EVE Online PvE is varied and omnipresent. You may have already come across our EVE Online PvP guide, which reached the conclusion that ‘everything in EVE is PvP’. The same is true of PvE; nearly all activities in EVE have the potential to be PvP, PvE, or PvPvE. You never know when you’ll come across a roaming pirate hungering for your loot. With so many options available, we called once more upon the expertise of EVE Online’s most dedicated and knowledgeable players to create a beginner-friendly PvE guide.
This guide will describe the game’s PvE activities, discuss how difficult they are, what rewards are available for their completion, and provide a few tips for excelling in them. Depending on who you ask, PvE covers all non-PvP activities or solely activities that feature combat with hostile NPCs. We’ll start with the latter - including activities like mining and exploration which don’t have to feature combat but often do. Then we’ll finish with a few non-combat PvE activities for New Eden’s rarest commodity: pacifists.
Missions
In EVE Online, a ‘mission’ is any PvE activity given to you by an NPC, known in-game as agents. These activities are varied and cover everything from distribution (transportation) to security missions (combat). You’ll therefore discover some crossover here with the other EVE Online PvE activities described in subsequent sections. Missions are, however, an excellent starting point for PvErs learning the ropes, so we’ve given them pride of place.
Basic agent missions
Mission difficulty scales with level, from one to five. You will feel the difference. Here’s Y0EMINENCE: “Missions are my chill activity. At level one, I feel like a space cowboy flying around in my frigate, but by level four, it’s necessary to bring out the big guns, i.e. well-fit battleships or battlecruisers. My first level-five mission felt like starring in my own space opera - it required tons of prep and teamwork.”
Your rewards for mission completion, as a rule, are ISK and LP. Check out our EVE Online first steps guide if you’re not sure what these are. Start with low-level missions, which won’t provide you much ISK for your time, but will acclimatise you for the higher-level challenges.
Basic agent missions are evergreen PvE content. There’s no daily limit; you’ll always be able to find and farm them. Other mission types work differently.
Career agent missions
Before trying basic agent missions, you’ll want to do some career agent missions, which are categorised by the following career paths: explorer, industrialist, enforcer, and soldier of fortune. They can only be completed once per character per agent, but otherwise largely operate like level-one agent missions. They’re beginner-friendly challenges designed to get fresh pilots accustomed to EVE Online PvE. Here’s new player taki:
“Personally, I believe career agents are the best way to practice PvE content. They felt a little tedious at times, but I finished them - the rewards are very generous.”
Storyline missions
Having completed a certain number of basic missions of the right level for the same faction, you’ll be contacted by a storyline agent about a special courier, trade, or encounter mission. Completing this mission will grant you significant standings bonuses with the faction that assigned it, though be warned: it will negatively affect your standing with other empires and pirate factions.
COSMOS missions
COSMOS missions are unique mission chains that can only be completed once. You’ll be tasked with a variety of challenges and must complete them within a strict time limit. They’re more challenging than most basic agent missions, but they come with more rewards, including significant faction-standing boosts. They’re also a great way to discover more about New Eden’s lore.
Top tip: Don’t talk to a COSMOS career agent unless you’re ready to start the mission.
Epic Arcs
Like COSMOS missions, Epic Arcs are mission chains. Unlike COSMOS missions, they can be repeated every 90 days. However, each of them contains dozens of missions, making them significant undertakings. Here’s FirestormGamingTeam:
“You go from agent to agent and get greater and greater ISK rewards as you go. They often end in massive standings boosts or high-end implants which can be sold for great profit.”
If you’re wondering where to start, be sure to check out the longest but also most beginner-friendly Epic Arc: the Bloodstained Stars (better known as the Sisters of EVE Epic Arc). There are 50 missions to get through, so we’ve created a detailed and up-to-date walkthrough: Sisters of EVE guide. Sumfin7 recommends the Epic Arcs to tackle next:
“The faction-specific level-four Epic Arcs pay well and grant large standings boosts. The Caldari and Minmatar Epic Arcs are relatively simple and can be done in a regular battleship. The Amarr and Gallente Epic Arcs are much more difficult and require a Marauder or blingy battleship, alongside long-ranged weaponry, careful trigger control, and preplanning.”
Exploration
Not all who wander are lost, but their ships and loot sure will be if they don’t pay attention to the local threats. While you can find explorer career agent missions, you’ll eventually be going it alone. While unprotected sites can be found in Highsec, most investigation of cosmic anomalies and cosmic signatures will lead to run-ins with NPC threats, better known as ‘rats’. These anomalies (no scanning required) and signatures (scanning required) take many forms - ice belts, data sites, relic sites, combat sites, etc - and if you’re skipping the career agent missions, you’d benefit from further reading on each of them.
The loot and threats within these sites escalate too. As a rule of thumb that can be applied to most EVE gameplay, the further away you get from Highsec the more dangerous things become. Should you try to explore in Wormhole Space, for example, you’ll not only have to deal with local player threats but with fearsome Sleeper NPCs. That said, Shirosuka argues that scanning data and relic sites in Nullsec is a great way for solo players to make their fortunes:
“The best and most budget option for PVE activity in the game for a solo player, in my opinion, is scanning in Nullsec. All you need for this is to save up about one million ISK for a scanning frigate and consumables, upgrade several skills, and go to Nullsec. You’re looking for data and relic sites, which appear quite often. In a single evening, you’ll be able to save up enough for a significant update to your personal fleet.”
Read our EVE Online space breakdown for further insights into the exploration opportunities in and around New Eden.
Mining and gas harvesting
“Without minerals, there’s no industry. Without industry, no ships. And without ships, no PvP.” - orik Kado
Mining, like exploration, doesn’t have to entail combat, though it often does. After discovering an asteroid to mine, an ice belt to pillage, or a gas cloud to harvest, it’s not uncommon to find yourself beset by a PvPer or NPC attackers. Some techniques, such as ninja huffing, allow you to avoid engagement when they show up.
Mining is one of the simpler, safer activities in EVE Online, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security. Players like yan57436 warn new players not to mine AFK (Away From Keyboard). Even in Highsec ore belts, you can find yourself attacked by the occasional pirate or NPC miner.
For a more detailed introduction to mining, check out orik Kado’s post, which is a great breakdown but too long to include here. Alternatively, if you like the sound of gas harvesting, check out our EVE Online gas huffing guide.
Ratting
“Ratting has long been my go-to for quick ISK. Hunting NPCs in belts or anomalies gives you a good bounty, especially if you venture into Lowsec or Nullsec. It’s not without risk, but that’s part of the fun.” - Y0EMINENCE
Ratting is like exploration and mining, only the real loot isn’t the ISK awarded for scanning nor the ore mined, it’s the salvaged carcasses of the NPCs (rats) that spawn to defend the sites as well as the bounties on their heads. If you’re ready to turn from hunted to hunter, then you might just be a ratcatcher. There are many types of ratting, from escalation ratting to DED-site ratting. We’ll pass to Sumfin7 for a breakdown of three of the most popular and/or lucrative variants:
Belt ratting
“This is warping into asteroid belts (best in Lowsec or Nullsec) to kill rats, find officers, or farm faction spawns. 0.5-security belts in Highsec can spawn frigate-sized officers, Lowsec belts can spawn cruiser-sized officers or Mordus spawns, and Nullsec belts can spawn NPC capital ships and battleship-sized officers. The majority of ISK made is through bounties and loot, as faction spawns are an unreliable source of income and capital ships or officers spell instant death to most belt ratters.”
Combat anomaly ratting
“Fly to combat anomalies, and slay the rats within. Often called Ishtar-spinning, as Ishtars are commonly used to circle combat anomalies and let their drones do all the work. Anomaly ratting makes ISK through bounty payouts from the rats killed. It's a stable income, although it can become monotonous.”
Luka Zaharin wrote an excellent guide to running Highsec combat anomalies (Burrows, Hideaways, and Refuges) that’s also too long to include here, but is a great source of information and includes a bespoke day-one Merlin fit.
Wormhole anomaly ratting
“This is running combat anomalies in Wormhole Space for blue loot and Sleeper salvage. More challenging and lucrative than Nullsec anomaly ratting, wormhole anomaly ratting can be quite lucrative even at lower levels. Up to C3 wormhole anomalies can be run in ships from cruisers to battleships, while sites in C4-C6 wormholes are run in blingy Marauders, dreadnoughts, or fleets.”
The loot from these wormholes is consistent. Shirosuka notes that “after an evening of scanning, players will have enough to buy a Gnosis battlecruiser along with decent modules which is a great investment. The important thing is to loot all the NPCs, its value is stable.”
If you’re venturing into WH-Space, you should probably take a wormhole navigation guide.
Escalations
Escalations, aka expeditions, are another PvE option with considerable crossover with aforementioned activities, like ratting. Sometimes, when going about your business in an unrated site, the sh*t hits the afterburner. In other words, things escalate.
After triggering a certain set of conditions, players gain access to more challenging follow-up encounters, often finishing in a lower-security area of space. Players are usually provided with their next destination, a narrative lead, and a time limit. Successful completion can lead to great loot, including faction gear, super-valuable Deadspace modules, and coveted blueprints. Here’s sumfin7:
“They range from the very easy and accessible to the highly advanced. Escalation sites provide loot worth anywhere from two million up to 300 million ISK. At the extreme end of the spectrum are capital escalations and 10/10 DED sites, which will require capital ships, blinged-out ships, and/or dedicated fleets.”
Abyssal Deadspace PvE
“Even the calm ones can be difficult!” - JHenckes
Abyssal Deadspace is a unique area of space for timed, instanced, PvE challenges that require special Abyssal filaments just to enter. They’re high risk and high reward. Unlike in most PvE, failure will result in the loss of both ship and pod. Succeeding, however, will result in the receiving of mutaplasmids, Triglavian components, and red loot. They are split into multiple ‘rooms’ and are challenge rated from ‘tranquil’ to ‘cataclysmic’. They’re accessible via Highsec.
Incursions
“Incursions showed me what teamwork really means. Join a fleet to fight back the Sansha invasion, and you’ll feel part of something truly epic. They’re intense and you’ll need good coordination, but the rewards have funded some of my wildest ship dreams.” - Y0Eminence
Another combat option that isn’t for the faint-hearted or underprepared, incursions are formidable, high-level, group PvE encounters for late-game players. They’re closer in difficulty to level five missions than level four and they pay accordingly; Sumfin7 notes that even Highsec incursions can pay between 150-300 million ISK per hour.
Nearly all of our EVE Online experts that contributed to this guide recommended only participating in an incursion if you’ve found an experienced and skilled fleet to fly with. Failing to follow their advice spells almost certain doom.
Pochven PvE
You won’t find any missions in Pochven. But if you can navigate your way through the PvP threats of the area, you can discover PvE opportunities. These come in the form of roaming NPCs, mining sites (ore anomalies), rogue drone sites (Overmind Nursery Groves), and some extra-challenging wormhole combat sites. There are notable combat anomalies too, such as the highly challenging World Ark Assault Flashpoint or the Observatory Flashpoint, which operates similarly to an incursion: a difficult, group PvE challenge that will pay out hundreds of millions of ISK per pilot.
Non-combat PvE activities
Those are the vast majority of the EVE Online PvE activities that either necessarily involve combat (e.g. ratting or incursions) or indirectly invite it (e.g. mining or exploration). But, depending on one’s definition of PvE, there are plenty of other non-PvP activities that budding pilots can indulge in.
Beginners can check out our lists of starter activities in J-Space and starter activities in K-Space for guides organised by region. Alternatively, here are some ideas to get your capacitors humming, but note that all of these ‘non-combat PvE activities’ come with a warning: nowhere in New Eden is safe; dangers lurk around every corner; even if the player doesn’t come for the environment, the environment may well come for the player.
Industry
Through planetary industry, production, and manufacturing, players can make passive or active income by taking raw materials and transforming them into something valuable. Here’s Shirosuka:
“Don’t want to break the economy or travel and your mind is occupied with thoughts of creation? Then your calling is production. Buy materials and blueprints, then create everything! From cartridges and rockets to stations and titans - the largest ships in the game! Everything will be produced by your own hands. Make deals with friends or corpmates to supply you with materials at a reduced price in exchange for a discount on the equipment you produce. You’ll soon find yourself completely sucked into the world of production!”
Trade
Or perhaps if the labourers’ life isn’t for you, you might want to travel the galaxy as a wheeling, dealing trader, buying low and selling high. Back to Shirosuka:
“Having accumulated some capital, you may get tired of destroying the same NPCs, producing goods, or flying around the same systems in search of sites. If that’s the case, engage in trade! Learn the deep world of traders through a living economy that’s completely dependent on players. Study the prices of popular goods in different systems, negotiate deliveries with logisticians, and spin the market of valuable ships and modules as you desire, earning all the money in the universe!”
Cargo transportation
Space trucking may not sound like the most glamorous galactic gig, but not everyone can rule an empire. Besides, when you’re hauling a game-changing armoury through the middle of a warzone, you’ll feel neither bored nor insignificant. No two trips are the same. We’ll pass once more to Shirosuka:
“Do you want to enjoy the beautiful views of space? Do you want to deliver the necessary goods to remote corners of the empire, helping other capsuleers by supplying them with all manner of necessary things? Cargo transportation is for you! A small cargo barge, available after learning a single skill, will allow you to transport everything from minerals and ore to ready-made ships and stations ready to deploy into the battle for the right to own the system. Find cargo contracts and help your comrades for generous rewards!”
If you think you’d prefer life as a non-combatant in EVE, you’re not alone. You can walk in the footsteps of EVE’s greatest explorer by reading our Katia Sae interview or check out this expanded list of EVE Online non-combat activities that still support the war efforts.
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Razorien on Flickr.
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