How much ISK should I be making

Darina Smirayne [ Moderator ] Sep 2, 2010 (Edited Sep 3, 2010)

To be honest, I would be interested in the answers from other players too.

Throughout the whole of my life in Eve-O, I've logged on for at least two hours a day (on average) and that is the guide to which you should measure yourself against when comparing the numbers below.

As a miner, I could earn about 3 million an hour. Mining bores me so much that I can not put any attention into it to improve this value. I have yet to play with null-sec mining, but I suspect I would be able to make 30 million an hour. (~= 160 million/month.)

As a tech 1 manufacturer, I failed to earn more than 4 million an hour, even with my mining fueling the ever hungry BPOs. However, this is not a very time consuming job so can be done alongside other things. (~= 184 million/month.)

As an inventor and tech 2 manufacturer, I do earn 1 billion in a week on good weeks. (Yes, that is a billion, not a million!) With material costs, however, profit is rarely more than 250 million per week. Selling the datacores from 4x lvl 4 R&D agents should net me 70 million a month, but I use the datacores instead. (~= 1 billion/month.)

As an industrial services provider, I've earned an average of 10 million a week. People will pay for anything! If I could face the high-sec courier runs in a slow-as-treacle freighter, then I could treble this. (~= 40 million/month.)

As an explorer, I can earn between 250 ISK and 100 million every week. Like invention, it is very random. (~= 1000/month -> 400 million/month.)

I've never played as a mercenary or pirate (inc. ninja, scammer, war-deccer, etc.). I hear they make more ISK than an explorer, but still not regular.

As a lvl 4 mission bear, I earn 100 million a week. Combining this with some of the other professions I mention here pays for some half-decent toys, most of which I only get to own for a week or two. ;) (~= 400 million/month.)

As a 23/7 wormhole denizen, I earned 500 million to a billion per week. Much of that was mining roids and sleepers, however, and the losses from tengus and lokis decloaking and taking you out (along with POS fueling costs) cancel out most of those profits. (Large WH corp, greater situational awareness, less profits. Small WH corp, less situational awareness but slightly greater profits given the losses you suffer!) (~=1 billion/month.)

As a null-sec denizen, I break even every week, and that includes the profits from ratting, plexing, tech 2 manufactuiring, industrial services and hisec missions. But then I am having more fun! (~= 0/month.)

The bottom line is really that fun is much more important than ISK (unless you need the ISK to buy your monthly PLEX) and anyone who hoards ISK can't be having much fun.

NN comments

Thanks for the response!

Sep 2, 2010

This is an excellent detailed answer.

Mar 1, 2011

knee anderthal Sep 2, 2010

Many people aim for self-sustainment - the ability to pay your accounts with PLEXes every month. That's approx 300 million per month per character. If that's not a concern for you, then the only need for ISK is to have enough on hand to immediately replace any asset you lose, be it a ship, your implants, etc.

You're right in that money's useless until you spend it, but once you're out of it, it becomes very difficult to recover. Happy pirating.

NN comments

jenny darkness Feb 25, 2011

I usually try to have 300m in my wallet so I can replace instantly any ship I fly (BS the biggest type I use). Once I have this much, I stop caring for making ISK, even gifting it to new players in my corp etc (especially, when drunk).

About the income: Think about how much you usually loose per month.

I blow up on average:
two SBs = 70m
two cruisers = 60m
some frigates = 20m
a BS every other month (1/2 * 100m) = 50m

additionally I buy some new skills every now and then: 10m

SUM: 210m

So I aim at roughly 210m income per month (I am not buying PLEX usually), since I know I will waste any surplus anyway :D

NN comments

if my teacher saw this… he’d ask if 0.21 ISK is a lot… ^^; (m = milli, M = mega) anyway… calculating how muc hyou use per month is a nice idea ^^

Feb 25, 2011

if my teacher saw this… he’d ask if 0.21 ISK is a lot… ^^; (m = milli, M = mega) anyway… calculating how much you use per month is a nice idea ^^

Feb 25, 2011

D. Sneckner, J.D. [ Editor ] Feb 26, 2011 (Edited Feb 26, 2011)

First off, yes I'm bragging. But with the honest intent of sharing what I feel is opportunity with you to do at least what I've done with making isk.

I've been playing for close to a year and a half to two years now, for an average of four to five hours a day, and I believe there is only one answer to your question. Make as much isk as you can and want to, because there is no upper limit. Much like in real life, you ability to earn is constrained only by your imagination, creativity, and effort and even less by chance than in real life (real life is much, much harder). I've made probably around 6 or 7 billion, including all my assets. In liquid isk, I've got between 4 and 5 billion at any given moment and all the best ships, mods, and ammo I could ever want or need in multiple locations throughout New Eden.

There are so many ways to make isk. The best I've seen was from hands-on trade (but that can be a real grind), multi-region market manipulation (it's a part of most any trade I do), and nullsec anomaly ratting, the last of which is my preference. If you've built up your trade skills adequately, you can also do afk, long-term trading which yields steady profit over time, while you focus on ratting profit.

As a null-sec ratter with level 5 upgrades in-system, I easily earn an average of about 250 million/week to significantly more depending on how many Macharial BP drops we get. Every so often, I hop down to high sec and reinvest some cash into long-term trade which earns me passive money in the background, but I've never bothered to track it, so long as I'm clearly profiting. And I a make sure that I am. I would estimate I make between 5-10% on my investments, sometimes more, but, again, it's passive, which is awesome. Also, 5% of a billion is 50 million isk, though that's over a month or so. I invest a lot of cash to make a lot back without working for it.

There are very creative ways to make isk. Look at Chribba, Somer, the Mineral Exchange, Eve Online Hold'em, etc. Some of these are riskier investments but have higher yields. The point is, do whatever's the most fun for you, but you don't have to be poor while doing it. It just takes enough discipline to split your time between earning isk doing something slightly less fun and doing what you really like. But the secret is, the more isk you earn, the closer together those two things become. Or at least that's been my experience.

NN comments

Two years with 4 hour online per day and it’s merely 7 billion? There is something wrong, I managed to get 5bil within last four months by l4 missioning with the same daily online. Nice post, by the way :)

Feb 26, 2011

Nah, that makes sense. Big difference between the first ¾ of my account’s brand new life and what I’m making now. :)

Feb 27, 2011

derp_8 Mar 8, 2011

lvl 4 mission, 2-3 mill in reward, 10-15mill in bounties, 20-25 mill in salvage, you'll also get more once you have tech 2 salvaging and salvagers. Two accounts running the mission together will get you thru quicker and when your nearly finished get ya Noctis, 10 minutes its salvaged. Repeat. So the 50 mill per hour is quite achievable. But thats boring, and not the greatest isk. Mining in nullsec, setup correctly, can net you around 60-70mill per hour. Ratting in nullsec can net you around 60 mill per hour, again setup right. A good wormhole corp can net you around 350 mill per hour if you are good at not getting dropped, the loses from cloaky tengus drop this dramatically if your a noob at scanning and d scan. Oh and btw, every pos i have profits more than 300mill per month, whether i launch in highsec, lowsec, wh, if i launch in nullsec, you need to be apart of corp or alliance and profits are higher. Trade, profits limitless if you, a. have half a brain b. have alot of start up capital. Long term trade concerning 10's of billions is where the steady big profits live. Entrepreneurship is all down to initial investment and imagination, but can potential depending on the idea, make you endless isk.

NN comments

Just curious how a pos profits you 300mil a month. Surely researching bpo’s and manufacturing stuff can’t be making much in profits?

May 21, 2011

ptysiu [ Editor ] Mar 1, 2011

I solved this problem by joining the militia and started running missions for them. Before that I was running l4 missions in high-sec, from which I got about 50kk/hour. I also tried ratting and running anomalies in 0.0, but I dropped that after having to fly in a drake for two months straight in alliance ops. I made a bit more isk that way, but there is an issue with the right logistics.

Finally I joined the above mentioned militia. Now I make about 120kk to 400kk+ for an hour depending whether I need the money now, or I can afford waiting. The only drawback of this situation is that I obviously can't enter neither Caldari nor Amarr high-sec, but since you're a pirate, that shouldn't bother you anyway.

All you need is a stealth bomber.

NN comments

I am assuming by “kk” that you mean million? 1,000 x 1,000? I’d love to know how you made 50 mill an hour doing L4 high sec missions given that a half decent level 4 will need only around 10-15 mill in bounties and rewards. So 35-40 mill from loot and salvage? And that with completing AND salvaging/looting a mission inside an hour? Or does kk mean something else?

Mar 1, 2011

I am assuming by “kk” that you mean million? 1,000 x 1,000? I’d love to know how you made 50 mill an hour doing L4 high sec missions given that a half decent level 4 will only net you around 10-15 mill in bounties and rewards. So 35-40 mill from loot and salvage? And that with completing AND salvaging/looting a mission inside an hour? Or does kk mean something else?

Mar 1, 2011

K stands for kilo (1000), KK stands for million, that is correct. You forgot about 2 things: LP and story lines. Anything below 20kk per 10k lp is a bad deal.

Mar 2, 2011

I can make even more in my Golem. If my internet connection and laptop were better, and I’ll get a Noctis for salvaging, it may get to 80-90 mil per hour in this way, including lps ofc.

Mar 9, 2011

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