Combat and PvP is a vital part of EVE, so it makes sense that people would want to combine it with earning ISK. Fortuntately, it is pretty easy to do so in a way that does not hinder your normal gameplay and is still fun. There are lots of options for earning ISK in combat. First, we will look at earning using NPCs (rats) and then we will look at earning using players (pirates) and last follow up with some special corporation notes.

Rats are all over EVE Online. You can find a listing of the major rat factions on the official EVE player guide, as well as where to find them and what their major goals are. In combat terms, there are not a lot of differences between the factions, except that as a general rule, those that you find in low sec space are going to be a higher "level" than those in higher sec areas. If you are planning on hunting rats, the quickest way to find them is usually to head to the nearest asteriod field.

Rats often appear here to challenge player miners, so besides looting ships and gaining the bounties on the rats (yes, there are usually NPC bounties on anything that shows up as red on your scanner) you may also be saving a gratful miners ship, who may decide to reward you in Eve Isk or trade goods. Or, if they are not so grateful, you are usually far enough away from CONCORD in the belt, even in high sec space, that you can lock them down and demand payment or scrap their ship, if you lean towards the darker side of things.

Just remember to wait about 15 minutes before you venture to a CONCORD area again, otherwise you will be killed on sight. Also, you will still get a security hit from doing this in high sec space, so pick your battles carefully! You can also find rats by checking your scanner in a system and watching for any rat bases that appear. Sometimes these are part of a mission, and somtimes they are simply there for people to kill.

Either way you can head in there for a fairly steady spawn rate of bountied rats, though sometimes these rats do not drop loot as often, or else drop mission specific trash loot. If you get to the base and find another player there, you might want to ask if they are on a mission - they will not appreciate you stealing their kills and loot if they are.

A third method of finding rats is to visit random places in a system - usually planets or moons, not so close to civilisation especially in high sec areas - and watching for either a group of rats (this is often related to a mission, so watch for other players) or a rat base on your scanner. This method is highly inefficient, but it can be useful if you want to explore a particular system fully anyway, or if you can not leave for another system right away for one reason or another and are looking for a way to pass some time.