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Newbies generating ISK, it doesn’t HAVE to be mining!

Published on 30. Jun, 2009 ... written by Deibos, Tags: Articles

I’m sitting at around 6 weeks into Eve and I think I’ve finally figured out how I can generate a reasonable cash flow without a huge amount of boredom. Before I get any comments that say “that method is stupid” or “I can do better with my Tech 2 fitted Hulk in 20 minutes,” I’d like to remind everyone that this is an article is for us newbies. We’re those guys that over trained up to Minmatar battleships in the first week and fitted their first Tempest with railguns because “those are the best.” I kid of course but it must be understood that this is for the guys that still think 100 million ISK is a lot and need something interesting to do that doesn’t pose a significant threat to their ship or sanity.

Anyway, the method I’ve been using to generate a major source of my income is Salvaging and I’m not talking about 2 or 3 ships at a time. I’m talking about serious large scale salvaging of missions, in particular level 4 missions.

So how does a newbie get into a level 4 mission and even if a new player can get a level 4 mission how do they survive? This is where the benefits of being in a corporation pay off big time. The higher skill point individuals in my corporation have different priorities than I do. In several cases they need standings more then they need money, although they don’t mind the money! Since their priority is on standings they want to get as many missions done as they can and this means they need to do them quickly. Salvaging is not known for its speed and although a fair bit of ISK can be pulled in from the salvage, I’ve seen some players that just ignore it outright due to the time and relative boredom it entails. This is where we new players can find a niche. As a new player I have very little capability in terms of assisting with the mission in the traditional “pew pew” sense, but I can substantially speed up the ability of others to finish by taking care of the aftermath.

My recommendation is to work out a deal with your corp mates for the salvage. The nature of the deal will vary from person to person, but in general I’ve found that things can be worked out to the benefit of all parties. A few examples of deals I’ve worked recently:

1. You salvage it, you keep it. This is usually the most profitable deal. Everything I pick up I get to keep. I can make many millions of ISK off a mission. This can be nice sometimes but it doesn’t present you as much of a team player or show solidarity with the corp or much benefit to other members.
2. You salvage it, we split it. You don’t make as much ISK as method 1 but it’s probably a better option in the long run. If you’re saving the mission runner time and still providing them with fair portion of the loot then they’re much more likely to let you help again in the future, heck they might even ask you!
3. You salvage it, the corporation gets it. This typically occurs when several corp mates are involved with the mission. At first glance it seems like it stinks but in reality this is paying dividends that are difficult to quantify. It is helping you build trust with your corporation and it is providing ISK and supplies for corporate coffers. This is going to fast track a young member into a valued position within the corporation. Also, if word gets around that you’re a team player then corp members are more likely to throw assistance your way in the form of time, advice, ships, ISK etc… A senior player helping out us newbies can be priceless.
4. You salvage it, you make a flat rate per hour. This is a little risky for both sides. On the one hand it ensures a fixed amount of income for the salvager; however the actual payout may be worth less than the salvage. On the other hand the salvage may be worth less than the payout for the mission runner! This sounds suspiciously like a regular job and it pretty much is. My one experience with it got me around 10 million an hour for about 6 hours of work. I’m told I salvaged and looted around 100 million in gear but I can’t verify that for sure. It was a really long 6 hours but that money has gone a long way for me.

Obviously other deal possibilities exist. I’m just giving a few examples of things I’ve done in the past.

Becoming a salvager involves more than just getting a corp mate to drag you along on a high level mission. Actual skills and tools exist in game that allow for salvaging and improve your salvaging efficiency.

The most important tool is the Salvager itself. This should not be confused with the Civilian Salvager which is used in the tutorial missions. You must be able to use the Salvager I which requires Mechanics III, Survey III, Electronics I, and Salvaging I as a minimum. Once you can equip a salvager it acts a lot like a mining laser except you can only use it on ship wreckage. Target the wreck, get within 5,000 m and turn it on. The Salvager takes 10 seconds to cycle, at the end of which you will get one of four messages:

1. “You do not have enough skill to salvage this wreck.” – Get more salvage skill
2. “Your salvage attempt is unsuccessful.” – It will cycle again, be patient.
3. “Your Salvage attempt was successful.” – Awesome we got some loot!
4. “Your salvage attempt was successful; unfortunately there was nothing to salvage.” – Rats!

If you only have one salvager it takes a heck of a long time to salvage anything. I strongly recommend having at least 4 salvage lasers on your ship, maybe more depending on your other capabilities.

In my opinion the second most important thing to include on your salvaging ship is a Tractor Beam. One of the major inefficiencies in salvaging a mission is the fact that salvagers have such a short range and the wrecks are going to be scattered over a huge area, sometimes greater than 100 km. It’s a real pain in the neck to salvage one or two ships at a time, this can take a minute or more each. If you have 20 ships in one room that’s roughly 20 minutes of just trying to get the salvage, that’s not including transit time between the wrecks. The Tractor Beam can dramatically speed this up by turning your ship into a tugboat effectively. Tractor beams can pull cargo containers or wrecks toward your ship; the Tractor 1 has a velocity of 500 m/s and a range of 20 km. All you have to do is get within 20 km of a wreck, target it, and pull it toward you. You can even move toward other wrecks while you’re doing this. Once it’s within 5 km you can start salvaging. This was a massive increase in my efficiency. To use the tractor beam you must have Science level IV and that’s it. This is really nice because most players need the science skill anyway so this shouldn’t detract from your regularly scheduled training plan significantly.

Other items you might want to add to your ship are a Salvage Tackle Rig to increase the chance of getting salvage. This requires some skills which may not be in the long term plan for everyone. An Expanded Cargo Hold should be a high priority to minimize the number of trips back and forth to the local station. I also include an Afterburner to speed up my transit time between wrecks. Lastly a Cap Recharger is useful because the Tractor Beams and Salvagers eat my capacitor.

Since I’m Minmatar I’ve set myself up in a Thrasher due to the large number of high slots and fair number of medium to low slots. My actual setup is as follows:

4 Small Tractor I
4 Salvager I
1 MN Afterburner
2 Cap Recharger I
2 Expanded Cargohold II

Is this the ideal setup? No, but honestly I don’t have the skills to add the other items I want. Ideally I’d like to add/upgrade the following:

2 Cap recharger II
3 Salvage Tackle I

My current setup lets me tow and salvage 4 ships as I move between the wrecks. I pretty much never stop moving unless my cap runs out, which is sometimes a problem due to my low level of skill in Energy System Operations and Energy Management. Both of these will increase my capacitor recharge rate and capacitor size. These are necessary skills for pretty much everything in Eve and have been added to my training queue (thanks Ecaf!).

To me salvaging is about the same level of excitement as ratting. The only difference between a wreck and an NPC pirate is the lack of movement or danger from a wreck. To keep salvaging interesting I try to improve my efficiency in moving between the wrecks. I plan out routes based on the wreck placement trying to minimize my time, distance I travel, and number of large turns I make. This may seem sort of pointless, but it’s actually honing my skills as a pilot so it has some actual advantages. Instead of flying directly at a wreck and then doing a 180 to get to another one I try to fly within 19 km of a wreck, snag it with the tractor beam and then put myself on a route to within 19 km of another wreck, basically working around in a big circle. It’s very rare that I “align to” any of the wrecks; this process involves a lot of double clicking in empty space and estimation of distance on my tactical display. I’m hoping it’ll improve my interaction with the overview and the game. I think that might be another article…

It seems pretty clear that an individual a little more serious about salvaging could make this a great primary career. Obviously the Salvaging skill should be taken to level 5. This opens the door for the Salvager II, which has more range (6000 m) and a 2% better salvaging chance. Less obvious, but still very important are those Salvage Tackle Rigs which do require a lot to train; Armor Rigging I, Jury Rigging III, and Mechanic III. However, they have such an increase to salvaging chance that it becomes less of a waiting game for the salvager to finish and more of a speed game to get to the next wreck! One last really great recommendation is to use a bigger class of ship if it’s feasible. One recommendation on the Minmatar side is a Hurricane Battlecruiser. This thing still has the nice 8 high slots like the Thrasher along with 4 medium, 6 low, and 3 rig slots along with a nice big capacitor! It’s a +35 million ISK investment I think will be worth it, plus it’s an excuse to fly a Battlecruiser.

I hope this helps the other new players out there generate some ISK to put toward their true passion of PvP, Industry, or whatever floats their boat! Until next time, keep on learning!

Deibos

Tags: battlecruiser, destroyer, ISK, salvage