Table of contents
- What is planetary industry?
- The tier system: P0 through P4
- Two philosophies: extraction planets vs. factory planets
- Skills you need
- Choosing what to produce
- Where to do PI: security space considerations
- Setting up an extraction planet (step by step)
- Setting up a factory planet (step by step)
- Tips and tricks
- The bottom line
- Resources
What is planetary industry?
Planetary Industry (PI) lets you build structures on planets that extract raw resources and process them into increasingly valuable commodities. You can sell at any tier — raw extracts, refined goods, or high-end manufactured products. The further up the processing chain you go, the more ISK each unit is worth, but the more complexity, logistics, and management you take on.
Think of it as EVE's version of passive income: tedious to set up, largely autonomous once running, and scalable across multiple planets and accounts.
Did I mention that it's passive income?
The tier system: P0 through P4
PI commodities are organized into five tiers. Each tier requires components from the tier below it, and each jump in tier multiplies both value and complexity.
- P0 — Raw resources. Extracted directly from planets. Examples: aqueous liquids, felsic magma, non-CS crystals. Worth almost nothing on the market (around 2 ISK per unit for aqueous liquids).
- P1 — Basic processed goods. One P0 input, processed in a Basic Industry Facility. Examples: water, silicon, chiral structures. A meaningful jump in value (water sells for roughly 600 ISK versus 2 ISK for aqueous liquids).
- P2 — Refined commodities. Two P1 inputs, processed in an Advanced Industry Facility. Examples: coolant (water + electrolytes), miniature electronics (silicon + chiral structures), consumer electronics (toxic metals + chiral structures). Typically sell for around 9,000–12,000 ISK each.
- P3 — Specialized commodities. Two or three P2 inputs, processed in an Advanced Industry Facility. Examples: biotech research reports, cryoprotectant solution, supercomputers. Higher value, but require multiple P2 inputs that may come from different planet types.
- P4 — Advanced commodities. Three P3 inputs, processed in a High-Tech Industry Facility. Examples: wetware mainframes, integrity response drones. Worth roughly 2.4–2.5 million ISK each. Require a complex multi-tier factory chain.
The core tradeoff: Higher tiers yield more ISK per cycle but demand more planets, more logistics, more hauling, and potentially more accounts. Lower tiers are simpler and more autonomous but generate less income per planet. Whatever tier you you're generating income.
Two philosophies: extraction planets vs. factory planets
Extraction planets (Aceface's approach)
You extract raw P0 resources from a planet and process them into P1 or P2 goods on the same planet. Everything happens in one place — no hauling materials between planets.
Best for: Players who want minimal management, are comfortable with moderate income, and don't want to move materials between planets. Ideal for solo players or those with limited play time.
How it works: You place extractors on the planet surface, route the raw materials through Basic Industry Facilities (to make P1s), and optionally through Advanced Industry Facilities (to make P2s). The finished product routes to a launchpad, from which you transfer it to the customs office for pickup.
Key constraint: You're limited by what a single planet produces. You need a planet type that has both P0 resources required for your chosen P2 product. For example, coolant requires water and electrolytes — both found on gas planets. Miniature electronics requires silicon and chiral structures — the P0 precursors (felsic magma and non-CS crystals) are both found on lava planets.
Advantages:
- Fully autonomous once set up — extractors run on a cycle (typically 7 days), factories process continuously
- No inter-planet hauling
- Simple to replicate across all six planets
- Very low ongoing effort — just collect finished goods periodically
Disadvantages:
- Income per planet is lower than factory setups
- You're constrained by what resources exist on the planet
- Extraction rates vary by security space (nullsec > lowsec > highsec)
- Resource hotspots deplete over time and need repositioning
Factory planets (AloneInFinland & TheMadRambo's approach)
You buy P1 materials on the market, import them onto a barren planet, and process them through a multi-tier factory chain up to P4. The planet is purely a manufacturing facility — no extraction at all.
Best for: Players willing to invest upfront capital and do a resupply run every 4 days in exchange for significantly higher returns. Works well in highsec where extraction yields are poor anyway.
How it works: You deposit purchased P1 materials into the customs office, transfer them to launchpads on the planet surface, and the factory chain processes them through P2 → P3 → P4 automatically. You collect the P4 output every 4 days and resupply with fresh materials.
Key constraint: Requires upfront ISK to buy input materials and a one-time painful setup of factory routing. Only works on barren (preferred, due to smaller radius) or temperate planets.
Advantages:
- Highest ISK output per planet (potentially ~2.4 billion ISK every 4 days per planet at current prices for wetware mainframes)
- No dependency on extraction rates or security status
- Once set up, the resupply cycle is mechanical and fast
- Scalable to six planets with maxed Interplanetary Consolidation
Disadvantages:
- Requires capital investment for P1 materials every cycle
- One-time setup is genuinely tedious (routing every factory)
- Profit depends on market spreads between input costs and output prices
- Prices fluctuate — your margin can shrink
Skills you need
The short version, if you just want the floor and ceiling: you can start PI with almost nothing trained — Remote Sensing I is the actual hard requirement to touch planets at all. But "can start" and "should run efficiently" are different bars. If you're committing to PI as an income stream rather than a one-off experiment, three skills are worth pushing to V regardless of which philosophy you run: Command Center Upgrades (it's mandatory at V for any P4 factory chain, no exceptions), Interplanetary Consolidation (each level is a whole additional planet — this is the single highest-leverage skill in the list), and Customs Code Expertise (every cycle, forever, so the V is worth it even though it's "just" a tax reduction). Everything else below is real and helps your margins, but those three are the ones that change what you're capable of running, not just how efficiently you run it.
Mandatory for any PI
- Command Center Upgrades — Determines how much you can build on a planet. Each level increases the power grid and CPU available. For factory planets producing P4, you need this at level V (no exceptions — the infrastructure simply doesn't fit otherwise). For extraction planets, level IV is workable but V is strongly recommended.
- Remote Sensing — Minimum level I to interact with planets at all. Higher levels let you scan planets from further away, which is a convenience, not a necessity.
- Interplanetary Consolidation — Each level grants one additional planet (base is one planet, level V gives you six total). More planets = more parallel setups = more income. Train this as high as you can.
Important for profitability
- Customs Code Expertise — Reduces NPC tax on imports and exports through customs offices by 10% per level. At level V, you reduce the NPC tax component to its minimum. This directly affects your profit margin on every cycle.
- Planetology / Advanced Planetology — Only relevant for extraction setups. Improves the accuracy of resource scans so you can place extractors more effectively. Not needed at all for factory planets.
Market skills that affect PI income
- Accounting — Reduces sales tax when you sell your output.
- Broker Relations — Reduces broker fees on market orders.
Caldari Navy standings (or the relevant faction) — Higher standings with the faction that controls the station where you sell can add additional percentage reductions.
Every one of these shaves a percentage off your costs or taxes. They compound.
Choosing what to produce
Use a resource like the Adam4EVE PI tool or similar community resources to map out what each planet type produces and what the market prices look like.
The decision framework
If you want minimum effort: Produce P2 items on single-planet extraction setups. Pick a P2 whose two P1 inputs both come from one planet type. Good examples:
- Coolant (water + electrolytes) → gas planets
- Miniature electronics (silicon + chiral structures) → lava planets
- Consumer electronics (toxic metals + chiral structures) → lava planets
If you want maximum ISK: Set up factory planets producing P4 items. Buy P1 materials on the market, import them, and run the full P2 → P3 → P4 chain. Good examples:
- Wetware mainframes → barren planets
- Integrity response drones → barren planets (same factory layout, different materials)
Adapting to what the planet gives you: Not every planet of the same type has equal resource distribution. Aceface's example is instructive — two of his three lava planets had very low felsic magma, which would bottleneck miniature electronics production. So he switched those two planets to consumer electronics (which uses heavy metals and non-CS crystals instead), because those resources were more abundant. Check your specific planet's resource scan before committing to a product.
Where to do PI: security space considerations
- Highsec — Safest, but extraction yields are the lowest. Factory planets work just as well here since they don't extract. Tax rates on NPC customs offices can be high — look for player-owned customs offices (POCOs) with 15% tax or lower.
- Lowsec — Better extraction yields than highsec. More risk during customs office interactions. Less traffic means fewer POCOs to choose from.
- Nullsec — Best extraction yields. If your corporation has infrastructure and a buyback program, this is where extraction setups shine. Risk depends on how well-defended your space is.
- Wormhole space — Comparable to nullsec yields. Logistics are more complex due to wormhole connections changing. Some wormhole corporations run PI as a core income stream.
The takeaway: For extraction setups, nullsec or wormhole space gives you meaningfully more resources per cycle. For factory planets, security status doesn't matter — you're buying inputs on the market anyway, so set up wherever you find low-tax POCOs.
One more lever, if you're serious about the income: tax rate isn't just something you check, it's something you can own. If your corp or alliance controls customs offices on the planets you're using — or you're willing to put one up yourself — you set the rate instead of paying whatever NPC or a rival corp charges. This is most relevant in nullsec, where your alliance likely already has infrastructure, but it applies anywhere.
The gap between "I found a POCO at 15%" and "I or my corp owns the POCO" is the difference between PI as a hobby and PI as real income.
Setting up an extraction planet (step by step)
This follows Aceface's approach for producing P2 items on a single planet.
1. Place and upgrade your command center
You must be in the same solar system and undocked to place a command center. Tether to a player-owned structure for safety. Select the planet, open Planetary Industry view, go to the Build tab (not Scan), place the command center anywhere on the surface, and submit. Then click the command center, upgrade it to maximum level, and submit again.
2. Place your structures
You need:
- 2 extractor control units (one for each P0 resource)
- 6 basic industry facilities (3 per resource, converting P0 → P1)
- 3 advanced industry facilities (combining two P1s into your P2 product)
- 1 launchpad (storage and customs office interface)
Place everything as close together as possible — shorter links use less power grid, which might let you squeeze in an extra extractor head.
3. Create links
Links are just communication pathways — they don't determine what goes where, only that structures can talk to each other. Chain your structures together with the shortest possible links. You don't need to link every structure to every other structure; an indirect connection through the chain is sufficient.
Think of links as roads. Routes (set up next) are the delivery instructions.
4. Set up extractors
Click each extractor and select the P0 resource it should extract. The scan overlay shows you where that resource is most concentrated — position your extractor heads (the circles you drag around) over the hotspots. Set your cycle length:
- Shorter cycles (1–3 days): Higher average yield, but you need to restart extraction more often
- Longer cycles (7+ days): Lower average yield, but runs unattended for longer. Extraction rate is highest at the start and tapers off
Choose based on how often you want to log in and interact with PI.
5. Set up routes
This is where you tell each structure where to send its output.
- Extractors route P0 resources → launchpad
- Launchpad routes P0 resources → basic industry facilities
- Install the correct schematic on each basic facility (e.g., felsic magma → silicon)
- Basic facilities route P1 output → launchpad
- Launchpad routes P1 resources → advanced industry facilities
- Install the correct schematic on each advanced facility (e.g., silicon + chiral structures → miniature electronics)
- Advanced facilities route P2 output → launchpad
6. Start production and collect
Submit everything. The extractors begin pulling resources, the factories begin processing. When you want to collect, open the launchpad, select your finished P2 goods, and transfer them to the customs office. Then fly to the customs office and pick them up.
Setting up a factory planet (step by step)
This follows AloneInFinland & TheMadRambo's approach for producing P4 items (wetware mainframes).
1. Find your planets
Look for a system with 3+ barren planets (6 is ideal if you have Interplanetary Consolidation V). Barren planets are preferred over temperate because their smaller radius means shorter links, which saves power grid. Check the POCO tax rates — aim for 15% or lower.
2. Place and upgrade your command center
Same process as extraction: be in system, be undocked (tether for safety), place the command center on the planet surface, submit, then upgrade to maximum and submit again.
3. Build the factory infrastructure
The layout for a P4 factory planet (working from center outward):
- Center: 1 high-tech industry facility (produces your P4 item)
- Inner ring: 3 advanced industry facilities arranged in a triangle around the high-tech facility (these produce the 3 P3 inputs)
- Middle ring: 3 launchpads, one attached to each advanced facility (these serve as storage and import/export points)
- Outer ring: 18 basic industry facilities — 3 pairs of 2 coming off each launchpad (6 per launchpad). Each pair produces one of the three P2 inputs needed by its corresponding P3 factory. You need pairs (two factories per P2 type) because the P2 production rate needs to be double to keep up with the P3 factory's consumption rate.
Place structures as close together as possible (push until the highlight goes red, then pull back just enough to place).
4. Create all links
Connect each pair of outer factories to each other, connect each pair to its launchpad, connect launchpads to each other, connect launchpads to the inner-ring advanced factories, and connect those to the central high-tech facility. Everything needs a path to everything else.
5. Set recipes (one-time)
Working from center outward:
- High-tech facility: Select your P4 product (e.g., wetware mainframes). Create a route sending the output to any launchpad.
- Three advanced facilities: Each one gets one of the three P3 inputs required by the P4 recipe. For wetware mainframes, these are biotech research reports, cryoprotectant solution, and supercomputers. Route each output to the corresponding launchpad.
- Eighteen basic factories: Mouse over each P3 recipe's info to see its three P2 inputs. Each pair of basic factories produces one P2 input. Set the recipe and route the output to the corresponding launchpad.
6. Route materials between tiers (one-time)
From each launchpad, route the P2 materials inward to the advanced factory that needs them. Then route the P3 output from each advanced factory's launchpad to the central high-tech facility. When everything is correctly routed, the red warning rings on all factories will disappear.
7. Deposit materials and create final routes
Go to the customs office for the planet. There's no trick to landing here safely — warping in-system now takes you straight to the customs office gantry (it's directly warpable and visible on the overview), and you're exactly as exposed on arrival as you would be at a gate. Check local before you commit, fly something you can afford to lose, and align out before you start the transfer if the system's hot.
From the customs office, transfer materials to the correct launchpads. You need to know which launchpad handles which P3 chain — write down each launchpad's ID code and which recipe chain it feeds.
Materials needed per planet for a 4-day cycle (wetware mainframes):
| Material | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Oxygen | 7,680 |
| Biofuels | 7,680 |
| Chiral structures | 7,680 |
| Toxic metals | 15,360 |
| Proteins | 15,360 |
| Electrolytes | 15,360 |
| Reactive metals | 23,040 |
| Bacteria | 23,040 |
| Water | 23,040 |
On first setup only: once materials are on the planet, go to each outer-ring factory and create routes from the launchpad to that factory for each of its two P1 inputs. Red boxes turn orange as inputs are routed; red rings disappear when both inputs are connected. This step is never repeated — on subsequent cycles, you just deposit materials and they flow automatically.
8. Submit, collect in 4 days, repeat
Hit submit. The factories kick into gear. In 4 days, collect 48 wetware mainframes from the customs office. Deposit the next batch of P1 materials. The routes are permanent.
The hauling reality nobody mentions
Look at that materials table again: roughly 138,000 m³ of P1 inputs per planet, every 4 days (P1 commodities run 1 m³ per unit). Scale that to six planets and you're moving close to 830,000 m³ of cargo on a recurring basis — that's a freighter-scale problem, not a "throw it in an Iteron" problem, and it's a different fit and a different risk profile than the finished P4 output (50 m³ a unit, trivial to move).
Figure out your hauling ship and your route before you commit to six factory planets, not after. A freighter alone in a system isn't safe just because it's highsec — it's slow, it's a known gank target, and most freighter pilots fly it without a webbing escort or a scout. If you're running this at scale, budget for the hauling logistics as part of the setup cost, the same way you'd budget for the P1 materials themselves.
Tips and tricks
There is no warp-drag trick anymore — and treating the customs office as exposed is the safer mindset. Older PI guides (pre–Into the Abyss, 2018-era) taught a timing trick where you'd drag materials into the customs office window the instant your warp decel bar started dropping, beating attackers to the punch before they could lock you. That assumed an approach window that doesn't work that way anymore — in-system warp now takes you directly to the customs office gantry, full stop, the same way it takes you to a gate. You arrive exposed, same as anywhere else in space. There's no special defense baked into the mechanic.
If you're hauling something that matters, the actual safety habits are: check local before committing, fly a hauler you can afford to lose, don't bling it out, and align toward your next destination before you start the transfer if the system feels hot.
Highsec ganking has picked back up through 2026 — Caldari space and common hauling routes have seen a real uptick in gatecamps and suicide-gank activity — so don't assume highsec PI runs are automatically safe just because the security status says so.
- Tether everything you can: Any interaction with the planetary industry interface (except the initial command center placement and customs office visits) can be done while tethered to a player-owned structure. Use this.
- Links are roads, routes are delivery instructions. This distinction trips up every new PI player. Links establish that two structures can communicate. Routes tell materials where to go. You set up links once and mostly forget them. Routes are where the actual logistics logic lives.
- Shorter links save power grid. Place structures as close as possible. The power grid you save might let you add another extractor head or factory.
- Check resource distribution before committing. Not every planet of the same type is equal. One lava planet might have abundant felsic magma while another has almost none. Adapt your product choice to what the specific planet actually offers.
- Launchpads double as storage. You don't need separate storage facilities — launchpads have substantial storage capacity and also serve as your import/export interface. Using them for both roles saves power grid.
- Factory planet routes are permanent. The painful routing step is genuinely a one-time operation. Every subsequent 4-day cycle is just: deposit materials → separate into launchpads → submit. That's it.
- Write down your launchpad codes. Each launchpad has a unique alphanumeric ID. Map which launchpad feeds which production chain and keep that reference somewhere — if you put the wrong materials in the wrong launchpad, nothing gets produced.
- Adapt to market conditions. The factory planet layout for wetware mainframes works identically for integrity response drones or other P4 products — same structure count, same topology, just different recipes and materials. If one P4's margin shrinks, you can switch.
The bottom line
PI is not glamorous. The setup is tedious, the interface is clunky, and the optimization is fiddly. But it's one of the few truly passive income streams in EVE — once configured, it generates ISK whether you're online running missions, PvPing, or not logged in at all.
The real decision isn't "should I do PI" but "how much management am I willing to tolerate." If the answer is "almost none," run single-planet extraction setups producing P2 goods. If the answer is "I'll spend one painful afternoon and then 15 minutes every 4 days," build factory planets and produce P4 commodities worth billions. Either way, the planets don't care if you're asleep.
For the record, I'm nowhere near actually running any of this.
But it got its hooks in me writing it out, enough that I'm queuing up the skills now — just enough to get P0 (maybe even P1) going on a single planet, nothing fancier than that to start.
I'll loop back once I've got something running and let you know how it actually goes versus how it reads on paper.
Resources
Official EVE Online
- Planetary Interaction — official help article
- Customs Offices — official help article
- Try Out Planetary Industry Templates — official dev post
Community tools
- AloneInFinland - Eve Online - PI Planetary Interaction for new players
- Aceface - EVE Online - Planetary Interaction Guide for Beginners – Easy ISK!
- TheMadRambo - EVE Online - Planetary Industry - Full Setup Guide
- Adam4EVE — PI chain and profitability tool
- Alysii's PI Scheme — production chain reference chart
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