Numbers
Per-action [BETA], PC Gamer versus Skycoach: hammer swing $15 versus ~$1; marked (X) build point - versus ~$6; structure completion $1,200-$1,500 versus ~$15 [BETA]. Aggregates: a player who did nothing but build finished a match with $80,000 [BETA] (Get Gud with Garen, single anecdote); SirSmoken ended the beta with over $1 million [BETA] across many matches. Logistics income, beta-era (Skycoach): a pallet costs $400 [BETA], delivery pays ~$2,500 [BETA], supply-usage bonus adds ~$1,800 [BETA], roughly $3,900 [BETA] net per pallet. Season 1 check (WarDoggin, 11 Sep): a build-supply pallet delivered to a FOB paid $2,500 [S1]; unloading the vehicle's carried supplies paid a further $1,800 [S1] and 360 support XP [S1]. Skycoach's $1,800 [BETA] usage bonus and WarDoggin's $1,800 [S1] on unload may be the same payment under two names; do not count it twice. Emplacement income: downing a loaded helicopter with a SAM paid $8,000 [BETA] and $14,500 [BETA] in one iMaTT session. Season 1 cost of entry: FOB $7,500 [S1], Large Hammer $2,400 [S1] per buy on top of a $75,000 [S1] one-time blueprint, Ural $5,000 [S1] plus a $35,000 [S1] unlock (reduced from $50,000 [BETA]), pallets ~$400 [BETA] each. Season 1 nerfs: supply-crate items sold under $75 [S1] now give 1 XP [S1] instead of 25 XP [BETA], and the crate purchase XP curve was rescaled from 25-250 XP [BETA] to 1-200 XP [S1].
Why it works
Skycoach's per-unit numbers elsewhere match Wardogs Zone closely, which is mild evidence for their scale; PC Gamer's "$1,200-$1,500 for completing build" may be describing a whole FOB rather than a single structure. Helping build up the team's FOB earns back most of the money you spent on the FOB kit, plus a lot of support XP (SirSmoken). Everything done inside the hotzone pays double, explicitly including building fortifications in a FOB. Builders near the zone earn build cash and passive zone cash simultaneously. RageGamingVideos' refinement is worth the extra clicks: buy the supplies yourself and place them into the FOB, because that is what attaches the credit to you - "anyone that uses your ammo you put in directly converts to XP and money for you." Pilots should land and stock the FOB personally rather than just dropping a crate. Gigabeef's break-even maths: one downed helicopter covers the FOB plus materials; two or three cover the Ural and the hammer too.
Where it falls apart
Every payout figure above is beta except WarDoggin's Season 1 pallet figures. Season 1 did not touch build payouts in the changelog, but it did nerf two adjacent farms. If you were planning to farm support XP by stuffing crates with cheap items, that is dead. Gigabeef warns against choosing an obvious build spot purely to capture the simultaneous zone income. Geck0: a crate filled entirely with build supply and dropped at a FOB pays for itself plus a profit with no buyer lined up, but for any other cargo confirm the order in chat (who, what, where) before you buy, because supplies nobody buys are a straight loss.
refs: 1gl4NEHtzhI-42, nL7dAQVa5ig-01, nL7dAQVa5ig-02, nL7dAQVa5ig-04, 1y5uNoJ7ciA-04, RcJjcjSc730-70, RcJjcjSc730-27, HkruVf6lIs8-16, 5CsJz4KC9dQ-41, 5CsJz4KC9dQ-46, RyeL_HZXAAc-25, BrTNezWMpuk-60, 7Vj9U-eawv4-05, 7Vj9U-eawv4-09, 7Vj9U-eawv4-10, I9rkQ7U-Tzk-42, I9rkQ7U-Tzk-43, IO7-_TwxpII-06