Skill training
Skills are the core of an Eve character. Unlike many other game systems there are no "classes" in Eve, instead it is the skills you learn which determine the type of character you are. The way skills are learned is also different than most other games. The first thing you need to know is that learning skills in Eve takes time, real time. If your character takes three hours to to learn a skill, that is three real life hours. Unlike many other games, it does not matter if you are online or not during that time, your character will continue to learn. The next important thing about skills is that you can only be learning one skill at a time per account! (Yes, only one character on each account may be learning a skill at any given time.) These characteristics of learning in Eve bring us to a couple of very simple ideas. First, since learning takes time we don't want to waste any: you should always be learning a skill! Second since there are far too many skills for anyone to learn them all fully, you should have a plan! (For a technical explanation of the mechanics and formulas involved in learning a skill see:Eve skill mechanics)
There are so many skills, and they interact with each other in such complicated ways and there are so many possible paths to follow in Eve that it is sometimes difficult to know which skills to learn, and what order to learn them in. The good news is that there are some fundamental skills which almost any character will need to succeed in Eve, and a basic learning path which will get you off to a good start no matter what your ultimate goals may be.
There is a special category of skills in Eve, the Learning skills. These skills, as you might expect, increase the rate at which you learn skills. (What they actually do is increase your attributes which increases the rate at which you learn. see:Eve skill mechanics) Since skills and learning are so important in Eve, the Learning skills are critical. However, it will probably take you a month or more to get your learning skills to the level you need them to be, and we don't want to wait a month before we start learning the fun skills, right? So the plan is this: learn enough skills that you can have some fun and earn some money, and then devote some time to the learning skills. Once those are completed you can top-up the fundamental skills that everyone needs. By that time, you should have a good idea of where you want your character to go, and how you want to get them there, and you will have a solid foundation to build upon.
The fundamentals
Before you buckle down and learn your learning skills you will want to be able to be able to safely fly a decent ship and be able to use some decent weapons and other modules. By learning each of the following skills to level II or III you will be able to have some fun while your learning skills "cook".
By Skill category here are the fundamental skills everyone will want:
- Drones
- Drones - Allows you to control 1 drone per skill level
- Scout Drone Operations - Required to use light combat drones
- Electronics
- Electronics - Improves ship CPU output
- Targeting - Increases the number of active targets you may have
- Engineering
- Engineering - Improves ship Power Grid output
- Energy Systems Operation - Improves ship Capacitor recharge rate
- Shield Management - Increases shield points
- Shield Operations - Improves shield regeneration rate
- Mechanic
- Mechanic - Increases Structural points
- Hull Upgrades - Increases Armor points
- Navigation
- Navigation - Increases ship's maximum velocity
- Afterburner - Allows afterburner modules
- Warp Drive Operations - Improves Capacitor drain from warping
- Spaceship Command
- Spaceship Command - Improves ship's Agility
- Frigate - Effects vary by ship (This is a faction specific skill, Amarr characters would learn Amarr Frigate , Minmatars would learn Minmatar Frigate etc.)
- Cruiser - Effects vary by ship (This is a faction specific skill, Amarr characters would learn Amarr Cruiser , Minmatars would learn Minmatar Cruiser etc.)
In addition to these you will want to learn enough skills to use the weapons and modules. Which weapons and defensive measures you use are heavily influenced by your faction and the ship you are flying. Caldari ships, for example, tend to gain a bonus for Missiles or Hybrid Turrets. A Caldari pilot will therefore generally want the skills to fit Missiles and/or Hybrid Turrets on their ship to take advantage of this.This applies to the factions as follows:
| Faction | Preferred weapons(skills) |
|---|---|
| Amarr | Lasers (Small Energy Turret, Medium Energy Turret) |
| Caldari | Missiles (Missile Launcher Operations, Standard Missiles) |
| Hybrid Turrets (Small Hybrid Turret, Medium Hybrid Turret) | |
| Gallente | Drones (Combat Drone Operations) |
| Hybrid Turrets (Small Hybrid Turret, Medium Hybrid Turret) | |
| Minmatar | Projectile Turrets (Small Projectile Turret, Medium Projectile Turret) |
For the other modules you may wish to fit, and the skills required, see: Beginning ship fitting
The learning skills
By this point you should have enough skills to have some fun and earn some money. Now is the time to learn your learning skills! There are two tiers of learning skills, the basic and the advanced skills. There is one of each which affects each of your attributes. Each level in these learning skills adds 1 to the related attribute, so Empathy IV and Presence II would give you a total of 6 points added to your Charisma attribute.
| Attribute | Basic learning skill | Advanced learning skill |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | Analytical Mind | Logic |
| Perception | Spatial Awareness | Clarity |
| Charisma | Empathy | Presence |
| Willpower | Iron Will | Focus |
| Memory | Instant Recall | Eidetic Memory |
The last learning skill, Learning, helps with learning all skills regardless of their related attributes. Since the learning skills increase your attributes, and your attributes increase the rate at which you train skills, you can learn these skills much more quickly by learning them in a specific pattern. The pattern is to increase Memory then Intelligence then the Learning skill by one step each, then repeat. In this way each skill learned helps us train the next skill more quickly. So we train as follows:
Instant Recall I → Analytical Mind I → Learning I → Instant Recall II → Analytical Mind II → Learning II and so on up to level IV in each.
Once you have the these three skills to level IV, you can go back and increase some of your fundamental skills, or begin to work on the common skills you have not yet begun. Once the training times on those skills start reaching into multiple days, and you are comfortably piloting a Cruiser through level 2 missions, it is time to complete your learning skills.The sequence now will be :
Eidetic Memory I → Logic I → Eidteic Memory II & Logic II until you have level IV in each and then train Instant Recall V → Analytical Mind V.
After this you can train the other learning skills to improve your Perception, Willpower and Charisma.
Note: The time required to train level V in the advanced learning skills is not usually worth it for the return it gives. Most people never bother.