Research missions

Research missions are about assisting an agent in their scientific undertakings in a station. These missions award Research Points that can be used to buy datacores from the agents who give the missions. Unlike other agents, research agents work for you and you must start, and if necessary stop, their research.

Qualify

To qualify for any research missions you must first have trained:

• Science to level V.
• One or more of the science specialty skills trained to the level required for the research agent you wish to work with.
  • Prerequisite Mechanics V
    • Amarr Starship Engineering
    • Caldari Starship Engineering
    • Gallente Starship Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Minmatar Starship Engineering
    • Molecular Engineering
    • Rocket Science
  • Prerequisite CPU Management V
    • Electromagnetic Physics
    • Electronic Engineering
    • Nanite Engineering
  • Prerequisite Power Grid Management V
    • Graviton Physics
    • High Energy Physics
    • Hydromagnetic Physics
    • Laser Physics
    • Nuclear Physics
    • Plasma Physics
    • Quantum Physics

Show info on Espidoure Malenut to see their relevant skills (Plasma Physics II, Quantum Physics II or Rocket Science II), you will need one of these to that level to work with the agent and will get datacores of that type.

Either corporation standing of the required agent level (L1: -2.00, L2: 1.00, L3: 3.00, L4: 5.00) or faction standing of the required level and corporation standing of no more than 2 below the required level.

A level 4 agent requires either 5.00 corporation standing or 5.00 faction standing and 3.00 corporation standing. This rule is there to prevent players from grinding up faction standings to start research with all of that faction's agents.

Starting research

There is a limit to the number of agents with whom you can be doing research at one time. This begins as 1, but training in the Research Project Management skill will increase the number of agents you can employ with 1 per level.

To acquire missions from a research agent, you must first "hire" the agent and initiate the research process. You do this by clicking on the "Start Research" button that appears on the agent's conversation window. If you try to get a mission before you have started working with the agent, he or she will tell you that they have nothing for you at this time.

When you press the "Start Research" button, a window will pop up to ask you what kind of research you want to do. There will be two or more choices of which you must (and can only) choose one. The choices available will depend on the agent's science specialty fields.

Once you have chosen a field, the agent will tell you how happy they are to be working with you. From this point on, until you terminate research with this agent, the agent will add daily Research Points to your account. These points will accrue whether you are logged on or not.

At some point after you start the research, usually within a few days, you will receive a communication from the agent. They will require some service that you will be asked to provide. This is either a short courier run or supplying the agent with a small amount of Tritanium (The amount varies by agent level). Completion of a mission will add one day's worth of bonus Research Points to your account.

From then on, you will receive similar messages from the agent regularly. But even if you do not receive a message, a new mission will be available from the agent each day. Acceptance of these missions is optional. The agent might warn you that "research will halt", but that warning can be ignored. The regular, daily research points will continue ... it is only the bonus, mission points that you will not receive. After completion of a mission there is a 12 to 23 hour cool-down before the next mission is offered.

R&D missions are similar to normal courier/trade missions in they give you standings gain with the agent and the corporation, and they count towards the sixteen missions required for a storyline mission to be offered.

A list of your currently active R&D agents and the Research Points acquired can be found in your Neocom (Neocom >> Industry >> industry, on the Research tab).

Stopping research

If you need to cancel research with an agent ... for example, if you are going to use a jump clone and will be wanting to do research in some other region of EVE ... all you need to do is talk to the agent and press the "Cancel" button. The agent will tell you how little work has been done so far, and then the connection will be severed.

BE SURE TO SPEND YOUR RESEARCH POINTS WITH AN AGENT BEFORE YOU CANCEL YOUR RESEARCH. All points will be lost when the connection is broken.

You must also talk to the agent and decline the latest mission before you cancel research with that agent, or you will suffer a standings loss as if you had accepted and then failed the mission.

Points and Datacores

Each day the agent works, they will add some research points(RP) to your account. At any time, you may choose to spend these points to buy datacores. These will always match the science specialty that you chose when you started the research. You can only spend RP with the agent from whom you earned them. To spend points simply click on the "Buy Datacores" button and indicate how many that you want to purchase.

All datacores cost 100 RP and 10k ISK.

Datacores may be used in the Invention process, or they may be sold in the market.

The RP that you gain are based on your science research field skill level as well as the agent's level and your standing with the agent.

[math] \displaystyle \text{RP/day} = (1 + (20 + 5 \times N + AS)/100) \times (SS + AL)^2 [/math]

Where:

• [math] N [/math] = Character's Negotiation skill level
• [math] AS [/math] = Agent standing (not faction or corporation standing). This is affected by your Connections skill.
• [math] SS [/math] = Character's specialist science field skill level (e.g., "Quantum Physics")
• [math] AL [/math] = Agent Level

Note that doing missions for an agent will increase your standing with that agent and thus increase your daily Research Point gain.

See also

• Datacore farming