Jump freighters are the most effective, safe means of transporting large volumes of goods outside of high-security space. They are also extremely expensive and difficult to make. This guide is the second in a series describing their creation, and covers the actual construction process.
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If you are wondering what a Rhea is, why you might want to get one, or how to procure a blueprint for it, check out the first guide in this series.
Skill Training
Building a jump freighter is not a project for industrial lightweights. You must train the following skills:
- Industry 5
- Capital Ship Engineering 4
- Caldari Starship Engineering 4
- Mechanical Engineering 4
Shopping List
Assuming you adhered to the first guide, your Rhea blueprint probably has a material efficiency -1. That means that you will need the following tech I ingredients:
- Charon (ship)x1
- Capital Jump Drive x24
- R.A.M. - Starship Tech x40
- Construction Blocks x1800
- Morphite x3000
You will also need the following tech II capital components:
- Capital Gravimetric Sensor Cluster x532
- Capital Graviton Reactor Unit x622
- Capital Magpulse Thruster x506
- Capital Quantum Microprocessor x845
- Capital Scalar Capacitor Unit x845
- Capital Sustained Shield Emitter x539
- Capital Titanium Diborite Armor Plate x1216
Note that despite the similar name, the Capital Jump Drives are not advanced components. Rather, they are tech I capital components that require large amounts of minerals to assemble. Those will need to be sourced separately, though the blueprints are usually available at Jita on the cheap.
The Construction Blocks are produced on planets in fairly reasonable amounts. If you don't already have a ton of colonies made, it might be a good idea to make some of them on your own.
Building Tech II Capital Components
One of the unfortunate things about tech II components (capital or otherwise) is that the Jita market completely overprices them. This means that it is worth considering buying and researching your own set of tech II capital components. The down side of this is that it is a pretty heavy investment for a one-off, and that as of the current state of EVE there are no ships other than jump freighters that make use of tech II capital components. It seems quite likely that there will be future applications, though that could be years away. There is also the matter of the exacting skill requirements for researching material efficiency on tech II blueprints. If you don't have these, you can buy the research blueprints at a markup, but it will cost you. If you are just building the one Rhea you should probably just buy the components off the market.
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Still, if you are big into doing things yourself (and what EVE industrialist isn't?) then you will need a giant stack of advanced ingredients to build the capital components mentioned above. Remember to split up your buy orders!
Assuming ME 25 on the applicable blueprints, the advanced ingredients needed are:
- Fermionic Condensates x6,220
- Ferrogel x16,670
- Fullerides x848,380
- Hypersynaptic Fibers x10,640
- Nanotransistors x56,020
- Phenolic Composites x23,630
- Sylramic Fibers x2,264,113
- Titanium Carbide x8,416,477
Consolidating Ingredients
One of the great things about EVE Online in general and Jita in particular is that everything you need is usually available right there. You can buy everything you need in Jita 4-4, pack it into a Charon, and warp it right over to another station inside Jita. Often there are plenty of slots available, though if you don't want to fuss around you can usually go over to Sobaseki and find plenty, just one jump out.
What I have found convenient is to stuff all of the cheap ingredients into a charon, fly it to my station of choice, then repeat with broken up batches of the expensive ingredients. If you have more than a billion or two of loot in your cargo hold you are just asking for suicide gankers to notice.
Assembling And Building
Once you have all your gear at your destination, get building. If you are making all of the components yourself, this could take over a month. As it is, the final build job will take several weeks. I wouldn't worry about that too much, though, as the prices involved seem to only get more favorable over time. Indeed, as of this writing the ingredients for these parts should cost about 7.3 billion ISK, while the final product should sell for at least 8.2 billion ISK. Not a bad profit, and eminently repeatable.
Good luck with this and your other industrial projects!
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