Beginning Eve Part 2: Your First Day

This post is for new players as part of a campaign on the part of the Concordiat corporation to bring new people into EVE. If you are intrigued by the game but do not play yet, refer to this post and then start a free trial here.

There was a time when the tutorials of EVE were muddled or nonexistent, and new players were much better off simply experimenting or reading online guides. Thankfully, CCP has spent a great deal of time and energy in creating much more comprehensive tutorials, so that the new player can not only discover each profession, but also what that might be like several months down the road, when considerable skillpoints have been invested.

Therefore, the first thing any new player should do is each and every tutorial. When you start the game, the tutorials will automatically be started for you.

Complete all that interest you, but particularly General, Industrial, Military, Military Advanced, and Mini Professions. These will give you a sampling for EVE's various careers. Of course, keep in mind that most of the interesting content in the game is player-driven. This means that just as in the real world, most "professions" in EVE player corporations will require a large and overlapping skillset.

Once you are finished with the tutorials, you are ready to apply to a corporation, or at least to find one that you aspire to eventually join. Because of the player conflict in EVE, spies are very common and dangerous. Therefore, most corporations in null-security space will not accept you until you are at least 6 months old. Do not let this discourage you, however, as there are a variety of ways that you can bypass this requirement. More on that later.

First off, think about what sort of corporation you would like to join. You can search corporations by referring to the Tools category in this post. There are a few common types of corporations that will often accept you right off the bat:

• Highsec Mission Running corporations
• Summary: Usually just groups of pilots that get together to run NPC agent missions together for profit.
• Advantages: Gives the new pilot a social group to be a part of, and a steady income stream. These corporations can help you get standings to run higher-level missions that might take weeks to get on your own.
• Disadvantages: Usually some sort of corp tax, limited PVP & exploration access
• Highsec Mining Corporation
• Summary: A group of pilots that mine ice or ore together in highsec.
• Advantages: Gives the new pilot a social group, steady income. These corporations will usually help you get started by giving you mining ships and boosts to increase your yield.
• Disadvantages: Usually some form of tax, little to no PVP or exploration, low skill ceiling, income is small compared to other sources.
• Factional Warfare Corporation
• Summary: A PVP, PVE, or mixed group that does Faction Warfare missions & anomalies for their major Empire Faction
• Advantages: Mix of PVP and PVE, great money, social group. Good way to progress into nullsec corporations
• Disadvantages: Much more dangerous than highsec, can be daunting for the new player, may be harder to get accepted into. Will destroy your standings with the opposing faction and prevent you from easily travelling their highsec
• Highsec/Lowsec PVP Corporation
• Summary: A group of pilots who either wardec or pirate to PVP
• Advantages: Plenty of targets, usually fairly easy to get accepted to(depending on corporation)
• Disadvantages: Income is often hard to come by, new players may die a lot while learning to PVP
• Examples: Red vs Blue
• Academy/Training Corporation
• Summary: A specialized corporation that provides training for newer players
• Advantages: Social, helpful corpmates, a mix of PVP/PVE, various income sources
• Disadvantages: Sometimes quite restrictive, not usually a good long-term fit for a new player, income can be spotty and wardecs are frequent
• Examples: Eve University, Open University of Celestial Hardship, Concordiat

Now, I mentioned that sometimes you could bypass the above corporations and join a nullsec corporation directly, if you wished to. There are a variety of ways to do this.

• Something Awful
• If you are a SA.com member, you may be able to apply to GoonWaffe and join directly. There are some requirements about length of time and posting, but it shouldn't be too hard. GoonWaffe has a long history of being newbie friendly.
• Reddit
• If you are an active Reddit member who has been posting for a while, you may be able to apply to Fweddit.
• Vouches
• If you know a member in a certain corporation, you can usually get them to vouch you in. Just like in the real world, recommendations and personal connections are the best way to get into a corporation in EVE. 
• Charisma
• If you are charismatic and persistent, you can probably get into a nullsec corporation. You may have to try several or even dozens of different corporations before you find one willing to take you, but it will happen if you are determined enough.
• Academy Corporations
• There are some academy corporations that will train you in highsec, and then you can graduate to their nullsec corp.

It may seem strange to suggest that you apply to a corporation so early, but it honestly is the first thing you should do upon completing the tutorials. Corporations are what keep people addicted to EVE, and it's because human beings are social creatures that enjoy working and playing together. So, find a corp, any corp. Even a terrible corporation is better than none, and you can always move on to a new one.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Securitas Protector ingame, or post a comment here on the blog.