Gameplay of Eve Online - Gameplay - Death

Death

In the event that a player's ship is destroyed, a wreck is left behind. Any cargo hold contents, ship modules, drones and ammunition that were not destroyed in the explosion can be recovered by any player, and additional components of the structure of the ship can be retrieved by a player with the correct "salvaging" modules and skills. These components can be used to build ship enhancement modules known as 'rigs'. To (partially or fully) mitigate the loss of an expensive vessel, ships can be insured against destruction. Insurance payout revalue itself periodically based on a trimmed mean of the ship's manufacturing materials global market weighted average prices with a multiplier depending on ship type, for example tech 2 ships payout less than tech 1. Basic 40% insurance is automatic and free while full insurance cost 30% of ship value and needs to be manually renewed every 12 weeks. In the Crucible expansion, insurance was changed so that a ship's policy is rendered void if the ship was destroyed by CONCORD. This has the effect of making high-sec piracy less lucrative against low value targets. Modules, rigs and cargo cannot be insured at all; any of these items may also have a market value equal to, or much higher than, the ship itself. Players have no possibility for indemnification with regard to losses sustained in this way.

When a ship is destroyed, the player is ejected in a pod. This pod may be destroyed as well, if another player chooses to open fire on it. This player death is known as "pod killing" or "podding". In this case, the "podded" player character will die and be revived as a clone at a pre-determined cloning facility. Non-player characters will not attack a pod. Any implants installed on a player will be irrevocably lost when he or she is pod-killed. Implants cannot be insured.

Players may purchase an upgraded clone which is used in the event of pod death. The cost of a clone depends on how many skill points it can hold - the more skill points, the more expensive the clone becomes. When the player dies and is revived in his or her clone, if this clone holds a number of skill points lower than the number the player had at the time of death, then the player will lose a varying amount of skill points. In some cases, this represents more than a month's worth of training time. Therefore, players who value their skill points purchase upgraded clones sufficient to hold all their skill points. This is known as "keeping your clone up-to-date". Clones are single-use items; when a character dies and is resurrected via a clone, they are also awarded the basic, 900,000-point "Alpha" clone. Therefore, it is imperative that, as soon as possible after death, players purchase a replacement clone of a level appropriate to their character's skill points.

Expanding the cloning system further, jump clones were added in Red Moon Rising, and enhanced in Revelations, to allow advanced players to mitigate risking their cybernetic implants by using the Infomorph Psychology skill to jump into a cloned body in another station, without requiring their existing body to die to achieve this. The original body (complete with its cybernetic implants) remains stored in the original station and may be returned to via another clone jump (after a 24-hour waiting period). This method offers a way for developed characters to use expensive implants for skill training or economic pursuits, while still having the option to engage in dangerous combat operations without the risk of losing them or by creating jump clones with different groups of implants that control other aspects of the game such as shield support, enhanced damage capabilities or better targeting abilities.