Material efficiency research
Contents
Material Research
Material research is the process by which an original blueprint is modified to require fewer resources to manufacture an item. The process modifies the blueprint by increase its material level. A blueprint with higher material level consumes less waste and therefore requires fewer materials overall.
Blueprints
Almost all blueprint originals start off with a material level of zero. This corresponds to a waste factor of ten percent, and is usually undesirable. Copies may have a wide range of material levels. However they may not be the beneficiary of material research, and therefore their material level is unmodifiable. With originals, however, the material level may be increased through material research.
Each level of material research increases the blueprint's material level by one and reduces the amount of waste by (1 / ML + 1).
| Material Level | Waste Percentage |
| 1 | 5% |
| 2 | 3.33% |
| 3 | 2.5% |
| 4 | 2.0% |
| 5 | 1.67% |
| 9 | 1.0% |
| 49 | 0.20% |
| 99 | 0.1% |