EVE Frontier Guide: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Welcome to Eve Frontier. Web3's take on EVE Online. Your hardcore (trust me, somebody killed me during the tutorial) space survival MMO drops you into the vastness of space where you start from the bottom, feeding off wrecks and spoil, and grind your way up to a space empire by strategic resource management, trading, base building, or if you're in it for the action, pirating and pillaging.

This guide walks you through your first real goals: gathering early materials, building a base, crafting your first capable ship, and jumping out of the starter system. Every tool you need has to be earned. Nothing is handed to you. But with the right steps, you’ll get off that empty void and face the Frontier.

Getting Started

As of the time of writing, EVE Frontier is holding a free trial campaign that lets anyone jump into the game for free until July 7. Just head over to the official website, sign up, and download the EVE Frontier launcher to install the game. Once you're in, launch the game and prepare to be (un)welcomed by the cold, empty void of space.  

EVE Frontier Log in Screen

Start with Scavenging Wrecks

When you spawn into EVE Frontier, you’re in a ship called the Wend. Unlike other typical MMOs or space games where you can manually control your ship, in EVE Frontier, you are the commander.

EVE Frontier Spawn  

So instead, you click on available objects in space like an asteroid, wreck, enemy drones/ships, cargo, etc., and either right-click on them to see movement options like Approach and Orbit, or you can do it via the object menu usually on the top right of your screen. You can hover around 360 degrees with your mouse to scout for clickable objects. Your starter ship is tiny and unarmed, and you're surrounded by wrecks. These are your first source of fuel and materials, so don't waste time. 

EVE Frontier Wrecks

Zoom out with your scroll wheel or press F2 to activate the tactical camera. This makes it easier to spot wrecks around you. Click any of the wrecks you see, approach it, and open the cargo (by pressing E) when you’re close. Grab everything (by pressing "Loot All") inside. You’ll mostly find raw ore and maybe a little fuel. It’s not much, but it’s enough to keep your ship alive.

EVE Frontier Tactical Camera 

Check your fuel (usually named "Unstable Fuel") right after looting. Open the ship’s inventory (hotkey is letter I) and drag any fuel you picked up into the fuel bay (on the bottom right side of your HUD). Fuel powers everything in the game. warping, mining, combat, repairs. If you run out, your ship won’t be able to recharge energy, and you’ll get stranded fast.

EVE Frontier Fuel System

Settle Down Near Resources and Build a Temporary Base

Once you've cleaned out the local wrecks, it’s time to find a place to build your temporary base. Press F3 to switch to the system (solar system) view. Hovering and clicking locations shows nearby planets, moons, asteroid belts, and other useful locations. Pick somewhere quiet (no other player-built structures on the area) but close to asteroids or resource fields, then warp (a Warp option will show upon clicking warpable locations) to it. Warping takes a few seconds so be patient. 

EVE Frontier Temporary Base 

Now that you’ve found your first base spot, press B to enter Build Mode. Start by building and placing down a Portable Refinery. This is how you turn raw ore into refined materials and convert water ice into usable fuel. If you grabbed enough raw ore from the wrecks earlier, you can build it right away. If not, mining will be your next task, which is covered in the next section.

EVE Frontier Build Mode 

Next, build a Storage Unit beside the refinery. It gives you extra inventory space for storing various items, ore, or anything you don’t want to carry. Keeping both structures close to each other makes resource management easier. Interact (go near it and press E) with your refinery to begin your first refining jobs.

EVE Frontier  Refinery  

Carbonaceous ore gives you carbon materials and water ice. The ice can then be refined into D1 fuel, which your ship uses constantly. Start running these jobs now to be self-sufficient in fuel making.

Keep Mining Resources

Wrecks are limited, so to keep progressing, you’ll need to mine. Go back to the system view (F3) and try to find ore-rich locations (preferably carbon fields).

EVE Frontier Mining Lens

Lock onto an asteroid and load your Synthetic Mining Lens (from your inventory) into the mining cutter module (on your HUD, default 1st slot on first spawn) on your ship. Once it’s ready, start mining.

EVE Frontier Mining Asteroids

Keep an eye on your cargo hold. When it’s full, the laser will automatically stop. Open the Personal Assets window (hotkey is letter H), find your already built structures like the refinery and storage, and warp back to base.

EVE Frontier Home Base Warp  

This loop becomes your foundation, mine ore, refine it, turn ice into fuel, restock, repeat. The more you refine, the more materials you’ll have for building and crafting. Don’t just stockpile ore. Convert it regularly so you're always prepared. This will come even more handy as you unlock building the Portable Printer.

Expand Your Base 

Once you’re fueling yourself reliably, it’s time to grow your base. You’ll need additional ores to unlock the next structures. Common ore comes from locations with names like Asteroid Clusters. Metal-rich ore can be found in dedicated metal-rich fields. You’ll want to mine and refine both.

EVE Frontier Metal Rich Cluster 

With the right materials, go back into Build Mode and place a Portable Printer and a Refuge. The printer allows you to craft weapons, gear, and ships. The refuge lets you store ships and swap their loadouts. This base setup is enough to carry you through the early game. You now have the tools to mine, refine, manufacture, and eventually fight back.

EVE Frontier Portable Printer and Refuge 

Combat Prep and Hunting for the Nomad Frame

Before you can leave the starter system, you’ll need to build a real ship called the Reflex. One of the key materials required is the Nomad Program Frame, and you can’t mine it. It only drops from feral drones, means you are in for the first taste of combat. 

EVE Frontier Combat Prep

To get ready for combat, go to your Portable Printer and craft a Small Autocannon along with some AC Gyrojet Ammo. Once those are ready, head to your Refuge and open the Fitting Service. You’ll find it on the upper right after selecting the Refuge.

EVE Frontier Base Cannon

Next, unequip your mining laser by dragging it into your inventory, then drag the autocannon into the weapon slot. Load your ammo by dragging it into the ship. Make sure your Hull Repairer is still installed, and remove any unnecessary cargo to keep your ship light.

EVE Frontier Wend Combat Fitting 

Once you’re geared up, open the system view and warp to a feral drone site. When you arrive, lock onto a drone and press your autocannon hotkey to open fire. The default is usually 1, but you can customize it in your HUD. Stay at a safe distance and keep an eye on your hull. If you take damage, activate your repair module, just remember that it uses fuel each time.

EVE Frontier Taking out Drones

After the fight, look for the drone wrecks. A cargo box will appear near the destroyed enemy. Loot everything, but what you really need are fossilized exotronics. Once you’ve collected ten of them, head back to base. You’ll be ready to move one step closer to building the Reflex and escaping the starter system.

Build the Reflex Ship

Start by crafting the Nomad Program Frame using the exotronics you looted. Next, check the Reflex blueprint. You'll need carbon materials, reinforced alloys, and the frame. Reinforced alloys can be manufactured using the metal-rich and common ores you mined earlier.

EVE Frontier Crafting the Reflex

Once you have everything, you can finally craft the Reflex. Use the Refuge to assemble it and then board (but make sure your Wend has no items in its storage first). Your old Wend will be stored automatically. The Reflex is a proper ship. It has more module slots (it has 2 high slots, meaning you can mount a mining laser and an autocannon at the same time, unlike the Wend), more durability, and most importantly, the ability to jump between star systems. 

EVE Frontier Reflex Fittings

But the Wend still needs a full fitting. Open the fitting window and gear it up. Install autocannons, a repair module, and whatever utilities you can afford. Build a Sojourn Engine and slot it in. This is what powers your jump drive. Without it, you’re staying in the system. Refuel the Reflex fully. Carry extra in your inventory. Bring spare ammo, and consider crafting another mining cutter and loading a lens if you want flexibility after you jump.

Pack Up Your Base and Face the Frontier

Once you're ready to move on, it’s time to pack up your base. Right-click each structure and dismantle it into a cargo container, then scoop everything into your inventory. Don’t forget to grab all your valuable materials, spare modules, and gear. Assume you won’t be coming back.

EVE Frontier Packing up

Open your star map. You’ll notice a glowing area around your current system, that’s the range your jump drive can reach based on your fuel. Pick a nearby destination, right-click it, and start the jump. Just like that, you’ve officially left the starter system.

EVE Frontier Jump Drive

You Survived the Tutorial, Now Survive the Frontier

And man, didn’t I say this game was hardcore? What we just did is basically the tutorial. If you’re the kind of player who enjoys tough environments and high-stakes systems, then yeah, you’re gonna love what EVE Frontier has to offer.

But this is just the beginning. We haven’t even scratched the surface of base expansion, tribes, Grace Points, the player economy, Web3 features, and a whole lot more. There’s a reason people joke that EVE games are like Excel spreadsheets pretending to be MMOs. Late game turns into full-on resource planning, logistics, and min maxing.

Sounds fun, right? I hope this guide helped you get your footing. Surviving out here isn’t about fast reactions, it’s about building your Reflex (pun intended). Good luck out there, Commander, and welcome to the frontier.