Best way to make money in highsec?

Gah'Matar of the Brutor Tribe [ Moderator ] Mar 5, 2010

The standard way most experienced player make ISKs in high-sec are:

Level 4 missions are probably the most reliable income source in high-sec. And it can be an interactive experience so it's not as boring as Mining.
Mining is another option, with good skills it's possible to mine for up to 15 minutes or so before any action is needed. In practice that means a few million ISKs per hour with minimum interaction.

Both of those income streams are "reliable". Mission for x hours, buy a new ship.

As a new player obviously this doesn't work as well. The normal progression is to train for a better ship and then upgrade mission level or mining yield. For missions that means:

Do the highest quality level 1s in a destroyer (cormorant with 75mm or 125mm railguns), until you can Do the highest quality level 2s in a cruiser (caracal with assault missile launchers), until you can Do the highest quality level 3s in a battlecruiser (Drake with heavy missile launchers), until finally you can do level 4 missions and fly battleships.

My experience has been that waiting until I could fit the right size ship well kept the profit reasonable. It's more profitable to do lower level missions quickly then a higher level one slowly.

NN comments

Mara Abraham Mar 4, 2010

Good day:

What's fun about Eve is there can be a lot of right ways; and granted, that can be frustrating too.

Spending 1 to 2 hours doing combat missions is what does the trick for me. Join a friendly, player run, corporation that will allow you to help on level 4 missions (even if you are in a frigate) to build your standings with the level 4 agent(s) they use.

Participate in salvage runs (sometimes the corp will let you use a destroyer or battle cruiser to salvage; salvage is split typically).

And when you can, run level 4 missions solo; and you can do level 4's in a Drake battle cruiser and probably other types of battle cruisers.

Train up your social skills as well as they can help you with mission payout; and don't forget to look at the specialty connection skills such as military connections, political connections and so on as they can help with increased LP per mission.

Level 4 missions, even with low skills, can easily rake in 5 to 15 million ISK per hour not including Loyal point (LP) conversions.

Thank you.

NN comments

This did the trick for me. Corpmates allowed me to fly along on lvl 4 missions in a Rifter/Thrasher and later a Stabber. I warped in and out a lot, and did the odd Courier mission while my buddy in a BS did the blunt of the DPS and tanking. Once your standings and skills are better you can run lvl 3 and 4 missions on your own.

Apr 30, 2010

Gorble Gibbernof [ Moderator ] Mar 3, 2010

Train yourself into a cruiser and do the level two missions. It is also possible to run level 2 missions in your destroyer, albiet slow.

Mining is also a valid alternative, in hi-sec you can use your destroyer and a jet can to mine and haul it with an industrial ship.

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buck flintrock Mar 4, 2010

See previous questions about ninja salvage. This is very easy for a new player to get into an makes much more than level 1 and level 2 missions.

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digitalfreak Apr 30, 2010

You have a few choices

Space - Missions - Mining - Courier (Hauling) - Ninja-Salvaging - Ganking

Station - Trading - Industry (Manufacturing/Research) - Scamming - Datacore Harvesting

Scamming/Ganking will likely get you fast isk, but likely not sustainable.

Missions/mining will be steady income as well.

Industry/Trading - if good, you can earn decent isk at a good rate.

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andrea griffin Sep 21, 2010

I find Trading to be a good - if sometimes unreliable - source of passive income. Market orders work while you sleep. Take advantage of that. If you have limited time, stay out of the major trade hubs and find other places where people need supplies. Mission hubs that have 30-40 pilots, but aren't as popular as other hubs, are places where you can sell ammunition and salvage equipment at a premium. If you have cajones with more metal than most, you can sell materials in low sec systems as well. Sales will be sporadic but you will have minimal competition.

I don't find mining to be good income for the time spent in high security space. You're better off grinding missions to increase your standings. If you go the mission route, be sure to train up your social skills to maximize theloyalty point benefits, the isk benefits, and the rate at which your standings increase. Get your corp mates to let you run higher level missions with them.

If your morals allow and you have the time, corporation infiltration can be very rewarding. All you need is enough time and trust to be given access to assets - corp hangars, corp wallet, POS, etc. Take the stuff and run. It may even be possible that you can take all the materials, feign innocence, and wait a little bit to do it again. If you are in a production corporation, handle the market orders. Every time you're delivered a load of things to sell, take a few for yourself. Enough that you make money, but not so much that it is noticable.

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lachrymus Sep 21, 2010

All the above are true - and I use them all, depending on how much interaction I want. But don't forget you can skill up to five planets fairly quickly and provide yourself with an income of around 10 million a week with just a couple of five-minute interactions per day.

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duatha hannan [ Editor ] Sep 21, 2010

There are good sources of active income (you earn when you fly), all limited to your online time. (I´d call kill missions no 1) There are good sources of passive income (you earn when you´re offline), no limit (needs skills, ISK and time as well, to get me right)

not metioned above are R&D agents. you need standing with the corp to talk to them and need special skills. once startet the agent will produce datacores (needed for production/Invention) to do: Check buying prices of different datacores in market and there volume. check what science skill is needed, check what R&D agent will give that datacore, fly for corp and once you talked to agent you only need to fly around every mont to collect the cores. (ignore the missions the R&D offers you after the start, they have no impact on the produciotn of the cores)

NN comments

what's your question? be descriptive.