Your PI flight plan

Skills & ships → Choose a planet → Deploy & route → Colony layouts → Profit test → Haul & maintain

P0: extracted raw resources. P1: processed commodities from basic factories. P2: refined commodities from advanced factories. P3 and P4 are further manufacturing tiers.

Start with a small P0 → P1 test. Add P2 manufacturing only when the extra processing earns more than selling the inputs. The diagram shows physical placement; sections 05–06 explain its routes and production balance.

Build a colony. Measure the margin.

Planetary Industry (PI) turns planetary resources into commodities. High-sec is convenient for learning and hauling, but resource yields and customs taxes can limit earnings. The best setup is the one with the highest net profit for your available time, not necessarily the highest product tier.

Omega required for practical PI income: Alpha clones cannot export from colonies. Start with one test planet before spending ISK across an entire network.

01 — Skills: a practical training plan

These are recommended targets, not a list of every prerequisite. Use each skill’s Show Info → Requirements and your character’s training queue for the full chain.

• Remote Sensing III: a useful early target for surveying planets remotely. Range still matters.

• Planetology IV: improves resource-scan interpretation and unlocks Advanced Planetology with its other prerequisites.

• Advanced Planetology III: an optional next step for more accurate hotspot placement. It does not directly multiply extraction output.

• Command Center Upgrades IV: a good starting goal for CPU/powergrid capacity. Consider V when a tested layout genuinely needs more room.

• Interplanetary Consolidation IV: allows five colonies in total; V allows six. Each character manages their own colonies.

• Customs Code Expertise IV: a useful high-sec target. It reduces the NPC portion of customs tax; it does not reduce the owner’s separate tax.

• Hauling support: train the chosen hull and its tank/fitting requirements, plus Navigation, Evasive Maneuvering and relevant warp/capacitor skills.

Train the prerequisites first, test a colony, then expand. Level V across every PI skill is not necessary to start learning.

02 — Ships and your shopping list

Epithal: the practical specialist PI hauler, with a dedicated Planetary Commodities Hold and a Command Center Hold. Train Gallente Hauler to the level required by the current hull information. Cargo expanders affect the normal cargo hold, not the specialist PI hold.

Existing T1 hauler: a Sigil, Badger or other suitable hauler can carry small PI loads in its normal cargo hold while you train. Compare actual hold space, tank and travel time. A freighter is unnecessary for a starter colony.

Fitting priorities: affordable tank, acceptable alignment and enough travel capability. Simulate with your own skills. Use manual travel, avoid overloading one valuable shipment and check the route; high-sec does not prevent ganking.

Buy: a command center matching the planet type, a suitable hauler, and an ISK reserve for command-center upgrades, colony buildings, customs transfers and market fees. Surface structures are placed and paid for in Planet Mode; you do not haul factories to the surface.

03 — Choose the product before the planet

1. Compare several P1 and P2 products using current executable buy prices or realistic sell-order proceeds. Check daily traded volume and competing orders.

2. Find nearby high-sec planets with the resources your recipe needs. Scan actual deposits; planet type alone does not guarantee a strong site.

3. Check each customs office’s access and tax quote for your character. High-sec includes NPC and owner charges. Use the actual import/export quote rather than multiplying market price by a headline tax rate.

4. Prefer a short, safe hauling loop and compact colony links. Large planets and widely separated resource patches make long links more expensive in colony powergrid.

5. Compare P1 extraction, on-planet P2, and importing materials to a factory planet after all taxes. Do not import low-margin feedstock until the numbers work.

Starter candidate: Water or Electrolytes as P1; Coolant as a P2 training example. These are candidates to price-check, not a claim that coolant is currently the most profitable commodity.

04 — Deploy and start production

1. Carry the correct command center, travel to the target system in space and open the planet in Planet Mode. Deploy the command center near the area you intend to manage and submit.

2. Upgrade it to the level your skill and budget support. Scan the chosen resource and position an Extractor Control Unit (ECU) so its heads can reach a useful patch.

3. Place a Launchpad and Basic Industry Facilities close together. Keep the ECU link short where the resource geography permits.

4. Select the ECU resource, place extractor heads, choose a program length and install it. Begin with a schedule you can maintain, such as roughly 24 hours. Compare the program’s average yield, not only its initial peak.

5. Choose the matching schematic in every processor. Create physical links, then explicit material routes: extractor output to buffer, buffer to processor, finished output back to buffer.

6. Submit every pending change. Reopen the colony and check that inputs arrive, factories cycle and output accumulates. Links alone do not move goods.

The command center supplies the colony’s capacity; a production link to it is not required. Keep the working cluster around your Launchpad. Add a Storage Facility only when its buffer value justifies the extra CPU, powergrid and links.

05 — Layout A: simple P0 → P1 extraction

Build: 1 command center, 1 ECU with only the heads you need, 1 Launchpad and initially 1–2 Basic Industry Facilities. This is a flexible learning layout, not a guaranteed maximum-output design.

Material flow:

RESOURCE PATCH → ECU → LAUNCHPAD
LAUNCHPAD → BASIC FACTORY → LAUNCHPAD
LAUNCHPAD → CUSTOMS OFFICE → YOUR HAULER

Physical placement: cluster processors tightly around the Launchpad; place the ECU toward the resource patch. Connect each processor to the hub with a short link. Arrows describe routes, not separate buildings: the Launchpad is both input buffer and finished-product store.

Example: Aqueous Liquids (P0) → Water (P1). Each basic processor’s standard recipe consumes 3,000 P0 per 30-minute cycle and makes 20 P1. That is 6,000 P0/hour for continuous running. Add processors only when the extractor’s sustainable average and available buffer can feed them.

06 — Layout B: compact P0 → P2 coolant colony

Candidate planet: a Storm or Gas planet with usable Aqueous Liquids and Ionic Solutions deposits. Scan both resources before placing anything. A smaller planet with nearby deposits can save link powergrid.

Starter buildings: 2 ECUs, 1 Launchpad, 2 Basic Industry Facilities total (one for each resource), 1 Advanced Industry Facility and a command center. Add heads gradually within CPU/powergrid limits. This is a topology to adapt, not a promise that every planet can sustain it.

Two input streams:

AQUEOUS LIQUIDS → ECU A → LAUNCHPAD
LAUNCHPAD → BASIC A (WATER) → LAUNCHPAD

IONIC SOLUTIONS → ECU B → LAUNCHPAD
LAUNCHPAD → BASIC B (ELECTROLYTES) → LAUNCHPAD

One finished product:

LAUNCHPAD (WATER + ELECTROLYTES)
↓
ADVANCED FACTORY (COOLANT)
↓
LAUNCHPAD → CUSTOMS OFFICE

Compact physical layout: place the Launchpad at the centre with Basic A, Basic B and the Advanced factory immediately around it. Place the two ECUs toward their own hotspots. Link the facilities to the central hub, then configure every input and output route. Do not stretch a chain across the planet simply to chase the brightest patch.

Balance the recipe: one advanced coolant factory uses 40 Water + 40 Electrolytes per hour to produce 5 Coolant. One continuously supplied basic factory for each input can therefore feed it. Each ECU needs an average of about 6,000 units/hour of its own P0 resource to keep that input processor running, with a buffer for fluctuations.

At uninterrupted production, that one advanced factory makes 120 Coolant/day. This is a capacity calculation, not a high-sec yield or income promise. Shortfalls in either resource reduce actual output. Two basic factories for each input and two advanced factories double the balanced chain only if extraction, storage, links and fitting capacity support it.

If resources are weak: reduce demand or use Layout A and sell P1. If you import a missing input, include its purchase or opportunity cost and the import tax. A factory-only P1 → P2 planet has no extractors; scale its advanced processors to affordable feedstock supply rather than filling every available slot.

07 — Design for net profit

Net profit = sale proceeds − input value − customs charges − market fees − hauling cost − allocated setup cost.

For extracted materials, track cash profit and also compare their sale value with further processing. Your own Water and Electrolytes are not free inputs: using them for coolant gives up the option to sell them.

1. Price the full batch: for a continuously running one-factory day, compare selling 960 Water + 960 Electrolytes with selling 120 Coolant. Use the actual taxes and fees for each route.

2. Use realistic volume: multiply by your measured uptime, not 24 hours if one input regularly runs out.

3. Count transfers: exporting P1 from another planet, importing it to a factory planet and exporting P2 creates multiple customs charges. On-planet P2 can avoid intermediate transfers.

4. Value your time: compare net ISK/day and net ISK per hour spent resetting, hauling and selling. A slightly lower-output colony can be better if you can maintain it consistently.

5. Scale the winner: run a test for several days, log output and costs, then copy the approach to additional suitable planets. Recheck prices before expansion.

Illustration only: 1,200,000 ISK sale proceeds − 700,000 input value − 150,000 customs/market costs − 50,000 hauling/setup allocation = 300,000 ISK net. These are invented teaching numbers, not current market prices.

Factory-planet break-even: minimum price per finished unit = total input, transfer, selling and operating costs ÷ finished units sold. Aim for a margin above break-even so a small market move does not erase your return. P3/P4 products deserve the same calculation; a higher tier can lose money.

08 — Export, haul and keep it running

1. In Planet Mode, open the Launchpad’s transfer interface and move finished goods to the Customs Office. Review the quoted export charge.

2. Fly to that customs office, get within its interaction range and move the goods into your ship’s appropriate hold. Surface storage and orbital storage are different locations.

3. For imports, haul the required P1 goods to the customs office, transfer them down to the Launchpad, pay the quoted charge and verify routes to the factories.

4. Dock and sell using your planned method. PI is personal production: a corporation ore project does not automatically buy your PI goods. Confirm any corp PI purchase agreement separately.

At each reset: move heads as deposits change; check the whole program’s yield; restart extractors; submit; check links for congestion, storage for overflow, and factories for missing inputs. Choose a reset interval you will actually keep. Longer programs can reduce chores but may lower average extraction.

Before expanding: active Omega • skill capacity checked • customs access/tax checked • short routes • every schematic set • every input/output routed • spare storage • measured net margin • affordable hauling.

Official reading: Planetary Interaction · Customs Offices · Alpha and Omega · Epithal command-center bay

Discuss your planet scans, tax quotes and proposed product in Discord →