EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

This guide features a tutorial on how to set up starbases in order to react valuable materials that can then be used or sold for ISK. It is the second part of a series on setting up EVE starbases.

There are many uses for starbases in EVE Online. They can be private factories, lucrative laboratories, military bases, homes in deep space, or even drug labs. But the most basic application for them is to mine moon minerals. Taking that one step farther, multiple moon minerals can be reacted together to create more valuable substances used to make tech two ships and modules. Corporations and alliances squabble for control over the most valuable moons, but there is good ISK to be made even if you are reacting ingredients purchased in Jita, mined by others.

See the previous guide in this series to familiarize yourself with the basics of starbase setup, and our moon mining guides (part one and part two) for the particulars of anchoring structures and connecting them to each other. Otherwise, enjoy the guide.

The Shoe That Fits: EVE Starbase Setups

Because the expense of fuel increases with the size of a starbase control tower, the goal when designing a starbase setup is generally to get as much done with as small a tower as possible. Some setups are possible with small towers, others require medium or large towers. Certain setups are more particular, necessitating a tower of a particular size.

This is particularly important with reactions. You must add as much value to your reacted materials as possible, with each hour of reaction that takes place. You must also strive to keep your hourly fuel and material costs as low as possible, so as not to take all the profitability out of your reaction. It can be trickier than it sounds, especially during times when the moon mineral market is unstable.

On the following pages, we present basic setups for your EVE starbase reactions, and explain the particulars of each of them. In each case, we total the CPU needed so that you can determine what control towers it is possible to use that setup with. When picking which towers to use them on, remember that spare fitting space is always useful for defenses, corporate hangar arrays, or other useful gear.

EVE Starbase Basics: Moon Mining Towers

Total CPU: 1,000 tf

The diagram shown here is the simplest industrial setup for a moon. A moon harvester extracts a single moon mineral from those available on the moon. It then stores it in a silo. This is the setup used in our guide to clandestine moon mining, and by a goodly number of players generally in EVE Online. It can fit on a small tower with ease, though this is not recommended except in the most quiet areas of EVE, especially if the moon contains one of the more valuable materials.

In the case of something really valuable (like technetium is, as of this writing) it would be extremely risky to have anything other than a large control tower with lots of defenses. If, on the other hand, you are just grabbing something crappy and common, like evaporite deposits, you can likely get away with a small.

Note that depending on how excellent your supply abilities are, it may in fact be cheaper to buy a moon mineral in Jita, than to mine it yourself. This is due in large part to there being a constant supply of the more common moon minerals produced by towers that are also doing other things, like acting as a base for ratters or a relay for jump bridges.