EVE Online — Business Career

The progression resource here is not ship size. It is ISK, information, liquidity, order capacity, logistics capability and market knowledge — a trader sitting in a station with a few hundred orders can have more economic influence than someone flying a capital ship.

• Learn how your Wallet works

  It tracks transactions, market activity, corporation wallet access where permitted, LP, shares, automatic payments and ISK transfers.
• the ruleLearn the difference between wallet balance and total net worth

  Most of a trader's value sits in inventory and open orders, not liquid ISK.
• Learn how assets are spread across New Eden
• Learn to search the market and read price history
• milestoneLearn to read daily trading volume

  Volume decides whether a margin is real or theoretical.
• Learn the difference between an instant transaction and placing an order
• Learn how Contracts differ from the normal market

Exordium is a training environment, and CCP prices it that way: an extra 5% market fee on non-instant orders, higher industry installation costs and lower-value economic rewards. Learn here, earn elsewhere.

• Practise buying and selling inside Exordium
• Accumulate starter capital

  Reward ISK
• milestoneUse your one-way Exordium shipcaster

  Caldari Tatrys → Onnamon · Gallente Mondaekus → Intaki · Minmatar Dettisolin → Amo · Amarr Ichorah → Mehatoor. One use per character, shared with every other career.
• the ruleEstablish yourself in normal highsec

  Tutorial economy behind you, real economy in front.

We split Business out because a dedicated trader can become extraordinarily wealthy without ever mining an asteroid or building a ship — but the tutorial objectives still live in the Industrialist track.

• Open AIR Career Program → Industrialist
• Complete the Trading objectives

  Reward AIR rewards
• Buy and sell an item through the market
• Claim the AIR rewards, then stop treating the market as a tutorial

  Reward Skill points

EVE has regional markets rather than one global one, and that single fact creates almost every opportunity in this career. CCP identifies Jita IV – Moon 4 – Caldari Navy Assembly Plant as the centre of most market activity; other regional hubs have lower volume and often wider spreads.

• Open the market and browse Market Groups
• Read Market Details: price history, daily volume, buy and sell orders
• read firstCheck order location, quantity and range

  An order twenty jumps away is not competing with you in the way it appears to be.
• milestoneCompare a common item's price in two different regions

The matching system pairs the highest valid buy order with the lowest valid sell order. Only stackable, repackaged items use the regular market — assembled ships, used BPOs and BPCs need Contracts instead.

• Place your first sell order and choose a duration
• Place your first buy order with a quantity, duration and range
• milestoneWatch a buy order get filled by another player

Never calculate sell price minus buy price. The real figure is Revenue − Purchase Cost − Sales Tax − Broker Fees − Relist Fees − Transport. Traders who skip this make a loss at volume and cannot work out why.

• the ruleLearn the full net-profit formula and use it every time
• Understand that repeatedly modifying orders costs ISK

  Relisting is where inattentive traders quietly lose their margin.

Sales Tax starts at 7.5% and Accounting brings it to roughly 3.37% at V. NPC station broker fee starts at 3%, with Broker Relations removing 0.3 percentage points per level and NPC corporation and faction standings taking it toward about 1% in ideal conditions.

• milestoneTrain Accounting

  Very high priority. It reduces the sales tax you pay on every single sale forever.

  Reward Lower sales tax
• Train Broker Relations

  Reward Lower broker fee
• Know your current sales tax and broker fee before you trade
• read firstUnderstand that broker-fee standings are UNMODIFIED standings

  Connections and Diplomacy do NOT improve the broker-fee calculation, however much they help elsewhere. This catches almost everyone once.

The whole capacity tree at V lets one character run as many as 305 market orders. That number is the difference between a hobby and a profession.

• Trade I → IV, eventually V

  Reward More orders
• Retail I → IV, eventually V

  Reward More orders
• long trainWholesale I → IV, eventually V

  Reward More orders
• long trainTycoon I → V for a dedicated market character

  Reward Up to 305 orders

These get more valuable the more you trade — they are a permanent percentage off everything you will ever do.

• milestoneAccounting to V

  Sales tax from 7.5% to roughly 3.37%.

  Reward Permanent tax reduction
• Broker Relations to V

  Reward Permanent fee reduction
• Advanced Broker Relations III → V if you reprice often

  Reduces the cost of modifying and relisting orders — the skill that pays for active traders specifically.

Professional traders do not sit beside their orders. Visibility extends remote buy-order range: level 0 is the station, I the solar system, II five jumps, III ten, IV twenty, V the whole region.

• Marketing — remote sell orders
• Procurement — remote buy orders
• Daytrading — modify orders remotely
• Visibility — extend remote buy-order range
• the ruleRemember that remote trading does not teleport inventory

  Buying something twenty jumps away means it is still twenty jumps away until somebody moves it.

Good beginner products are things players consume constantly: ammunition, drones, frequently used T1 modules, consumables, common rigs and frequently destroyed PvP modules.

• the rulePick ONE item and study its daily volume
• Calculate the spread, then subtract tax and broker fees
• Place a small buy order and wait for it to fill
• Relist the stock as a sell order
• milestoneComplete the cycle and record the ACTUAL profit

  Not the projected profit. The one that landed in your wallet.

  Reward ISK

A 100% margin is worth nothing if nobody buys. Track margin, volume, capital requirement, velocity, competition and risk together. A wide visible spread is usually wide because the item does not sell.

• Estimate your realistic share of the daily volume
• milestoneCalculate expected daily profit, not per-unit profit
• Track how long stock actually takes to sell
• the ruleStop trading products that sit

  Capital tied up in stagnant stock is capital not earning anywhere else.

Split your ISK deliberately: working capital for buy orders, inventory awaiting sale, logistics capital for ships and collateral, a liquid reserve, and a separate speculative allocation.

• the ruleKeep a liquid reserve for opportunities
• Track active buy-order value separately from inventory value
• Track logistics assets separately again
• the ruleNever put your entire wallet into one trade

Standings with the faction and NPC corporation owning your trade station reduce broker fees. The per-transaction saving is small; at very high volume it stops being small.

• Identify who owns your primary station
• Check your corporation and faction standings there
• optionalWeigh the grind against the expected fee saving honestly

  This is an optimisation. Do not do it before you are trading enough for it to matter.

Being able to move your own inventory unlocks arbitrage, market seeding, courier work and corporation logistics all at once. Fast T1 haulers carry less and survive better; bulk haulers carry more and are slower.

• Train Amarr Hauler and fly a Sigil, then a Bestower

• Train Caldari Hauler and fly a Badger, then a Tayra

• Train Gallente Hauler and fly a Nereus, then an Iteron Mark V

• Train Minmatar Hauler and fly a Wreathe, then a Mammoth

This career turns into PvP the instant your hold is worth more than the effort of killing you. A freighter is durable and still dies to an organised highsec gank.

• the ruleNever autopilot expensive cargo
• Check the route for lowsec before you undock
• the ruleCompare cargo value against your tank

  If the cargo is worth more than the gank costs, you are the profitable target.
• milestoneBuild instant-dock and instant-undock bookmarks
• Split extremely valuable cargo across multiple trips
• Scout valuable shipments, or pay someone to

Contracts handle blueprint copies, researched BPOs, assembled and fitted ships, bundles and courier shipments. CCP separates them into Auction, Item Exchange and Courier.

• Train Contracting, and Advanced Contracting if you specialise

  Reward More outstanding contracts
• Create and accept an Item Exchange contract
• Create a private contract, then a corporation contract
• Learn how contract expiration works
• read firstLearn the common contract scams

  Always inspect exact contents before accepting. Names and estimated prices are not contents.

CCP publishes an official Monthly Economic Report with downloadable datasets, usually in the first week or so of the following month. For a serious trader it is the closest thing EVE has to a professional intelligence briefing — Combat players may never open one.

• milestoneRead the newest Monthly Economic Report
• Review the Mineral, Ship and Module Price Indices
• Review regional production, mining value and destruction
• milestoneLook for changes that create trade opportunities

  Destruction drives replacement demand; production shifts move input prices.

CCP provides an official EVE Online Excel Add-in for exactly this work — cargo volume, value tracking, profit calculation, hauling optimisation and trade-route identification.

• Install the Excel Add-in and connect your character
• Import market data and build an inventory sheet
• milestoneTrack buy and sell orders, margins and taxes in one place
• milestoneCompare regions and calculate ISK per cubic metre

  ISK/m³ is the number that decides what is worth hauling at all.
• Build a personal trading dashboard

  Reward A real workflow

Patch notes move markets faster than anything else in EVE. A trader who reads them first is trading on information nobody else has priced in yet.

• the ruleRead patch notes and expansion announcements for market impact
• Watch doctrine changes, new ships and balance passes
• Watch mineral, mining and manufacturing requirement changes

The most directly commercial campaign in the expansion. The Amarr are establishing a Deaconry of Economic Oversight Office at Amarr VIII (Oris) – Emperor Family Academy, and if it succeeds the promised benefit is significantly reduced taxes and brokerage fees at that station. As of the capture it had gathered enough support that construction has begun.

• milestoneMonitor Blessed Exchange progress
• Watch Amarr market volume as it develops
• milestoneCompare future Amarr trading economics against Jita

  A structurally cheaper hub is the sort of change that moves where traders live.

Both would change hauling geography rather than fees — and route length is a direct input to every logistics calculation you make.

• Track the State Corridor Initiative

  A proposed Black Rise to Syndicate connection would alter hauling routes, nullsec access and regional arbitrage.
• Track Operation Rogue Edge

  A proposal to cut Dodixie to Intaki from ten jumps to six.
• Recalculate affected routes if either is built

• Contribute to a campaign objective and claim your rewards

  Reward ISK, LP, empire standing
• Review the Business-relevant achievements and claim them

  Reward Skill points, titles

The most basic model: a buy order fills cheaply from someone in a hurry, and a sell order clears it to someone else at a markup. Jita gives enormous liquidity and intense competition; quieter hubs give thinner volume and wider spreads.

• Establish yourself at a trade hub
• Identify 5–10 products and place buy orders
• Let inventory accumulate, then convert it to sell orders

  Reward ISK
• milestoneExpand to 20+ products across categories
• the ruleStop tying excessive capital into any single item

Buying because you believe future supply or demand will move the price. Substantially riskier than margin trading — a patch can move the market the other way.

• Research why demand or supply might change
• the ruleEstimate a timeframe and set a maximum allocation
• Build the position gradually and define your exit price first
• the ruleKeep speculative inventory separate from trading capital

PLEX moves between the PLEX Vault and normal inventory for market or contract activity. It is another market with unusually high player interest and sensitivity to CCP offers — not a guaranteed appreciating asset.

• Learn PLEX market behaviour, spread and volume
• Watch store promotions and Omega demand
• optionalTrade cautiously, if at all

• Accounting V and Broker Relations V
• Advanced Broker Relations IV–V
• long trainTrade V, Retail V, Wholesale IV–V, and Tycoon
• Run a large diversified inventory with high turnover
• Turn consistent profit after taxes and fees
• endgameKeep idle capital to a minimum

  Reward Station Trader endgame reached

Regional markets create natural price differences. Buy where a thing is cheap, move it to where demand supports more.

• Compare common item prices across two regions
• the ruleCheck volume at the DESTINATION, not just the price

  A better price with no buyers is not a better price.
• Calculate taxes, transport cost and the loss if the price moves
• milestoneBuy small, transport, list, and measure ISK per trip

  Reward ISK

Instead of competing at Jita, find where players need equipment now — mission hubs, factional warfare areas, nullsec staging, wormhole logistics hubs, alliance staging, new-content locations. A module worth 10 million in Jita can be worth 12–15 million where somebody needs it tonight.

• Choose a destination market and study local activity
• milestoneIdentify the commonly used ships, modules and ammunition
• Buy near a primary hub and transport your inventory
• List at a justified markup and track turnover

  Reward ISK
• the ruleRestock only what actually sold

Where a region runs a doctrine, stock the whole fitting — hull, guns, propulsion, tank, tackle, drones, ammunition and rigs — so a pilot can replace an entire loss from your orders. For alliance-scale operators this becomes doctrine logistics.

• Identify the local doctrine
• milestoneStock every component of the fit, not just the hull
• Maintain stock levels against replacement demand

  Reward Strategic value

Combat and factional-warfare pilots generate LP; Business players convert it into market goods. A natural Combat-to-Business pipeline.

• Identify an LP store and its required LP, ISK and tags
• Calculate acquisition cost against finished-item sale price
• milestoneWork out your ISK per LP
• the ruleConvert only the profitable products
• Move the goods to a market that wants them

  Reward ISK

• Operate across multiple regional markets
• Run a repeatable price-comparison workflow
• Fly a Blockade Runner, a DST and a Freighter as the cargo demands
• Assess route risk before every run
• Track ISK per cubic metre in a spreadsheet
• endgameMaintain reliably profitable routes

  Reward Regional Merchant endgame reached

Start asking whether carrying it is profitable. Hauling Profit = Reward − Operating Cost − Expected Risk Cost, and then judge it on ISK per jump, ISK per minute, collateral tied up, volume, risk and whether you return empty.

• Track income, jumps travelled and collateral tied up
• the ruleTrack your ship losses honestly as a cost of doing business
• Count deadhead return trips against the run
• the ruleReject poor contracts

  Most courier contracts are poor. Saying no is the skill.
• milestoneSpecialise in routes whose risks you actually understand

The issuer sets origin, destination, package, reward, collateral and time. You deposit the collateral on acceptance; delivery returns it plus the reward, failure forfeits it.

• read firstCheck origin, destination and the actual route
• the ruleCheck lowsec and nullsec exposure on that route
• Confirm you can afford the collateral and carry the volume
• Accept, deliver, and collect the reward

  Reward ISK, collateral returned

A newer official layer: corporations can request item deliveries from players outside the corporation, with dedicated Deliver jobs rewarding Capsuleers for moving specified items to specified places.

• Open Freelance Jobs and filter for Deliver
• Check required cargo, destination, payout and input cost
• Complete profitable delivery jobs

  Reward ISK
• milestoneCompare the income against courier contracts

Prorator (Amarr), Crane (Caldari), Viator (Gallente), Prowler (Minmatar). Fast T2 transports that fit covert ops cloaks, built for high-value loads through dangerous space.

• long trainTrain racial Hauler V, Transport Ships and Cloaking IV
• milestoneFit a Covert Ops Cloak and learn to warp cloaked
• Build your instant-dock and instant-undock network
• Run lowsec, then nullsec with proper precautions
• read firstLearn bubble mechanics
• the ruleResist cargo-value complacency

  The ship that always survives is the one you eventually overload.

DSTs complement rather than replace Blockade Runners. Runner for small, valuable and fast; DST for larger, bulkier and tanked.

• Train Transport Ships and fly your racial DST
• Fit substantial tank and learn the Fleet Hangar
• the ruleUse the right hull per shipment instead of forcing everything into one

Providence (Amarr), Charon (Caldari), Obelisk (Gallente), Fenrir (Minmatar), plus the Bowhead for fitted ships. Enormous capacity, slow, and still vulnerable to organised attack.

• long trainTrain Advanced Spaceship Command as required, then racial Freighter
• the ruleBuy one only when your volume justifies it
• Build trade-hub bookmarks and learn safe routing
• Avoid unreasonable cargo concentration
• milestoneUse a courier service when that is genuinely safer

  Outsourcing is a legitimate answer, not an admission of defeat.

• T1 hauler mastery across cargo types
• Blockade Runner and Deep Space Transport
• Freighter, and a Jump Freighter if the routes demand it
• A full instant-dock and instant-undock network
• Courier collateral managed as working capital
• endgameReliable logistics for clients or a corporation

  Reward Hauler endgame reached

Introduced with Equinox and permanently relevant: Squall (entry, Infrastructure Hold), Deluge (T2 Blockade Runner variant), Torrent (T2 Deep Space Transport variant), Avalanche (Upwell Freighter).

• read firstTrain Upwell Haulers and fly a Squall

  Learn what the Infrastructure Hold will and will not take.
• long trainTrain Upwell Haulers V, Transport Ships and Cloaking for a Deluge
• Fly a Torrent for high-threat infrastructure logistics
• milestoneFly an Avalanche for massive infrastructure moves

Ark (Amarr), Rhea (Caldari), Anshar (Gallente), Nomad (Minmatar). Unlike normal freighters they jump between cynosural destinations, which is what makes commerce between empire markets and lowsec or nullsec staging possible at all.

• long trainTrain racial Freighter, then Jump Freighters
• Train Jump Drive Operation, Calibration and Fuel Conservation
• the ruleArrange cynosural support through an alt or a trusted organisation
• Calculate jump range, fuel cost and cargo value per run
• Build safe docking bookmarks and learn tether procedure
• milestoneMove your first lowsec, then nullsec shipment

  Reward ISK

Jita → lowsec staging → nullsec alliance market → exports → Jita. The return leg is where the margin usually hides.

• Establish a primary import market and a destination market
• Determine restock cadence and average import volume
• milestoneFind the export opportunity so you never return empty
• the ruleMaintain fuel reserves and emergency liquidity
• Track profit per logistics cycle rather than per trip

  Reward ISK

• Trade hubs connected to staging systems
• Established Jump Freighter routes
• Fuel logistics handled as a standing cost
• Doctrine import and export logistics running reliably
• endgameStrategic reserves in place

  Reward Strategic Logistics endgame reached

Researched BPOs, BPC packages, capital components, faction ships, officer modules, fitted ships and rare collectibles all move through contracts instead.

• read firstLearn the going contract prices by searching similar contracts
• Identify underpriced assets and buy selectively
• Relist at reasonable market value

  Reward ISK
• milestoneLearn how BPO research level changes value

  An ME 10 original and an unresearched one are not the same item at all.
• the ruleNever trust the estimated price on a rare asset

Corporations can run up to 100 active projects, including a Deliver Item type that suits procurement and buyback programmes.

• Participate in Corporation Projects and learn how rewards are structured
• Become a regular supplier to one

  Reward ISK
• milestoneHelp price a procurement project
• Move toward managing corporation procurement

  Buybacks, mineral, fuel, ammunition and ship procurement, and logistics reimbursement.

CCP separates these deliberately so organisations can divide commercial responsibility rather than handing everyone director access: Trader (corporation market orders and Corporation Deliveries), Contract Manager, Accountant (wallet logs, assets, financial administration) and Project Manager.

• read firstLearn what each commercial role can actually do
• Operate one small corporation procurement budget
• the ruleKeep personal and corporation ISK strictly separate

  The fastest way to lose a corporation's trust is to blur this.
• Maintain transaction records and reconcile them

Corporation wallets split into divisions so trading, logistics, industry and operations can hold separate budgets — master reserve, procurement, trade, logistics, SRP and industry.

• milestoneEstablish divisional wallets and define who owns each budget
• Record large transfers and review transaction history
• Audit outstanding obligations
• the ruleMaintain a working capital reserve

• Manage the corporation wallet and a procurement budget
• Run corporation market orders and contracts
• Cost fleet and industry operations accurately
• Maintain financial reserves
• endgameReport assets and liabilities, and budget major projects

  Reward Corporate Commerce endgame reached

SKINR lets Capsuleers design custom ship SKINs and sell licences through the Paragon Hub, which supports personal, corporation, alliance and targeted listings. Entirely separate from every other market in the game.

• Acquire Design Elements and create a design
• milestoneSequence your first SKIN
• List it on the Paragon Hub

  Reward ISK or PLEX
• Train Hub Promotion and Hub Algorithm Optimization

  Reward More listings
• Train Paragon Relations

  Reward Lower vendor fees

The commercial-scale sequencing tree: Basic Induction, Induction Efficiency, Advanced Induction Efficiency, Peak Induction Acceleration, Batch Sequencing, Mass Sequencing, Industrial Sequencing, Parallel Sequencing and Multi-thread Sequencing.

• Train the Induction skills
• long trainTrain the Sequencing skills toward commercial volume
• Source design materials efficiently

• Advanced SKINR skills and high sequencing capacity
• Multiple active SKIN lines
• Paragon Relations trained and material sourcing efficient
• Recognisable style or brand
• endgamePositive margins after sequencing and listing costs

  Reward SKIN Merchant endgame reached