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Above, the infamous joke from 2003 about starting out learning EVE. Repeating it at the beginning of guides to EVE Online is as traditional as a "Hello World" example at the start of learning any programming language.

The single most important thing to realize and keep reminding yourself as you learn EVE -- the thing that makes EVE fundamentally different and, yes, more difficult starting out than most MMORPGs -- is that in EVE there is in a very real and disturbing sense nowhere to go...

You are already there -- the moment you start -- there in the enormous universe of New Eden. For EVE is not so much a game, with levels to achieve, a hierarchy of instances to run, as it is a space simulation. There is no way to "win" EVE. You must live it.

So in another sense, there is simply everywhere and anywhere to go right from the start.

There's nothing to prevent you from skipping all the tutorials, ignoring Aura and all those pesky Agents with missions, and just heading off to explore the furthest reaches of terrifying Nullsec in your fragile recruit frigate (The Eve Online 0.0 Experiment). EVE does not require you to be a killer space cowboy. You can just be a space tourist. (EVE Travel: Sightseeing in the Cluster)

So, yes, no denying it. Freedom does have a steep learning curve.

The Cowardly Capsuleer

Dizzi Lizzi

A Coward's Guide to Starting Out in EVE

Rule #1: Never let your Skill Queue run out of skills to learn. If you flee EVE in terror, you want to come back stronger, not the same 90lb weakling you were when you turned tail yesterday or the day before. To be sure, always keep a long, multi-day skill tailing off the end of your queue.

Rule #2: Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. In Love and War, logistics win out. Ships, weapons, rigging, skills, implants, clones are expensive. You will be vulnerable if you cannot afford the best, over and over. Keep your eye on the almighty ISK and you won't cry so much when you lose and have to replace armaments and assets.

Rule #3: Given a choice between fighting now or fighting later, fight later. (And don't let your skill queue run out!)

Gallente Starships

Esther Maria Pintado

As a rule, Gallente ships are armor tankers. Now, nearly every Gallentean you'll ever meet is oddly, stubbornly proud of this fact. But theirs is a pride born of dire necessity, as Gallente shields almost invariably blow away like dust in the wind.

For weaponry, Gallente ships use hybrid turrets that, as the name implies, tend to be either too hot or too cold, rarely just right; attacking close up with blasters that will toast most adversaries right quick, or keeping a cowardly distance and pricking their enemies with relatively weak railguns. Dispatch these mercurial Galenteans from mid-range.

Perhaps the most famous of Gallentean warships, the Dominix battleship is reputed, at least among Gallenteans, the best drone warship in New Eden. But that very outsized reputation leads to a great many floating about, poorly captained by under-qualified capsuleers, like so many big Puff Fish, scary to look at but really just ready and waiting to be popped.

Free Starter Ships and Skill Books

Dizzi Lizzi

Learn the Right Tool For the Job and Get Free Goodies Too

Completing all five Career Advancement Tutorials offered to new capsuleers will provide, free, a good set of basic skill books, including some beyond the Core BASIC Competency every new capsuleer should complete asap, as well as, also free, a variety of frigates, an industrial and a destroyer -- a good way to familiarize yourself with the basic range of specialization you'll encounter later in advanced ships.