Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Solo? In My Eve?

So a lot of people seem to want a guide on the opportunities available to a solo pilot in EVE.  There are quite a few opportunities so for the sake of keeping this post readable, I'll write a little bit about each opportunity and hopefully expand on them in future posts.  Let me preface this by saying that almost all of the time, solo gameplay will not be as rewarding as group gameplay, be it in ISK or in fun.  In addition, many of these activities can be much more enjoyable for those who choose to multibox more than one account at once, eg. in mining or ratting.  However, not everyone can afford that.  Now, to the list:

  • Mining - If I'm completely honest with you, the majority of players will find mining very boring.  It's not for everyone (read: sane people) but some people find it enjoyable.  For example, Chribba, one of the most famous EVE pilots, loves relaxing in roid belts in highsec mining Veldspar.  Mining solo isn't usually very profitable.  You might make a few million ISK an hour, but without additional support, it's kind of pointless.  However, it can be very lucrative if multiboxed.  One could make hundreds of millions of ISK every day running a few accounts with some Hulks and an Orca in nullsec.  It takes an initial time and capital investment, as well as iron willpower, but it can be done entirely by one person.
  • Missioning - Missions, particularly level 4 missions, are another way to make decent money with almost no risk in Highsec.  Running missions for a corporation grants you ISK, loot, salvage, and loyalty points.  This is pretty straight forward really, just pick a corporation and start doing missions for them until level 4 agents are unlocked.  The easiest way to make ISK is to get a good ship (Tengus tend to work best) and find a level 4 security agent.  After accepting a mission, you can look it up here to find out the details of the mission and change your tank and damage type accordingly.  For more information on missioning, check out the relevant article on Grismar's EVE Wiki.
  • Ratting - I wrote a (bad) guide about nullsec ratting.  Though it is riskier than the above activities, it can be more lucrative, certainly for someone with only one account.  There are two types of ratting: ratting in asteroid belts and in anomalies.  Ratting in asteroid belts produces less ISK per hour than anomalies, but it gives you the chance to kill a rare officer spawn, which can give you loot in the billions.  I have only ever killed one officer, but he dropped around 2 billion ISK in loot.  Belt ratting consists basically of warping from belt to belt killing rats and hoping for an officer spawn.  Ratting in anomalies is a little different.  Open up your scanner, go to the system scanner tab, and use your on-board scanner to scan the system for anomalies.  They range in difficulty and the more difficult they are, the more valuable they tend to be.  More information on specific anomalies can be found online.  Anomalies provide steady ISK per hour in the form of bounties, but they can provide additional revenue two other ways.  The first is through faction spawns, which are rare spawns similar to officers but not as valuable.  They drop loot such as Dread Guristas modules which can sell for hundreds of millions of ISK.  The second way is through escalations, which can turn an ordinary anomaly into a bookmark for a DED plex, such as a 10/10 Maze escalation which can be worth billions.  
  • Daytripping Wormholes - Daytripping in a wormhole involves going into a wormhole alone, running some sites, and leaving in the same day.  It can be done entirely solo provided you have the capabilities of being self-sufficient (scanning, looting, salvaging, and killing on your own).  Rather than going in-depth on my own, I'll point you to a rather well written guide written by redditor paxNoctis.
  • Solo PVP - Solo PVP isn't as much a way to make ISK as it is a way to have fun.  It's pretty easy but far too complex for the scope of this post.  The basics are to fit a nice solo-capable ship, find some targets, and pewpew.  A lot of fits are available at battleclinic.com.  Targets can be found everywhere, but for some quick fights try heading into Faction Warfare space in Lowsec.
If anyone has any more suggestions for additions to the list, feel free to drop a comment on this post or shoot me a PM on reddit (toxicity959) and I will update the list as your suggestions come in.  Fly safe everyone! o7

4 comments:

  1. You can live in a wormhole solo, although having two accounts is almost required. Pick a C2 to solo sites in a BC while salvaging with a thrasher, or a C3 to solo sites in a t3 while salvaging in a Noctis. Just depends how much starting cash you have.

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  2. Good write up. Officer spawns are very rare I would like to point out. In the time I ratted in 0.0, roughly 1 year, I saw 1.

    Good money in Null instead of those are doing Radar/Mag sites too.

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