How to start playing

Last revised: 12 NOV 2026 · by I.NET - Insurgent New Eden Tribe

EVE Online® can feel overwhelming in the first days: a huge universe, a complex interface and very few rules that hold you by the hand. This guide collects what you need to know at the start, with the advice we give to new players who are beginning the game and who might later want to join I.NET.

1. Create your account and character

• Create your account through our referral link: you get 1 million skill points for free. If you already have an account, you can still get them: open the same link and choose Log in to become a recruit.
• The account is free: you play as an Alpha, with no time limit. An Omega subscription unlocks every ship and halves skill training times (see the guide Alpha or Omega?).
• Your race (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar) decides your looks and starting skills, but it doesn't lock you in: over time you can train the skills of any race. Don't spend too long on it.

2. Do the tutorial and the AIR Career Program

The opening tutorial teaches the basic controls: moving, locking a target, shooting, warping. After the tutorial, the AIR Career Program gives you objectives in four careers: Explorer, Industrialist, Enforcer and Soldier of Fortune. In return you get skill points, ships and ISK. It's worth completing: in a few hours you'll understand which part of the game you enjoy.

Keep in mind that the Cradle of War expansion (9 June 2026) introduced a brand-new region of space, Exordium, with 9 constellations and 53 systems, where newbies can start interacting with the game in complete safety (no aggression of any kind is allowed: the game blocks it across the whole area). With the Fractured Skies expansion (10 November 2026) they also get free special ships called AIR Academy Ships (13 models to choose from), already assembled and fitted, which let them get to know the various modules and hulls even without the required skills.

3. Things to know right away

• EVE's golden rule: Don't fly what you can't afford to lose. In EVE a destroyed ship is gone forever. Losing ships is normal: it's part of the game. In fact, the second half of the rule says: Anything you undock is already lost, meaning anything you take out of the station is already lost.
• System security status. Every system has a value from 1.0 to -1.0:
  • HighSec (1.0–0.5): CONCORD, the NPC police, punishes attackers, but it doesn't fully protect you: you can still be attacked (ganked), although in HighSec it has to be really worth it for the attacker. So don't fly around in a shuttle loaded with BPOs or PLEX: it might not be very healthy.
  • LowSec (0.4–0.1): no CONCORD, only sentry guns at gates and NPC stations.
  • NullSec (0.0 and below): no rules, territory controlled by player alliances. This is where I.NET lives.
  • Wormhole (J-space): systems without gates, reachable only through wormholes that open and close.
• Insure your ships with Insurance at the station: it refunds part of the hull's value.
• Your clone. When your pod (the capsule your character sits in) is destroyed, you wake up in the clone at your home station. Any implants you had plugged in are lost: that's why you shouldn't buy expensive ones at the start.
• Skill points accumulate even while you're offline. Always keep your skill queue full.
• Jita. A HighSec system in the Caldari region of The Forge which, over the years, has become a true trade hub where you can buy and sell practically every item in the game (except capitals and supercapitals, which are banned from HighSec). Keep it as your reference for anything you want to find or sell, now and in the future.

4. Your first ISK

What do we at I.NET really recommend to new players for making their first money? Start with the AIR Career Program missions, then the agent missions. Once you have enough SP, we recommend exploration with scanning frigates first: it may look like a dull activity, but it lets new pilots make money in game and, at the same time, learn how to move between systems and regions with different security status, NullSec included. Then move on to ratting, mining and production as you acquire the skills needed to fly the ships and use the modules required. For these activities, though, we recommend joining a corporation.

5. Join a corporation

Alone, EVE is slow and confusing; in a group it becomes a different game. A good corporation gives you ready-made ships and fits, explains the unwritten rules and takes you on fleets from day one.

In corporations like ours, it also gives you access to resources normally out of reach for outsiders: entire systems to rat in, to mine (including the juicy R64 moons), to do planetary interaction and to manufacture with practically zero taxes; the transport and logistics services provided by the corp and/or the alliance; being part of a community where cooperation and support are the basis of everyday life; constant content (for example PvP fleets, Sov war, etc.); and reimbursement programs such as the alliance's SRP (Ship Replacement Program), which softens the economic impact of lost ships. Sigma Grindset, for example, covers all doctrine hulls, dreadnoughts included, at 100%.

At I.NET, since 2007, we have welcomed Italian players, including complete beginners (back in the day we were all idiots noobs too). You'll find guides like this one, a voice channel on our Discord where you can talk to us and ask for advice and news, and fittings (noobkart) for beginners. If you join the corp, you'll have access to the resources provided both by the corp (structures for zero-cost production) and by the alliance (content, structures, R64 moons, entire NullSec regions with positive standing, fleets from small skirmishes to epic battles with thousands of players, etc.). Join our Discord and ask: you'll be warmly told to get lost welcomed.

• We give new players the noobkart fits right away: cheap frigates that are useful in fleet even with few skills (see the guide First skills).
• Our Discord speaks Italian: join I.NET's Discord.

6. Useful tools

• zKillboard — every kill and loss in the game.
• Dotlan — maps, sovereignty, system statistics.
• EVE University Wiki — the reference encyclopedia for game mechanics.
• Janice — appraise in real time anything you can sell in game, at Jita prices.
• EVE Market Browser — browse the public market of the whole EVE universe out of game.
• EVE Workbench — hundreds and hundreds of fittings for every taste and occasion, for inspiration or to use directly in game.
• Pyfa — try out fittings offline; it can read your character's skills so you can tailor the fit to them.
• Wanderer — a real-time mapping system (provided by I.NET).
• Alliance Auth — a portal (run by I.NET) with handy tools that make life easier out of game.

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Sources for fact-checking: EVE Online Help Center, EVE University Wiki.