Pack it in and reset ffs...

Okay first you said storing purifiers. If you have them why aren't you using them??

Next you are going about it backwards. Don't chose your profession based on what you are gonna put on your ship eventually but instead base what you put on ship on your production.

How far into talth are you?

Oh...

Well that will take some focus to get in time.

Either way though highly recommend not going builder. Theres better ways to fix your upkeep.

Taltherian being one, though in the short-term you could go Kronyn and pawn off some research planets.

What would you rather?

Extra 2.6k mining an hour. Or 2k arti?

because you cant. i was comparing proffessions
the mining is the approximate equivalent of what you would gain by being builder
the arti is what you'd be getting from excavator.

if you want to save credit you can downgrade those trans entropies. dropping down to nacelles drops upkeep almost 1.9b

I'd focus on your arti first.
I have 15k/hr. That's 7.5k less then where I should be.
I can autorank, and I also can hold my own in PvP. I'm not saying freeze rank, I'm just saying get you arti up.

Never ever EVER! go builder. It is a stupid profession. If you can't afford your upkeep then don't get the weapons until you can.

Get your artifact up, being taltherian helps, but honestly it is a very slow process. If you plan to slow rank then it is good, but if you want to get it up quick NPCs is the way to go.

Research should only be sold when you are done with research trees, and can donate your base. If you become too dependent on it then if you get to the point where you need to research more you will regret it.

as always raising arti trumps anything else.
my research is growing by over 1K a month from my arti production.. as well as the rest of my ship.
talth excavator is the only race to be for long term enhancement, for short term super greed, kongul excavator, and steal anyones planet that you can. my personal guidelines and anything massive or VM and rich for an arti world (im talth so i can make them better), and any toxic or irradiated thats already over x5. i dont worry that my mining is capping earlier and earlier, it will eventually even itself out in the long run

kongul excavator is the only other choice for me, but you know where i stand on planet thefts, not everyone enjoys such a hatred inducing pass time lol.
zolazin sab is alright if you and a few others can coordinate, that will compensate the attack bonus 'loss' from not being kongul.

excavator is only a 10% increase, so its an alright bonus if you're getting it, but its not a be all end all help at lower production.


as for what to research, i wouldn't recommend anything too highly.
on my cell atm, but i wouldn't rush to finish energy cores, too expensive for a minor increase that can be corrected with engineers. same with quasis. if you don't have the best defences (all 8 of them) work on that.
obviation barriers for your planets. planet structures maxed (i passed on topopolis).
I've researched cloak but only just cause. only a half dozen planets have cloak structures on them.
in regards to base... get UST researched, it has a few decent buffs. scan buff at the top of that list.