The long wait for the mobile counterpart of the space-based MMORPG, EVE Online, finally ended as CCP and NetEase have just released EVE Echoes globally. Prior to the official opening of its server, EVE Echoes has already nabbed the strategy games category of the Apple App store and has likewise secured top spots of games in the Google Play Store in 28 countries worldwide. With such accomplishments made early on, EVE Echoes may very well meet or even surpass the success of Rules of Survival, Cyber Hunter, LifeAfter, and all other games in NetEase’s current game portfolio.
EVE Echoes takes you back to New Eden, which is a previously unexplored galaxy home to various colonies and valuable resources. As you take on the role of a newly-licensed pilot whose career and survival depends on hard work and strategy, choosing every action to take and continuously training to specialize in one or various career options rests in your own hands. As no man is an island especially in the vastness of space, you need to align yourself with like-minded people in pursuit of personal and communal goals.
While space combat whether one-on-one or fleet versus fleet is among the experiences players can revel in the game, EVE Echoes offer so much more content and features that cater to pacifists and business-oriented players as well. If you enjoy space explorations, practically limitless expanses, and everything in between, EVE Echoes promises to provide the best space-based MMORPG experience you can have.
As EVE Online itself has been known for its scale and complexity in terms of features and content offered for all it players, it can be expected that EVE Echoes stays true to the same design principles. In contrast with the usual 2 to 5-minute tutorials in other MMORPGs to provide you the basic know-hows in your adventure, EVE Echoes presents you with a long list of tutorial sessions that you can opt to go through to put you up to speed with learning more advanced mechanics.
Some in-game features, in tandem with the game’s interface and built-in automations, make it simple and easy enough to follow the basics. If you want to be an expert in EVE Echoes, it will take some time and dedication and for our beginner’s guide, we will tour you through all the basics you need to know to jumpstart your interstellar adventure!
1. Choose A Faction That Suits Your Preferences And Play Style
The first things to decide on before you jump into the world, or rather galaxy, within EVE Echoes, is your faction and your race. While the latter is entirely cosmetic and has no impact on gameplay, each one of the four playable factions have distinct characteristics and advantages. Like character or class choices in other MMORPGs, the intent of the developers to balance out each faction in EVE Echoes can be felt, making it difficult, if not impossible, to claim which open from among them stands to be the best.
Beyond variances in general weaponry and modules, pilots from each faction also go through unique story missions that can earn them different rewards as well. Cosmetics may be a factor to consider for some players given that each faction’s set of ships have differing appeals as well.
The Amarr boasts the most socially stable empire and the most powerful military force. They are generally highly educated, devoutly religious, practice slavery. The Amarr specializes in laser weaponry, drones, and armor.
The Galiente considers freedom above all else. This faction has housed the most outstanding leaders, scientists, and businessmen in history. They believe that their strength comes from diversity and welcomes immigration above all other factions leading to a more diverse cultural atmosphere. The Galiente Faction specializes in railguns, drones, and armor.
The Caldari is founded on the tenets of patriotism and hard work and considers itself as a powerful corporate dictatorship. This faction is recognized to be ruthless and efficient in the boardroom as well as on the battlefield. Caldari ships boast the longest range in space warfare with its combination of railguns and missiles. In contrast with the 2 previous factions, Caldari’s defensive strength is built more against energy weapons with its affinity for shields instead of armor.
Related: EVE Echoes Advanced Guide: Tips & Strategies to Progress More Efficiently in New Eden
Last, but not the least, the Minmatar Faction is an empire with a strong nomadic culture. This faction is likewise known to be mostly spread across the corners of New Eden with some members even enslaved by the Amarr. Minmatar ships are the most defensive types considering that they specialize in both armor and shields. They also have an affinity for cannons.
2. Complete All Tutorial Sessions
As we mentioned earlier, EVE Echoes brandishes the scale of its content and the relative complexity of its gameplay mechanics through the initial tutorial alone. While you can very much explore and do things on your own right after the initial tutorial session, more advanced tutorial sets are available for you to accomplish.
These tutorial sessions may take a while to accomplish and comes with various sub-missions you can accomplish at your own pace and in any order. A very graphic and easy-to-follow procedural guide will help you through each new feature to discover.
You can quickly access the advanced tutorials via the upper left side of your screen. The advanced tutorial is divided into 7 sections and each one is comprised of 5 different missions. As most of these missions relate to features and activities you can revel in moving forward, some are rewarded outright based on your relative accomplishments while some missions may simply walk you through features not covered within the beginning tutorial. Completing all 5 missions earns you a reward and unlocks the next set of advanced tutorial sessions.
As some of the missions within each set of advanced tutorial sessions take quite some grind to accomplish, you should know that it is perfectly alright to take a break from some of it, especially the higher bounties. You may opt to make progress on other missions and hop back to any of the other missions at your own pace.
It may happen as well that you would want to revisit some of the previous activities you engaged in prior tutorial sessions, so feel free to refresh your memory and revisit all the features you have ventured into. As the lengthy, yet highly immersive set of advanced tutorial missions shall prove to be the basis of what you would want to specialize on later in your adventure, however, progressing further through all the advanced tutorial sessions should help you in deciding.
3. Join A Corporation As Soon As You Can
Guilds, factions, alliances, clans, and similarly named player affiliation have long since been an integral part of MMORPGs and strategy games. Such concept is represented by corporations in the world of EVE Echoes and there should be no question about the importance of aligning yourself with one. To start off, the basic necessity of taxes that is imposed by corporations still persist if you opt not to join any player-created and owned ones. As far as benefits are concerned, there are numerous quantifiable and practical perks to be obtained by being a member of a corporation.
The initial decision point will revolve between choosing to join a corporation and creating your very own one. To create a corporation, you need 200 million ISK, which is a little challenging to amass if you are a free player. If you are a premium player or simply bent on creating and leading your very own crew, then feel free to go for this option. Note as well that corporation CEOs have a lot of responsibility to each member of their ranks and will most likely require more time and dedication from you.
Finding the right corporation, on the other hand, can be quite challenging but the process by which EVE Echoes makes preferences an important aspect for corporation applications ultimately leads to each player finding a band that they can be comfortable and in synergy with.
Note that all players in EVE Echoes are lodged within the same server. This means that there may be limited availability of available corporations if you have very specific preferences set. Add that as well to some corporations that have more stringent requirements and you may have a lot less options to choose from.
Given the scenario, make it a point to stay active within the corporation once you have been accepted into its fold. There may still be limited features to see within the corporations feature in EVE Echoes for now but at the very least, partaking in the chat room with your fellow corporation members will be especially beneficial for you if you are just starting out.
Related: EVE Echoes Resources Guide: How to Maximize Your Gains
Do not shy away from asking some help from those who know more about something that puzzles you and, likewise, feel free to speak out when you can help your allies with some experiences and learnings you have gained.
4. Streamline Skills In Your Chosen Career
Skills always play an important role in every RPG, more so in an MMORPG. In addition to granting you a competitive edge in combat, theoretically, choosing which skills to invest in is a way to customize your character and give it a build that makes you unique compared to everyone else.
EVE Echoes’ uniqueness as an MMORPG does not end with it being space-based nor with the sheer size of its world as well as the vastness of content and features it covers. What really sets the game apart is the idea that not all players are expected to be skilled in combat, whether exclusively or in part.
As a pilot, your career choice in New Eden can be categorized into 3 main choices: military, industry, or business. The title of pilot may very well presuppose the idea of warships and interstellar combat but all skills relating to this concept are lodged within the military career path.
If you feel the itch for constant combat and have a penchant for chaos and destruction, then this career may very well be the best choice for you. Typical skills within this profession include increased damage of the ships weapons, increased auto target counts, and better destroyer starship performance.
Industrial pilots are the masters of manufacturing and focus their talents on transforming various minable ores into a wide variety of modules and ships. Focusing in this field of expertise can lead to higher mining output, increased cargo hold, and better industrial ship performance.
Last, but not the least is career in business. This vocation is highly suitable for pilots who enjoy earning profits to the point of gaining even a shred of control in New Eden’s market. At this point, it is important to note that the economy within EVE Echoes’ world is entirely dictated by its player base and, as such, business pilots all contribute to shaping New Eden’s economy with their very contribution to its supply and demand chain. This career path’s skill investments center around boosting market orders, personal and corporation contracts. Tax reduction and industrial ship performance are likewise within its employ.
Considering all these distinct career paths, it is important to realize that no chosen career is better than the other in the same manner that not one is more important than the rest. What you should consider going for is the one that suits your preferences and play style.
Keep in mind as well that since EVE Echoes is a highly cooperative and competitive game, every pilot, regardless of chosen career, will serve its purpose for the corporation he or he belongs to. It can happen that you will choose to consider learning some skills outside of your chosen career but as much as you can avoid doing so, consider a streamlined set of skills to learn.
Related: EVE Echoes Career Guide: How to Become the Best Pilot in Your Chosen Career
To look into and tinker with your pilot’s skills, simply tap on your pilot’s avatar on the upper left corner of the screen and click on “Skills”. From there, note that the Free SP you earn based on your activities can lead to a tech levekl up via the bar that gradually fills up at the top of the screen. You can choose 1 of the 3 career choices and start learning skills.
Note that to the right of the career choice is a drop down list that features 7 different techs. Some will require you to spend ISK to unlock while some can readily be queued for learning. There is a limit as well to how many skills you can lodge on the queue so advanced planning that leads to efficient prioritization is important.
5. Pursue Bounties For ISK And Loot
One of the more common activities you will find yourself constantly partaking in are limitless bounties spread across New Eden. As each 1 of the 8,000 solar systems within New Eden prosper, pirates also continue to flood in. Areas with enough volume of pirate ships will emit unique abnormal signals known as cosmic anomalies and your ship, by default will be able to detect each one.
Cosmic anomalies are categorized by difficulty levels as well. Normal anomalies stand as the easiest to pursue although their size has an impact to the number of ships that plague the general coordinates. Bases and inquisitor anomalies are more difficult to conquer so to ensure a successful bounty, start off with the easier challenges.
You simply need to travel to a detected anomaly’s location and start shooting down pirate ships to earn bounties. On the right side of your screen, click on the “eye” icon to pull up the auto travel and locator interface. From the drop down list at the top of the menu, choose “Cosmic Anomalies”. Search results will be littered with various coordinates for the most part but there are none, then you can opt to use a stargate to move to a different solar system. On the other hand, choose any anomaly from the list based on the difficulty level you feel you can take on and choose “Warp” if the option is available, or “Approach” if the coordinates are nearby.
Upon reaching the destination, enemy ships indicated by a red color on the interface will start showing up. You can see a list of these pirate ships under Cosmic Anomalies or Ship in the drop down menu choices. An easy target feature will become available right beside your ship if targets are within sight. Focus on taking down each pirate ship one by one as much as you can.
Remember as well that once locked on a target or targets, you need to activate your ship’s weapons by tapping on them once at the lower right corner of your screen.
From a defensive standpoint, keep tabs on both your ship’s shield and capacitor levels. The shield meter at the left side of the grid at the bottom center of your screen will drop down with every hit you take. At some point, you will have to start regenerating your shields to ensure your survival. Using any module will consume capacitor levels so when it hits a critical point, you will have to manage energy consumption as well.
This should not pose a problem early in your adventure but as you face more challenging adversaries in your journeys and explorations, it should form part of your habit to keep all things in check regardless of what type of ship you are piloting.
Some pirate ships will drop loot in the form of weapons or modules that you can pick up. While the more defensive and safe approach is to eliminate all enemies first before tending to the spoils of war, the vastness of the combat area may bring some packages too far from you for your radars to detect. As such, try to multitask between shooting enemies down and claiming loot.
Some loot will be too far for you to quickly nab but once you choose to loot, your ship will automatically career towards it. Remember to also choose “Loot” from the drop down list we mentioned earlier.
Related: EVE Echoes Mining and Ship Building Guide: Everything You Need to Know
It can also happen that pirate ships in an anomalous area will come in waves. If the battle becomes too challenging for you, you can always choose to flea or move a bit farther away from the fray to replenish capacitors and shields. There will be times as well when other players will be hunting pirates with you in the same location. If you happen to arrive at one with no enemy ships, simply move to another cosmic anomaly instance or use a stargate to venture away into another solar system.
Another bounty concept to keep in mind is that payment for every pirate ship you eliminate does not come in full and outright. After downing an enemy ship, it will take a while for you to receive ISK as payment and the amounts are transferred to your wallet through a series of staggered payment. There are taxes too so expect a reduced profit from every venture. You will be engaging in a lot of bounty missions as you accomplish the advanced tutorial sessions. It should still not stop you from pursuing hunts further even if it is no longer a part of the quests.
6. Accomplish News And Story Encounters
No MMORPG is complete without its broad array of quests to fill every player’s need for active game immersion. While there are loads of tasks and feats to accomplish in the advanced tutorial sessions alone, EVE Echoes comes packed with tons of quests you can accomplish side by side with other objectives right after you complete the initial tutorial session.
Encounters are classified between story and news encounters with the latter serving as side quests to help you earn more ISK. Unlike conventional MMORPGs, however, EVE Echoes will require you to get through some News Encounters first before unlocking Story Encounters. The former is composed of missions with varying objectives as well as difficulty levels, while some of the latter will be harder to accomplish.
You can actually take on several news encounters at the same time but it is best to focus and push through with the accomplishment of one before pursuing another. Once accepted, each news encounter will have a limited period of time within which you can complete the request which is why lodging a series of quests may potentially lead to an expiration of the contracts.
Initiating an encounter will include a series of dialogues. Some are quicker than others but with auto navigate and auto pilot on, you can practically breeze through most missions. It does not always involve interstellar combat as some will more likely be errands involving pick-ups and deliveries. With this, make sure that you will always have sufficient cargo space for encounters that require it.
Take note as well that the amount of ISK offered for the job does not necessarily signify how challenging the task is. Rather, some are lengthy as can be determined by the number of jumps it would take just to get to the intended location.
7. Tend To Your Inventory Well
Inventory management has always been a very important, yet typically overlooked aspect of every RPG. With the various safety nets of limiting storage capacity and weight to push players against hoarding a plethora of items, it can still happen that some players, most especially beginners in the genre, will only be mindful of their inventory levels once they are unable to store more stuff.
EVE Echoes makes inventory management an even more crucial part of the game. With various stations you can dock in and unload excess baggage along with the hard and constant grind for more ISK, everyone should begin to organize their assets early on and apply an efficient means of controlling its growth within manageable amounts. To start checking and organizing your assets and inventory, tap on your avatar and choose “inventory”.
What you would instantly see on your screen under the inventory page are the contents within your current ship. The ratio of space it occupies along with cargo capacity of your ship can be seen at the bottom of the page as well along with its estimated value. What may come as a surprise for most beginners is the amount of other items they may have acquired through the series of quests and looting they have engaged in since their immersion in New Eden.
By tapping on the personal assets section at the bottom left side of the page, you will be presented with various stations at the left side with each one housing one, a couple, or several items you have left behind. At some point, you will be able to distinguish some items within all your collective assets, which ones to keep and which ones to dispose of and to do so, you have to travel to each of these stations to claim, transfer, disassemble, or even sell them.
You can easily do so by tapping on the area below the inventory screen and choose it as your next destination. Auto pilot will be available anyway, so it will likewise be quick as well. If you notice, once you dock at a station with some items or ships in them, you can browse through items more easily and perform various actions on each item once you tap on them.
The “move to” option lets you transfer cargo from a ship to the hangar, vice versa, and from one ship to another. You can fit some parts to your active ship if there are available slots, else you will need to swap them in through the fitting feature. You can only sell modules that are on the item hangar and to do so, you must repackage each merchandise first.
Do keep in mind that some modules have the option of being reprocessed and converted into different ores. This can only be done as well on items that you have not yet repackaged and on your active ship as well. Once repackaged, the only options left for you is to either sell the module or destroy it and the latter option is far from viable.
A lot of the modules you obtain from looting early on will either be good for selling or reprocessing. As you progress further in your career, however, you will eventually obtain more expensive modules that are worth keeping in their natural form and may increase in value as well based on New Eden’s economy.
In the event that some modules simply do not provide you with enough information to realize their value, you may opt to keep at least 1 copy of each. If you can afford to, fit unfamiliar modules into your ship and take them for a spin while accomplishing some bounties. In the absence of better modules, you should be open to switching between different modules as well to adjust your ship’s offensive and defensive capabilities.
It may occur to you as well that setting a specific station as your bas may afford you extra perks relative to inventory management. For now, however, your set base only serves as a spawn point whenever a clone, or a new you, is reborn.
It is an understatement to say that EVE Echoes holds an overabundance of features and content we have not yet discussed or even touched in this guide. As we continuously dive deeper into the game, we are fairly confident that the basic tips and strategies we shared with you in this guide should suffice to keep you busy and engaged in maximizing your progression for the next few days or so.
We will definitely be coming up with more guides later but for now, this is where we will end our EVE Echoes Beginner’s Guide. We likewise hope that you learned from this guide and enjoyed reading through it. If you have questions or comments regarding the game, do not hesitate to ask us through the comment section below!