The Noob PVP Challenge

Are you new to PVP? Do you feel like fights happen so fast you can't keep up? Is the rush of PVP overwhelming to the point of messing up your performance?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you need to do the Noob PVP Challenge because it is the surest cure I have found.

I used it myself when learning to fly the Solo Taranis (as seen in the Frigate PRO Guide). Then, when I started teaching others how to PVP it was and still is the first thing I suggested to help them climb the initialy very steep PVP learning curve.

So what is the Noob PVP Challenge?

It's very simple: Your Mission is to lose 10 ships within the next 7 days.

I did this with the Taranis when I was learning, but to keep the costs down it's probably best for most players to use a Tech 1 Frigate like the Incursus, Tristan, Rifter, Merlin, or Punisher.

Here's how you do it:

  1. Go to Jita or your nearest trade hub then purchase 10 ships and all the fittings so you have 10 identically fit ships. (Do not assemble them yet)
  2. Use Push or Redfrog to move your stuff to the nearest high sec to where you plan on PVPing.
  3. Assemble and fit all 10 of your ships and get platinum insurance on them.
  4. Go out to low sec or null sec and fight everything you see. "But what if I know I can't win?" change your thinking to "How might I have a chance to win this?" then just go for it.
  5. Die and and then get your pod out or pod express.
  6. Think about the fight you just had. What did it feel like? What did you do well? What did you mess up? (Even better use OBS to record your fights, then watch them)
  7. Instead of feeling bad or getting mad at your self, feel good knowing you have 9 more ships ready to go RIGHT NOW!
  8. Goto Step 4 and repeat until you are out of ships.
  9. All of your ships gone? Take what you learned to improve your fit, try a new ship, or different type of PVP then Goto Step 1 and repeat.
  10. Become a PRO PVPer

This is the basic recipe for learning PVP that is 100% guaranteed to make you a better PVPer faster than any amount of EFT dreaming or theory crafting with people on Comms. There is no shortcut around doing.

Learning to PVP in EVE Online is the same as learning a Musical Instrument. If you decide you want to learn how to play Violin, the first thing you do is find a teacher. The teacher will explain the basics to you and show you a few basic notes or scales then tell you to go home to practice it over and over for an hour or more every single day until the next lesson where you will learn more things that you will repeat as many times as possible.

This website and the Guides I offer are the Teacher, they show you the fittings, the tricks, the tactics, and everything else you need to know but you MUST do your homework get out there and practice.

Most importantly THEY WORK, which is why my favorite page, the Review and Testimonial page has endless eve mails and emails from the people that have learned PVP with the help of EVE Pro Guides.

This Noob PVP Challenge tells you to lose 10 ships, not to win your first solo PVP fight, not to get a kill and get away, but to LOSE 10 ships in less than 7 days. The reason is because it's more important for you get the experience of fighting as fast as possible than it is to be careful and wait for the perfect fights that never come.

The biggest problems facing new PVPers is the Adrenalin Rush that causing them to stop thinking clearly and the apparent enormity of the many things you must manage during a PVP fight.

During your first PVP fight it is very normal to get the "Shakes" because for some reason, unlike all other games, EVE PVP is a serious rush. This rush, while initially very addictive can give you tunnel vision and make it hard for you maintain your situational awareness during the fight.

You may also feel like it's impossible to manage so much during a fight. You have to get the lock, get the point, overheat your guns, overheat your reps, manage the range between you and your target, watch directional scan to make sure you're not being blobbed, watch the overview, make sure his drones aren't ECM drones, and on and on. For a new PVPer trying to do all of this well in 30 seconds of violent PVP is very hard.

That's why repetition is so important, repetition forms muscle memory, habits, and instinctual responses so that you start doing all of these things without even thinking, they just happen.

Then one day you realize that you're in a fight and instead of constantly going through a check list in your head of what you need to be doing, you are thinking about what your opponent is doing, and how you adapt to give yourself the biggest possible advantage.

But you will never get there without repetition.

About the author

In 2010 Abbadon21 was the first person to create Narrated Instructional PVP videos for EVE Online. This started a new era of EVE Online and opened up high level "PRO" PVP to everyone. Abbadon21 is also the Founder of EVEProGuides.com, which is EVE Online's oldest and most trusted source for high quality PRO Guides.