You have to buy the BPOs on the open market. There's no way to "create" BPOs. Invention is required for the production of T2 equipment and ships (and you need BPCs as input which are not given back if the invention succeeds or fails).

For production, you need all the skills under the "Production" tab as high as possible. Material Efficiency and Mass Production should be at V, and Advanced Mass Production and Supply Chain Management should be at IV (V eventually, but it's a long train).

You also need Science skills for *both* invention and the manufacturing of the BPCs that you get from invention. If you're dealing with T1 only and not inventing, you don't need Science skills at all.

As for profits, it's a well-kept secret so you'll have to find it on your own. Manufacturing calculators exist for this reason.

BPCs are always lost in invention ...but you create them from copying the BPOs.

BPOs as far as I know never drop as loot (BPCs do as limited run copies). They're seeded by NPC sell orders, so check the markets.

The important distinction:

BPO - BluePrint original. You can research the ME/TE levels of these to improve profits and produce them faster. You can build "unlimited" amounts of items with these blueprints with the maximum allowed run time of 30 days.

BPC - Created by "copying" a BPO. You select how many runs you want the blueprint to have - more runs means it takes longer to copy. You can build from these (so you can more than one production line), but you cannot research them. You use these as part of invention as well.

1. As mentioned above, I was corrected in that BPOs are never dropped from NPCs or exploring, so you'll need to buy these from the market or off contracts.

2. Invention is a bit of a beast when you first start. Datacores are obtained by using research agents (R&D) and they generate a certain amount of cores per day (and doing missions for them increases this). They are relatively inexpensive and abundant on the market, though. Relics (or decrypters) modify your invention job in various ways.

3. One pilot can do both research and manufacturing as they don't share slots (but you'll need skills).

4. In regards to ME/TE levels, ME reduces the materials required to build a product while TE reduces the time.

BPOs are copied to make BPCs that share identical stats (except they are limited in terms of number of runs). You cannot use BPOs for inventing.

And yes, salvaging gives you a lot of materials needed for rig manufacturing.

No.

You can get BPCs from exploration sites, but blueprint originals are bought on the market and traded on contract only



The only requirement to buy a BPO is that you have enough ISK. Unresearched BPOs are sold on the market. Researched ones only on contract.

You buy the BPO from an NPC station. Then you research it to improve ME or TE. That makes it "researched" (or you might say, "improved"). The improved ones can then be sold via contracts.

You're over-thinking this. Just buy a BPO for something cheap (like ammunition?) and manufacture from it, so you can learn how it works. Then start trying things that are more complex.