Eve Online used to be known for having a luring curve of people falling off a cliff onto another cliff and then falling off that one as well. While the game has only grown in complexity over the years. Some things have been done to make it newer and player-friendly.

I recall back in my day starting. Maybe you looted from the “free ammo” can and were murdered. Maybe you flew into an asteroid belt and a rat killed you. Maybe some dude took you down to low sec and murdered you.

The only kind of hand-holding back then was if you lucked out and joined a corporation that was not trying to scam or exploit your labor. Even then you probably got ripped off. At least however you might have learned something.

Over the many years, Eve Online has attempted all kinds of ways to make the game a new player and just in general more friendly in certain aspects of the game. Some of those attempts were great and others still missed the mark by quite a lot.

I recall a few years back trying out the new player experience and finding it better than nothing. Now that I've returned to the game in 2025, I can say it has not only vastly improved.

The experience has been a nice little way for me to relearn the game and catch up on so many new things in it. At times I still found it was lacking in areas. It is however nice to see the game having a rewarding and even fun way of starting people out. While also giving players a direction to go if they choose.

Eve Online has been a find your own adventure and troubles kind of game. They have stepped up things to the point there are now “career” paths people can take. I recalled some of the career stuff from a couple of times I checked out the game over the past few years but never really came back to the game for long.

I decided to start on a fresh account and character. The goal of that character is not to play I for long. I just want to get it to a point where I can switch back to my main and explore the rest of the many new systems that are there to aid new and even returning players.

One thing Eve Online has always been known for is creating some insane game trailer videos about the game. It’s not shocking at all they show some rather intense stuff to get the player into the world.

While it was nice to see modern stuff. It just did not have that same feeling of that first trailer for the game I ever experienced that got me hooked in the first place. Sure, they re-use some of the liens to try and create something similar. I however felt it was not as powerful.

While I kind of wish they were still using that old-school classic video that got so many of us hooked. It was nice to see that they built a little backstory for the player in the situation they now find themselves in when first starting.

Aura has been around for a little while now. It’s great to see they have quite stepped up how players start. I also feel this puts the player in quite a sense of danger but not too overwhelming with the cloning facility you are supposed to be starting in getting blown up.

You start in a pod and get told some basic info about it. The game then gives you a freaking Astero. I noticed it was a special version and I also knowing this game too well had a funny suspicion this ship was not getting out in one piece.

Astero ships themselves are quite fun-looking ships for many. The standard version just to buy the ship without fittings costs 95 million ISK. It might even be a ship I get at some point for any exploration adventures I end up doing. As it is quite a fun little ship for running relic and data sites. While also trying to avoid getting ganked by players.

After getting sidetracked a little bit it was back into the actual mission at hand. The game has you fly over to a little fleet and you get some repairs. You are then given some basic tasks like movement, firing weapons, and even using things like webs.

It was quite a controlled condition that put the player in the starting. It was also not an overwhelming situation either for the most part. The game lined up some simple tasks and I would hope most new players would not struggle that hard with the game giving a few tips and highlighting some things along the way.

This starting tutorial also teaches the player one of the biggest lessons to be given in the game. Expect to get blown up and even podded. I had a feeling there would be no escape from the kind of ship they start you off in. I was not disappointed.

You then wake up in a new clone body in a starting zone. The game then has the player go into claiming some basic rewards and have you pick a career path to go down.

It’s kind of nice they give the player four options. From mission running to exploration and many other things in between. The nice part is you are not suck going down one path or another. These paths are more about guiding the player into certain kinds of activities and some skill training.

The whole Air Career program was something that got added in after I stopped playing. Since I have plans to explore it further on my main for exploration. I thought I'd pick that as my career path. My main gets access to certain elements of the Career program but not these early parts from what I've seen.

I also wanted to start training skills on this fresh account right away. The game however is not letting you progress that quickly along. They have you using the certified plans. A system that was put in place even when I was playing to try and give players a bit of a direction in what they need to be training.

While we did not have the Air plan the last time I played. I kind of like they had some of this stuff locked. It’s clear the game wants to teach the new player how to train skills and do other things further down the road.

The game then takes the player on some basic missions relating to the career they picked. You are also now in a more reasonable ship. The corvette that you get at any station you dock at if you don’t have a ship.

I feel the game did not explain how to get to the mission and do mission objectives the best. It could be I skipped over the finer details when I was running through the motions. Being a returning player, it took me a moment to recall I could just click in space and warp to the mission bookmark location.

Since I picked exploration, I would also need to go out and scan down sites in the local area for doing relic and data sites. Instead of the game forcing the player to fully go into how to use probes and all that. They just told us to use an extra resource if we have no idea how to use probes and scans.

Final Thoughts

While it looked like the new player experience would then take me elsewhere if I wanted to do so. I had a feeling about how the Career Air system works. I could go hop on my main and just fly out to a system that has an Air station with starting NPCs in it. I then could continue on the adventure on my main with a focus for now on exploration.

Overall, I feel the first few moments of game play for a new player is a massive improvement over how it was even a few years back. I’m sure the game even goes on to some other basic things.

While it is nice they give players some guidance in a direction to take. Once you get over the starting stuff. You can just go do your own thing if you want. The game just opens up and off you go if you want.

I will be switching over to my main and checking out my exploration career a bit more in-depth next. I might even check out a few of the other paths as well. Since it’s a nice little something to do. While the rewards are not that great compared to what I could be doing. It’s at least something and for a new player it’s a decent little start if you have no idea what to do or how to make some starting ISK.

New to Eve Online or a returning player? Use my recruit a friend referral link and get 1 million skill points on signing up or logging into your Eve Online account (can only be claimed once per account). Disclosure: I might receive in game rewards.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Eve Online.