Blueprints

Blueprints are instructions on how to manufacture items. There are ship blueprints, module blueprints, ammunition blueprints and many more. To manufacture an item, you will need a blueprint, and the materials listed in the blueprint. You can also copy blueprints - to make more blueprints - and research blueprints to make them more efficient.

Blueprints are either originals or copies. Originals (BPO) can be found on the market in the Blueprints section, sold by NPC sellers. Copies (BPC) cannot be sold on the market, but can be sold through contracts. Copies are either created by players from BPOs, bought from Loyalty Point stores, or dropped by NPCs in the case of some rare ships & modules.

Blueprint Information

Take a look at the blueprint to the left. This will build a Rifter, a Minmatar frigate.

It is an original blueprint, as indicated by the text at the top. Original blueprints have infinite runs - you can produce as many Rifters as you have materials for. Copies (BPC) have a lighter blue icon and a limited number of runs.

The next line of icons shows what you can do with it. In order from left to right: Manufacturing - Material Efficiency Research - Time Efficiency Research - Copying - Invention - Reverse Engineering. The last two cannot be done using a BPO; invention requires a BPC and Reverse Engineering is used only by some looted BPCs used in the Tech 3 Production process.

Clicking the icon shows you information related to that activity; in this case we have selected Manufacturing - which shows us the time to build a single item, the outcome of the build process (a Rifter), required skills and required materials.

Blueprint Originals

Blueprint Originals (BPOs) are available from the market for all pure Tech 1 (Meta 0) items. They start with a Material Efficiency of 0% and a Time Efficiency of 0% - these can be researched to greater levels for more efficiency in manufacturing. They are sold by NPC sellers on the market (sell orders with a >300 day duration), but they may be purchased and resold by player characters (sell orders with a <90 day duration), so check prices. (Note that the game seeds BPOs to NPCs in various regions of space. If you cannot find a BPO in the local regional market, try a different region.)

Blueprint originals for T2 items exist, but they are extremely rare and highly sought-after. You can sometimes find them for sale on contracts or on the Sales Ads forum, for vast sums.

A long, long time ago...

When initially introduced, T2 BPOs were distributed randomly in a lottery - players performed 'research' which granted them 'tickets' to the BPO lottery. This mechanic was inherently unfair, so about a year later CCP changed the T2 manufacturing process to use Invention instead, which only creates limited-run T2 BPCs. The T2 BPOs still in existence were left in-game, and are still used by their owners today.

Blueprint originals may also be sold on contract between players - this is commonly done for well-researched BPOs, sold as 'BPO packs' for convenience to manufacturers. Make sure that you're buying an original; it's quite common for holders of a well-researched BPO to also sell BPC packs. For expensive items, these may legitimately command prices similar to originals. Make sure you can tell the difference between BPOs and BPCs.

BPO Research & Copying

Main article: Research

BPOs can be researched to improve their manufacturing efficiency, using both less materials and less time. They can also be copied, which produces a BPC. For more information see the main article.

Blueprint Copies

BPCs are created by copying a BPO. BPCs have a limited number of runs, and once these runs are all used up the BPC will disappear. For instance, the BPC in the screenshot below has 10 runs. You can use it to start a single 10-run manufacturing job, and at the end you will receive the 10 items (in this case 10 x 100 rockets) and the BPC will be used up in the process. Alternatively you can start a 5-run manufacturing job, at the end of which you will receive the BPC back with 5 runs remaining.

BPCs are used similarly in invention - at the end of the invention process, whether or not the invention is successful, your BPC will be returned with one fewer run on it.

If you have researched your BPO for material and/or time efficiency, then when copying it the resulting BPCs will have the same ME and TE level as the BPO.

How to identify blueprints

• Blueprint copies have a lighter shade of blue on the icon than originals,
• will have a limited number of runs,
• will clearly say 'Copy' on their information,
• will not be able to be ME or TE researched, and
• may be able to be used for invention (not all BPCs can be invented from).