¶ In my last Helpful Tips entry, "Core Fitting Skills", the Learning Skills were mentioned. So, I figured they’d be a good topic for this entry.
¶ A lot of people in the Rookie Help channel will preach to noobs that they absolutely must train the learning skills to max before doing anything else, but to be fair, that would make for a rather boring first month in EVE. Few players have the kind of patience that approach requires, so this entry will look at how to get the most out of your training time while still having fun as a new player – after all, video games are supposed to be fun, right?

¶ It can take up to a month to train the learning skills all the way, and let’s face it: there isn’t much that a base noob can do, especially when the noob’s player is also inexperienced in the ways of EVE. Most characters start out with enough basic combat ability to be able to complete the rookie mission arcs that the tutorial drops you off at, but many aren’t skilled enough for normal Level 1 missions without a little bit of training beforehand. For example, having chosen Military>Special Forces at character creation, Havohej began play with Afterburner Level 5 and I don’t know what I would’ve done without it. I was appalled to learn that some people don’t start with any Navigation skills at all! I surely wouldn’t have been able to tear through L1 missions in my Rifter had it not been for the AB. That said, I do agree that the learning skills are just as important as the Core Fitting Skills, if not more so in the long run. So, what to do?
¶ Every player will have to find their own way to enjoy EVE, IF they’re able to enjoy it at all (it’s not for everyone). My suggestion is to take advantage of the 4 rookie mission arcs. Each race has a set of three storyline agents that give you a 10-part series of simple missions intended to help a new player learn the User Interface (you will have to complete a mission from the Tutorial agent in the same station first before the Event agent will work with you). These missions run the gambit from combat encounters to courier missions, from mining scordite to building a frigate. These missions are also quite rewarding, from a new-player’s perspective. They offer rewards like +1 implants (worth 300k each), skill books (worth up to 80k, I think), even free frigates (up to 300k, depending on market conditions)! These agents are located at:

Amarr:
Business: Conoban
Military: Deepari
Industry: Pasha

Caldari:
Business: Jouvulen
Military: Uitra
Industry: Todaki

Gallente:
Business: Trossere
Military: Couster
Industry: Clellinon

Minmatar:
Business: Embod
Military: Hadaugago
Industry: Malukker

¶ You’re able to do the rookie arcs for all four races and each race offers basically the same missions, with minor variations. The pirate faction in the encounter missions will vary (Angel Cartel for Minmatar, but Blood Raider for Amarr), as will the type of frigates offered for reward in the equivalent missions (Gallente might get a Navitas, but Caldari will get a Bantam). This means you can rack up quite a few extra +1 implants to sell, as well as several frigates that, as a new player, you won’t be able to fly. All of these things can be sold on the market to build quite a bit of ISK to support an inexperienced pilot, and these missions are quite simple to complete.
¶ The ease of these missions will allow you to focus on training the learning skills all to Level 3 which won’t take more than a few days. After that, you can train skills of more immediate benefit. Perhaps even some Core Fitting Skills! The free +1 implants you got from the rookie mission arcs will help a little. Once you’re able to get through level 1 missions or whatever your chosen means of making ISK to start out with is, you can go back to the Learning skills until you need to train something else again – break it up, spread it out, and above all else, have fun with the game.
¶ Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to what the Learning skills are and how they work.

Learning Skills
What Attributes Do

¶ Every skill lists a primary and secondary attribute. This means that the higher the value for your primary attribute, the less time it will take you to learn the skill. Same for the secondary attribute, but the difference is less. Even less of an impact has the “Learning” skill, but that also helps your learning, regardless of which attributes are required.

¶ The “Learning” skill actually adds fractional amounts to your attributes. Note that EVE will always use your exact attributes, not the truncated ones it shows you. So, a Perception of 16 on your character sheet could be anywhere >=16.00 and <17. The actual formula to determine your attributes is as follows:

(Base Attribute + Basic skill lvl + Advanced skill lvl + Implant bonus) * (1 + (0.02 * Learning skill))

¶ Your base attribute is the total you started with at character creation. The Basic and Advanced skills are the appropriate skills for that attribute (ie – “Analytical Mind” and “Logic” for Intelligence). Note that the “Learning” skill actually affects your bonuses from the attribute skills and your implants.

¶ If you don’t remember your base attributes any more, you can calculate the exact attributes from the truncated ones on your character sheet as follows:

ROUNDUP(Truncated Attribute / (1 + (0.02 * Learning skill))) * (1 + (0.02 * Learning skill))

¶ Another way to obtain your base attributes is it to look at the XML file eve-online.com provides you through the EVE Insider, My Characters page. The attributes you see on the charinfo page are instead the actual.

¶ The time it takes to train a particular skill depends on how many skill points you need and the primary and secondary attributes for that skill. It can be calculated as follows:

(Needed skill points – current skill points) / (Primary attribute + (Secondary attribute / 2))

¶ The actual number of skillpoints needed to get a specific level of a skill is:

((2 ^ ((2.5 * Level) – 2.5) * 250 * Rank of the skill)

¶ If all this makes your head swim, consider using a skill planning application such as EVEMon which will do all this math for you.

Learning to Improve Attributes

¶ The skills in the learning category all directly improve some attribute, except for the “Learning” skill. Since having higher attribute values improves your learning speed, you’ll realize that investing some time in improving attributes, will pay off in the long run if you learn a lot of skills that need those attributes.

¶ Since most players end up needing skills that require all attributes (some people ignore skills that need Charisma, apart from a few Social skills), most new players should get all learning skills up before learning anything else. This is good, if boring, advice. If you plan to stay in EVE for more than a month though, it will pay off.

¶ If you want to learn the learning skills, given the formulas above, you should follow the Ideal Learning Tree Schedule.

1. Instant Recall I
2. Analytical Mind I
3. Learning Level I
4. Instant Recall II
5. Analytical Mind II
6. Learning II
7. Instant Recall III
8. Analytical Mind III
9. Learning III
10. Instant Recall IV
11. Eidetic Memory I
12. Eidetic Memory II
13. Eidetic Memory III¹
14. Analytical Mind IV
15. Learning IV
16. Logic I
17. Logic II
18. Logic III¹
19. Eidetic Memory IV
20. Logic IV
21. Instant Recall V
22. Analytical Mind V
23. Eidetic Memory V
24. Logic V
25. Learning V

¶ Most people learn Eidetic Memory and Logic up to level III at least though some go for level IV, level V is pretty much useless unless you plan to stay in EVE for years to come. It takes approximately² 20 days to reach Eidetic Memory III and Logic III and 24 to reach Eidetic Memory IV and Logic IV.

¶ As training your other attributes initially relies on Memory and Intelligence you should wait to train Spatial Awareness, Iron Will or Empathy until you have trained your Memory and Intelligence as far as they can go and obtained attribute enhancing implants (see below). Once complete, here is the ideal schedule for training your other attributes:

Spacial Awareness, Iron Will and Empathy in any combination up to IV.

Presence I

Focus I

Clarity I

Presence II

Focus II

Clarity II

Presence III

Focus III

Clarity III

Presence IV

Focus IV

Clarity IV

Empathy V

Iron Will V

Spatial Awareness V

Presence V

Focus V

Clarity V

¶ If you start playing with a new character and have some ISK to invest into it, it is highly recommended to get attribute implants. Particularly the Memory and Intelligence ones, since they’ll speed up the learning of Learning skills even more.³

¹If you decide the payoff isn’t good enough on Eidetic Memory III or over, skip ahead to Analytical Mind IV. In that case, you probably won’t need Logic III or over or Learning V either.

²Assuming balanced stats: 8 in Int and Mem and 7 or 8 in other stats.

³The time to train Cybernetics I, necessary for attribute implants, is negligable. However its prerequisite, Science III, can take half a day.

The Payoff

¶ So, how far do you need to take these learning skills? To what level? Well, it depends on how long you expect to be in EVE.

¶ In the end, the entire point is to get as many skillpoints as you can, into useful skills. The formula above gives the number of skillpoints you get per minute, based on primary attribute, secondary attribute and learning. So what exactly is the impact of these on your skillpoint total over time?

¶ Of course, you shouldn’t count the skillpoints in learning itself, since they have absolutely no other use than improving the learning time of skills. In fact, they’re counterproductive. All the time you spend training them isn’t spent on skillpoints in other skills that have some use.

¶ How far to take the learning skills strongly depends on what you have planned for your character. If it is supposed to be a very focused expert pilot, you’re likely to need only Eidetic Memory and Logic to level III and Learning to level IV and then the skills relating to the attributes you need most to level IV or V, depending on how long you intend to stay in the game. It takes years for level V on any advanced learning skill to pay off.

¶ If you’re training a generalist character, it may actually pay off to learn all advanced learning skills to level III or IV, with the possible exception of the Charisma related one, since it has a relatively low impact. If you plan on training for Trade and Leadership however, you will need that one too.

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