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The ISK Ladder

The ISK Ladder

ISK Generation

This guide answers one question: what should I run between fleets to make ISK at my skill level? It puts every repeatable income method on the same scale so you can compare a solo activity with a group one, and it ends with a progression that pays for skill injectors without turning the game into a job.

How to read the numbers

  • ISK/h per pilot. Every figure is what you keep per hour. Group activities are already divided by the number of people in the group, so a 3-pilot abyss trio showing 114M means 114M each, not 114M for the three of you.
  • Loyalty points are priced at 700 ISK per LP. Faction warfare pays in loyalty points (LP), which you turn into ISK on the alliance loyalty desk or in the LP store. 700 is a realistic rate for Tribal Liberation Force LP; see Faction Warfare Loyalty Points for how conversion works.
  • Abyssal numbers are net of filaments and come from the full abysstracker.com run database (last 12 months, median loot at Jita prices), divided by the pilots in the site, over the median site time plus two minutes to reset.
  • Plexing numbers assume the sites are there. Frontline systems only spawn so many plexes an hour, and other friendlies are farming them too.
  • Nothing includes ships lost to PvP. This is a warzone. Fly what you can afford to lose.

Prices are from October 2026 and move with the market. Treat the ranking as stable and the exact numbers as approximate.

The short version

If you are... Run this ISK/h per pilot
Alpha, day one A Thrasher in Small NVY-1 plexes on a frontline ~50M
Alpha, with two to four friends ELT sites (Contested Field Research Facility) in destroyers 63–95M
Omega, under 15M SP A Hawk in T2 Dark abyssals, solo ~77M
Omega, 15M+ SP, three of you Three Hawks in T4 Dark abyssals, or a Moderate NVY-3 in battlecruisers ~110M
Omega, 20M+ SP, three of you Two Retributions and a Deacon in T5 Firestorm abyssals (55M hulls) ~190M
Omega, with a billion to spend A Gila or Ishtar in T6 Gamma abyssals, solo 380–400M

Two rules fall out of the data:

  • Below T3, do not group up for abyssals. A frigate abyssal site burns three filaments and has one loot cache, so three pilots in one site split one pot. The group only clears about 1.5 to 2 times faster, never 3 times, so each of you earns less than running your own site. Group income lives in plexes, where every pilot gets a full payout up to the site's cap.
  • Omega before skill injectors. A Daily Alpha Injector (about 40M for 50,000 SP) costs roughly 800 ISK per skill point. A Large Skill Injector (about 737M) costs 1,843 ISK per skill point once you pass 5M SP. One hour of destroyer plexing buys the daily injector, and Omega (500 PLEX, about 2.46B a month) is what unlocks every method above 80M/h.

Faction warfare

Plexes are the capture sites in warzone systems. You warp to one, sit inside the capture radius for 10 or 15 minutes, kill the NPC that spawns, and get paid LP when the timer finishes. Each site's name tells you the ship size it allows and how many pilots get a full payout. Faction Warfare Basics explains the map and system types; Faction Warfare Complexes has every site's LP and timer.

Frontlines only. Rearguard plexes pay almost nothing and command-ops systems pay two thirds. The Warzone Report and the in-game faction warfare map show where the frontlines are this week.

Activity Pilots ISK/h per pilot What you need Notes
Destroyer plexing: Small NVY-1 and ADV-1 1 47–55M A Thrasher (about 5M, alpha) for NVY; a navy or T2 destroyer (20–40M) for ADV 22,500 or 26,250 LP per 10-minute capture, about three an hour. The day-one engine. Fits are on the doctrine list.
ELT site (Contested Field Research Facility) 3–5 63–95M Any destroyer (alpha) 45,000 LP for every pilot per 10-minute capture, two or three an hour. The best rate an alpha can reach. Spawn-limited.
Moderate NVY-3 3 92–110M A navy or T1 battlecruiser (50–100M) 52,500 LP for each of three pilots per 15-minute capture. Hostiles contest these; expect fights.
FW L4 missions 1–2 35–70M Cruisers and 5.0 standing with Tribal Liberation Force About 30,000 LP and 3M per mission. Reworked in March 2026; nobody has published new rates, so time your own.
Zohar's Chosen hunting 1 100–200M (unverified) A 1.5B Loki and Crystal implants Hunting named Angel NPCs in insurgency systems for mutaplasmid crates. See Zohar's Chosen Angel Hunting. That guide's 250–750M/h assumed 80–120M crates; Gravid Vorton mutaplasmids have since fallen from 280M to ~55M and Decayed ones are worthless, so expect a fifth of that unless an Unstable (290M) drops. Loot is shared with every other hunter, and corruption-5 systems allow bubbles.
L5 mission blitz 1 ~355M A 1.5B Golem or Barghest and 7.0 faction standing See L5 Mission Farming. Low effort once the standing grind is done.

Payouts that are not hourly but matter:

  • Insurgency victory. When pirates invade the warzone, every militia pilot who helped suppress a winning insurgency gets up to 1.5M LP, about 1.05B, with the maximum at 45% personal suppression and 0.4× on a loss. You earn it by running ADV plexes in the insurgency systems, which is ordinary plexing.
  • Ice Refinery Heist. An insurgency site paying 150,000 LP per pilot, 5 to 30 pilots, 4-hour respawn. Both sides want it.
  • Battlefields. 50,000 LP plus freighter loot since June 2026. See Faction Warfare Battlefields.
  • Kill LP. Every militia kill pays LP based on the hull, split across everyone on grid. The fights pay too.

Abyssal deadspace

Abyssals are 20-minute PvE pockets you enter with a filament. Three rooms, a loot cache in each, and if the timer runs out you lose the ship and the pod. Frigate sites take three frigates and burn three filaments, destroyer sites two, cruiser sites one; the loot is shared by whoever is in the site. Start with the Abyssal Deadspace overview for deep-safes, loot drop-offs and the security-status table, and the EVE University abyssal page for room-by-room mechanics. Fits for every hull and tier, with real run data, are on abysstracker.com/fits.

Activity Pilots ISK/h per pilot What you need Notes
Kestrel, T0 Dark 1 13M 4–8M, alpha Learning runs only. The EVE University T0 Kestrel is the standard fit.
Kestrel, T1 Dark 1 20M 5M, alpha 85% survival across all logged runs. Move to a Hookbill instead.
Caldari Navy Hookbill, T1 Dark 1 28M 17–28M, alpha 99.6% survival, 10 minutes a site. The quiet-warzone fallback for alphas. Use the Alpha T1 Dark Rocket Hookbill.
Hookbill ×3, T2 Dark 3 21M About 20M each, alpha Works and nobody dies, but 15-minute sites split three ways pay less than solo T1. Social only.
Hawk, T2 Dark, solo 1 77M 40M, omega 9.5 minutes a site, 98.6% survival. The first real omega income.
Hawk ×3, T3–T5 Dark 3 60–117M 43–55M each, omega, about 15M SP T3 pays 60M, T4 114M, T5 117M. Full fits and room notes in Abyss Trio: Hawk T5 Dark and the throwaway Hawk on abysstracker. After the 22 September 2026 Hawk change, cheap Hawks stop at T5. Angel rooms are the accepted loss.
Jackdaw duo, T5 Dark 2 144M 350–900M each See Abyss Duo: Jackdaws T6 Dark. 95% survival.
Retribution ×2 + Deacon, T5 Firestorm 3 191M 55M each, omega, about 20M SP 99.2% survival, and Firestorm T5 filaments are the cheapest. The best-value trio in the game. Fits: Retribution and the matching Maazzixx Deacon on EVE Workbench.
Stormbringer, T6, solo 1 130–214M 4–5B Dark 214M, Electrical 130M on the tracker. See Abyss Solo: Stormbringer T6 Electrical.
Nergal / Retribution ×2 + Deacon, T6 Firestorm 3 245M About 500M each, 30M+ SP See Abyss Trio: Nergal T6 Firestorm.
Gila, T6 Exotic, solo 1 247M 0.8–1.5B The most-run cruiser site on the tracker, 99.5% survival.
Vagabond, T6 Gamma, solo 1 275M About 1B 99.8% survival.
Gila or Ishtar, T6 Gamma, solo 1 380–400M 0.8–1.5B 15-minute sites from any 0.5 or lower system, 99.4% survival. The best low-effort money a warzone pilot can make. Pick a fit with hundreds of logged runs on abysstracker.

Highsec and fleet PvE

Activity Pilots ISK/h per pilot What you need Notes
Homefront Operations 5 50–75M T1 frigates, destroyers or cruisers only, alpha Highsec group sites paying 15M per pilot per site at exactly five pilots, three to five sites an hour once formed. Spawn around Hek and Rens.
Incursions 10–40 60–300M A 1B+ battleship Vanguards 60–120M, headquarters 150–300M. Public fleets; a lot of waiting.
Pochven Observatory Flashpoint 12 230M+ A T2 battleship or logistics cruiser and Triglavian standings About one site an hour. Needs a formed fleet with logi and scouts, in a PvP zone.

Lowsec, nullsec and wormholes

Activity Pilots ISK/h per pilot What you need Notes
Exploration in lowsec 1 10–30M A 1M Heron, alpha Lowsec relic and data sites are the weakest in the game.
Gas huffing in lowsec 1 15–40M A Venture, alpha Wormhole gas pays far more but needs a hole.
Clone soldier tag hunting 1 10–50M A destroyer, alpha Rats in 0.1 and 0.2 belts drop tags worth up to 35M each. Highly variable.
Nullsec anomaly ratting 1 35–60M A 300–500M Ishtar or Gila and somewhere in null to live Weaker than people remember under the dynamic bounty system.
Null and wormhole relic sites 1 30–100M An Astero (about 80M) Streaky. The money is through the wormholes that open in the warzone.
Wormhole C3 ratting 1–2 100–200M A 300M+ Gila or Praxis and a hole About 40M a site plus salvage.

A progression that pays for injectors

  1. Day one, alpha. Thrasher in Small NVY-1 plexes while fleets are running, Kestrel T0 abyssals when nobody is on. Sell LP on the loyalty desk. From day two, buy a Daily Alpha Injector every day; your first hour of plexing pays for it. See Your First Billion ISK.
  2. Week one. ELT sites with whoever is online, Hookbill T1 Dark as filler, every fleet you can make. Buy a Republic Fleet Firetail for plex fights and a Hookbill as milestones. Omega in about a month of evenings.
  3. Omega, 5–15M SP. ADV-1 plexes in a navy destroyer, ELT sites, solo Hawk T2 Dark as PvE. First Large Skill Injector after roughly 10 hours of play. Train toward Assault Frigates V and the cruiser doctrines.
  4. 15–30M SP. Three Hawks in T4 Dark on quiet nights, Moderates and battlefields with the alliance. A Large Skill Injector every 7 hours of play if you want one.
  5. 30M+ SP. Retribution and Deacon Firestorm trios, then a T6 Gamma Gila. Stop injecting at 50M SP, where a Large Skill Injector drops to 300,000 SP.

Alternate every session: one plexing block, one fleet, at most two abyss runs. End each phase with a ship you wanted, not just an injector.

Prices used

  • Large Skill Injector 737M (500,000 SP under 5M SP, 400,000 up to 50M, 300,000 above). Daily Alpha Injector 40M. PLEX 4.92M, 500 per month for Omega.
  • Filaments (each): Dark T4 1.85M, T5 13.98M, T6 46.4M. Firestorm T5 12.36M, T6 25.9M. Gamma T6 28.7M.
  • Hulls: Kestrel 0.6M, Thrasher 0.8M, Hookbill 8.9M, Hawk 22.7M, Retribution 25.4M, Deacon 18.4M, Nergal 280M.

Abyss survival rates are from logged runs and under-count deaths. Plexing rates assume uncontested frontline spawns.

Additional Resources

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