SquadB Gaming taking a character from Alpha to Omega

SquadB Gaming, the youtube channel that focuses on games like Eve Online amongst others.  He also has a website https://squadb.com/

Alpha to Omega Venture

The creator has launched a project to take an Account from Alpha to Omega.

The first episode is on youtube, called EVE Online Hardmode:– Episode 1: 0 ISK, No Help, One Character

Starting by creating a new Account and going from there.  No help, no loans.  So starting from scratch.  Seems he will explore a number of routes to get there - so will be interesting which he uses the most to gather the isk.  My bet is on trading but lets see.

The creator is doing this as a break from his normal game style and wants to document the journey.

Episode 1 sets the tone for the entire series as with creating the new account, the starter missions, the first income sources, and the mindset needed to grow from nothing in New Eden.

The Youtube channel / Eve Online

There is a lot of useful videos there covering Eve Online including Industry, Trading and other isk making ventures.  Full use of Excel.

Almost 14k subscribers.  First video 18 years ago.

It is best viewed in his playlists to get a sense of what is available.

Examples are:

Master EVE Online Multiboxing

How to Run Abyssal Deadspace Sites

How to Setup Excel for EVE Online

How to make ISK in EVE Online

The Website

As far as i can tell this is a collection of his videos.  https://squadb.com/

Spreadsheets used in the alpha to omega challenge - the main trading sheet

I used two spreadsheets in my challenge (technically two worksheets on the same spreadsheet) that both made heavy use of the Eve Excel Addin.

The purpose of the spreadsheet was to keep a track with what i had for sale, what had been sold, what spare Sale slots i had and what items i should buy in Jita to put up for sale in Dodixie.

In this post i will talk about the main trading sheet.

A prior post talked about the workbook i used to find new items to consider selling.

Eve Excel Addin

I have previously covered using the Eve Excel Addin in other posts - so i wont do it here.  So for now i wont talk about how to install it but i will go through the formulas i used.

Suffice to say, it installs like any other excel Addin and you need to connect your characters to it using the easy to follow and intuitively labeled button "Add a Character".  You need to do this for all characters you want data on, not merely Accounts only.

The Main Trading Sheet

As with the prior post, get yourself a cold drink, a spare 30 minutes and some patience to follow all this . . . . . 

The purpose of this worksheet is to keep track of what you have for sale, keep track of the spare slots you need to fill and to identify items to Buy (from Sell Orders) in Jita to sell in Dodixie.

This is where the real work is done and the one i spent most time looking at daily.

There are five parts to this worksheet

Part 1) The list if items i have for currently sale in Dodixie

Part 2) A cheeky manual part that takes this list a makes it readable in a worksheet

Part 3) The universe of items i can sell (fed by the prior worksheet)

Part 4) A list of items derived from Part 3 to buy from Jita

Part 5) My current wealth

Part 1) The list if items i have for currently sale in Dodixie

I need this list to firstly check which items need to be adjusted if undercut but also to show how many slots i have free.

As ever, for any excel addin details of a character we need the character ID which can be found on the character screen ingame.

On the ingame screen, press the character face to bring up the character window.  Right click the name to bring up the menu and select <copy>.

Paste this somewhere = <a href=showinfo:1373//2124084989>James Macdonell</a>.

In this case the 2124084989 is the character ID.

Using this we can get the items each character has for sale and related details such as volume and price.

In my case the character ID (2124084989) was in cell W4.

Column 1 = EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_ORDERS(W4).type.  This will bring down all items the character has for sale.

Column 2= EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_ORDERS(W4).volume_remain.  This will bring down the volume of all these items.

Column 3 = EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_ORDERS(W4).price.  This will bring down the price for each item for sale.

Column 4 = column 2 x column 3.

This list can be copied and pasted into the quick bar as an easy way to go through each item to check to see if the price needs to be updated.

Part 2) A cheeky manual part that takes this list a makes it readable in a worksheet

I need to separate list of column 1 in normal text

OK, those good with spreadsheets can probably do this automatically.  But i need to take column 1 above and convert into a normal list in the workbook to be read by other parts of the workbook.

Hence, if i copy the list in Column 1 above and paste it somewhere else.  I can then highlight it, right click and select Data Type and then select Convert to Text to give:

Part 3) The universe of items i can sell (fed by the prior worksheet)

OK, this the where the magic happens.

The above shows:

Column B shows with an "x" any item that i have currently for sale in Dodixie and therefore should not be purchased in Jita.

Column C shows all the potential items i could buy from Jita, taken from the workbook i used to find new items to consider selling.

Column D then converts it into Excel Addin format

Column E shows the Jita Sell Price

Column F shows the Dodixie Sell Price (the 10000032 is the ID for the Dodixie region)

Column G shows the profit = Column F - Column E

Column H then shows the margin = Column G / Column F

Column I then shows any item where the margin is over 20% (or whatever i had in yellow in cell i2) and where the price is over the minimum selected (thats the 0 in yellow in cell i1) and which i don't currently have for sale (the x in Column B).  Such items are shown with an x and are items i could consider buying from Jita to sell in Dodixie.

The formulas are (looking at row 4):

Column B: this is an Index Match formula that sees if the item in Column C is in the list in Part 2 above.  It if is, then it gets an x which means i ignore it.

Column C: this is a manual list of items that came from the prior workbook.  By the time i had finished the project it was some 177 items long.

Column D: EVEONLINE.INVENTORYSEARCH(C4,1) where C4 is the item in Column C.  Technically we need to expand this in case the item as a ' at the start so becomes IFERROR(EVEONLINE.INVENTORYSEARCH(C4,1),EVEONLINE.INVENTORYSEARCH("'"&C4,1))

Column E: EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS_STATS(10000002,D4.id).sell.min where D4 is the item in Column D

Column F: EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS_STATS($F$2,D4.id).sell.min where $F$2 is the Dodixie Region ID in this case 10000032.

Column G: F4-E4

Column H: G4/F4

Column I: IF(AND(B4<>"x",H4>=$I$2,F4>=$I$1),"x","")

What this will show are all the items (shown by a x in column I) that i could buy from Jita to put up for sale in Dodixie.

Part 4) A list of items derived from Part 3 to buy from Jita

This is where i get manual again.

Column I is as above, where x shows i can buy the item to be sold.

What i then did in Column J is put an x beside the column I x to agree to buy it.

The placing of that X brings up the Jita Sell Price in Column k, the profit in Column L and importantly the item name from Column C.  These are all simple spreadsheet formulas.

Now the idea is to select enough items to buy to fill up all spare sale slots in Dodixie and to have enough ISK left over to contract out the items to be couriered from Jita to Dodixie and then have enough ISK to pay the Broker Fees to put them up for sale in Dodixie,

You can select the whole of Column M and copy and paste them into the Quickbar for fast buying.  And use the Multibuy button ingame to really speed that up in Jita, as i showed in this post.

Part 5) My current wealth

And finally, to keep track of my wealth:

Looking at row 4:

Column W is the character ID i manually put in.

Column X is the character name. =EVEONLINE.CHARACTER(W4)

Column Y is the ISK on that character.  =EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_WALLET_BALANCE(W4)

Column Z is the sum of all sell orders which is the sum of the Sell Orders in Part 1 above,

Column AA is the 20% provision i take against each Sell Order to cover transaction taxes and price cuts

Column AB was for any spare inventory i had

Column AC for the rare occasion i had a courier contract on the go and 20% provided for =IFERROR(SUM(EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_CONTRACTS(W4,,"outstanding").collateral),0)*80% + IFERROR(SUM(EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_CONTRACTS(W4,,"in_progress").collateral),0)*80%

In AD was the value of all Plex i held:  =EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS_STATS(19000001, 44992).sell.min

And then Column AE was the total of it all.

Spreadsheets used in the alpha to omega challenge - the item universe finder sheet

I used two spreadsheets in my challenge (technically two worksheets on the same spreadsheet) that both made heavy use of the Eve Excel Addin.

The purpose of the spreadsheet was to keep a track with what i had for sale, what had been sold, what spare Sale slots i had and what items i should buy in Jita to put up for sale in Dodixie.

In this post i will talk about the Universe Finder Sheet.

Eve Excel Addin

I have previously covered using the Eve Excel Addin in other posts - so i wont do it here.  So for now i wont talk about how to install it but i will go through the formulas i used.

Suffice to say, it installs like any other excel Addin and you need to connect your characters to it using the easy to follow and intuitively labeled button "Add a Character".  You need to do this for all characters you want data on, not merely Accounts only.

The Universe Finder Sheet

Get yourself a cold drink, a spare 30 minutes and some patience to follow all this . . . . . 

The purpose of this worksheet is to find items for sale in Jita that cost up to a certain amount (so 1 million isk initially and then up to 400 million isk by the end of the project) that also could be sold in Dodixie for a margin of at least 20%.

It is this worksheet that created the universe of items i would then review every night to decide what to buy in Jita to sell in dodixie.

Therefore, there are three parts to this worksheet.

Part 1) a list of potential items taken from the ingame market to assess.

Part 2) few columns using the excel Eve Addin that shows the sell price in Jita, the sell price in Dodixie and therefore the margin

Part 3) a final column that selected all items from Part 2) that cost up to the maxium limit (say 1 million, or 400 million, or whatever) that also achieved a 20% margin but also sold enough volume to make it worth while.  Enough Volume = at least 1 item sold per day at the start, or 1 item sold every 4 days at the end.

Getting the list of potential items for Part 1)

Quite easy, comes from the ingame market browser.

What we need to do is use the copy and paste ability from the Quickbar to the Spreadsheet.

Firstly, clear your Quickbar by clicking the bin button on it.

And then go to the "Browse" tab and lets assume we are pulling down all the blueprints to assess.

In this case, right-click on the Blueprint item and select "Add Group to Quickbar Root"

This will give you the Blueprint item in the Quickbar:

And then it gets quite tedious, you need to single click on each horizonal arrow to expand all the folders and sub folders such that every single blueprint is showing.

And then select all (ctrl A) and then copy and paste it all into a spreadsheet (ctrl C, ctrl V).  You will find that only the items are copied over, not the folder names.

Assessing the items to determine the sales price in Jita, sales price in Dodixie, and therefore the profit margin for Part 2)

6 columns, the first being the list of items we will assess.  The second being the Eve Online readable version we need for the Addin to pickup the prices.  The third being the sell price in Jita.  The fourth being the sell price in Dodixie.  The fifth being the profit (= Dodixie Sell price - Jita Sell price).  The sixth being the profit margin = profit / Dodixie Sell Price = (Dodixie Sell price - Jita Sell price) / (Dodixie Sell Price)

The number in Yellow is the Dodixie id number.  I could have hard coded it into the Dodixie formula.

Column C = list of items we got in Part 1.

Column D used the formula =IFERROR(EVEONLINE.INVENTORYSEARCH(C4,1),EVEONLINE.INVENTORYSEARCH("'"&C4,1))

A few things in this formula.  C4 is the item in cell C4.  The 1 after the C4 is just telling the formula to find the exact item in C4 and not all strings.

The second part of the IFERROR statement addresses the matter where some items start with an " ' " where an excel spreadsheet struggle to deal with initially.

Column E then uses Column D to get the minimum Sell price in Jita.

=EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS_STATS(10000002,D4.id).sell.min

so, the 10000002 is the id for the region "The Forge".  and so this formula technically pulls up a list of all Sale prices of the relevant item in The Forge, and then the final part ".min" selects the lowest sale price.

Column F does the same for Dodixie.

=IFERROR(EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS_STATS($F$2,D4.id).sell.min,"")

where $F$2 refers to the number in yellow which is the Sinq Laison region id which is where Dodixie is.

And so Column G and H are mathematical as explained above.  G = F-E, H = G/F.

From this getting the list of items to use as potential ideas to buy in Jita

This part is pure spreadsheet stuff.

My inputs in yellow: the top cell in yellow in this case was the minimum Jita sale price i was looking at, the next cell was the maximum sale price in Jita i was looking at, and then the % number in yellow was the minimum market i was considering.

So in this example i am looking for all items that sold for more than 10 million and less than 400 million with a profit margin of at least 20%.

And therefore in Column L i am merely listing all items from Columns C to H that meet the above criteria.

And quite simply i was using Column I to identy all items that met this criteria

=IFERROR(IF(AND(E4>$I$1,E4<$I$2,H4>=$J$1),1+MAX($I$3:I3),0),0)

and so Column L to list all items based on a simple number list in Column K
=IFERROR(INDEX(C:C,MATCH(K4,I:I,0)),"")

In the case of the 587 blueprints that i assessed, there were 30 that sold between 10m to 400m in Jita and had a profit margin of at least 20% if sold in Dodixie.

the final step is to then put those 30 into the Quickbar (copy and paste, Ctrl C then Ctrl V) and cycle through them all looking for items that sell once a day, or later on in the project once every 3 or 4 days, and that have very little competition.

Delete items from the Quickbar that fail the volume test and keep the rest in another list on your spreadsheet as a potential source of items to consider to buy from Jita to sell into Dodixie.

Alpha Market Trading - general tips on the mechanics of making this all work

Now that my project of taking an account from alpha to Omega and keeping it there is completed, below are some tips.

Excel

Excel is your friend.  It manages your business.  The Excel sheets you start off with when you isk is 10 million will be the foundations when your wealth is 2 trillion.

Start with them early and you will only get better as you build on them.

In a post in the near term i will show the sheets i used but don't underestimate the enjoyment of starting with spreadsheets you design yourself and then iterating them to greatness.

Copying from game to excel

The game is very much like a word doc, or excel spreadsheet.  Right clicking the mouse on an item name, character name etc and pressing copy, or selecting a list of items and right click - copy or CTRL C puts the info into your clipboard.

And then that can be pasted to Excel as text.

Items in your inventory, items from the market browser, items of text in descriptions etc.  you name it.  it all copies over.

Copying from excel to the game

Works exactly the same way.  Text can be copied from any platform into any text box in the game including your market quickbar.  Or the MultiBuy.  etc.

And its not just Excel.  You can copy text from word docs, websites etc.  The game will attempt to work out what you are meaning (so try and get the exact name).

Eve Excel add in

If you don't use any third party tools that keep track of your items, sell orders etc (like me, i don't use any of those) then the Eve Excel add in is a must.

In a following post i will show the spreadsheets and Eve Excel add in formulas i used.

Ingame Quickbar

Don't view this as a permanent list of items.  Look at it as a temporary list that is fed from copying and pasting from excel.

Multibuy

A beautiful function.  This allows you to buy a whole list of items in one shot rather than double clicking on each item and buying each item individually.

you can review the cost of each item vs Regional average to make sure you are not buying something at a stupid price.

But this saves a load of time.

Alpha Market Trading - Omega bought, project completed

3 May 2026

The background to this series: i aiming to use Regional Trading between Jita and Dodixie to take an alpha account to Omega status.

My wealth is 2.4 billion having converted 500 Plex worth 2.2 billion into Omega one month ago and last night 500 Plex worth 2.4 billion into Omega to sustain my Omega status.

Sell Orders this morning are 2.7 billion and 187 million isk vs 1.5 billion Sell Orders when i bought the first Omega - therefore i am in a better position to retain omega and therefore i consider this a success.  And will close the project now.

I have proven i can firstly get from alpha to omega and then retain omega.

Orders on the Market

Current Wealth.

If i only look at ISK + Market Orders + Items in Inventory that are to be sold (so ignore my catalyst, ammo etc), then my worth is 2.3 billion which is made up from

ISK 0.2bn

Plex 0.0bn (=0 Plex)

Inventory 0m

Sell Orders 2.7bn

Provision 0.5bn

I have always taken a 20% provision against my Sell Orders which reflects the Transaction Tax that will be paid when the items sell + the cost of reducing the price to keep it competitive if required + the eventual reduced price when sold.  In reality, i rarely end up needing this provision.  But lets keep things conservative and understand that the only ISK is ISK.  Everything else is an approximation until sold.

Alpha Market Trading - 4.7 billion having bought Omega. Ready to buy my next Omega

2 May 2026

The background to this series: i aiming to use Regional Trading between Jita and Dodixie to take an alpha account to Omega status.

My wealth is 4.7 billion having converted 500 Plex worth 2.2 billion into Omega.

The aim is now to renew Omega within 30 days to prove it is sustainable.  I have until 5 May to do this vs todays date of 2 May.

I am now about to buy the next Omega to give me 30 days added on to stay Omega status.

Therefore, this will not be my last post on this series but i have now completed the aims of taking alpha to omega and staying there!  With 3 days to spare and Sell Orders of 2.5 billion (vs 1.5 billion when i made Omega status 57 days ago) - therefore i am in a better position to retain omega and therefore i consider this a success.

Orders on the Market

Current Wealth.

If i only look at ISK + Market Orders + Items in Inventory that are to be sold (so ignore my catalyst, ammo etc), then my worth is 4.7 billion which is made up from

ISK 2.7bn

Plex 0.0bn (=0 Plex)

Inventory 0m

Sell Orders 2.5bn

Provision 0.5bn

I have always taken a 20% provision against my Sell Orders which reflects the Transaction Tax that will be paid when the items sell + the cost of reducing the price to keep it competitive if required + the eventual reduced price when sold.  In reality, i rarely end up needing this provision.  But lets keep things conservative and understand that the only ISK is ISK.  Everything else is an approximation until sold.

Alpha Market Trading - 4.4 billion having bought Omega

1 May 2026

The background to this series: i aiming to use Regional Trading between Jita and Dodixie to take an alpha account to Omega status.

My wealth is 4.4 billion having converted 500 Plex worth 2.2 billion into Omega.

The aim is now to renew Omega within 30 days to prove it is sustainable.  I have until 5 May to do this vs todays date of 1 May.

Therefore, i will give it one more day (tomorrow is Saturday) to invest in the market before i start to gather isk to buy the 500 Plex to buy the Omega

New Skills

My main character is now:

Retail 4 and Trade 4 - which gives it 53 selling slots.  Therefore over my 5 selling characters i have 121 slots but i suspect from here on in i will only need the 3 characters.

Broker Relations 4 - which means every item listed costs 1.8% (vs 3% base fee).

Accounting 4 - which means that every item sold attracts a transaction tax of 4.2% vs 7.5% base fee).

Advanced Broker Retaliations 4 - which means that relisting fees are 0.65% vs base of 1.5%

When to start collecting isk to buy plex?

I now have 5 days until my account needs a new Omega.  I am not sure if i can make it - it will be close.

Orders on the Market

 

Current Wealth.

If i only look at ISK + Market Orders + Items in Inventory that are to be sold (so ignore my catalyst, ammo etc), then my worth is 4.4 billion which is made up from

ISK 0.6bn

Plex 0.0bn (=0 Plex)

Inventory 0m

Sell Orders 4.8bn

Provision 1.0bn

I have always taken a 20% provision against my Sell Orders which reflects the Transaction Tax that will be paid when the items sell + the cost of reducing the price to keep it competitive if required + the eventual reduced price when sold.  In reality, i rarely end up needing this provision.  But lets keep things conservative and understand that the only ISK is ISK.  Everything else is an approximation until sold.

Alpha Market Trading - 3.4 billion wealth having bought Omega

25 April 2026

The background to this series: i aiming to use Regional Trading between Jita and Dodixie to take an alpha account to Omega status.

My wealth is 3.4 billion having converted 500 Plex worth 2.2 billion into Omega.

The aim is now to renew Omega within 30 days to prove it is sustainable.  I have until 5 May to do this vs todays date of 25 April.

New Skills

My main character is now:

Retail 4 and Trade 4 - which gives it 53 selling slots.  Therefore over my 5 selling characters i have 121 slots but i suspect from here on in i will only need the 3 characters.

Broker Relations 4 - which means every item listed costs 1.8% (vs 3% base fee).

Accounting 4 - which means that every item sold attracts a transaction tax of 4.2% vs 7.5% base fee).

Advanced Broker Retaliations 4 - which means that relisting fees are 0.65% vs base of 1.5%

When to start collecting isk to buy plex?

I now have 10 days until my account needs a new Omega.  I am not sure if i can make it.

For now, i will keep investing as much of my isk back into the market and make a decision in a few days time how to collect the isk.

Orders on the Market

Current Wealth.

If i only look at ISK + Market Orders + Items in Inventory that are to be sold (so ignore my catalyst, ammo etc), then my worth is 3.4 billion which is made up from

ISK 0.2bn

Plex 0.0bn (=0 Plex)

Inventory 0m

Sell Orders 4.0bn

Provision 0.8bn

I have always taken a 20% provision against my Sell Orders which reflects the Transaction Tax that will be paid when the items sell + the cost of reducing the price to keep it competitive if required + the eventual reduced price when sold.  In reality, i rarely end up needing this provision.  But lets keep things conservative and understand that the only ISK is ISK.  Everything else is an approximation until sold.