Tradeskilling
I believe that it is not a good idea to make a pure tradeskiller engineer. Unless you can afford both resources and time-wise to create a "tool" for TSing. Making a tool like that is a complete no-brainer: max all tradeskills, perk all tradeskills and you should be able to TS pretty much everything ingame with minimal investment in armors. The below is for those who want to PVM (or even PVP) and still be able to do some crafting.
As a froob
As a froob it is only viable if you specialize. See the skills section to decide which particular tradeskills you want to specialize on. My recommendation is focusing on implant creation as there will be a constant demand for them from your other characters, your very own engineer as well as the occasional other player. This means you should focus on maximizing Nano Programming. Once you have plenty of IP, you can put IP into Field Quantum Physics, Psychology and Chemistry (in that particular priority order). If you have extra IP it is worth increasing Pharmaceuticals as well, because being able to process blood plasma results in a fairly good shopfood income. However in today's mature (or as others would put it: inflated) economy, it is only worth it if you have no other means to get credits to spend on shop-buyable items.
A level 200 froob engineer with the right gear and QL 200 implants can get around 1200-ish tradeskills (more for Nano Programming) with outside buffs, maybe more.
As an expansion player
If engineer is your first character, I'd recommend to follow the path I have outlined for froobs to be self-sufficient in your earlier levels. However, beyond the ability to assemble QL 200 implants, I do not recommend investing any more into tradeskills until you hit TL7. Then at 220 you have a decision: 1, make your engineer a tool, at which point it does not really require any investment, with decent symbiants, perks, and a few cheap items you will be able to assemble anything. 2, you make a combat-capable engineer, who at the same time (albeit with some effort) is able to craft anything. I'll focus on option 2 here. Note however that option two will require considerable investment.
With the advent of the Apotheosis research line (which, at level 10 enables you to swap alien armor without the Alien Technology Expertise perks) as well as the abundance of abilities, you are now able to completely swap out your gear.
This enables your character to change from combat gear to tradeskill gear easily. An engineer in tradeskill gear, with tradeskill perks and maxed tradeskills is WAAAAAAY above the requirement of crafting anything available in the game. It is a waste of IP. This means, the more tradeskill items you can swap in, the less IP you have to spend on tradeskills.
Items and Buffs
Here is a list of essential items and buffs you need to have to be a capable tradeskiller as well as a capable, combat focused engineer. I have only focused on the highest possible bonus-giving items as well as some must-haves. In case of flexible QLs, I have indicated the highest possible QL bonus. Getting some of these items will be quite challenging, but hey, that's one of the beauties of the game.
Legend
-----------------------------
ME = Mechanical Engineering
EE = Electrical Engineering
QP = Quantum Physics
WS = Weapon Smithing
NP = Nano Programming
CH = Chemistry
PH = Pharmaceuticals
PS = Psychology
BE = Breaking & Entering
CL = Computer Literacy
TU = Tutoring
Code:
ITEM SLOT ME | EE | QP | WS | NP | CH | PH | PS | BE | CL | TU
----------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----
Research Attunement Device TS H3 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | |
Ancient Skills Library U1-3 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | | | |
Primitive Focus-Funneling Helper H2 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 20 | 25 | 20 | | | 10 |
Loving Focus-Funneling Helper H1 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 20 | 25 | 20 | | | 10 |
Problem Solving Device D1-4,6 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 10 | 5 | | 15 | |
Pure Novictum Ring for the Control Unit A-RF 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | | 10
Catila Amano's Ring of the Mechanic A-LF,RF 30 | | | | | | | | | |
Muddletupper's Ring of the Mechanic A-LF,RF 30 | | | | | | | | | |
Cbik's Ring of the Electric A-LF,RF | 30 | | | | | | | | |
Quasinom de Plume's Ring of the Elec. A-LF,RF | 30 | | | | | | | | |
Dakirn Wigglesnout's Ring of Physics A-LF,RF | | 30 | | | | | | | |
Gnish's Ring of Field Quantum Physics A-LF,RF | | 30 | | | | | | | |
Kredal's Ring of the Gunsmith A-LF,RF | | | 30 | | | | | | |
Kritta Didymus' Ring of the Gunsmith A-LF,RF | | | 30 | | | | | | |
Igbert's Ring of Nano Programming A-LF,RF | | | | 30 | | | | | |
Temar Eldanti's Ring of Nano Prog. A-LF,RF | | | | 30 | | | | | |
Catbik's Ring of Chemistry A-LF,RF | | | | | 30 | | | | |
Piip Ignatz's Ring of Chemistry A-LF,RF | | | | | 30 | | | | |
Exok's Ring of Pharmacy A-LF,RF | | | | | | 30 | | | |
Indyana Kendan's Ring of Pharmacy A-LF,RF | | | | | | 30 | | | |
Fulcrum's Ring of Psychology A-LF,RF | | | | | | | 30 | | |
Mukaka Nudderbolts' Ring of Psychology A-LF,RF | | | | | | | 30 | | |
Repair Coordination Assistant A-LS,RS 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | | | | | 20 | 10 |
Control Unit Chest Plate A-Back 25 | 25 | 25 | | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | | | 25
Arithmetic / Combined Officer Armor A-All 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | | |
Combined Scout Armor A-All 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | |
Enchanced Dustbrigade Chemist Gloves A-Hands | | | | | 50 | 50 | | | 50 | 20
Gauntlets of Deformation A-Hands 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | | 30 | 30
Awakened Gauntlets of Deformation A-Hands 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | | 45 | 45
Candied Fruit Armband A-LW,RW | | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | | | |
Stellar Engineer Nanodeck H/U 1-3 60 | | | 60 | 45 | 30 | | | | 45 | 60
Dust Brigade Creator Module U3 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | | |
Profiteer's Helper (neut only) A-Neck 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 250 | 50 | 50 | 50 | | 250 |
Awakened Xan Merit boards A-Neck | | | | 250 | | | | | 250 |
Sided Awakened Xan Merit boards A-Neck | | | | 275 | | | | | 275 |
Libra's Charming Assistant A-LS,RS | | | | | | | 30 | | |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Sleeves A-Sleeve 50 | 50 | | | | | | | | |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Pants A-Legs | | | | | | | | | 40 |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Body A-Chest | | | 75 | | | | | | |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Gloves A-Hands | | | | | 60 | | | | |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Boots A-Feet | 58 | 58 | | | | | | | |
OFAB Engineer Protective Gear A-Back 70 | | | | | | | | | |
Hacked Technical Library U1 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | | | | | |
Augmented Master Engineer Pistol W-RH 40 | 40 | 40 | | 40 | | | | | | 50
Infused Dust Brigade Engineer Pistol W-LH,RH 30 | 30 | 30 | | | | | | | |
Prohibited Hand-Mortar of Bacam-Xum W-RH 120 | | | | | | | | | |
Guardian Conductor of Focus TOWER 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | | | |
Code:
KEY BUFFS ME | EE | QP | WS | NP | CH | PH | PS | BE | CL | TU
----------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----
Engineer Composite Specialist Tradeskills 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | | 200 | 200 | | | |
Composite Tradeskill Expertise 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20
Crowbar Subtlety (Eng) | | | | | | | | 32 | |
Authority Figure (Crat) | | | | | | | 50 | | |
Advanced Symbol Manipulation (MP) | | | | 92 | | | | | |
Organization city HQ device buff 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | | |
Composite Attribute Boost (approx. trickle) 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3
Neuronal Stimulator (NT,MP, Crat) (approx.) 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4
Coalescing Energy Cascade (aka Gauntlet buff) 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2
Tutoring device buffs (ql200, req 1000 TU) 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | | 50 |
Perks
You can also instantly reset your perks for free with the perk reset guy on JOBE Platform. Feeling like being a tradeskiller for two days? Just reset your perks. Even if there is an emergency, you can do another instant reset for 20 million credits.
Here are the list of perks you can invest in (numbers are cumulative at each level of the perk):
Code:
General perks
Enchance DNA (10) +11 to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down
Genius (3) +7 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 3 from trickle-down
Solitus Sec. Gen. (10) +6 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Opifex Sec. Gen. (10) +4 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Atrox Sec. Gen. (10) +4 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Nanomage Pri. Gen.(10) +10 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Group perks
Alchemist (6) 15/35/60/90/130/200 CH, PH
Illogical Patterns (8) 20/40/60/80/100/120/140/160 ME, EE, QP, WS, TU - AI perkline
The Unknown Factor (8) 20/40/60/80/100/120/140/160 PH, NP, CH, PS - AI perkline
Tinkerer (4) 10/22/38/65 ME, EE, QP
Profession perks
Gadgeteer (10) 2/4/7/10/14/19/25/32/41/55 ME, EE, QP, 2/5/9/14/20/27/35/44/54/70 WS
Mechanic (10) 3/7/12/18/25/33/42/52/63/80 ME, EE, QP, 6/13/21/30/40/51/64/80/100/130 WS