A guide by Dano1, Elite Space Hackers, on how to thrive off the bountiful and remote region of Solitude.
This guide will explain how to homestead in Solitude, the best region in space, and be self sufficient by living off the land. I enjoy the variety of play styles EVE offers, and participate in all of the major careers: Industrialist, Enforcer, Explorer, and Soldier of Fortune. I will cover how to engage in all these activities from beginner levels to advanced while being self sufficient in Solitude.
You can follow this guide even if you are a brand new player with 0 ISK and 0 skill points. You can also follow this guide if you are a veteran as I will walk all the way through T2 production, null sec activities, and wormholes. Veteran players may find it rewarding to leave everything else behind, fly out to Solitude, and start from scratch. This is the approach I took and I find it quite a fun and rewarding play style.
Once in Solitude, you need to learn to be self sufficient and live off the land to avoid dangerous journeys to trade hubs. There are no major trade hubs, so the market will be limited in Solitude. The market exists, and you will find all the essentials, but you better learn to fend for yourself. The first steps are the hardest if you are starting out with absolutely nothing, but before long, you will find yourself well funded for all of your adventures.
It is a unique play style that not all players may like, but I find it extremely rewarding. The game becomes a little less about ISK but more about surviving and even thriving in a remote area with no major trade hub. Your life in New Eden becomes less about making ISK, but being able to maintain your activities so you can always have fun without worrying about having to go hit trade hubs to get stuff.
I doubt it. This area can support a ton of people and there's plenty of room for more people. I'd say it's even too dead and could use some more people to fleet up with. This lifestyle is not for everyone. Plus, if you calculate the number of people who read this, spread that out over time, and the few people who will decide to actually go, and then factor in how often they play, what time of day they play, what activities they like, and all that, I highly doubt there will be so many players in Solitude that it interferes with your play style or becomes as populated as the central systems.
First, decide to go. You don't have to take anything with you. Take a shuttle or your corvette. You can leave everything behind and start fresh or make the trip on day one with an alt character. You can do this starting with 0 skills and 0 ISK.
Travel to Yvaeroure (0.8). The route does go through low sec from the starter systems and there is a possibility you lose your ship. Keep trying, perhaps using a different route or different time of day if you can't get through a certain system.
If you don't set your home station to be in Solitude, you may respawn very far away if your pod dies.
These initial steps assumes you are starting with 0 ISK, 0 skills, and you flew out to Solitude as an alpha clone and have nothing available except the Corvette you get for free at any station.
Start in Yvaeroure (0.8) and kill rats in the asteroid belts. You can also attempt Serpentis Hideaway combat anomalies which are plentiful in the region. You may not be able to complete it without docking to repair. Anomalies drop less loot but have many rats for more bounty. Be sure to loot everything you pick up as you will either use it to fit your ship, or reprocess it for rare minerals.
Keep ratting until you have earned 39,000 ISK. You may need to kill 13 or more rats for this. Buy Small Hybrid Turret skill (39,000 ISK) and train it to level 1. This will allow you to immediately start using the turrets and ammo that drop from rats.
Keep ratting and buy Iron Charge S Blueprint (20,000 ISK). Mine and reprocess Scordite until you have enough Tritanium and Pyerite to build 500 rounds of Iron Charge S. Manufacture the ammo, and while it's building, keep ratting to earn ISK. If you pick up any turrets, you can immediately fit them and start using your ammo.
Keep ratting until you earn another 100,000 ISK and buy Light Drone Operation and train to level 2. This is one of the first skills I would get to level 5 as well. This will allow you to immediately start using a drone when one drops from the rats. Every corvette can fit at least one. Gallente can fly 2 in the Velator. A single drone will help immensely at this level.
Earn another 120,000 ISK and buy Light Neutron Blaster I Blueprint. Mine Scordite and Plagioclase and build a few of these. Now you can restock turrets and ammo any time you need. This will be a huge step up from the civilian blaster.
To finish out your corvette fit, buy a Damage Control I Blueprint (50,000 ISK) and Inertia Stabilizer I Blueprint (54,380 ISK). Mine some more Plagioclase and Scordite, build one of each, and fit it to your ship.
You can build all those components with high sec minerals. They require only Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon. You can mine and build all of these items with your corvette and civilian mining laser in only a few minutes. You can also reprocess modules and metal scraps into minerals to build items without having to do any mining.
If you ever lose your corvette, you can build all those modules and fit the high slots and low slots and start ratting in no time.
The next step is to get into a Gallente Frigate and this is going to be a big leap. A proper Gallente Frigate will be a huge step up. I recommend the Incursus.
First, buy and train Gallente Frigate I (65,000 ISK).
Buy an Incursus off the local market if available, which there usually is. If not, then grind until you have enough ISK to buy the Incursus Blueprint (2.8 million ISK) and then build one yourself. Reprocess modules if you need Isogen, or risk going to low sec and mining for it. If you are a corp member of Elite Space Hackers you can get frigates for free at the Duvolle Labs station in Oerse.
With an Incursus, you will have no problem doing Serpentis Hideaway or ratting in Oerse (0.6). The Serpentis Hideaways will provide decent ISK at around 30,000 ISK per site in bounties plus loot.
So you can use an armor repairer as soon as one drops.
Repairing the Incursus costs money, so you want to invest in an armor repairer. Buy Repair Systems Skill (58,500 ISK) and train it to level 1. Check the market for a Small Armor Repairer I or wait until you loot one from a rat.
With an armor repairer, you don't need to dock up to repair any more. You can just keep doing site after site and use your armor repairer to keep you going.
I'd make sure to have all of these blueprints so you can rebuild a combat frigate with a very basic fit. You will lose your ship sooner or later. Many of these modules drop from rats, so the most important blueprint is the frigate hull blueprint.
Roadmap after Incursus
Next I would get Imicus. This will open up other days. You can mine a little better (larger cargo) and do level 1/2 distribution agents. You can also use it to scan for wormholes that lead to trade hubs, or do data and relic sites.
Imicus Blueprint expanded cargohold probe launcher + probes grav rig data analyzer relic analyzer
Venture Blueprint Miner I Blueprint
Jetcan mining, hauling through wormholes to trade hubs, moving stuff between stations
Level 1 sec combat anomalies ratting
Null sec ratting, combat anomalies, level 2 sec, abyss anomalies, pvp
level 3/level 4 missions
Beef up industrial arm: Venture, Miner I, Gallente Industrial. Can usually buy a Venture on market. Otherwise, you need to get to a trade hub and buy a Venture blueprint. For that you'll want to find a wormhole.
Build an Imicus. Buy the probes or get them from Sister's of EvE after doing distribution missions and earning loyalty points. Scan for wormholes until one day you find one that leads to high sec and make your way to a trade hub. These are your opportunities to sell things you have collected or buy items you don't normally have access to.
Then you can make attempts into low sec and null sec for mining. Only do it with spare ships though as you will likely die. You can reprocess modules to get all kinds of minerals. Even in high sec, some items will reprocess into Megacyte and Zydrine so you _can_ get all the minerals you need without leaving high sec. The pink modules that drop even in high sec reprocesses into every type mineral. Once you can rat in null sec in a cruiser or do level 4 missions, battleship loot provides large modules that reprocess into a lot of minerals.
Long term, you should aim for a mining barge and even an exhumer.
For salvage, use a destroyer until you get into a Noctis. You can also invest in Mobile Tractor Unit and Salvage Drones to easily grab all loot and salvage from a site or mission.
Make your own blueprint copies. Explore for the datacores to do invention. There are a lot of components needed to produce t2 equipment and what I normally do is wait until I have a wormhole to a trade route and then I buy a ton of t2 components and bring them home. I'll usually save all my datacores to use, and then sell all the salvage from relic sites to earn ISK.
other stuff you can do in frigates
exploration - datacores, filaments, relic sites, wormhole paths to trade hubs. Relic sites a great source of money and then bring it to trade hub to sell. Distribution agents level 1 - easy ISK, loyalty points, and standing, low risk Industry - mine high sec ore for Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon PvE - Combat Anomalies, Belts,
Expand combat:
Expand industry:
Expand exploration:
Expand logistics
Get another frigate for different use: exploration/distribution
Phase 0 - Starting with 0 ISK and fitting up a corvette
First steps
Phase 1 - Getting a Gallente frigate
Your Incursus will take you far. There are a few activities I would do with the Incursus to earn ISK and loot:
Expanding options: exploration, distribution missions, mining
Venture, Imicus Miner I Expanded Cargohold I Salvager I Blueprint (low sec) Salvage Drone (very expensive blueprint, cheap drone to buy on market)
Expanding mining: mining frigates and barges
You can't find blueprint originals for mining frigates or mining barge.
Get blueprint copies for barge from Jita contracts. Get blueprint original or copy for Strip Miner I. Mine and reprocess modules to build your barge yourself.
Expanding options: exploration
Imicus Sister's of EvE probe launcher and probes (or buy some off market)
Use exploration to find wormholes leading to high sec near trade hubs. Use those opportunities to go trade in a big market and buy things you can't get out in Solitude, like certain blueprints.
Exploration also opens up:
When you get scanning and hacking skills up, you can do more low sec and null sec. Use Noise filaments to find null sec systems to explore and then use wormholes to find a way back to high sec and sell stuff.
Expanding options: Small Enforcer/Soldier of Fortune/Industry
Tristan Hobgoblin I/salvage Algos+/Catalyst Blueprint (8,242,751 ISK/7,887,800 ISK) opens level 2 missions and more difficult combat anomalies. Venture
Expanding options: Medium Enforcer/Soldier of Fortune/Industry
Thorax/Vexor low sec ratting and sites null sec ratting - reprocess large modules salvaging Retriever
Expanding options: Large Enforcer/Industry
Battleship and Level 4 missions Destroyer + Salvager I + Small Tractor Beam Blueprint (90,000 ISK Noctis Build rigs with salvage and reprocess modules for minerals
ANother activity: Market - sell your minerals - put up buy orders for ore and minerals - sell your excess production: frigates, ammo, etc
The next thing I would buy is the Imicus Blueprint. The Imicus is good for exploration, mining, and hauling until you can get into more specialized ships. You can use the Imicus to do distribution missions that require more cargo space than the combat frigate has.
Sister's of EVE has level 1 distribution agent in Lour, Boystin, and Octanevve all in Solitude. You can run these to earn Loyalty Points and buy a probe launcher and probes for exploration.
Get exploration stuff from Sister's of EvE
With a T1 cruiser you can rat battleships in null sec which yields large amounts of ISK and modules for reprocessing to fund your T1 production of cruisers.
Mining barge mining
Battleships and level 4 missions
Tech 2 production
If you are a brand new player and have no money, I highly recommend doing all the career agents for the skill books and ISK, as well as the Sister's of EVE level 1 epic arc. This will give you a huge bank of ISK to start out with. This is optional though. You can go straight to Solitude with 0 ISK if you want to.
Buy a shuttle or board your corvette and set destination for Yvaeroure. If you have a shuttle, they are now immune to warp bubbles, so you can set your path to shortest if you like, but I'd recommend safest path to avoid null sec. If someone destroys your ship on the way, you can stop at any station and pick up a corvette and keep going. If they kill your pod, just try again. You can avoid that system in your route, try a different time of day, or make a new route. Getting there the first time is the hard part because it is so remote. But once you get there to the high-sec pocket of space, you can relax.
If you are a corp member, you can set your home station remotely to Oerse where our headquarters is and self destruct if you have no implants.
Once in Solitude, set your home station. You can choose Yvaeroure X - Moon 14 - Federal Intelligence Office Assembly Plant. It is in a 0.8 system and has a factory. Yvaeroure has 20 asteroid belts. If you don't set your home, when you die you will respawn somewhere else and have to travel back to Solitude.
If you're starting out with 0 ISK and no skills that's OK! I'll explain how you can start from rock bottom and build your way up. You can follow this guide with 0 skills starting on day one.
No matter what, you'll always have access to a corvette with a gun and a mining laser. Dock at any station and click “Board my corvette.” It comes with one gun and one mining laser. They all have room for at least one drone.
At this stage, asteroid belts are your best friend. You can kill rats and mine for minerals in the belts. In high sec there will only be a couple rats and they drop nice loot as well as reward a bounty of ISK directly to your wallet.
You can dock at any station and click “Board my Corvette.” Once you have it, leave the ship, strip the fitting, and trash it. Then press the “Board my Corvette” button again. Now you will have a new set of modules on the new corvette and still have in your hangar the modules from your now trashed corvette. Now you can fit two guns or two mining lasers to your corvette.
If you get low on armor and hull, you can dock at any station and repair your corvette at no cost.
Loot the wrecks because you will want the modules, drones, and ammo. Mining lasers also drop from the rats. Modules you don't use can be reprocessed into minerals so you can build things you will use. Reprocessing looted modules is a great way to get minerals, especially minerals you would only be able to mine in low sec. There are certain modules that even the small rats drop that are worth about 5 million and reprocess into tons of minerals. They drop pretty frequently, so it won't be long before you find one and have lots of minerals.
Your first goal as a new homesteader is to build the thing you need to engage in the activities you want. You'll need to buy a few blueprint which are available locally and have a basic combat frigate. A combat frigate is more important than a mining frigate to start because you can still get minerals by reprocessing modules that you loot in addition to the bounties.
Since this is Gallente space, the belt rats will drop a lot of hybrid turrets and hybrid ammo. You'll want to have hybrid turret skills. Get this first so you have time to train it and then you can immediately use hybrid turrets and ammo when they drop from the rats. You can use these on the corvette for any race. For example, I can fit the hybrid blasters on my Amarr Impairor. This would only be temporary until we obtain a Gallente Frigate.
Start with unlocking the ability to use the turrets and ammo dropped by local rats.
Next, I would make sure to have access to a steady supply of ammo. Turrets will drop from rats, but you'll need ammo, and you'll go through it fast. Buy the blueprint for Iron Charge S for 20,000 ISK.
The Iron Charge S only requires a tiny amount of Tritanium and Pyerite to build. Five minutes of mining Scordite will be enough to build some ammo. As soon as you loot some blasters from the belt rats, you can equip them and start using your ammo. This will significantly increase your damage.
All corvettes can fly at least one drone. Gallente can fly two. Get the drone skill up to at least 1. If you are Gallente and have a Velator, get level 2 so you can fly both drones. You should quickly get Drones V so you can fly a full flight of 5 drones. Even Alpha clones can do this and Gallente ships make heavy use of drones.
When you are belt ratting, it won't be long before you loot a drone. If you have the skill, you can start using the drone immediately.
Corvette with guns and ammo and a drone. Able to build yourself more ammo. Build a small stockpile of ammo.
Belt rats will drop blasters, and they will be better than the ones you manufacture, so I recommend using them if they drop, but it is important to be able to build your own when you need them rather than rely on random drops.
Next, purchase the Light Neutron Blaster I Blueprint for 120,000 ISK.
You can mine all the Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon needed, right in Yvaeroure from Scordite and Plagioclase. Mine what you need to build a set of blasters.
The next big investment is getting into a proper Gallente Frigate and out of the corvette. You'll need the frigate skill and a blueprint. The original blueprint will be relatively expensive coming in at almost 3 million. If you're still using the corvette, you should check the local market and see if there are any frigates for sale. If so, I'd buy one of those to help you make ISK faster as you work towards the frigate blueprint. Once you have the blueprint, you can mine and make your own without spending ISK or relying on the market.
At this stage, if you have nothing but a corvette, it may take a little time to grind out nearly 3 million to buy the frigate blueprint. If you are corp member of Elite Space Hackers, you don't have to worry about this initial grind. We will give you free frigates and skill books to get started and get on your feet.
Once you get the blueprint, you hit a major milestone. You can now build your own frigate, guns, ammo, and drones. If you lose everything, you'll still have your blueprints and your corvette and you can rebuild a frigate with weapons. With your frigate, you can go earn some solid ISK.
At this point, you may want to get blueprints for other frigates, like an Imicus exploration frigate, which has a large cargo and is perfect for level 1 distribution missions.
Look for a Venture on the market.
You can get Noxcium from reprocessing armor plates and Isogen from reprocessing various loot.
Other frigates
If you set your route to safest, then you can avoid any null sec systems and therefore avoid any warp disruption bubbles. A good cloak ship can make this trip relatively safely. The biggest worry would be a large gate camp in a system like Uedama. Use the map to view average number of pilots in space. If you are worried about any specific jump, you can always dock and get in a corvette to inspect the gate.
If you set the route to shortest, there are a few null sec systems but they are usually unpopulated. Cloaked ships, especially if they have an interdiction nullifier, should do this trip with low risk.
If you have a lot of volume to transport, I'd be extra careful about using a Blockade Runner like a Prorator since they are probably the riskiest ship to take with their slower align times. The best bet is to wait until you scan down a wormhole that lands close to a trade hub and then do all the trading you need at once. I'll typically bank up all the loot I need to sell and make a list of things I want to buy for when the next wormhole pops. It can be days or weeks before a nice one pops in a nearby system, but when you get a wormhole straight from high-sec to high-sec, you can use your large uncloaked haulers and make huge trades.