Reactors

Revision as of 23:41, 13 April 2018

Reactors are a type of ship Module that give a bonus to your total max energy. The maximum number of researched reactors that may be equipped at one time is 3.

The current maximum Energy that can be obtained purely from researchable equipment (ignoring any artifact, Race or Profession bonuses) is from 3 Mk IV Proxy-Universe Reactors, which give 1620 Energy for 150 decks and take a total upkeep of 1,485,000,000 (1.485 billion) credits per day.

Example

A Fusion Reactor gives a +10 bonus to energy. By equipping 3 of these to a ship that normally would have 100 MAX energy and no Relays the ship would have 130 MAX energy.

But that's the poor man's example. If you want a REAL example, based around mid-game stats, let's assume that you have a heavy cruiser that has a base energy of 100, with not one, not even two, but THREE Singularity Cores - Mk. IV. Basic energy levels on this ship would be a staggering 469 Energy! However, this would have a nominal recharge rate at the typical 3 minutes per energy (Assuming you haven't gotten the Omicron Injector yet, which would be unlikely). The time to fully charge the energy reserves from 0 to 469 equates to 23 hours and 27 minutes. That's not a fun wait at all. However, if you throw 4 X-Conduits in there, the energy drops down to 269, but the time of recharge spikes to 2 minutes. At this rate, the time to get to 269 energy from 0 energy would be 8 hours and 58 minutes. Significantly faster than before, no? Plus, it's just enough that, if you go to sleep, you should wake up to a full energy bank. :) And if you sleep longer, uninstall one or two conduits. It may not charge fully, but it'll charge more than without any conduits at all. ;)

Researchable Reactors

These Reactors can be unlocked by performing Energy Research. Every odd-numbered tier of research unlocks a new reactor (Ie. tier 1, tier 3, tier 5, and so on). The other tiers unlock Relays.

¹ Mk I cores do not display any suffix. For example, the Fusion Reactor - Mk I simply displays as Fusion Reactor

Discoverable or Salvageable Reactors

These reactors can be obtained by completing certain objectives, such as defeating certain enemies in combat or as rewards for completing a specific mission. They do not count towards your ship limit of 3 reactors, but have their own limits as stated below.

¹ If the Genetarr Transmitter is FIRST installed after you reach rank 50, you will instead get the upgraded Mark II version, which grants an additional 35 scan power. It is therefore strongly recommended that you wait until you are level 50 before you first equip the Genetarr Transmitter.

²This module was retired for a newer version in the same seasonal of the following year.

³ While Installed: Vygoid and Zolazin get double the Energy Bonus from the Q-Pedd Logic Servos.

⁴ Q-Pedd Ansible - Activated Ability: +5% NPC Attack for 1 hour, Cooldown 20 hours. If you have 2 Ansibles, the ability does not stack but you can activate one during the cooldown period of the other. Also, while the Q-Pedd Ansible is shown in the "Energy" section of the Ship tab, it has the second best Shield/Deckspace ratio of any module in the game (only Aegis Capacitors are better).

⁵ This is not an actual ship mod gained from the task, but rather an upgrade that is used on the existing T-Plasma Dynamo.

⁶ Both versions of Zortah's Interface Jack, and both versions of the Voliir Modulator, will be displayed in the Devices tab of your ship, not in the Energy tab. They are listed there because they provide more scan than energy. |}

Legion Mission-Exclusive Energy Mods

These Energy Mods are available only from completing specific tasks during Legion missions, which are a special type of collaborative mission that is undertaken by an entire legion rather than just individual players. Each mission has three tasks that must all be completed, but each player may only complete one of the tasks, meaning a legion must carefully decide who does each task. Legion missions last for three days (72 hours), but this can be both increased - or decreased - by spending Galaxy Points.

See Also:

• Equipment

Engineers vs. Reactors/Cores

Many players feel that building Reactors is a much more productive way to increase your energy reserves than placing your rank points into Engineers because Reactors can be upgraded and removed at will. Engineer's are permanent investment. Usually, rank points are split between TO (Tactical Officers) and Engineers; putting rank points into decks is highly looked down upon, because the rank points would have a much better use in adding to your crew (such as TO and Engineers). In addition, with a high Artifacts/hour, one can gain all the decks one needs by using ship bots.

To further illustrate this point, 1 Rank Point is equal to 2 Energy points, if placed into an Engineer. At the early levels, this can look very nice (after all, a basic Fusion Reactor has a 1 deck to 1 energy ratio), but at the higher levels, this becomes completely overshadowed by the larger reactors. Using the Singularity Core - Mk. IV example above, 1 Singularity Core - Mk. IV takes up 29 deck slots, but gives 123 energy. This is a ratio of 1 Rank Point to 4.2 energy points. By this logic, while useful at the early levels, an engineer rapidly becomes dated as the tech increases (Generally dated by the Graviton Core Mk. IV, although an argument can still be made for the engineers at this point), making them less useful.

However, higher level players will still have a use for engineers in later stages. Using the example above, 3 Singularity cores give 369 energy, but that is a maximum. While enough deck space needs to be maintained for as high a level of Reactors as a player can research, any additional rank points placed into engineers could be well spent. Indeed at very high levels (300+) players often rely on ship bots from artifact shipments to maintain growth in decks, and all rank points (whether from ranking up or from rescued prisoners) tend to be split between engineers and tactical officers (the exact ratio of that split is a matter for debate, see the forums for further information).

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