LP Stores Explained

While L4 missions generate direct ISK payouts through mission rewards and NPC bounties, the largest income generator when it comes to mission running are the LP rewarded for every successfully completed mission, excluding storylines and epic arcs. They are tracked for every NPC corp separately, and can be exchanged at every station belonging to said corp in return for valuable items; be they faction variants of modules and ships, the blueprints to build said modules and ships, or implants. However not every LP stores is created equal - some offer excellent deals in excess of 2k ISK per LP, while others barely break 1k ISK per LP. Thus it is of extreme importance for every mission runner to be able to identify which LP stores are worth flying for, lest their income will suffer terribly.

Before I continue, it would be unwise to not mention one of the single-most important websites for any mission runner: Fuzzwork's LP Store Calculator. While the website should not be used for super-accurate ISK/LP rates and is prone to fall victim to market manipulations, it is nonetheless an excellent tool to identify the general value of a corporation's LP store. With this out of the way, I shall now continue.

The Big Four

The four major empires of New Eden - the Amarr Empires, the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation and the Minmatar Republic - employ the vast majority of L4 security agents. And while each of them consists of two dozen or so corporations each, their LP stores fall into three categories:

1. "Military" LP Stores

These LP stores belong to the faction navies and various other corporations with a military bend. They can be identified by offering the "Security Connections" skill book, but also carry the racial Drone Specialization skill as well as the blueprints for faction smartbombs. Considering the military bend of those corporations it should come of no surprise that they employ a large number of security agents, unfortunately though Military LP stores suffer three major issues:

1. Aside from smartbombs, they offer little blueprints. As module blueprints are always a better deal than the module itself (for example a 5-run faction Gyrostabilizer blueprint costs 90,000 LP, while a faction Gyrostabilizer costs 30,000 LP), this heavily depresses the value of military loyalty points.
   
   
2. Military corporations are the only type that offer L5 missions in lowsec. L5 runners can generate massive amounts of LP, so many in fact that a single determined runner is enough to outpace the galaxy-wide demand in LP shop items. Thus L5 runners have little qualms of dumping their LP at rather pitiful rates, which further hurts the value of military loyalty points.
   
   
3. The NPC Faction Warfare Corps also feature a version of the military LP store. And not only are FW mission runners able to almost match L5 runners in the amount of LP they generate, the FW LP store also additionally has better offers than standard LP stores. This means that FW pilots can sell their items for lower prices, which hurts the value of military loyalty points.

2. "Industrial" LP Stores

These LP stores generally belong to the producers of T2 ships as well as other corps with a clear mining/industrial flavour. They can be identified by offering the "Mining Connections" skill book, but also carry the blueprints for faction damage mods. This makes their LP stores generally high value, only the Caldari corps suffer here a bit. Not much else to say here, if you find an agent belonging to such a corp in a decent system they will be a good option to run missions for.

3. "Civilian" LP Stores

Finally there are the Civilian LP stores, which generally belong to corporations focused on the civil sector as well as the civil administration of the four empires. They offer the "Distribution Connections" skill book, but also carry the blueprints for various faction support modules - from stasis webifiers to warp disruptors to cap rechargers. This makes civilian LP stores extremely valuable, often more so than even industrial LP. However L4 security agents for such corps are rather rare, and their items usually have a slightly slower turnover rate than faction damage mod. However, since the Amarr lack faction variants of most utility modules, this makes their civilian loyalty points much less desirable.

Finally, I must mention that all those LP stores often have to procure faction insignias as additional exchange items. These insignias tend to be under-supplied, for I personally have managed to exhaust all Jita sell orders on more than one occasion. This certainly adds an additional wrinkle to running for corporations belonging to the Big Four, a wrinkle that among other things has driven many mission runners towards more "relaxed" alternatives.

Khanid and Ammatar

Joining the Big Four are the Khanid and Ammatar, two factions closely related to the Amarr Empire and sometimes viewed as belonging to it (somewhat justifiable for the Ammatar, less so for the Khanid). Thus it should come as no surprise that their LP stores share characteristics with their larger brother.

Unfortunately, both Ammatar and Khanid LP stores suck. The Ammatar come off better as they are basically Amarr but with a different nameplate, but suffer from the fact that the only L4 security agents belong to a military corporation and that their modules sell extremely slowly. When have you last checked how much an Ammatar Heat Sink costs?

The Khanid have it even worse. Not only are there no blueprints for Khanid modules, they also have Caldari LP shop deals but with Minmatar insignias instead. Minmatar insignias are a lot more expensive than the Gallente insignias Caldari corporations want. This makes Khanid modules horribly overpriced, meaning they don't sell.

The Servant Sisters of EVE

The Sisters of EVE are considered by many to be the singly-best corporation to fly mission for. And while I agree to a certain extend, first I must refute the myth that their LP store is the most valuable. While SoE LP are good, they are not as good as industrial or civilian LP. However, they have several massive advantages compared to other LP shops:

1. They don't require insignias.
   
   
2. They have an unparalleled volume of LP sold on a daily basis.
   
   
3. One of their agents is located in Lanngisi, which is just about the best system to run L4 missions from.

These three factors attract mission runners like a light in the dark attracts moths. One day I want to talk about Lanngisi and Ani in detail, but in short they are probably the most PvE-active location in the entire game. The two other systems with SoE agents - Apanake and Osmon - are likewise hubs of mission running activity, though to a lesser degree than Lanngisi. Unfortunately, were there is prey there a predators, and the concentration of expensively fitted pirate battleships and Marauders has long since attracted the attention of gankers.

Thukker Tribe

Finally, there is the Thukker Tribe. Their LP shop is very good, like the Sisters of EVE they do not demand faction insignias while their loyalty points are more valuable. However none of the Thukker agents are in optimal locations to efficiently farm ISK, which makes SoE the more preferable option for most mission runners. Though for anyone willing to work past those issues, Thukker agents are reliable ISK makers.