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[[Image:DatacorePic.jpg|right|link=|alt= Image of a datacore|A Datacore]]One of more interesting ways to earn InterStellar Kredits (ISK), the currency in EVE, is to develop relationships with research and development (R&D) agents in non-player corporations. Once you have access to R&D agents, you can then ask them to conduct research for you on your behalf. They will produce Research Points (RPs), which you can then use to purchase datacores.  
[[Category:Work in progress]]
 
[[Category:Guides]]
 
  
==What is datacore farming?==
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Datacores are a key part of the invention process in EVE, which produces advanced technology ("Tech II" or "T2") items. Datacores are a consumable item used in invention to create T2 Blueprint copies (also known as "BPCs"). Every invention process requires a certain amount of datacores, so datacores are always in demand.
[[File:DatacorePic.jpg|right]]One of the most interesting ways to earn InterStellar Kredits (ISK), the currency in EVE, is to develop relationships with research and development (R&D) agents in non-player corporations.  Once you have access to R&D agents, you can then ask them to conduct research for you on your behalf.  They will produce Research Points (RPs), which you can then use to purchase [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Item_Database:Manufacture_&_Research:Components:Research_&_Invention:Datacores datacores].
 
  
Datacores are a key part of the invention process in EVE, which produces advanced technology ("Tech II" or "T2") items. Datacores are a consumable item used in invention to create T2 Blueprint copies (also known as "BPCs"). Every invention process requires a certain amount of datacores, so datacores are always in demand. For more information on invention, see this link: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invention 
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Datacores are therefore very valuable, and can be sold on the market for ISK. This is a very good thing, as it means that "datacore farming", once established, can produce a passive income for EVE players. Without any further action required, an R&D agent will happily generate RPs, which you can periodically convert to income.  
  
Datacores are therefore very valuable, and can be sold on the market for ISK, in addition to being used for T2 item production. This is a very good thing, as it means that "datacore farming", once established, can produce a passive income for EVE players.  Without any further action required, an R&D agent will happily generate RPs, which you can periodically convert to income.
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With the relevant science skill, and Negotiation and Connections, to V, and using the full 6 agents (assuming Research Project Management at V), one can expect a monthly income in the region of 25-35 million ISK. This is a large drop from old earnings of up to 100 million ISK per month. Still, it may be possible to train multiple characters on the same account to access R&D agents, with the main obstacle being reaching the required standings levels on characters not yet trained for combat missions.
  
How much income?  With multiple high level R&D agents working, you can earn an income of over 150 million ISK per month. Not a bad amount to collect, for no additional effort!
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Most players should expect to train all the required skills in one or two months (the estimated time to train Research Project Management to V and one science skill to IV is 44 days). Meanwhile, you can run missions to get to the required level of standings to unlock the higher-grade agents. So, in less than a couple of months in game time, you can establish a reliable semi-passive income stream that will last forever after in EVE.
  
==How do I start to farm datacores?==
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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 Agent tab).
There are three steps involved in becoming an effective datacore farmer:
 
* Train the required skills
 
* Develop relationships with R&D agents
 
* Begin the flow
 
  
===Training skills for datacore farming===
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== ''Datacore farming used to be very lucrative'' ==
The following skills are required to start using one R&D agent:
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You may hear from some old timers about how datacore farming is no longer worth it. Datacore farming was changed several expansions ago but you may still hear information that it's now "bad".
* Science V
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{{expansion past|
* Mechanic V (or) Engineering V (or) Electronics V
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* In an interview with Ten Ton Hammer<ref name="InterviewTenTon /> posted 25 March 2012, CCP Soundwave indicated that he would like to phase out datacore farming, so the future viability of this passive source of income is uncertain. Given this is August 2015 datacore farming has remained but in it's less lucrative form.
* At least one applied science skill to level I or higher
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* In a devblog <ref name="devblog1" /> dated 9 May 2012 CCP Ytterbium stated "... our current intention is to turn datacore gathering into more of an active profession than it currently is..."
 +
* Due to the addition of datacores to Faction Warfare and the increased 10,000 ISK cost per datacore, datacore farming is no longer a very profitable source of passive income.
 +
}}
  
Different R&D agents specialize in different types of research.  They won't even speak to you unless you have the above skills trained and completed, and then they will only conduct research in their areas of expertise, and only if you have trained in relevant science skills that match their expertise.  Below are some recommended areas to focus on -- these applied sciences tend to generate datacores that command higher prices in the market:
 
* Mechanical Engineering (The most common to find agents for)
 
* Molecular Engineering
 
* Nanite Engineering
 
* Quantum Physics
 
  
Note that the above skills give you access to one (and only one) R&D agent.  To maximize your income, you will want multiple R&D agents working with you.  The following skills are required to use more than one R&D agent:
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== How do I start to farm datacores?  ==
* Laboratory Operation V
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There are four steps involved in becoming an effective datacore farmer:
* Research V
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* Be Omega (Science V is Omega only, and required for access to R&D Agents)
* Research Project Management I - Each level gives you the ability to use another agent up to a maximum of six at level V.
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* Train the required skills  
 +
* Reach the required standings with R&D agent's corporations.
 +
* Talk to the agent (in person - remote conversation will not work) to initiate research.
  
===Developing R&D agent relationships===
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=== Training skills for datacore farming  ===
Not all non-player character (NPC) corporations offer R&D agents, so some pre-planning about which corporations you will select for your datacore farming plan is absolutely required for success.
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The following skills are required to start using one R&D agent:
 +
* {{Sk|Science|V}}
 +
* {{Sk|Mechanics|V}} (or) {{Sk|Power Grid Management|V}} (or) {{Sk|CPU Management|V}}
  
http://www.eve-agents.com - This site lets you search for agents. You can search by corp, by R&D skill, or just list the corps with R&D agents. You can also sort the list by number of datacores earned per day.
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Different R&D agents specialize in different types of research. They won't even speak to you unless you have the above skills trained and completed, and then they will only conduct research in their areas of expertise.  
  
To see if you have any relationships with corporations that have R&D agents already, use this procedure:
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There are the following datacore types / agent expertises:
* Open your character sheet
 
* Click on Standings
 
* Click on the "Liked By" tab.
 
* Scroll down to the "Corporations" section
 
* Right-click the top Corporation
 
* Click "Show Info" in the menu
 
* Click on the "Agents" tab in the new window
 
* Scroll down to the "R&D" agent list
 
* In the "Available" list, scroll down to the highest level agent and do a show info on him.
 
* Look under the "Agent Info" tab for one of the above mentioned research fields.
 
* If none of the above skill areas are listed (Mechanical Engineering for example), move to the next best agent and repeat.
 
  
In order to maximize the production of RPs, and therefore to produce more datacores, you will want to work with the highest level R&D agents - level 4. There are no level 5 R&D agents (though some agent-finder sites may show them, this is in error). The corporations with level 4 R&D agents, sorted by their associated factions, are:
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* Datacore - Amarrian Starship Engineering
* Gallente Federation: CreoDron, Roden Shipyards, Duvolle Laboratories (a mix of research corps is needed to access all level four agents, unfortunately)
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* Datacore - Caldari Starship Engineering
* Caldari State: Kaalakiota Corporation, Ishukone Corporation, Lai Dai Corporation (best)
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* Datacore - Electromagnetic Physics
* Minmatar Republic: Core Complexion Inc. (best), Boundless Creation
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* Datacore - Electronic Engineering
* Amarr Empire: Carthum Conglomerate, Viziam
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* Datacore - Gallentean Starship Engineering
 +
* Datacore - Graviton Physics
 +
* Datacore - High Energy Physics
 +
* Datacore - Hydromagnetic Physics
 +
* Datacore - Laser Physics
 +
* Datacore - Mechanical Engineering
 +
* Datacore - Minmatar Starship Engineering
 +
* Datacore - Molecular Engineering
 +
* Datacore - Nanite Engineering
 +
* Datacore - Nuclear Physics
 +
* Datacore - Plasma Physics
 +
* Datacore - Quantum Physics
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* Datacore - Rocket Science
  
There are also some non-Empire faction corporations with a few R&D agents:
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Each datacore type has a corresponding applied science skill. Training the skill will greatly speed up the accumulation of research points. These applied science skillbooks cost 10 million ISK each - not a trivial investment. So, be sure to check the prices and market trends of various types of datacores before you choose the skills to train.
* Thukker Tribe: Thukker Mix
 
* Khanid Kingdom: Khanid Innovation
 
* Ammatar Mandate: Nefantar Miner Association
 
  
Only level 4 agents produce datacores in useful quantities. Because the good Gallente R&D agents are scattered between three corporations, they are not an optimal choice, unless you have already started grinding missions there, or are otherwise committed to their faction.
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Note that the above skills give you access to one (and only one) R&D agent. To maximize your income, you will want multiple R&D agents working with you. The following skills are required to use more than one R&D agent:
 +
* {{Sk|Research Project Management|I}} - Each level gives you the ability to use another agent up to a maximum of six at level V. (Beware though, this one costs 40 million).
 +
** Pre req: {{Sk|Laboratory Operation|V}}
 +
** Pre req: {{Sk|Research|V}}
  
Each R&D agent requires a certain level of standing with their corporation and their faction, before they are willing to talk to you. That is, even if you have faction standings high enough to use a normal level 4 agent, it won't do you any good with the R&D agents.  Earning high faction standings is generally faster than getting high corporate standings, so you will want to run the tutorial agents, turn in tags, and do all the other stuff mentioned in my previous two articles. Once you've gone as far as you care to, with faction standings, you should check to see what level Carthum agents you can access. Ideally, it should be level 3, though perhaps 2 is more likely if you are stingy with turning in tags.  Therefore, you must usually execute missions for that corporation to earn higher standings.
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=== Developing R&D agent relationships  ===
 +
[[Image:EVE-RDA1.png|thumb|Dialog window with an R&D Agent.]]Not all non-player character (NPC) corporations offer R&D agents, so some pre-planning about which corporations you will select for your datacore farming plan is absolutely required for success.  
  
===Start the research flow===
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Search in The Agency in-game for R&D agents.
Once you have the standing level needed to speak with an R&D agent, go the the station where the desired R&D agent is located, and begin a conversation with him or her.  One of the options they will provide to you is to start research - select this option.  They will offer you their areas of applied science to research.  Select the one(s) in which you have trained your skills.  The agent will then start to produce research points (RPs) for you.
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Set the 'Specify' pull-down to 'Agents', the 'Faction' pull-down to 'Any Faction' and the 'Type' pull-down to 'R&D'.
  
The calculation for how many research points you'll get in a day is:
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In order to maximize the production of RPs, and therefore to produce more datacores, you will want to work with the highest level R&D agents - level 4. (Note: there are no level 5 R&D agents - though some agent-finder sites may show them, this is an error.) The corporations with level 4 R&D agents, sorted by their associated factions, are:
((Agent Skill + Your Skill)^2 * (1 + Effective Quality / 100)) * Area Bonus
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* Gallente Federation: CreoDron, Roden Shipyards, Duvolle Laboratories (a mix of research corps is needed to access all level four agents, unfortunately)
where:
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* Caldari State: Kaalakiota Corporation, Ishukone Corporation, Lai Dai Corporation (note that Lai Dai is the only corp with 6 level IV R&D agents, so if you ever plan to train to Research Project Management V, this would be the ideal choice)  
* Agent Skill: Determined by the Level of the agent. Level 3 agents will have Level III of the appropriate research skill.
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* Minmatar Republic: Core Complexion Inc. (best), Boundless Creation
* Your Skill: Determined by your training in the research skill.
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* Amarr Empire: Carthum Conglomerate, Viziam
* Effective Quality: is your effective quality (after Negotiation, Connection, etc.) with the Agent.
 
* Area Bonus: Depends on the research field. Most fields have no modifier (e.g. 1), weapon-area research is doubled (2), and ship research is tripled (3). Don't worry about this one too much - as the price of datacores is scaled to the area bonus.
 
  
There are several additional skills that can improve the amount of RPs generated per day.  These include:
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There are also some non-Empire faction corporations with a few R&D agents:  
* Negotiation: Directly improves the effective quality of your agent, and is the most efficient skill for raising the number of RPs you earn each day. Negotiation IV, for example, raises Effective Quality by nearly 20 points.
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* Thukker Tribe: Thukker Mix
* Connections: Not terribly efficient (but very useful in grinding standing to be able to use agents), Connections can minimally raise the effective quality of your research agent.
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* Khanid Kingdom: Khanid Innovation
* Area Specific Skill (Mechanical Engineering, etc): Each level of your skill in this area increases the "Your Skill" part of the equation listed above. Train this skill to level 4 or higher.
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* Ammatar Mandate: Nefantar Miner Association
  
http://hussars-online.ru/eve/datacore.php - This site lets you input your skills, standings, and such and it'll show you in order which agents/skill combinations are the most profitable. You can use your real skills/standings or just input possible combinations.
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Only level 4 agents produce datacores in useful quantities. Because the good Gallente R&D agents are scattered between three corporations, they are not an optimal choice, unless you have already started grinding missions there, or are otherwise committed to their faction.  
  
Once your R&D agent is working for you, that agent will offer you a mission once per day.  Each of these missions reward you with 1 day's worth or RP - effectively doubling your ISK potential. R&D agents offer relatively safe missions, half of which are short courier missions and the other half are trade-related. There is no penalty for ignoring or declining a mission from an R&D agent, despite the warnings they may give you - turning them down will not stop their research or the flow of RPs.
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To access a research agent, you must fulfill both a normal standings requirement for an agent of their Level and Quality, as well as a requirement for Corporate or Personal standings at 2.0 less than the normal standings requirement. For example, to use a Level 4 research agent, your effective personal standings must be 3.00 or higher toward that agent's corporation, and you must have an effective personal standing of 5.00 or higher toward this agent, the agent's faction, or the agent's corporation, in order to use that agent's services.  
  
==Making ISK from datacores==
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Note that attaining the required Corporate standing automatically fulfills the lower requirement. The extra requirement exists only to prevent those with high Faction standing from accessing top-level researchers without actually working for that corporation.  
Periodically, go talk to your R&D agent again and tell him you wish to purchase datacores. The agent will tell you how many you can afford, based on the number of RPs you have accumulated.  Regular datacores cost 50 RPs each - weapon-related datacores cost 100 RPs each, and starship engineering datacores cost 150 RP each. Buy as many as you wish - unused RPs remain in your accumulated pool.
 
  
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So, if you had perfect 10.0 standings with the agent's faction and 0.0 standing with his/her corp, you couldn't use that agent. However, if you had 10.0 faction standing and 3.0 corporation standing, ''or'' if you just had 5.0 corp standing, then you could.
  
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To see what faction and corporation standings you need to speak with an R&D agent:
 +
* Open your character sheet
 +
* Select the "Interactions" tab in the top row
 +
* Select the "Standings" tab
 +
* Scroll to the "Corporations" section
 +
* Right-click the Corporation you wish to work with (if that Corporation isn't listed, then you have not yet spoken with one of their agents)
 +
* Click "Show Info" in the menu
 +
* Click on the "Agents" tab in the new window
 +
* Scroll down to the "R&D" agent list (not all Corporations have R&D agents - if none are listed, they do not exist!)
 +
* In the "Not Available to You" list, right click on a desired agent and select "Show Info" on him or her.
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* Look under the "Agent Info" tab, and look at the "Compatibility" section at the bottom. (If there is no "Compatibility" section, then you already have access to that agent!) It will say something like: "Your effective personal standings must be 3.00 or higher toward this agent's corporation in order to use this agent, as well as an effective personal standing of 5.00 or higher toward this agent, its faction, or its corporation in order to use this agent's services."
  
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All of this means that a certain amount of mission grinding with an R&D agent's corporation is unavoidable. You can either grind for corporation standing or faction standing. If you want to gain access to only one corporation's agents it is faster to grind corporation standing. But if you wish to use multiple different corporations from same faction it may be faster to grind faction standing to 5.00 and individual corporations to only 3.00.
  
I hope this guide helps some of you become more self sufficient. It's a bit of time invested, and some ISK for the skills but the payoff is worth it. I'll guess, starting from scratch, it would take about 1-2 months to train all the required skills. You can do missions in the meantime with regular agents to get your faction/standing up and unlock the higher agents. Please let me know if anything else needs explained better, or any comments you might have on the validity of this guide. THANKS!
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To establish high faction standings:
 +
* Run the tutorial agents for that faction
 +
* Turn in tags from ratting or missions to that faction
 +
* Train Social, Connections and Negotiating skills  
 +
* Run missions with one faction repeatedly - and with one corporation in that faction with whom you intend to use R&D agents, ideally
 +
* Accept and complete storyline missions when offered by that faction
 +
* Run [[Gaining faction standings fast|COSMOS and Data Center missions]] for that faction
 +
* Don't do anything in that faction's space that will endanger your standings with them - no transporting of illegal goods, or running missions for opposing factions
  
------------------
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=== Start the research flow  ===
 +
Once you have the standing level needed to speak with an R&D agent, go to the station where the desired R&D agent is located, and begin a conversation with him or her. One of the options that they will provide to you is to start research - select this option. They will offer you their areas of applied science to research. Select the one(s) in which you have trained your skills. The agent will then start to produce research points (RPs) for you.
  
 +
The formula for how many research points you'll get in a day is:
  
 +
<!--: <math> \displaystyle \text{RP/day} = (1 + (20 + 5 \times N + AS)/100) \times (SS + AL)^2 </math>-->
 +
: <math> \displaystyle \text{RP/day} = \left( 1 + \frac { 20 + 5 \times N + AS } { 100 } \right) \times (SS + AL)^2 </math>
 +
   
 +
Where:
 +
* <math> N </math> = Character's {{Sk|Negotiation}} skill level
 +
* <math> AS </math> = Agent standing (not faction or corporation standing). This is affected by your {{Sk|Connections}} skill.
 +
* <math> SS </math> = Character's specialist science field skill level (e.g., "{{Sk|Quantum Physics}}")
 +
* <math> AL </math> = Agent Level
  
Find Carthum agents of the highest level that you can, of whatever type you prefer. I prefer agents that give me mostly combat missions. Run those Carthum agents, moving up the ladder to higher level agents, until you finally have access to level four Carthum agents.
 
  
Skills For R&D Agents
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There are only three skills that can improve the amount of RPs generated per day. These are:
 +
* Negotiation: Directly improves the effective quality of your agent, and is the most efficient skill for raising the number of RPs you earn each day. Negotiation IV, for example, raises Effective Quality by nearly 20 points.
 +
* Connections: Improves effective standing with the agent (The skill does not apply to "no standing" entities. You will need to do at least one mission for the agent for it to apply).
 +
* Area Specific Skill (Mechanical Engineering, etc): Each level of your skill in this area increases the "Your Skill" part of the equation listed above. Train this skill to level 4 or higher.
  
Each character may use a single R&D agent, plus an additional agent per level of the Research Project Management skill that they have trained. I recommend training it to level four. The pre-requisites for this skill are pretty intense (as is the ISK cost) if you don't already have them, but well worth it, as I explain later. In order to train Research Project Management, you need to train Laboratory Operation V, Research V, and Science III.
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[http://hussars-online.ru/eve/datacore.php Profitability of R&D Agents] - This site lets you input your skills, standings, and such and it'll show you in order which agents/skill combinations are the most profitable. You can use your real skills/standings, or experiment with other possible combinations to help with your planning.  
  
Additionally, the kinds of datacores that your agent can produce are limited by your skills, and also by their own particular areas of research. Some agents may be able to research Mechanical Engineering datacores, which are possibly the most lucrative at the time of this writing. The higher your Mechanical Engineering skill, the more datacores your agent will produce, each day.
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Once your R&D agent is working for you, that agent will offer you a special mission once per day. Each of these R&D agent missions will reward you with one day's worth or RP - effectively doubling your ISK potential. R&D agents offer relatively safe missions, half of which are short courier missions and the other half are trade-related. There is no penalty for ignoring or declining a mission from an R&D agent, despite the warnings they may give you - turning them down will not stop their research or the flow of RPs.
  
Research Rates
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Note:
 +
* Agent Quality was removed
 +
* Field Multipliers were removed in May 2012 <ref name="devblog1" />
  
The amount of research points produced by each agent varies according to your skills, and according to which datacore you are researching. Deceptively enough, even though some fields of research (like any of the Starship Engineering skills) will accumulate research points at a faster rate, the cost of purchasing datacores in that field is increased by that same amount. This is a relic of the old tech two lottery, an old game mechanic that hasn't been used in years.
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== Making ISK from datacores ==
  
You will need to look at datacore prices in Jita and do math, in order to figure out which kinds of datacores will make you the most ISK, per day.
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You can track the amount of RPs being created each day by your R&D agents by clicking on the button for the Neocom Menu, going to the Industry submenu, opening the Industry window, and clicking on the Research tab.  (The Research tab is below the words "Please install blueprint".)  This will also tell you the amount of accumulated RPs you have amassed with each agent.  
  
The datacore varieties and their research point multipliers are as follows, sorted by requisite skills:
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Periodically, go talk to your R&D agent again and tell them that you wish to purchase datacores. The agent will tell you how many you can afford, based on the number of RPs you have accumulated. All datacores now cost 100 RP each plus a 10k ISK per unit. <ref name="devblog1" />
  
Electronics:
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After ordering your datacores, transport them to a trade hub, and sell them there. ''Voilà'' - you have made ISK from datacore farming!
  
    * Electromagnetic Physics
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To maximize your ISK from your datacore farm, you will have to give it some care and feeding every month or so. If you are not earning what you would like to see from your datacore farm, consider these improvements:
    * Electronic Engineering
 
    * Nanite Engineering
 
  
Engineering:
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* Train Research Project Management skill, so that you can access larger number of R&D agents (up to six).
 +
* Some corporations base their best Level IV R&D agents in low security space. Fly a cloaked ship or travelceptor, if you can, and take care in low-sec, as pirates like to hunt there!
 +
* Use the [http://hussars-online.ru/eve/datacore.php Profitability of R&D Agents] site to see what the current rankings are for your areas of science research focus. Try other sciences to see if you can make more ISK by training those and switch agents. See http://web.archive.org/web/20120423163839/http://evegeek.com/datacore.php as an additional resource.
 +
* Train your Negotiation social skill to V, to increase the payout of your R&D agents.
 +
* Train your chosen applied science skills to 5, to improve the number of RPs generated by each agent researching in those skills.
 +
* After increasing your Negotiation or applied science skill, you must open a conversation window with your agent to benefit from your new skill levels.
 +
* Do the offered R&D missions, if you can - these will vastly increase your daily data-core production. The amount varies but can more than double your daily amount for that day. It will also increase your standing with the agent resulting in long term RP gain increase.
 +
** The R&D missions vary in type: Not all are combat. Be aware some may take you into low-sec so pay close attention to the mission description.
 +
** Since about 2016, each hi-sec agent seems to alternate between two missions:
 +
*** Supply a quantity of tritanium (increases based on agent rank) - simply leave a stockpile of tritanium in the appropriate station
 +
*** Courier a small parcel to a nearby station.
 +
** These missions count towards the 16 mission trigger for [[Missions#Storyline_Missions|storyline missions]].
  
    * Graviton Physics (x2 research rate)
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[[File:ResearchAgents.LaiDai.L4.png|thumb|500px]]
    * High Energy Physics
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Here is a concrete suggestion for pilots with Caldari affinity: Gain standing with Lai Dai corporation to get access to their six L4 research agents. A screenshot of a search result for their L4 agents is on the right. Also train up Caldari Ship Engineering, Graviton Physics, Electronic Engineering and Rocket science. Those have research points offered by four to six of those agents. As you can see on the market price history snapshot, the price for data cores fluctuates widely. So ideally you spread your research across multiple areas. However, initially you want to pick one and focus skill training on that. Once maxed you can add others. From the agency screenshot you can also see that five of those agents are within seven jumps of Jita, so quite convenient to get to.
    * Hydromagnetic Physics
 
    * Laser Physics
 
    * Nuclear Physics
 
    * Plasma Physics (x2 research rate)
 
    * Quantum Physics
 
  
Mechanics:
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{{Clear}}
  
    * Amarrian Starship Engineering (x3 research rate)
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==References==
    * Astronautic Engineering
+
<references>
    * Caldari Starship Engineering (x3 research rate)
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<ref name="InterviewTenTon> Interview Ten Ton Hammer (25 March 2012): https://www.tentonhammer.com/videos/eve-online-inferno-q-a-with-ccp-soundwave-part-1 </ref>
    * Gallentean Starship Engineering (x3 research rate)
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<!-- <ref name="devblog1"> Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120510071107/http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=28659</ref> -->
    * Mechanical Engineering
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<ref name="devblog1"> Devblog (9 May 2012): https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/fw-dev-blog-1-1-1 </ref>
    * Minmatar Starship Engineering (x3 research rate)
+
</references>
    * Molecular Engineering
 
    * Rocket Science
 
  
The Economics Of It
+
[[Category:Industry]]
 
+
[[Category:Guides]]
If you are balking at the skill requirements and the 40mil ISK price tag on Research Project Management, keep in mind that by ensuring a passive, constant income source, you are effectively lowering the price that you pay, to play EVE Online.
 
 
 
My best agent gives me about 2.5 Mechanical Engineering datacores, each day, while the worst level 4 R&D agent that I have still gives about one, each day. In total, I'm getting about 7.8 datacores a day. Assuming that they sell for about 380,000 ISK per unit, that's 2.98mil ISK, per day.
 
 
 
To put that in perspective, buying a 60-day timecard usually costs about 550mil apiece, or 9.16 mil a day. In effect, it's paying for a third of my subscription. If I were to do this with all three characters on my account, it would more or less pay for that account's subscription. That would mean anything that you made over that is pure profit, to be invested or spent on PvP. In tandem with other passive income sources like copying and selling blueprints, moon mining, or alchemy, you can easily pay for your EVE Online account without spending real money, which is damn cool in my books.
 
 
 
Note that you can check your journal to see what agents you are currently researching with, as well as what field you told them to study, how many research points they have accumulated to date, and how many they produce, each day.
 
 
 
A Final Note
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
---------------------
 
 
 
Not really a hack or a cheat, but something not everyone's aware of... Once you do some skilling and grind some standings you can farm datacores for completely passive income.
 
 
 
I know many of you are like me... You've got an account (at least one) that is just your miner. And once you've got the skill for a hulk and refining maxed out there's not really a lot to do with the training potential of that account. Training for pvp, missioning, or other "active" professions is generally a waste of time for that account; I mean, what's the point of stopping your mining just so you can mission?
 
 
 
This led me to datacores. Why? It provides a small amount of bonus income, and once the characters are set up and running all you have to do to earn that income is to go visit a few stations once every so often. Other than the trip to gather the datacores and fly them off to a market, the income's completely passive.
 
 
 
So, what are datacores?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How do you get datacores?
 
 
 
Datacores are acquired by talking to R&D division agents and starting research. If you meet the prerequisites, once you've done that you will then earn X amount of Research Points (RP) per day. The RP can then be traded in for datacores, which you can then use for invention or sell.
 
 
 
The important thing to remember is once you start the research the RP just accumulate without you doing anything. The only time you have to worry about them again is when you want to go buy the datacores with your RP and sell them (or use them for your own invention), which you can do whenever you like. Currently, RP's will even still continue to accumulate while the account is inactive. Some believe CCP will eventually change this but there's been no official word on the subject.
 
 
 
What skills do you need?
 
 
 
You need:
 
Research V
 
Science V
 
Laboratory Operations V
 
 
 
Those are the base skills, plus the specific research skills (more on that below). But you also want Research Operation IV. Every level of research operation lets you have an extra R&D agent, so level 4 gives you five agents. Level V would be better, but that fifth level takes forever. Level IV is enough to get you started.
 
 
 
You may also want some Social skills, to make the standings grind easier, such as Social IV-V and Connections IV.
 
 
 
In addition to the above, you'll need one or more of the skills below. They're listed under their prerequisite skill, which you'll also need at five. Not every agent deals with every skill, so you'll have to find the specific combination of skills, agents, and corps that work best for you. Each of the following skills corresponds with a specific type of datacore:
 
 
 
Engineering
 
Graviton Physics
 
High Energy Physics
 
Hydromagnetic Physics
 
Laser Physics
 
Nuclear Physics
 
Plasma Physics
 
Quantum Physics
 
 
 
Electronics
 
Electromagnetic Physics
 
Nanite Engineering
 
Electronic Engineering
 
Hypernet Science
 
 
 
Mechanic
 
Amarrian Starship Engineering
 
Caldari Starship Engineering
 
Gallente Starship Engineering
 
Minmatar Starship Engineering
 
Astronautic Engineering
 
Mechanical Engineering
 
Molecular Engineering
 
Rocket Science
 
 
 
How about corps and standings?
 
 
 
Each R&D agent has a specific standing requirement, just like mission agents. You've got to have sufficient standings to do research with them. You'll have to get between 6.0-7.0 standings with the corp in order to use the high level R&D agents.
 
 
 
This will generally mean mission grinding. Usually, I fleet the datacore farmer with a mission toon and grind them out that way. Once the datacore farmer has high enough standings with the mission agent they can get and turn in the missions themselves, thus avoiding the split.
 
 
 
Alternately, if your datacore character can't do combat missions themselves and you can't fleet them with another pve toon, you can have them do courier mission for the necessary standings.
 
 
 
How long it takes to get the standings really depends on you, how you do it, what's your setup, how fast you can complete a mission, ect. Remember that the social and connections skills can speed up the process.
 
 
 
R&D Missions
 
 
 
You have the option of doing R&D missions once per day, per agent. Your agent will evemail you saying the research has hit a snag and offer you a mission. First of all, despite whatever the agent says remember that your research has NOT stopped. You're still accumulating RP's and can still trade them in for datacores whenever.
 
 
 
But, if you like, you can also do the R&D mission. Doing a mission doubles your RP points for that day from that agent. Generally it's not worth it to chase around doing all the missions with each of the agent. After all, this is supposed to be passive.
 
 
 
However, if you can park your datacore farmer in the station with the highest producing agent, it is work checking in once per day. See, about half the time the mission is "bring me X trit." So, you can set up a buy order for trit in that station and check in daily. If the daily mission is for trit, accept and complete it. If it's not, just decline it.
 
 
 
Picking skills and corps
 
 
 
Like I said, not all agents (or even all R&D corps) use the same skills. So you'll have to look around a bit and decide what corp you want to do your standings grind with. Or, if you happen to already have standings with an R&D corp, decide see which skills their agents do research for, and pick a couple of them to train.
 

Latest revision as of 20:40, 18 July 2024

Image of a datacore

One of more interesting ways to earn InterStellar Kredits (ISK), the currency in EVE, is to develop relationships with research and development (R&D) agents in non-player corporations. Once you have access to R&D agents, you can then ask them to conduct research for you on your behalf. They will produce Research Points (RPs), which you can then use to purchase datacores.

Datacores are a key part of the invention process in EVE, which produces advanced technology ("Tech II" or "T2") items. Datacores are a consumable item used in invention to create T2 Blueprint copies (also known as "BPCs"). Every invention process requires a certain amount of datacores, so datacores are always in demand.

Datacores are therefore very valuable, and can be sold on the market for ISK. This is a very good thing, as it means that "datacore farming", once established, can produce a passive income for EVE players. Without any further action required, an R&D agent will happily generate RPs, which you can periodically convert to income.

With the relevant science skill, and Negotiation and Connections, to V, and using the full 6 agents (assuming Research Project Management at V), one can expect a monthly income in the region of 25-35 million ISK. This is a large drop from old earnings of up to 100 million ISK per month. Still, it may be possible to train multiple characters on the same account to access R&D agents, with the main obstacle being reaching the required standings levels on characters not yet trained for combat missions.

Most players should expect to train all the required skills in one or two months (the estimated time to train Research Project Management to V and one science skill to IV is 44 days). Meanwhile, you can run missions to get to the required level of standings to unlock the higher-grade agents. So, in less than a couple of months in game time, you can establish a reliable semi-passive income stream that will last forever after in EVE.

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 Agent tab).

Datacore farming used to be very lucrative

You may hear from some old timers about how datacore farming is no longer worth it. Datacore farming was changed several expansions ago but you may still hear information that it's now "bad".


How do I start to farm datacores?

There are four steps involved in becoming an effective datacore farmer:

  • Be Omega (Science V is Omega only, and required for access to R&D Agents)
  • Train the required skills
  • Reach the required standings with R&D agent's corporations.
  • Talk to the agent (in person - remote conversation will not work) to initiate research.

Training skills for datacore farming

The following skills are required to start using one R&D agent:

Different R&D agents specialize in different types of research. They won't even speak to you unless you have the above skills trained and completed, and then they will only conduct research in their areas of expertise.

There are the following datacore types / agent expertises:

  • Datacore - Amarrian Starship Engineering
  • Datacore - Caldari Starship Engineering
  • Datacore - Electromagnetic Physics
  • Datacore - Electronic Engineering
  • Datacore - Gallentean Starship Engineering
  • Datacore - Graviton Physics
  • Datacore - High Energy Physics
  • Datacore - Hydromagnetic Physics
  • Datacore - Laser Physics
  • Datacore - Mechanical Engineering
  • Datacore - Minmatar Starship Engineering
  • Datacore - Molecular Engineering
  • Datacore - Nanite Engineering
  • Datacore - Nuclear Physics
  • Datacore - Plasma Physics
  • Datacore - Quantum Physics
  • Datacore - Rocket Science

Each datacore type has a corresponding applied science skill. Training the skill will greatly speed up the accumulation of research points. These applied science skillbooks cost 10 million ISK each - not a trivial investment. So, be sure to check the prices and market trends of various types of datacores before you choose the skills to train.

Note that the above skills give you access to one (and only one) R&D agent. To maximize your income, you will want multiple R&D agents working with you. The following skills are required to use more than one R&D agent:

Developing R&D agent relationships

Dialog window with an R&D Agent.

Not all non-player character (NPC) corporations offer R&D agents, so some pre-planning about which corporations you will select for your datacore farming plan is absolutely required for success.

Search in The Agency in-game for R&D agents. Set the 'Specify' pull-down to 'Agents', the 'Faction' pull-down to 'Any Faction' and the 'Type' pull-down to 'R&D'.

In order to maximize the production of RPs, and therefore to produce more datacores, you will want to work with the highest level R&D agents - level 4. (Note: there are no level 5 R&D agents - though some agent-finder sites may show them, this is an error.) The corporations with level 4 R&D agents, sorted by their associated factions, are:

  • Gallente Federation: CreoDron, Roden Shipyards, Duvolle Laboratories (a mix of research corps is needed to access all level four agents, unfortunately)
  • Caldari State: Kaalakiota Corporation, Ishukone Corporation, Lai Dai Corporation (note that Lai Dai is the only corp with 6 level IV R&D agents, so if you ever plan to train to Research Project Management V, this would be the ideal choice)
  • Minmatar Republic: Core Complexion Inc. (best), Boundless Creation
  • Amarr Empire: Carthum Conglomerate, Viziam

There are also some non-Empire faction corporations with a few R&D agents:

  • Thukker Tribe: Thukker Mix
  • Khanid Kingdom: Khanid Innovation
  • Ammatar Mandate: Nefantar Miner Association

Only level 4 agents produce datacores in useful quantities. Because the good Gallente R&D agents are scattered between three corporations, they are not an optimal choice, unless you have already started grinding missions there, or are otherwise committed to their faction.

To access a research agent, you must fulfill both a normal standings requirement for an agent of their Level and Quality, as well as a requirement for Corporate or Personal standings at 2.0 less than the normal standings requirement. For example, to use a Level 4 research agent, your effective personal standings must be 3.00 or higher toward that agent's corporation, and you must have an effective personal standing of 5.00 or higher toward this agent, the agent's faction, or the agent's corporation, in order to use that agent's services.

Note that attaining the required Corporate standing automatically fulfills the lower requirement. The extra requirement exists only to prevent those with high Faction standing from accessing top-level researchers without actually working for that corporation.

So, if you had perfect 10.0 standings with the agent's faction and 0.0 standing with his/her corp, you couldn't use that agent. However, if you had 10.0 faction standing and 3.0 corporation standing, or if you just had 5.0 corp standing, then you could.

To see what faction and corporation standings you need to speak with an R&D agent:

  • Open your character sheet
  • Select the "Interactions" tab in the top row
  • Select the "Standings" tab
  • Scroll to the "Corporations" section
  • Right-click the Corporation you wish to work with (if that Corporation isn't listed, then you have not yet spoken with one of their agents)
  • Click "Show Info" in the menu
  • Click on the "Agents" tab in the new window
  • Scroll down to the "R&D" agent list (not all Corporations have R&D agents - if none are listed, they do not exist!)
  • In the "Not Available to You" list, right click on a desired agent and select "Show Info" on him or her.
  • Look under the "Agent Info" tab, and look at the "Compatibility" section at the bottom. (If there is no "Compatibility" section, then you already have access to that agent!) It will say something like: "Your effective personal standings must be 3.00 or higher toward this agent's corporation in order to use this agent, as well as an effective personal standing of 5.00 or higher toward this agent, its faction, or its corporation in order to use this agent's services."

All of this means that a certain amount of mission grinding with an R&D agent's corporation is unavoidable. You can either grind for corporation standing or faction standing. If you want to gain access to only one corporation's agents it is faster to grind corporation standing. But if you wish to use multiple different corporations from same faction it may be faster to grind faction standing to 5.00 and individual corporations to only 3.00.

To establish high faction standings:

  • Run the tutorial agents for that faction
  • Turn in tags from ratting or missions to that faction
  • Train Social, Connections and Negotiating skills
  • Run missions with one faction repeatedly - and with one corporation in that faction with whom you intend to use R&D agents, ideally
  • Accept and complete storyline missions when offered by that faction
  • Run COSMOS and Data Center missions for that faction
  • Don't do anything in that faction's space that will endanger your standings with them - no transporting of illegal goods, or running missions for opposing factions

Start the research flow

Once you have the standing level needed to speak with an R&D agent, go to the station where the desired R&D agent is located, and begin a conversation with him or her. One of the options that they will provide to you is to start research - select this option. They will offer you their areas of applied science to research. Select the one(s) in which you have trained your skills. The agent will then start to produce research points (RPs) for you.

The formula for how many research points you'll get in a day is:

[math] \displaystyle \text{RP/day} = \left( 1 + \frac { 20 + 5 \times N + AS } { 100 } \right) \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


There are only three skills that can improve the amount of RPs generated per day. These are:

  • Negotiation: Directly improves the effective quality of your agent, and is the most efficient skill for raising the number of RPs you earn each day. Negotiation IV, for example, raises Effective Quality by nearly 20 points.
  • Connections: Improves effective standing with the agent (The skill does not apply to "no standing" entities. You will need to do at least one mission for the agent for it to apply).
  • Area Specific Skill (Mechanical Engineering, etc): Each level of your skill in this area increases the "Your Skill" part of the equation listed above. Train this skill to level 4 or higher.

Profitability of R&D Agents - This site lets you input your skills, standings, and such and it'll show you in order which agents/skill combinations are the most profitable. You can use your real skills/standings, or experiment with other possible combinations to help with your planning.

Once your R&D agent is working for you, that agent will offer you a special mission once per day. Each of these R&D agent missions will reward you with one day's worth or RP - effectively doubling your ISK potential. R&D agents offer relatively safe missions, half of which are short courier missions and the other half are trade-related. There is no penalty for ignoring or declining a mission from an R&D agent, despite the warnings they may give you - turning them down will not stop their research or the flow of RPs.

Note:

  • Agent Quality was removed
  • Field Multipliers were removed in May 2012 [2]

Making ISK from datacores

You can track the amount of RPs being created each day by your R&D agents by clicking on the button for the Neocom Menu, going to the Industry submenu, opening the Industry window, and clicking on the Research tab. (The Research tab is below the words "Please install blueprint".) This will also tell you the amount of accumulated RPs you have amassed with each agent.

Periodically, go talk to your R&D agent again and tell them that you wish to purchase datacores. The agent will tell you how many you can afford, based on the number of RPs you have accumulated. All datacores now cost 100 RP each plus a 10k ISK per unit. [2]

After ordering your datacores, transport them to a trade hub, and sell them there. Voilà - you have made ISK from datacore farming!

To maximize your ISK from your datacore farm, you will have to give it some care and feeding every month or so. If you are not earning what you would like to see from your datacore farm, consider these improvements:

  • Train Research Project Management skill, so that you can access larger number of R&D agents (up to six).
  • Some corporations base their best Level IV R&D agents in low security space. Fly a cloaked ship or travelceptor, if you can, and take care in low-sec, as pirates like to hunt there!
  • Use the Profitability of R&D Agents site to see what the current rankings are for your areas of science research focus. Try other sciences to see if you can make more ISK by training those and switch agents. See http://web.archive.org/web/20120423163839/http://evegeek.com/datacore.php as an additional resource.
  • Train your Negotiation social skill to V, to increase the payout of your R&D agents.
  • Train your chosen applied science skills to 5, to improve the number of RPs generated by each agent researching in those skills.
  • After increasing your Negotiation or applied science skill, you must open a conversation window with your agent to benefit from your new skill levels.
  • Do the offered R&D missions, if you can - these will vastly increase your daily data-core production. The amount varies but can more than double your daily amount for that day. It will also increase your standing with the agent resulting in long term RP gain increase.
    • The R&D missions vary in type: Not all are combat. Be aware some may take you into low-sec so pay close attention to the mission description.
    • Since about 2016, each hi-sec agent seems to alternate between two missions:
      • Supply a quantity of tritanium (increases based on agent rank) - simply leave a stockpile of tritanium in the appropriate station
      • Courier a small parcel to a nearby station.
    • These missions count towards the 16 mission trigger for storyline missions.
ResearchAgents.LaiDai.L4.png

Here is a concrete suggestion for pilots with Caldari affinity: Gain standing with Lai Dai corporation to get access to their six L4 research agents. A screenshot of a search result for their L4 agents is on the right. Also train up Caldari Ship Engineering, Graviton Physics, Electronic Engineering and Rocket science. Those have research points offered by four to six of those agents. As you can see on the market price history snapshot, the price for data cores fluctuates widely. So ideally you spread your research across multiple areas. However, initially you want to pick one and focus skill training on that. Once maxed you can add others. From the agency screenshot you can also see that five of those agents are within seven jumps of Jita, so quite convenient to get to.

References