Eve Decryptors. A complicated world of funny economics.

One of the most esoteric areas of industrial game play is T2 invention. The formula are complicated. The outcome is chance based. The market is illiquid. And the options are nearly limitless.

Nowhere is this more apparent then in the market for Decryptors. These little talked about objects are found by intrepid explorers (people willing to move little 2D spheres around on a fiddling background trying to find a dot in simulated 3D space). Their function is to modify the end product of an invention run.

Typically, inventions on modules and ammo are done with max run BPCs and result in 10 run BPCs with ML -4 and PL -4 (essentially adding 40% to material waste and production time). Ships are usually done with single run BPCs and get 1 run T2 BPCs (same ML/PL though). The decryptors allow you to modify that though. There are five "types" of decryptors with one each for each faction. Every item in the game has a faction assigned to it for invention purposes. Sometimes these are obvious (T2 Hybrid charges are Gallente) while sometimes they are arbitrary (T2 cargo expanders are Minmatar). It reminds me of trying to learn the gender of things in Latin and Spanish class sometimes.

Each of the decryptors has a "signature" thing about them. This is how I've labeled them in my spreadsheet:

+9 runs (also .6 probability, -2ML, +1PL)
+2 runs (also +1ML, +4PL)
+3ML (also 1.1 probability, +3PL)
+5PL (also 1.2 probability, +2ML)
1.8 probability (also +4 runs, -1ML, +2PL)

I've used four of the five above but the last one (the 1.8prob) one escapes me completely.
These are the most expensive (by far!) decryptors with costs running up to $32mil for Stolen Formulas (Gallente) and as low as $18.3mil for the Amarr one. NONE of the items in my database work at these prices (and I've tried on almost every Amarr item since its the cheapest right now). The problem is that the cost doesn't play well with the -1ML. For that expense, it can only make sense on something with a reasonably high profit margin where the invention cost is a significant factor (i.e. LOTS of datacores). There appears to always be a better option for invention. I've found a single exception which makes me think there might be single other exceptions (the decryptors are so rare that these single exceptions could be driving the market) so I'm wondering what they are.