CCP Games Introduces AI-Powered Chat Tool Trained on 5.8M Help Messages to Make EVE Online More Accessible

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – February 17, 2026 – CCP Games today announced updates to EVE Online as part of EVE Evolved, its long-term initiative to modernize its iconic sci-fi MMO through meaningful, player-focused improvements. With therelease of Aura Guidance, an in-development AI-powered assistance feature to help rookie capsuleers navigate EVE Online’s famously deep sandbox, CCP Games takes another step towards making New Eden more accessible.

Starting as an early prototype in ongoing development, Aura Guidance will initially be introduced through a controlled A/B test to evaluate its impact. New players creating their first character will be randomly assigned to either a group with access to the new companion or to a control group experiencing the standard onboarding process, ensuring the feature is refined through real capsuleer journeys from day one.

Aura Guidance Overview:

• Aura Guidance is an in-development chat tool designed to help new pilots find their footing without reliance on external resources. It is currently a prototype and will be iterated on over time as CCP Games collects data on how players use it. The results will determine what to keep, what to discard, what to improve, and where to go next.
• Built using insights from more than 5.8 million messages sent in the Rookie Help channel across nine months, Aura Guidance is an AI-powered system trained on real questions and answers from EVE Online players. In its current early release state, the chat tool is focused on aiding new players to build foundational knowledge during their early experience in New Eden.
• Responses are informed by in-game context, including where a pilot is and what they are flying. When the system cannot find a confident match, it redirects players to Rookie Help, ensuring guidance remains accurate and community-driven.
• Aura Guidance reflects CCP Games’ vision for Aura: a responsible AI companion designed to assist newcomers through their first steps in New Eden, while strengthening the tradition of capsuleers helping one another that has long defined EVE’s new player experience.

“The next step for EVE Evolved continues our long-term commitment to EVE Forever with relentless innovation and enhancements to EVE Online’s systems. Aura Guidance is an opportunity to drastically improve the way players find information and reduce friction for new capsuleers taking their first jumps into New Eden,” said Bergur Finnbogason, Creative Director at CCP Games. “Players submitted over 5.8 million Rookie Help messages in just the nine months we analyzed. That’s an impossible amount of content to navigate when you’re trying to answer a single question. We built Aura Guidance to make that process easier, enabling capsuleers to get fast, accurate answers drawn from the generations of rookies and veterans who helped them navigate EVE’s complexities.”

“First and foremost, Aura Guidance is not generative AI and does not produce game content, create art, or replace creative work. Aura Guidance has been carefully designed by our team and is grounded in existing player support data to supplement Rookie Chat, not supersede it,” said Snorri Árnason, Executive Producer at CCP Games. “We are building this tool to make EVE Online’s depth and intricacy more welcoming for aspiring capsuleers who want to join our community of passionate players. We remain committed to EVE Forever, and to make that vision a reality, we are dedicated to ensuring our game is approachable to current and future players.

More information about Aura Guidance can be found on the CCP Blog, here.

Alongside Aura Guidance, EVE Evolved is also introducing deeper personalization tools and enhanced visual clarity to improve movement and orientation in New Eden. The first phase of this round of updates, True Colors, is already available and delivers expanded customization and navigation improvements. Sharper Skies, a suite of art and VFX upgrades, arrives next week.

More information about EVE’s True Colors is already available, with a dev blog detailing Sharper Skies to be published alongside its release.

EVE Evolved is CCP Games’ ongoing commitment to keeping EVE Online modern by improving how the game looks, runs, and feels to play. It combines visible upgrades players directly interact with, like remastered nebulas and revamped career agent sites, with continued work on core systems that support EVE’s evolving universe.

For the latest happenings in and outside New Eden, visit EVE News. Assets for EVE Evolved can be found in the press kit.

Play EVE Online free at eveonline.com — also on Steam and Epic Games Store.

About EVE Online®

EVE Online (PC/Mac) is a compelling, community-driven sci-fi MMO game where players can build and pilot a wide variety of spaceships, traversing vast solar systems for free and choosing their own path from countless options, experiencing space exploration, immense PvP and PvE battles, mining, industry and a sophisticated player economy in an ever-expanding sandbox. EVE is a captivating game in which hundreds of thousands of players compete for riches, power, glory, and adventure, forging their own destinies in a single thriving universe.

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About CCP Games

CCP is a leading independently operated game developer that has been praised for its artistry, technology and game design that facilitates emergent behavior, empowering players with compelling means of self-expression. Founded in 1997 on the principle of pushing the envelope and breaking new ground on all levels, CCP is on a mission to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. With the launch of EVE Online in May 2003, CCP established itself as a pioneer of cutting-edge massively multiplayer games, winning numerous awards and receiving critical acclaim worldwide. CCP is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, and has additional studios in London and Shanghai.

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