS fuels as a stable income source since there is a steady market for them.

To start a planetary colony you need a command centre. These are specific to the planet type you plan to land it on so choose your planets in advance. For example, a gas command centre is needed to make a colony on a gas planet. The command centre is the only thing that is purchased off-planet. Everything else is paid for from the planetary interface as you submit a change to your network. You need to move the command centre to the planet to land it so a transport of some kind is needed.

There is a basic guide made by CCP to explain PI on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKnObxB9XCs .  There are a few things that I would suggest counter to what the tutorial says.  First, Extractors and Processors will not store any produced goods so they should always empty into a silo or spaceport.  If a processor has been filled and the extractor tries to send it stuff, the excess is wasted.  I suggest the following design model.  Extractor >> Silo >> Processors >> Silo (can be the same one) >> Processors >> Spaceport (final product).  You can add as many processor steps as you want.  Below is a screen shot of a two tier planetary network I have running.

Invention and Tech 2 Production
Many new players will have heard how profitable Tech 2 production is and want to try it.  I admit it is profitable.  My corp does it.  However you need a large amount of infrastructure to support it and the money gets whittled down with costs.  It also require a large number of skills to make it work.  I'll give you an overview of what's involved as a guide to future training.

On most tech 1 blueprints is a Invention tab under bill of Materials.  This lists the skills and materials you need to make an invention attempt. You also need one BPC of the item you wish to do invention on per attempt.  In general it is better if this BPC has the maximum number of runs on it that the BP can support (so 300 for a normal module).  If you want to invent a tech 2 Power Diagnostic System then you need BPCs of the tech 1 variety.  This means you need to be able to either make copies of an original blueprint or buy them.  In Empire this usually mean you need a POS with Labs or a lot of patience as public copying facilities are heavily booked.  You also need the BPO to make the copies from unless you are buying your BPCs from contracts.

The skills listed in the Invention tab says you can do the invention attempt at level 1.  however your chance of success depends on your skill level in all three sciences (Encryption Methods and two others).  You are probably wasting materials trying to invent with less than 4s in these skills.  Getting 5s is nice but not necessary.

Now take your BPCs, Datacores, and Interface to a lab.  The public invention labs are often available but they take longer to use than a POS lab.  You start an invention job by right clicking on the BPC and selecting "Invention".  Then its just like a build job.  When the job finishes and you deliver it, there will be a % chance that you receive a Tech 2 BPC.  You can use decryptors and base items to try modify the invention results.  Decryptors are items found through exploration that have a specific effect on invention and are used up in the process. Base items are a a tech 1 version of the item you are inventing used as a "guide" during invention.  They are used up in the process.

Important Note:  Date Interfaces are not used up in Invention and do not disappear with each job.  This lets you use one data interface to put on many jobs.  You shouldn't need to buy more than one of two.

If you can invent something you should be able to build it too.  Materials often cost quite a bit though.  You should try to invent to suit your budget or you will be unable to build what you have blueprints for.  inventing 10 Hulks sounds good but you are going to need at least a BISK worth of materials to make them.

Moon Mining
Even I dream of mining moons one day.  Its an income source that does not use up a manufacturing or research slot so you can do it in addition to what you have going elsewhere.  The problem is you need a POS in a system of 0.3 security or lower to do it and many of the good moons are already taken.  What that means is that Moon Mining is largely beyond a new pilot.  Here's a list of what you need to run moon mining;

• Corp roles to Erect and maintain a POS.
• A spare moon with profitable materials (don't assume they are all worth it).
• A POS with Moon harvester, Coupling array and Silo at the very least.
• Sufficient corp faction standings to build in that security level system.  Corp needs a faction standing of 3.0 to build in 0.3 systems.
• A way of getting stuff to and from the POS (remember low sec).
• Capital to run the POS for a week or two before the material becomes available to sell.
• Ability to defend the POS.

When you are ready to put up a POS and maintain it there are many guides available on the net.

Tech 3 Reverse Engineering and Polymers
Ok I admit I have almost no experience with these.  I'm told Polymers are typically done at the POS towers used by Wormhole corps.  Its a way of covering the expense of the tower.  Reverse Engineering is similar to invention but done of items rather than blueprints.  Again these require either a large amount of infrastructure or skills.  If you are up to this level have a look for guides on the net.

Mining as a Career in Eve

Mining is the backbone of the Eve economy.  This is especially true since the recent changes to the mission loot tables.  Minerals are rising in value significantly and are set to keep rising for a while yet.  The ships and equipment that PvPers happily blow up so regularly are made with the minerals that the humble miner collects.  Its not until you mine the minerals for a battleship that you realise how much time goes into a ship.

Mining is broken down into several distinct steps.  You will need to train the skills for each step or have an alt or friend/corpie help you with them.  The steps are Mining, Collection, Refining, Transport and Sale.  Some include a manufacturing step but that's further down the line for the average rookie.  Lets look at the steps in sequence.

Mining
Whether you are mining Ore, Ice or Gas this step is largely the same.  Go to a belt or exploration site and activate your miners on the resource.  It does get more complex though.  The main goal of a miner is to increase the mining yield of his ship.  This depends  a lot on the ship you fly.  Currently, the mining frigate of choice is the Venture.  This ship has a great ore hold, bonuses to mining yield and warp core strength for running away when needed.  They use mining lasers and/or mining drones. Training to use this frigate is probably your first step in your career.  The next step in your career is the Mining Barges.  These ships are the Procurer, Retriever and Covetor.  Each of these ships has a role.  The Procurer is supposed to be tough to kill and suitable for use in dangerous environments like low sec.  The retriever is the solo mining barge with a huge ore hold.  The Covetor is the fleet option with a small hold but the best yield of the three.  Covetors are meant to be supported by other ships.  These ships use strip miners.  They are better able to handle the larger ores and have bigger ore bays.  They use drones to protect themselves from belt rats and are shield tanks.  After the mining barges are the main mining ships, Exhumers; the Skiff is the tech 2 version of a Procurer, the Mackinaw is like the Retriever and the Hulk remains the king of mining yield.  These ships are very expensive so it will take time to get them but they produce significant yields and so pay themselves back quickly.

There are four basic methods of mining.  The first is mining until your hold is full and then going back to the station, dumping the ore and returning to the belt. This suffers from being extremely inefficient but it is secure.  No-one gets a chance to steal your ore.  The next method is to learn Anchoring to 1 and anchor Giant Secure Containers in the asteroid belt you are mining.  Then mine and empty your hold into the can.  Come by later with a hauler and collect the ore at leisure.  You can put a password on the cans so your can share them with friends.  This is also secure but when you get to mining barges the cans are filled in one cycle. Also, the Venture has an ore hold bigger than the available secure containers that you can anchor so you may as well empty into a station.  This means you are constantly moving around the belt.  You also need to visit each can with a hauler. The third method is to create what are called Jet Cans.  These are created when you jettison something into space.  Right click on the item and select Jettison.  The can will be created beside you with the item/s in it.  Its a good idea to name a jetcan after the time it was made. A jetcan can hold over 27,000m3 of stuff and lasts 2 hours in space.  You mine and empty your hold into the jet can.  Make as many as you need.  Then come along with a hauler and empty the jetcans.  This method is very efficient time wise but has a drawback.  Anyone can come along and take stuff from a jetcan.  They are officially stealing and anyone in system will be allowed to attack them.  However this is mostly done to provoke a fight and the guy is ready to take you out.  You can secure the cans with some combat guards or empty cans quickly so they aren't easily stolen from.  However there are many systems where you can use this method without being bothered.  The forth and best technique uses the jetcan model but adds in a hauler or orca to collect the ore as soon as the can is full or a threat shows up.  This required friends or an alt to manage so solo miners are restricted to the first three methods.

Modulated Strip Miner IIs are an advanced option for miners.   They use mining crystals as ammunition to increase the mining yield.  You must use the right crystals for the ore you are mining otherwise you will have a worse yield than Strip Miner Is.  If you are changing ore regularly use Strip Miner Is or carry all the crystals you need with you.

Deep Core Miners are used only for Mercoxit.  This ore spawns only in deep null space.  Most rookies wont see this for a long time.

Gas mining is done with gas harvesters.  These are turret base modules so they don't fit on a mining barge or exhumer.  You need a ship with 5 turret slots to make it worth it.  Battlecruisers and battleships  are perfect.  Gas is only found in low sec, Null sec and wormholes.  Not something to train straight away.

Collection
The most efficient mining options require you to come along later and collect large amounts of ore.  This means you should be training for an industrial ship soon after getting your Venture or barge.  The top tier of industrials can manage ~38,000 m3 cargo space so they can clear a jetcan plus some.  Its worth getting the small tractor beam too to make collection easier.   You will need a top tier industrial to handle the mining output of a Exhumer like a Hulk.  They mine enough to fill a jet can very quickly.  The ultimate ore collector for high sec work is the orca but they need a lot of skills and money to get into.  An orca has a bay especially for ore and a corp hangar as well as its own cargo bay.  You can make the orca carry over 170,000 m3 with the right skills and fittings.  That saves you trips to the belt and back.  Orcas also get bonuses to tractor beams, mining gang links and survey scanners.  They are a valuable tool if you have a lot of miners.

Freighters can now collect from jetcans in space.  This means they can collect from miners or orcas.  The problem though is they are really slow and can't fit a tractor beam.  Best have everything in one place for collection.  They do become useful to move ore and minerals around once its collected on a station or POS.

Refining
To begin with, your refining skills will be pretty poor.  This means that you may be better off selling your ore as is.  You need to check your refining yield and the current market prices to find out which way you should go.  To check your refining yields, select your ore, right click on it and select "Refine".  You will be told how many minerals you will get if you choose to refine.  Do your calculations.  You are wasting time mining the wrong ore and you are wasting effort if you don't get the best price for what you mined.

Each type of asteroid has three sub types.  For example, Veldspar comes in normal Veldspar, Concentrated Veldspar and Dense Veldspar.  These special Velspars have increased mineral content.  Thus Concentrated Veldspar has +5% Tritanium and Dense Veldspar has +10% Tritanium in it.  Given the choice you should mine the +10% version first.  Learn what type is what in your home system.

Not all stations can refine and some are worse than others.  Stations have either no refining, 25% refining or 50% refining.  Your skills can take this up to 100%.  However all stations (except some in null sec) charge a 5% tax on refining ore.  You can reduce the tax amount by doing missions for the corp who owns the station.  The Mining missions may be a good option for you here.  If you get your skills and corp standings high enough it is possible to get perfect refining in empire stations.

Refining Arrays for POS can only be used in 0.3 and down and are pretty inefficient.  They also take time to do their refining.  They are really an option only if you are living a long way from any refining stations (eg in a wormhole).

Transport
Once you have your minerals or ore, you must sell it.  However you will probably find that the out-of-the-way mining system you have chosen does not have an active market.  You could sell locally but you'd have to settle for a lower price.  For premium prices for your minerals you are better off moving stuff to a trade hub.  This is where your industrial does some extra work.  Minerals take up less space than ore so you will get more in the hold.  However, a week's worth of heavy mining from hulks is going to need an orca or freighter to haul.  The freighter is a good option.  My obelisk can hold 90 million units of minerals and I haven't trained the skill to 5 yet.  A freighter is a long term project since their value is going up a lot at the moment.  You could have a go at mining the high sec ore yourself and buying blueprint copies to let you build it.  A mining corp should really work towards one.

Sale
This is the point of the exercise.  You want your money.  There are two ways to sell your minerals.  You can quick-sell or place a sell order.  Quick-sell is when you sell to whatever buy order reaches your current location.  If you are in a trade hub then this should be a reasonable amount.  However people in a remote station will probably be selling their minerals at well below market rate.  To find out which orders affect your current location, right click on the mineral and select "View Market Details".  The orders marked in green on the bottom panel affect your location.  Sort the panel so the best price is at the top and see what you can get.  Quick-sell by right clicking on the mineral and selecting "Sell this item".  Check the bottom right of the panel.  If it says "<< Simple" then click that button.  The screen you should now be on is an immediate sale screen and it will tell you how much you will get for your minerals.  Hit the sell button to make the deal.

A better option for a miner is to sell their minerals on a sell order.  You will need a couple of levels of the Trade skill to do this.  Essentially you will list the minerals as for sale and set a price.  Choose a price similar to the minerals being offered on your current station.  Someone will come along and buy your minerals at a later time.  This method mean you have to wait for the money but you will get a better price for the minerals.  See my blog about the market for info on how to list orders.  http://eveboffin.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/using-market-without-losing-money.html

The Extra Step - Manufacturing
Some miners make a little extra money by turning their minerals into a product of some kind like a ship.  You won't be able to mine everything you need in high sec but the minerals you can't get can be bought at trade hubs.  You will need the Industry skill at least to do this.  Production Efficiency 5 is needed to avoid wasting materials when building.  Consider buying blueprint copies from the contract market to make products from.  You want a blueprint with a good Material Level as the ML (also called ME) affects how much material is wasted in the build process.  I plan to right a blog all about Production and Industry so stay tuned.

Getting Higher Yields
Every miner wants to get more ore per hour.  This is your yield.  For rookie miners the easiest way to increase your yield is to get better mining lasers.  Tech 2 is best and is reasonably cheap.  You can also train extra levels in the ship you are using and fit a Mining Laser Upgrade.  Mining barges are a big step forward.  You will need to be able to use Strip Miners to use a barge.  More levels in barge will put up your yield.  When you can get Modulated Strip Miner IIs and mining crystals.  The top level is a hulk with tech 2 strip miners, at least one tech 2 Mining Laser Upgrade and tech 2 mining crystals plus tech 2 mining drones.  This is where you want to get to.

Ice mining is about reducing the time it takes to get your ice blocks.  You don't mine "more" ice per cycle.  The same techniques to increase ore mining yield work on Ice mining too.  They just have a slightly different effect.

There is one more layer of yield bonuses you can apply to mining but it requires at least 2 people to work.  There are leadership skills you can train to provide bonuses to anyone in fleet with you.  These are Mining Foreman and Mining Director.  The person with the leadership skills needs to be fleet booster and there must be at least one other person in the fleet for the bonuses to work.  There are also three gang links and some implants which will provide bonuses as well.  If you fit the gang links to an orca which is piloted by a person with all the leadership skills you will do some serious bonus-ing.  Strictly speaking an orca is worth having once you have three miners in the fleet.  Otherwise you are going to do better putting the orca pilot in a Hulk.  However this is a fair way in the future for your beginning character.  You are best to ask your corp if they have a fleet leader or orca to help out.

Pro Tips

• Don't put your lasers all on the same asteroid.  If one laser empties the asteroid the other lasers are wasted.
• Mining lasers and strip miners can be stopped part way through their cycle and will mine a portion of their yield based on how long they ran for.
• You can use a survey scanner to work out how many units of ore are in an asteroid.  You can then turn off your miners when you think you have all that is left rather than wait for it to cycle.
• Rats love to shoot mining drones.  Pull in your mining drones as soon as you see rats.
• When mining in a group its worth splitting up the field or asteroids in the field so you don't end up doubling up on a asteroid which wastes time and yield.
• Some Exploration sites will offer low sec ores in high sec (or null sec ores in low sec).
• Five Mining Drone IIs work out to about half a strip miner on a hulk.
• Use Giant Secure Containers in your hauler to get extra carrying capacity.  For some reason they are bigger on the inside than on the outside.
• If you get close to a Asteroid, your mining drones will use less time travelling.
• Mining in a group with voice comms is a lot more fun than mining alone.  You also get to watch belts disappear before your eyes.
• Hulkageddon is a annual competition to kill as many mining ships and industrials as possible.  It means people will suicide ships to kill your mining ship for points in the competition.  As of June 2012 this has become a year long thing with the Goonswarm Federation offering a bounty of 100 MISK on every 10 exhumers killed.
• Destroyers (particularly the Catalyst) are the favourite ship for ganking mining ships.  If you see one enter your belt Get Out Fast.
• Don't leave too much ore lying around in cans.  You never know when someone will come along and take it or force you to leave it behind.
• I don't recommend low sec mining to new pilots.  Its not so much more profitable than high sec mining.  The risk is exponentially higher.
• Rats often drop Metal Scraps.  These things have the same size as a unit of minerals but are worth more than megacyte.  Each unit refines into 500 Tritanium.  Its worth collecting them.

Combat Tactics for PvE

To be honest, a new pilot is not really ready for PvP other than friendly battles with mates or corp mates.  Your skills put you at a great disadvantage at the beginning.  However you have to do something to make money and this is how you get into PvE.  PvE stands for Player vs Environment which is another way of saying "fighting NPCs" You will need to do this if you want to run Combat Mission, go Ratting in belts or do exploration complexes.  This is a guide for new player combat.  As you get more skilled you will have more options available to you.

Fitting for PvE
There are a few standards when fighting PvE.  Ratting tends to be small groups but missions and complexes are often long and have a lot of damage coming at the pilot.  This means you need your tank to be as sustainable as you can get it.  A permanently running tank (perma-tank) is the ultimate goal but you can get away with using cap boosters or pulsing your repairer in low level sites.  You will notice that to run a repairer you need good capacitor recharge rates.  To begin with you should probably design your ship around your tank.  Get the tank worked out then add weapons.

Here is a list of modules types that increase your capacitor somehow;

• Cap Recharger
• Capacitor Power Relay
• Capacitor Flux Coil
• Power Diagnostic System
• Capacitor Booster
• Capacitor Battery

These are in the Engineering Equipment section of the market. The Shield and Armour Modules have their own sections in the market window.

It is very tempting to fit close range weapons for their high damage output but they have a problem.  If you are at close range to a target then you are inside THEIR weapon range too.  Fighting with close range weapons usually means diving head first into a group of enemies and hoping for the best.  It also has the disadvantage of requiring you to chase down every rat in the mission/complex.  For new pilots, it is usually better to use long range weapons and snipe from distance.  This often keeps you out of their weapon range and avoids incoming damage. Use long range ammo and you can attack from a good distance.  This technique has one disadvantage, when they get close and orbit you your guns have trouble tracking them.  The best solution is to keep at range by using an afterburner or microwarpdrive.  Optionally fit a stasis webifier and slow them down for your guns.  Flying away from the enemy will force then into a neat pile behind you for easy destruction.

Kiting
This leads to the technique called "Kiting".  Imagine a kid running with a kite pulled along behind him.  You are the kid, the rats are the kite and the string is your weapons fire.  Basically head away from the rats and draw them along behind you.  This has the effect of reducing the angular velocity of the targets so your guns will track them easily.  Missile users get a little extra range too.  To use this technique you are going to need an Afterburner at least. Keeping targets at the 12 km to 18 km range will make life easier for your tank as well because rats often have close range weapons fitted.

Controlling Aggro
When a squadron of rats targets you it is said that have have aggression from them. This is often called "aggro".  You can tell if you have aggro from a rat because they will have either a flashing yellow (targeted) or flashing red (shooting) box around them in the space view and overview window.  Rats in missions and complexes are arranged in groups.  These groups aggro targets based on triggers.  The most common trigger is being attacked. Another is flying close to them or something else like a gate.  Some groups aggro because a group nearby has been attacked.  Lastly they may aggro because of drones attacking targets nearby.

You should try to avoid getting everything in the pocket (also called rooms) aggroing you at one time except under special circumstances.  Move away from close groups and then aggro individual groups one at a time.  This will help you control the incoming damage and Ewar effects used by rats.  Research each mission or site on the web and find out want triggers the aggro of each group.  If you are afraid to attack a rat with weapons because it might aggro nearby groups then fly close to one group and speed away when they get annoyed.  Lastly some directed Ewar modules will aggro one group without being considered an attack buy other groups.

Drone boat users have another problem.  It is really annoying when rats aggro your drones.  Usually a drone boat will aggro everything in a site before deploying drones.  Otherwise it needs to be really careful with the drones and call them in if they get attacked.  Also be careful of drones attacking spawn triggers before you are ready for them.  If you are a drone boat you should be micro managing your drones to avoid the traps.

Spawns are new groups of  rats entering the combat zone.  They will target randomly and even target drones.  Its usually hard to control who they attack so people in fleets should be careful of new spawns.

The Golden Rule
 The golden rule is this: Kill the frigates first and fast.  Why is that? I hear you ask.  It is because frigates are what kill you in missions and complexes.  They may not actually do the damage but they are usually doing some kind of ewar against you which is making you a sitting duck.  They often web you and that kills your tank and ability to control the fight.  Frigates are also the most common warp disruptor/scramblers you encounter which will stop you from warping away from trouble.  Level 4 missions are where you will start to encounter warp scrambling/disrupting frigates.  These are often detailed in the web references about missions.  I don't think I've encountered a high sec complex that has scramblers in it. 

Do Some Research
Its is a very good idea to research the mission or complex you are about to do on the net.  There are many good sites out there detailing the mission/site and telling you what you need to know.  The first thing you need to know is what damage the enemy is doing.  Tank your ship to suit.  Next find out what damage the enemy is weak to.  If you can customise your ammo/drones to suit then that will have a major effect on your fight (especially against bosses).  Next find out if there are any ships or towers that use webs or energy neutralisers against you.  You will have to deal with these fast as your tank depends on it.  Then see what ships are going to scramble you so you know what to kill first. 

Ratting Tips
Ratting is the act of going around the asteroid belts in a system and killing the random spawns of rats in the belts.  Ratting is a lot easier than Missions or Complexes.  You don't need a sustained tank as you will rarely face more than five ships.  in High sec you will not face anything bigger than a frigate.  Low sec can be cruisers and battleships in the same spawn.  Bounties in high sec rarely go above 15,000 but can be quite decent in low sec and Null.

So why would you rat when a mission will give you your own private rats to kill?   Well Spawns in belts have a small chance of being special.  In high sec and low sec there is a chance the spawn will either be a Faction Spawn or a Hauler Spawn.

A Faction spawn is a spawn of rats that includes a special rat belonging to one of the groups that are considered higher ranked than the normal rats.  For example for the Serpentis Corp there are Shadow Serpentis which are the Faction version. The bounty for these rats are much higher and they are tougher opponents.  The real money is in the special items they drop in their wreck.  I have seen items worth 400 MISK drop in high sec faction spawns.  They are the source of Tech 2 implants and some faction modules.  Always check the wreck of any rat that looks odd.  They wreck will also sometimes salvage into tech 2 salvage. 

Hauler spawns usually have some guards and some rats named hauler or loader etc.  They are Miner rats.  The odd rats will be hauling a quantity of minerals in their wreck.  In null sec there can be 40 million units or better in a hauler spawn.  They sometimes drop the rarer minerals too.  On very rare occasions they drop a mining module that could be worth a fair bit due to their rarity.

In null sec there is one more type of spawn to know about; The Officer spawn.  Officers are ultra rare and drop some really valuable loot.  However they are usually too tough for normal ships.  They are killed with carriers.  If you find one of these either call in a friend with a carrier or try to sell off the spawn to someone with a carrier.

Last note is about Incursions.  While an Incursion is affecting a constellation, there will be Incursion rats spawning in the belts.  They will be named like they were individuals but they don't drop anything worthwhile.  Also they are meant to be fought by a team or a very well setup ship.  New players should avoid ratting in Incursion systems