Datacore farming

What is datacore farming?

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 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

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.

How much income? With five Level 4 R&D agents working for you, and under the right market conditions, it is possible to earn an income of about 100 million ISK per month. Not a bad amount to collect, for little additional effort!

How long does it take to start datacore farming? Most players should expect to train all the required skills in one or two months. 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?

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

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

• Science V
• Mechanic V (or) Engineering V (or) Electronics V
• At least one applied science skill to level I or higher

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

You can check the current prices for datacores, and the trend in price changes, here.

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:

• Laboratory Operation V
• Research V
• 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).

Developing R&D agent relationships

A typical R&D agent dialogue

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.

Eve-agents.com 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. A list of research agents ordered by proximity to Aldrat is also available.

To see if you have any relationships with corporations that have R&D agents already, use this procedure:

• Open your character sheet
• Click on Standings
• Click on the "Liked By" tab.
• Scroll down to the "Corporations" section
• Right-click the Corporation you wish to work with
• 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, you can't use them!)
• 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. (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.

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. To see what faction and corporation standings you need to speak with an R&D agent, select "Show Info" on that agent, go to the "Agent Info" tab, and look at the "Compatibility" section at the bottom. It will say something like: "You need a minimum effective corp standing of at least 4.80, in addition to an effective faction, corp, or personal standing of at least 6.80 to use this agent." So, if you had 8.0+ standings with the agent's faction and 0 with his/her corp, you couldn't use that agent. However, if you had 8.0 faction standing and 4.8 corp standing, or if you had 6.8+ corp standing, then you could.

This means that a certain amount of mission grinding with an R&D agent's corporation is unavoidable, but a high faction standing can reduce the amount of mission running required.

COSMOS agent example

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: ((Agent Skill + Your Skill)^2 * (1 + Effective Quality / 100)) * Area Bonus where:

• Agent Skill: Determined by the Level of the agent. Level 3 agents will have Level III of the appropriate research skill.
• Your Skill: Determined by your training in the research skill.
• 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:

• 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: 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.
• 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.

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 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. (Unfortunately, these R&D missions provide no faction standing increase.) 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.

Making ISK from datacores

You can track the amount of RPs being created each day by your R&D agents by clicking on the Journal button on your NeoCom, and selecting the Research tab. 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 him or her 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. 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.

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:

• Some Research and Development corporations don't have Level 4 agents in high security. Fly a cloaked ship, 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.
• Train your Connections and Negotiations social skills to 5, 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.
• Do the offered R&D missions, if you can - these can double your RP production, and therefore, double your datacore farming ISK.

For further information on calculations involved in this area, see Maximizing_PvE_Isk

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Research agents have both the normal standings requirement for an agent of their Level and Quality, as well as the requirement for Corporate or Personal standings at 2.0 less than the normal standings requirement.

In practice, however, this additional restriction rarely comes into play, since attaining the required Corporate standing automatically fulfills the lower requirement, and Personal standing can not be modified (except with skills). The secondary limitation, therefore, exists only to prevent those with high Faction standing from accessing top-level researchers without actually working for that corporation.

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Once you have met the skill requirements, you must find R&D agent(s) who will work with you. To use a research agent you need to have a personal standing with that agent's corporation specifically, in addition to the normal faction or corp standings - the extra standings required for the R&D corp is to prevent you grinding up faction standings with eg: Republic Fleet, then starting research with a Boundless Creation R&D agent. Remember, this must be your own personal standing with the R&D corp whose agent you want to interact with. The required standing level is documented in the agent info tab of the agent's details.

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For a L4 R&D agent you need at least 3.0 with his corp AND ALSO at least 5.0 with either him, his corp, or his faction.