Every nullsec newcomer eventually types the same sentence, and in March 2026 oli Padecain typed it better than most:
"I was thinking more dumbed down for me 😅, assume I know nothing of how this works."
TNF leans towards returning and veteran pilots, but we also adopt committed newer players, and the mentorship channel is where that promise gets kept. What follows is a Q&A built from real messages in that channel, mostly from one week in March. The questions are oli's. The answers belong to the people who gave them. We have trimmed for length and opsec, not for tone.
Part one: "Is there a TL:DR of how the buy back program works?"
oli: Is there a guide or a TL:DR of how the buy back program works?
Pict1on: Here you go mate.
He linked the corp guide. oli read it, and came back with the real question.
oli: I was thinking more dumbed down for me, assume I know nothing of how this works. So for example if I have this ratting loot, would I create a contract with all the items, and send to someone within the corp?
Pict1on: 1 sec lemme throw a eli5 ❤️
Note the heart. Nobody in this thread was laughing at anyone.
Pict1on: paste rat loot in there. You can select all and do ctrl + c ingame to grab the list.
oli: Btw is there a nice way to select the items into a contract? or should i just use containers?
A few minutes later, before anyone could answer:
oli: Nvm, figured you can create a contract from the item hangar 😅
This is, for the record, how most of us learned EVE as well.
Pict1on: yeee now you create a contract and assign it to our corp 🙂
oli: Just to confirm, the contract is created, do I need to post it somewhere or log it?
Part two: "Use the tool"
At this point the corp's buyback manager arrived, as he tends to whenever profit is mentioned within a three-channel radius.
Jekktarr: Use the tool on the auth it automatically calculates it for you.
The tool on the corp auth site prices a pasted list automatically and spits out the value for the contract, so a new pilot does not need to know what any of the loot is worth. Jekktarr then turned straight to the leadership and asked for the old announcement to be updated so nobody else got sent down the wrong path. By the next morning, Motty 007 reported the outdated post was gone.
AexisKae chipped in from the member side with the one-line version: "throw it all into the auth and it will give you the finished price and a code."
Ten minutes of back-and-forth, and a new pilot had a new income stream.
Part three: "What's the easiest way to get into the PvP aspect of this corp?"
Five days later, oli was back.
oli: So what's the easiest way to get into the PvP aspect of this corp?
Pict1on: Join mumble join standing fleet.
oli: I keep joining the mumble chat, but i'm not sure what i should be fitting.
This is the moment a lot of new players quietly give up. They are on comms, they want to help, and they have no idea what to bring. Pict1on did what a good mentor does: he asked what oli could already fly, then offered to sit down with him.
Pict1on: Do you have any frig at 5?
oli: Caldari at lvl 5.
Pict1on: let's have a chat this evening and we will work out an effective fit.
oli: Sounds good, I'll be available all evening.
Part four: "Do we use those in pvp?"
oli: I have Gallente and Minmatar lvl5 cruisers, do we use those in pvp?
SadisticSloth answered with the alliance fittings page, and then with the two most useful sentences any new nullsec pilot can hear.
SadisticSloth: Get in on fleets, you will learn the basics in no time 🙂
SadisticSloth: 99% of fleets are SRPd so you never have to worry about loosing your ship.
Pict1on and Jekktarr added a few cruiser suggestions on top, so oli could plan his skill queue for months rather than days.
Part five: "Are you finding your way around ok?"
Mentoring in TNF does not wait for questions. Back in January, Pict1on had already pinged oli unprompted: "all good? you finding your way around ok? ❤️"
Odysemus has his own philosophy, laid out when he welcomed a newbro straight out of highsec that same month. The jump to null is big, he warned, and "you are GOING to get overwhelmed." His advice:
train the things that make your game functional for YOU, not for us, nor the Alliance. Take it all in stages and ask questions.
He checks in on returning pilots too. In mid-2025 he pinged a group of recently returned members to ask how they were settling in, and whether there were "any significant barriers we can mitigate."
Part six: everyone answers
Mentoring is not a job title in TNF. Scroll the channel and the helpers change from week to week.
- In June 2025 Maggy Lee brought a puzzle about why a common industry product seemed to sell for less than its materials. Killjoy Ender worked through it with her and offered the likely answer: sellers "probably had it stocked up from when it was cheaper to make."
- In July 2025 Odysemus checked in on a batch of returning pilots, Sllice among them, to ask what was getting in their way.
- In February 2026, when a corpmate could not find the ships for a fleet, Marri02 walked him through buying the whole fit in one click and asked the market stockers to fill the gaps.
- And Jekktarr, between buyback questions, explained why the channel matters at all: "When I hear the boys talking in discord I feel like I'm with them by a big camp fire eating a fresh kill."
Bonus question: do veterans need mentoring?
Yes. In June 2025, Pict1on was walking an experienced corpmate through the nastiest wave in certain combat sites: get out of trouble early, and be ready to leave. Nobody in EVE knows everything. The good ones ask anyway.
The last word
The best evidence that this works is that oli kept coming back with harder questions. That is what mentoring is for. If you are new, committed and slightly terrified of nullsec, the mentorship channel is open, and nobody there will make you feel silly for asking.
Or, as Pict1on would put it: ❤️
