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An outpost is a player-constructed station that can be constructed in the lawless regions of null-sec space. These outposts serve as the base for the corporations and alliances that build them, acting as forts, marketplaces, and home, all rolled into one. As a corporation, controlling an outpost can put you heads and shoulders above the competition.

This guide is the second of a two-part series dealing with constructing an outpost. The previous article outlined why and where to build an outpost and examined many of the issues surrounding outpost construction. This final section explores the particulars of constructing an outpost and includes shopping lists and industrial skill requirements.

Why A Refinery?

Minmatar outposts are usually the best option for the first outpost in a new corporate empire.

This article covers building a 'Minmatar Service Outpost', usually called a "refinery outpost" in casual conversation. The rationale behind this is pretty simple: player owned starbases (a.k.a. POS) can be used to manufacture or research goods of any kind, with great efficiency.

Due to unhelpful game mechanics, refining with a POS is a horrible process with poor efficiency. Look up 'Refining Array' and 'Intensive Refining Array' in-game, if you don't believe me. Those x.35 and x.75 yield multipliers? Yeah, those don't care how good your skills are, and they can only handle one ore type at a time, or just modules. In short: crap.

So you want a Minmatar refinery outpost, because it can refine very well or even perfectly, if upgraded. Here are the basic capabilities of this outpost:

Minmatar Service Outpost

• Base Refine Rate: 35% (improved on by skills, implants, and outpost upgrades)
  
• Offices: 6.
  
• Manufacturing Slots: 2.

To expand on this a bit: The base 35% refine rate is actually quite acceptable. Even without any implants, one can get around a 95% refine rate for ore, assuming you have trained that particular ore's refining skills to level four. For modules or other rat loot, the rate is going to be more like 84%. Unless you have done the skill grind for 'Scrapmetal Processing' and can thereby get that ~95% rate when refining modules. Every corporation should have at least one person that can do that, and every serious industrialist should probably have a character that can, too.

All of this assumes a tax rate of 0%. As a station owner, it is very unlikely that you will want to have a tax rate so low. But beware of setting it too high, or finance-savvy players will begin exporting goods to high-sec in order to refine them. I would suggest a refining tax of around 5% to be a good rate. Note that whatever amount you set it to, any spare minerals will be dumped into your corporation hangar.

Regarding the office slots, they are the same as the offices any corporation might use, except that as station owner you can set the rental amount, and it goes to you instead of to NPCs. Six slots should be plenty for most start-up alliances.

Stages Of Construction

The basic outline of building an outpost is as follows: train the pre-requisite skills, build an outpost platform (called an "egg" by most players) with a blueprint copy, haul it to the target location with a freighter, anchor it, load it full of goods that require several more freighter trips, and then online it. Assuming it has not been destroyed by pirates, it will appear at the next downtime. Broken down into a checklist:

• Train The Pre-Requisite Skills
  
• Assemble The Egg Ingredients
  
• Build The Egg
  
• Assemble The Egg Fuel
  
• Haul The Egg
  
• Anchor And Guard The Egg
  
• Fuel The Egg
  
• Hatch The Egg
  
• Live Happily Ever After

Additional Information

• There can only be a single outpost or station per conquerable solar system.
  
• Outposts cannot be built in wormhole space (yet).
  
• Outposts cannot be built in solar systems that have NPC sovereignty. This means that entire regions (like Curse) are off limits.
  
• Outposts cannot be built in high-sec or low-sec space.
  
• You must have sovereignty in a solar system in order to build an outpost there.