EVE is a story you write in spaceships: sometimes a quiet, profitable ledger; sometimes a scorch mark on a solar system. The first week can feel like learning a new language, because it is — but that language has grammar you can learn in seven days. Below is a day-by-day plan that teaches you how skills, ships, ISK and professions really work in EVE, with small, practical goals you can finish in an evening. I’ve woven in the key mechanics (skill training, career arcs, mining, exploration, industry and market basics).
The one idea to hold onto in EVE Online
EVE trains you while you sleep. Your character learns by placing skills into a skill queue that runs in real time; you don’t need to be logged in for training to continue, so filling and managing your queue is central to long-term progress. Skill training speed, queue length and access to skills are affected by your account state (Alpha vs Omega) and by implants/injectors if you use them later. Learn the queue mechanics early and your future weeks get exponentially easier.
Day 1 in EVE Online — Orientation and the safe routine
Start by finishing the tutorial and the Career Agent chains. These short mission arcs introduce mining, combat, exploration and industry in bite-sized, guided steps; they’re the fastest way to try multiple career paths without dying of confusion. While you play, open the skill window and add a couple of short, useful skills to the queue (basic navigation, a core weapon or your chosen mining skill). The very act of queuing skills turns your future play-time into steady, automatic progress.
Practical evening task: complete at least one career agent chain and set a 24–72 hour skill in your queue.
Day 2 — Learn two basic ISK machines: missions and mining
EVE pays you for doing useful, repeatable things. Start with one of two reliable early ISK sources:
• Career and security missions (mission running) teach you fitting, bounties and salvage. Run the easy missions the game offers, loot and salvage wrecks, and sell salvage on the market — you’ll get comfortable with fittings and local mechanics.
• Mining is slower but steady: fit a basic mining ship, find asteroid belts in high-sec, and refine your ore at station services. Mining also teaches fleet logistics and how to use a ship’s cargo and modules.
Do whichever feels less like a chore; both are good teachers. For detailed mechanical primers on mining and missions, the EVE Academy and New-player wikis are excellent references.
Day 3 in EVE Online — Market sense & the small flip
Markets are where the sandbox economy becomes personal. Walk through two nearby trade hubs, watch buy/sell spreads on ores, ammo and modules you’ve used, and try a tiny arbitrage: buy a stack where it’s cheap, move it (use a cheap hauler or your normal ship) and sell where demand pays more. This teaches you travel, contract use and market fees — three invisible costs that eat careless profit. If you prefer hands-off, practice posting sell orders for your mission loot or refined ore and learn to scan for orders that actually complete. Guides to market basics and simple trading strategies live in the community and on industry pages.
Evening task: complete one small buy-low / sell-high loop or sell 100% of your day’s mission loot via sell orders.
Day 4 — Probe, hack, loot: a gentle dive into exploration
Exploration is high-value, low-entry. Fit a cheap exploration frigate with a probe launcher and a relic/data analyzer, scan down cosmic signatures, and hack relic containers for modules or blueprints. It teaches you cloaking, fitting for survivability, and the thrill of a lucky pull — plus it’s surprisingly profitable for the time invested. EVE Academy’s Explorer lessons have excellent step-by-step guide to find, probe and run these sites safely.
Task: run two relic/data sites and sell the valuable loot or blueprints you find.
Day 5 in EVE Online — Hands on with industry (crafting & blueprints)
If you enjoy making things, industry converts raw ore and salvage into items that other players buy. Learn to copy a Tech I blueprint, manufacture a simple module, and place it on the market. You’ll learn about manufacturing stations, blueprint copies, research and the time/cost tradeoffs between building and selling raw materials. The Industrialist lessons in EVE Academy are practical and short; they’ll tell you which skills to prioritize next. Even if you don’t pursue industry long term, this day gives you perspective on why miners and logistics pilots matter to the economy.
Task: build one small batch of a commodity (ammo, a basic module) and list it on the market.
Day 6 — Social capital: corporations, fleets and safe risk
Join a corp that fits the style you enjoyed this week (mining corps, PvE PvP teaching corps, or industry trading groups). EVE with people is simpler, richer and safer: you get free advice, convoy protection for lucrative hauls, and mentorship for PvP. Try a group fleet op in low-risk space; even a simple mining fleet teaches you positioning, fleet pings, and the social rhythm of New Eden. Corporations also open opportunities like access to corp markets and shared hangars. For a gentle intro, look for corps that advertise “new player friendly” or “training provided.”
Task: apply to two corps, join a fleet op, and ask at least one question in corp chat.
Day 7 — Decide your lane, plan your EVE Online 90-day rhythm, and consider Omega option
By now you’ll have a feel: do you love the steady math of markets, the solitude of exploration, the satisfying loop of industry, or the pulse of combat? Pick one main profession and two supportive skills (e.g., if you choose industry, train hauling and refining skills). Begin a focused skill plan for the next 90 days — reading recommended plans on EVE Academy will save months of time. Also review the Alpha vs Omega tradeoffs: Omega (paid or PLEXed) grants broader skill access and faster training; Alpha is useful for testing the game but is skill-capped. If you plan to commit, a short Omega subscription early can accelerate your path. Use skill injectors and extractors carefully later — they exist and are marketable items, but they’re an advanced economy tool you don’t need in week one.
Task: lock in a 90-day skill plan, set a saving goal (ISK and PLEX), and decide whether to budget one month of Omega to speed training.
EVE Online isn’t a single game loop; it’s a set of interlocking economies and incentives. This week gives you the practical vocabulary: skill queue hygiene, the competence of small trade runs, the probe-and-hack joy of exploration, how industry consumes raw ore, and why corps turn strangers into crews. After seven days you won’t be a master, but you’ll know the system well enough to choose the path that makes the game feel like your story. If you want, I can turn this into a printable two-page checklist (with slots for your actual skill plan and ISK targets), or build a tailored 90-day skill/training schedule around your chosen career. Tell me which and I’ll assemble it.