PVE School

Welcome

Shooting red triangles and diamonds for fun and profit, this is what the player vs. environment experience in EVE Online is all about. Until recently, it was fairly boring, predictable and lacked nuance. But now, with the abyss, Pochven, diamond rats, drifters, sleepers, and ded sites, combat exploration sites, the agency, & more - New Eden keeps coming up with new and better ways to kill you. This guide will go over some favorites with a predictably goon flavor of focussing on min/max. There will be links to other references when applicable and as always if something is wrong or out of date feel free to contact the wiki janitor staff to clean it up.

Best Practices for PVE Sites

Player versus Environment gameplay is an important part of EVE Online's economy. Salvage, minerals, ammo, meta modules, tags, DED Space modules, officer modules, and more all come from ratting. A player can start down this path on their very first day ingame and while some aspects have changed from time to time the overall experience remains the same. Shoot red triangles to collect bounties and loot.

Ratting Etiquette 101

Encounter Surveillance System

Do not mess with the ESS. You will be removed from the alliance. End of story.

• (12:46:15 PM) directorbot: A little note on ESS drama: we are uninterested in the excuses of anyone who spends 3.5 minutes to 'take all' on an ESS and claim it's a misclick. It takes enough time and effort to steal that it's obvious and notorious goonfucking. To cut down on bullshit we will simply :commissar: you from the alliance.

- This was a broadcast from the_mittani to all-all at 2014-02-12 18:46:11.702201 EVE, replies are not monitored

First Come, First Serve

The first person to arrive at an anomaly has the right to any rats he finds there. This includes mining ops; if you stumble into a mining operation already in progress, don't fuck up their shit. You killing their rats means they have to deal with warping out and possibly losing ships to rats when they respawn instead of just tanking them with a designated ship.

• Note that you can use a narrow-angle Direction Scan to check if there's anyone else in an anomaly you're interested in. Direction Scans work up to 14AU, and if you first lock your tracking camera on it (default shortcut is "C") and manipulate the angle of the scan right down to 5º you can often avoid catching anything in-between and see if any player ships are in that anomaly before you warp in on them. This is generally a good scouting skill to learn. If you need to first get closer look out for celestial bodies like planets (avoid using moons) which may be within 14AU. Dragging the left mouse button around in space will reset the camera focus back to your ship.

Claiming Rats

While ratting please keep in mind that calling or claiming rats is not allowed. If someone gives a shout out in local that there are rats in a belt, those rats are up for grabs. You cannot "call" them or "claim" them. While it is acceptable to let someone know that you're on your way, if you get there and someone is already taking care of them, move on. It is always a good idea to let someone in trouble with rats know that someone is coming whether you get there first or not.

Named Wrecks or Cans

You may salvage or loot any unattended wrecks or cans you find, unless they are named. If they are unnamed and the owner is nowhere to be found, you are welcome to them.

Don't be a dick

This rule is pretty self evident but often needs to get repeated from time to time. Repeated offenders will be booted, possibly doomsday'd depending on how IA is feeling.

Skill Plans and Ship Fits

Below is a general skill plan for killing NPCs with ease. It is by no means an end point but rather a starting point. Every ship from a mining barge to a Battleship needs drone skills and defensive abilities. This will give you a fairly decent start on killing things with drones but it lacks in other turrets so that part can be up to the user.

1. Drones II (39 minutes, 29 seconds) 2. Drones III (3 hours, 43 minutes, 13 seconds) 3. Drones IV (21 hours, 2 minutes, 52 seconds) 4. Drones V (4 days, 23 hours, 3 minutes, 53 seconds) 5. Drone Avionics II (39 minutes, 29 seconds) 6. Drone Avionics III (3 hours, 43 minutes, 13 seconds) 7. Drone Interfacing I (42 minutes, 22 seconds) 8. Drone Interfacing II (3 hours, 17 minutes, 21 seconds) 9. Drone Interfacing III (18 hours, 36 minutes, 12 seconds) 10. Heavy Drone Operation I (42 minutes, 22 seconds) 11. Heavy Drone Operation II (3 hours, 17 minutes, 21 seconds) 12. Heavy Drone Operation III (18 hours, 36 minutes, 12 seconds) 13. Medium Drone Operation I (16 minutes, 56 seconds) 14. Medium Drone Operation II (1 hour, 18 minutes, 56 seconds) 15. Medium Drone Operation III (7 hours, 26 minutes, 28 seconds) 16. Capacitor Systems Operation IV (16 hours, 33 minutes, 27 seconds) 17. Capacitor Management IV (2 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes, 23 seconds) 18. Energy Grid Upgrades II (1 hour, 2 minutes, 6 seconds) 19. Energy Grid Upgrades III (5 hours, 51 minutes, 13 seconds) 20. Energy Grid Upgrades IV (1 day, 9 hours, 6 minutes, 55 seconds) 21. Weapon Upgrades III (7 hours, 58 minutes, 56 seconds) 22. Weapon Upgrades IV (1 day, 21 hours, 9 minutes, 27 seconds) 23. Gallente Destroyer I (19 minutes, 36 seconds) 24. Gallente Destroyer II (1 hour, 31 minutes, 20 seconds) 25. Gallente Destroyer III (8 hours, 36 minutes, 30 seconds) 26. Gallente Cruiser I (49 minutes, 1 second) 27. Gallente Cruiser II (3 hours, 48 minutes, 18 seconds) 28. Gallente Cruiser III (21 hours, 31 minutes, 17 seconds) 29. Gallente Battlecruiser I (58 minutes, 49 seconds) 30. Gallente Battlecruiser II (4 hours, 33 minutes, 57 seconds) 31. Gallente Battlecruiser III (1 day, 1 hour, 49 minutes, 34 seconds) 32. Capacitor Systems Operation V (3 days, 21 hours, 39 minutes, 51 seconds) 33. Medium Drone Operation IV (1 day, 18 hours, 5 minutes, 45 seconds) 34. Medium Drone Operation V (9 days, 22 hours, 7 minutes, 47 seconds) 35. Hull Upgrades IV (1 day, 9 hours, 6 minutes, 55 seconds) 36. Resistance Phasing I (20 minutes) 37. Resistance Phasing II (1 hour, 33 minutes, 8 seconds) 38. Resistance Phasing III (8 hours, 46 minutes, 51 seconds) 39. Resistance Phasing IV (2 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes, 23 seconds) 40. Repair Systems IV (16 hours, 33 minutes, 27 seconds) 41. Afterburner I (7 minutes, 2 seconds) 42. Afterburner II (32 minutes, 49 seconds) 43. Afterburner III (3 hours, 5 minutes, 29 seconds) 44. Fuel Conservation I (14 minutes, 5 seconds) 45. Fuel Conservation II (1 hour, 5 minutes, 36 seconds) 46. Fuel Conservation III (6 hours, 11 minutes) 47. Navigation IV (17 hours, 29 minutes, 26 seconds) 48. Warp Drive Operation I (7 minutes, 2 seconds) 49. Warp Drive Operation II (32 minutes, 49 seconds) 50. Micro Jump Drive Operation I (35 minutes, 12 seconds) 51. Afterburner IV (17 hours, 29 minutes, 26 seconds) 52. Fuel Conservation IV (1 day, 10 hours, 58 minutes, 52 seconds)

Total time: 41 days, 12 hours, 50 minutes, 30 seconds

Helpful Tips

1. Know your damage profile according to the Ratting Reference Page and make sure you are fit accordingly.
2. Fly the right ship for the site. If you aren't sure, check the Ratting Reference Page.
3. Bring a mobile tractor unit to help speed up the looting salvaging process.
4. Salvage! Whether you do it on an alt or bring a mobile depot to refit a Salvager I, you'll be leaving a decent amount of money on the field if you don't. For those who could care less and are lazy members of the Imperium, there are generally plenty of people who will buy salvage on contract via buyback programs.
5. Refit accordingly. It's generally a good idea to bring a mobile depot to refit. Moving around multiple system in unknown space it's generally a good idea to either (1) not do that or (2) bring a cloak & warp core stabilizer to refit into.
6. Bring Nanite Paste. Have Thermodynamics 1 trained and bring nanite paste so you can overheat your guns and or shields if you find yourself in a bind. The nanite paste will help you repair it so you can burn it out all over again!
7. Watch intel. Know the risks. Read The Intel Guide to learn more about watching intel.

Ratting Guides

Combat Anomalies

• see exploration, shout out to Imperium Expeditions

Cosmic Anomalies

• EVE University has a pretty good starting place for general ratting in their Ratting 101 guide. For specific information about killing Blood Raiders in Imperium space look no further: Delve Ratting 101.

Wormhole Combat Sites

• See The School of Exploration.