Datacores are required material for invention and reverse engineering jobs. Usually, an invention or reverse engineering job will require several datacores from two different fields, as listed in the bill of materials for the invention on the blueprint copy or ancient relic, as well as during the job setup. The datacores required will also match the field skills required for the invention or reverse engineering job, too.
Obtaining Datacores
Datacores used in invention jobs can be found randomly in Hacking Containers of Data Sites, but there are more reliable ways available to obtain specific datacores you need:
- Loyalty Point store
Each Faction offers a set of Datacores within the LP Stores of their Factional Warfare Militia corporations, costing 250.000 ISK and 250 Loyalty points for 5 Datacores. - Agents in the R&D division of NPC corporations
Provided training in the respective field and high enough standings for the agent, R&D-Agents allow exchanging Datacores for a set amount of research points (50, 100 or 150 depending on the field) and 10.000 ISK per datacore.
Subsystems Engineering Datacores, which are only required for Invention Jobs of Tech III subsystems, can only be obtained from hacking Data and Relic Sites in Wormhole Space.
R&D Agents and Research Points
Agents of the R&D division of an NPC corporation can provide you with research points that are needed in order to obtain datacores from those agents. Each agent will provide a number of research points per day, which can be modified via skill and effective standing to the agent. In addition to the daily RP amount, those agents will offer you a mission that will reward you with a days' worth of research points as well when completed successfully, with a new mission being offered about 24 hours after completion or cancellation of the current offer. Missions from Research Agents can be declined or quit without standing loss to the agent, corporation or faction.
Each agent offers a number of fields available to start research in with that agent, listed within the agent information. You can only obtain Datacores from the agent if you are actively researching with the agent. Stopping research in a field will cause you to lose all research points obtained with the agent in that field.