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Planetary Interaction Guide

Planetary interaction in EVE Online consists of buying a Command Center on the market, building it on a planet, and then building extractors and factories to mine resources from the planet and produce commodities with them. It was made fully available on 8 June 2010 with the introduction of Command Centers to the market.

Table of Contents

  1. Train Planetary Infrastructure Skills
  2. Find a Planet
  3. Planet Types
  4. Buy a Command Center
  5. Build the Command Center
  6. Set up an Extractor and Survey for Deposits
  7. Set up an Industry Facility and Manufacture Products
  8. Set up a Storage Facility
  9. Moving Things Around
  10. Launch your Items Into Space
  11. Retrieving Launched Items
  12. Monitoring your Planetary Activity
  13. Raw Materials and Processed Materials
  14. Refined Commodities
  15. Specialized Commodities
  16. Advanced Commodities
  17. Producing Advanced Commodities
  18. Planet Shortcuts
  19. Planetary Interaction and Security

Train Planetary Infrastructure SkillsBack to Top

The following skills affect your ability to interact with planets. Only one of these skills (Remote Sensing,) is required in order to do planetary interaction. The other skills, while optional, will greatly help to improve your ability to mine resources from planets.

Command Center Upgrades - This skill gives you access to higher-quality command centers, which affects how many things you can attach to it, which in turn affects how many resources you can mine at a time.

Interplanetary Consolidation - Increases the number of planets you can colonize at a time, up to a maximum of six.

Planetology/Advanced Planetology - These skills increase the accuracy of your scans for planetary resources. These two are the only planetary infrastructure skills that have prerequisites. To train Planetology, you need to train Remote Sensing to level III. Advanced Planetology requires Planetology IV.

Remote Sensing - This skill is required for planet scanning, and each level increases your scan range.

Find a PlanetBack to Top

You can see a list of all planets in a system, along with their types, without having to go there: just open up the solar system's information window and select the Orbital Bodies tab.

There are eight types of planets in EVE that you can interact with. To mine resources from a planet, you will need to purchase a Command Center on the market that corresponds to the type of planet that you want to mine from. Therefore, you should look around different solar systems at the types of planets that are there, to ensure that you purchase the correct type of Command Center needed for that type of planet.

If a planet already has other players' command centers on it, you can still put your own command center there as long as there is room, but the other players will also be consuming the resources of the planet, and you might discover that the resources are diminished to such a degree that having a command center there is not worthwhile.

Planet TypesBack to Top

The types of planets that you can find are:

You can't put a command center on a Shattered planet, but all of the other types are available for setting up planetary operations.

The planet type affects what resources are available there. You can find out which types of planets contain which types of resources by going to the Materials & Research section of the market, choosing Planetary Materials, then choosing Raw Materials. The information window for each material in this list will show the type of command center required for extracting that material (for example: lava command center, barren command center, and so on.)

The security of a solar system does not restrict the types of planets that you can find there. All types of planets can be found whether you are in high-sec, low-sec, wormhole space, and so on. However, some planet types are much more common than others, with gas and barren planets being the two most common, and oceanic and plasma planets being the least common (not counting shattered planets, of which there are reportedly only 10 in all of EVE).

The following table shows the estimated distribution of planet types in EVE, and is based on the one from the EVE Online Wiki. Percentages are approximate. The percent value indicates what percent of the planets in EVE are that type, so, for example, 30% of all planets in EVE are Gas planets, 10% of all planets in EVE are Temperate, and so on.

Distribution of Planet Types

Type Percent
Gas 30%
Barren 29%
Temperate 11%
Lava 10%
Storm 8%
Ice 5%
Oceanic 5%
Plasma 2%

Buy a Command CenterBack to Top

Once you have decided upon a planet to mine, buy the appropriate type of command center that corresponds to that type of planet (a Barren Command Center for a barren planet, a temperate command center for a temperate planet, and so on.)

Note that there are different levels of command centers, from Limited, Basic, Advanced, and so on. Your planetary infrastructure skills will determine what level of command center you can build on a planet. The level of command center determines how many structures you can attach to it, which, in turn, determines how much you can mine, and what you can do with the resources that you have mined.

Build the Command CenterBack to Top

Put the command center into your ship's cargo hold and undock. You don't need to travel to a planet in order to build there; you just need to be in a ship, undocked, and in the same system as the one where you are building the command center. Once it's built, you can control your command center and other planetary structures from any solar system via the Science and Industry tab, even if you are docked in a station.

Right-clicking the planet itself or the planet icon in the overview will give you the option to view the planet in planet mode. This will bring you to a view of the planet that you can rotate and zoom.

A special planetary interaction pane will appear on the left. The build tab gives you options to build a command center, extractors, and other structures, while the scan button allows you to survey the planet's resources. Clicking the Scan button will show a list of the types of resources that are there.

When you click on a particular resource, a heat map will be displayed on the planet, showing you how dense or sparse the resources are. Warmer colors (white, red, orange, etc.) indicate dense resources, and colder colors (blue, green, etc.) indicate sparse resources. You can use the arrows to the left and right of the color bar to shrink or stretch the colors, allowing you to alter the colors to emphasize the denser pockets or sparser pockets if you wish.

Use the heat map to choose a place to build your command center. It is generally a good idea to put your command center near, but not on top of, rich deposits of the resource that you want to mine. You should leave the center of the densest area empty so that you can put your extractors right on top of it.

After selecting the command center from the build menu, click on the planet where you want to put the command center. You will be shown the cost, and can choose to cancel or build. Whenever you wish to build anything on a planet, you must click Build to confirm. Once you do, you will be charged construction fees and taxes at this time.

Set up an Extractor and Survey for DepositsBack to Top

Once you have set up a command center, you can build an extractor that corresponds to the type of resource that you want to extract. Extractors, and all other planetary interaction structures other than command centers, are purchased in planet mode, not on the market. Place extractors in areas of dense resources, but note that the distance from your command center to your extractor and other structures affects how much power grid and CPU those structures consume, so it is best to place structures close to your command center if possible.

Once you have paid the cost of building the extractor, you can right-click on it and perform a survey. Much like a survey scanner that determines the quantity of ore in an asteroid, the extractor survey tells you how many deposits of the resource were found, and how many units of the resource were found in each deposit. Additionally, the survey will tell you how many units per cycle the extractor can pull up, how long the cycle time will be, and how much time it will take to deplete the deposit.

A deposit with a short time to depletion generally has the highest yield per cycle. This means that you get more materials per unit of time, making this the most profitable option. However, with such a short time to depletion, you will have to return to planet mode frequently to start the extractors back up again, which makes this option best if you know that you will be playing the game for a while.

A deposit with a long time to depletion generally has the worst yield per cycle. This is less profitable, but it might be the best option if you know that you will be away from the game for a while.

Set up an Industry Facility to Manufacture ProductsBack to Top

Setting up an industry facility on the planet with your command center will allow you to manufacture goods that you can then sell on the market. Again, remember to place structures close to your command center, if possible, to minimize power grid and CPU use.

When it comes to manufacturing products, different types of planets have different raw materials, and with those materials, many different commodities can be produced. See below for a list of the raw materials that can be found on planets, along with all of the materials and commodities that you can produce with them.

Once you have built an industrial facility, you must create a link from the extractor to the facility, decide how much of the extractor's resources to route to the facility, and create the route.

There are multiple levels of industry facility, with the most basic being used to process the raw materials you extract, and the most advanced being used to turn specialized commodities into advanced ones. Each type of industry facility already has all of the schematics built in; they are not purchased on the market.

Once you have an extractor extracting raw materials from the planet, click on the industrial facility and choose a schematic from the drop down that uses that type of raw material. Once you have done that, you can create a route to the industry facility from your extractor. You will not be about to route the raw materials to the facility until after you have chosen a schematic for the facility. Similarly, if you build a more advanced industry facility, you must choose the schematic of the commodity that you want to produce there before you can route the materials to that facility.

Set up a Storage FacilityBack to Top

Depending on what you are mining and manufacturing, and depending on the storage capacity of your existing structures, you might need more storage space on the planet. Build a storage facility on the planet and create a link to it from the structures whose products you need to store, then create a route.

Moving Things AroundBack to Top

Once you have established links between your structures, you can click on your products and choose Create Route to make your products be automatically sent to your desired destination. The routed products will be transferred as soon as they have been extracted or manufactured, as long as there is room in the destination. Routing products is the way to have your extractors and other structures automatically send your materials to your industrial facilities, command center, launch pad, and so on.

As mentioned earlier, if you wish to route materials to an industry facility, you must first select the schematic of the material or commodity that you wish to produce there. You can only route materials and commodities to an industry facility if that facility's schematic uses those materials and commodities. So, for example, if you try to route construction blocks to an industry facility that is using a water schematic, you will not be be allowed to create that route.

Remember: as with everything else that you can build on a planet, you must click the Build button before your route is actually created.

If you want to move items from one place to another immediately, rather than waiting on automatic routing, select Expedite Transfer. Choose the product or products that you want to move, and then confirm. There is a cooldown period after any expedited transfer, so you must wait for that cool down period to end before doing another expedited transfer.

Launch your Items into SpaceBack to Top

When you are ready to send your items to your ship, first transfer them to your command center, then choose Launch. Move the desired items into the payload, and pay the required ISK to launch the items. The more items you wish to launch, the more it will cost. This is a one-way launch.

Alternatively, you can build a launch pad on your planet, which can both send and receive goods. To send materials down to a planet, you must warp to the planet's Customs Office, which is a structure that orbits the planet. When you are near the Customs Office, it can be used much like a cargo container: open it, and move items into it from your cargo hold. Once that is done, you can right-click on the Custom's Office and open the customs interface to have your materials sent down to your launch pad.

Retrieving Launched ItemsBack to Top

Once launched, you can retrieve your items by going to your journal and choosing the planetary interaction tab. There will be a bookmark there for each of the launches that you have done. Right-click on the bookmark and warp to that location to rendezvous with the cargo rocket. It will appear much like a cargo canister in space. You can simply move the items out of it into your cargo, as with any other space-bound cargo container. You cannot send this cargo container back to your planet.

Monitoring your Planetary ActivityBack to Top

If you are docked in a station, you can use the Science and Industry tab to check on the progress of your planetary affairs. You can build new planetary interaction nodes, decommission them, create routes, schedule launches, and so on. You can't, however, build a command center on a planet if you are docked in a station; you have to buy the command center from the market, and be undocked in the system that has that planet.

Raw Materials and Processed MaterialsBack to Top

The following is a list of the raw materials that you can find on the planets of EVE. These resources appear in varying concentrations on different planet types. Also indicated are the processed materials that can be produced from each raw material (there is only one processed material per raw material). In parentheses are the types of planets on which the raw materials can be found. Below this is a chart that displays which planet types have which raw materials. 

Aqueous Liquids --> Water (Gas, Barren, Temperate, Storm, Ice, Oceanic)
Autotrophs --> Industrial Fibers (Temperate)
Base Metals --> Reactive Metals (Gas, Barren, Lava, Storm, Plasma)
Carbon Compounds --> Biofuels (Barren, Temperate, Oceanic)
Complex Organisms --> Proteins (Temperate, Oceanic)
Felsic Magma --> Silicon (Lava)
Heavy Metals --> Toxic Metals (Lava, Ice, Plasma)
Ionic Solutions --> Electrolytes (Gas, Storm)
Micro Organisms --> Bacteria (Barren, Temperate, Ice, Oceanic)
Noble Gas --> Oxygen (Gas, Storm, Ice)
Noble Metals --> Precious Metals (Barren, Plasma)
Non-CS Crystals --> Chiral Structures (Lava, Plasma)
Planktic Colonies --> Biomass (Ice, Oceanic)
Reactive Gas --> Oxidizing Compound (Gas)
Suspended Plasma --> Plasmoids (Lava, Storm, Plasma)
Material Gas Barren Temperate Lava Storm Ice Oceanic Plasma
Aqueous Liquids (Water)            
Autotrophs (Industrial Fibers)  
Base Metals (Reactive Metals)          
Carbon Compounds (Biofuels)      
Complex Organisms (Proteins)    
Felsic Magma (Silicon)  
Heavy Metals (Toxic Metals)      
Ionic Solutions (Electrolytes)    
Micro Organisms (Bacteria)        
Noble Gas (Oxygen)      
Noble Metals (Precious Metals)    
Non-CS Crystals (Chiral Structures)    
Planktic Colonies (Biomass)    
Reactive Gas (Oxidizing Compound)  
Suspended Plasma (Plasmoids)      

Refined CommoditiesBack to Top

The following is a list of the commodities that you can produce with the processed materials listed above. Each refined commodity requires two types of processed material.

Biocells (Biofuels, Precious Metals)
Construction Blocks (Reactive Metals, Toxic Metals)
Consumer Electronics (Chiral Structures, Toxic Metals)
Coolant (Electrolytes, Water)
Enriched Uranium (Precious Metals, Toxic Metals)
Fertilizer (Bacteria, Proteins)
Genetically Enhanced Livestock (Biomass, Proteins)
Livestock (Biofuels, Proteins)
Mechanical Parts (Precious Metals, Reactive Metals)
Miniature Electronics (Chiral Structures, Silicon)
Microfiber Shielding (Industrial Fibers, Silicon)
Nanites (Bacteria, Reactive Metals)
Oxides (Oxidizing Compound, Oxygen)
Polyaramids (Industrial Fibers, Oxidizing Compund)
Polytextiles (Biofuels, Industrial Fibers)
Rocket Fuel (Electrolytes, Plasmoids)
Silicate Glass (Oxidizing Compund, Silicon)
Superconductors (Plasmoids, Water)
Supertensile Plastics (Biomass, Oxygen)
Synthetic Oil (Electrolytes, Oxygen)
Test Cultures (Bacteria, Water)
Transmitter (Chiral Structures, Plasmoids)
Viral Agent (Bacteria, Biomass)
Water-Cooled CPU (Reactive Metals, Water)

Planet Types where you can Manufacture the Refined Commodities

For most of the refined commodities, there is at least one planet type that has all of the materials that are required to produce them. In other words, in most cases you will not need to import materials from several types of planets in order to produce refined commodities.

Below, I have listed the types of planets that have all of the required materials for each of the refined commodities. I have noted the cases where you will need to import materials from multiple planet types. 

Nanites = Barren
Viral Agent = Ice, Oceanic
Fertilizer = Oceanic, Temperate
Test Cultures = Barren, Ice, Oceanic, Temperate
Biocells = Barren
Livestock - Oceanic, Temperate
Polytextiles = Temperate
Genetically Enhanced Livestock = Oceanic
Supertensile Plastics = Ice
Transmitter =  Lava, Plasma
Consumer Electronics = Lava, Plasma
Miniature Electronics = Lava
Coolant = Gas, Storm
Rocket Fuel = Storm
Synthetic Oil = Gas, Storm
Microfiber Shielding = (requires materials from multiple planet types: Temperate and Lava)
Polyaramids = (requires materials from multiple planet types: Gas and Temperate)
Oxides = Gas
Silicate Glass = (requires materials from multiple planet types: Gas and Lava)
Super Conductors = Storm
Mechanical Parts = Barren, Plasma
Enriched Uranium = Plasma
Water-Cooled CPU = Barren, Gas, Storm
Construction Blocks = Lava, Plasma

Specialized CommoditiesBack to Top

The following is a list of specialized commodities and their pre-requisites.

Biotech Research Reports (Nanites, Livestock, Construction Blocks)
Camera Drones (Silicate Glass, Rocket Fuel)
Condensates (Oxides, Coolant)
Cryoprotectant Solution (Test Cultures, Synthetic Oil, Fertilizer)
Data Chips (Supertensile Plastics, Microfiber Shielding)
Gel-Matrix Biopaste (Oxides, Biocells, Superconductors)
Guidance Systems (Water-Cooled CPU, Transmitter)
Hazmat Detection Systems (Polytextiles, Viral Agent, Transmitter)
Hermetic Membranes (Polyaramids, Genetically Enhanced Livestock)
High-Tech Transmitters (Polyaramids, Transmitter)
Industrial Explosives (Fertilizer, Polytextiles)
Neocoms (Biocells, Silicate Glass)
Nuclear Reactors (Microfiber Shielding, Enriched Uranium)
Planetary Vehicles (Supertensile Plastics, Mechanical Parts, Miniature Electronics)
Robotics (Mechanical Parts, Consumer Electronics)
Smartfab Units (Construction Blocks, Miniature Electronics)
Supercomputers (Water-Cooled CPU, Coolant, Consumer Electronics)
Synthetic Synapses (Supertensile Plastics, Test Cultures)
Transcranial Microcontroller (Biocells, Nanites)
Ukomi Super Conductor (Synthetic Oil, Superconductors)
Vaccines (Livestock, Viral Agent)

Specialized Commodities that can be formed with materials from a single planet

The following specialized commodities can be produced on a single planet type, without having to import materials from other planets. 

Condensates = Gas
Industrial Explosives = Temperate
Robotics = Plasma
Smartfab Units = Lava
Synthetic Synapses = Ice
Transcranial Microcontroller = Barren
Ukomi Super Conductor = Storm
Vaccines = Oceanic

Specialized Commodities that can be formed with materials from at least two planet types

Supercomputers = Gas or Storm, and Lava or Plasma
Cryoprotectant Solution = Gas or Storm, and Oceanic or Temperate
Guidance Systems = Barren or Gas or Storm, and Lava or Plasma

Specialized Commodities that can be formed with materials from at least three planet types

Biotech Research Reports = Barren, Oceanic or Temperate, and Lava or Plasma
Camera Drones = Gas, Lava, and Storm
Data Chips = Temperate, Lava, and Ice
Gel-Matrix Biopaste = Gas, Barren, and Storm
Hazmat Detection Systems = Temperate, Ice or Oceanic, and Lava or Plasma
Hermetic Membranes = Gas, Temperate, and Oceanic
High-Tech Transmitters = Gas, Temperate and Lava or Plasma
Neocoms = Gas, Lava, and Barren
Nuclear Reactors = Temperate, Lava, and Plasma
Planetary Vehicles = Ice, Barren or Plasma, and Lava

Advanced CommoditiesBack to Top

Broadcast Node (Neocoms, Data Chips, High-Tech Transmitters)
Integrity Response Drones (Gel-Matrix Biopaste, Hazmat Detection Systems, Planetary Vehicles)
Nano-Factory (Industrial Explosives, Ukomi Super Conductors, 40 Reactive Metals)
Organic Mortar Applicators (Condensates, Robotics, 40 Bacteria)
Recursive Computing Module (Synthetic Synapses, Guidance Systems, Transcranial Microcontrollers)
Self-Harmonizing Power Core (Camera Drones, Nuclear Reactors, Hermetic Membranes)
Sterile Conduits (40 Water, Smartfab Units, Vaccines)
Wetware Mainframe (Supercomputers, Biotech Research Reports, Cryoprotectant Solution)

Advanced Commodities that can be formed with materials from at least two planet types

Nano-Factory = Temperate, Storm
Sterile Conduits = Lava, Oceanic

Advanced Commodities that can be formed with materials from at least three planet types

Organic Mortar Applicators = Gas, Barren, Lava
Recursive Computing Module = Barren, Lava, Ice
Wetware Mainframe = Gas/Storm, Lava/Plasma, Temperate/Oceanic

Advanced Commodities that can be formed with materials from at least five planet types

Broadcast Node = Gas, Lava, Temperate, Barren/Plasma, Ice/Oceanic
Self-Harmonizing Power Core = Gas, Lava, Temperate, Barren/Plasma, Ice/Oceanic
Integrity Response Drones = Gas, Lava, Temperate, Barren/Plasma, Ice/Oceanic

Summary of Raw Materials Required for each Advanced Commodity

Broadcast Node Integrity Response Drones Nano-Factory Organic Mortar Applicators Recursive Computing Module Self-Harmonizing Power Core Sterile Conduits Wetware Mainframe

Producing Advanced CommoditiesBack to Top

When turning your raw materials into processed materials and commodities, it works as follows:

3000 units of a raw material creates 20 units of a processed material (also known as a basic commodity).

40 units of each of the required types of processed materials create five units of a refined commodity.

10 units of each of the required types of refined commodities create 3 units of a specialized commodity.

6 units of each of the required types of refined commodity, or 40 units of each of the required types of basic commodity, are combined to create one unit of advanced commodity.

In short, to make a single unit of advanced commodity, you need 6 of each refined commodity, which requires 20 of each refined commodity, which requires 160 of each processed material, which requires 24000 of each raw material.

Planet ShortcutsBack to Top

Below is some advice for getting the raw materials that you need without having to hunt down a rare planet type.

The most rare planets in EVE are Storm, Ice, Oceanic, and Plasma. Fortunately, the only raw material exclusive to a rare planet type is Planktic Colonies (Ice/Oceanic). For the other materials:

However, some of the raw materials might be much more plentiful on the rare planet types.

Security and Planetary InteractionBack to Top

How does security affect planetary interaction? Other players can't attack or destroy your command centers (although they might be able to via DUST 514,) but planets are likely to have multiple command centers belonging to other players, all of whom are drawing resources from the planet along with you. This can affect what resources are left for you to take.

In null-sec, you can only use your command center while your alliance has sovereignty in that system. You will not be able to use your command center if an alliance other than your own gains sovereignty in that system.

 
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