Relays

Revision as of 01:43, 7 December 2014

Relays are a type of ship Module that increases your energy recharge rate - so you gain more energy per hour - but you do so at the cost of reducing your maximum energy level. You can equip up to four standard Relays at a time, but like other ship modules, you can conduct research to access better relays that increase your recharge rate faster than older models.

Other special modules may also be equipped later on in the game that further reduce your recharge rate. These can be gained as rewards from specific missions, completing certain objectives, or as rewards when you destroy specific enemies.

Many players feel that until you have researched the first Power Core, Relays should not be equipped. Also, be aware that there is a minimum energy requirement before they can be equipped - if your max energy level is too low, the game will not allow you to equip a Relay. If this happens, spend some Rank Points on hiring more Engineers or build more Cores to increase your max energy!

Example

At the start of the game, you recharge energy every 3 minutes (180 seconds), for a total of 20 energy recharged per hour (Or 480 energy per day). The first Relay, a Power Conduit, has the following stats:

Power Conduit [-5 max energy, +1 charge*]

• This means each Conduit that you equip will reduce the time between "ticks" by 1 second.

Equipping one Relay would therefore reduce your max energy level by 5, but would reduce the time between ticks to 2 minutes 59 seconds (179 seconds), giving a total of 20.1 energy recharged per hour (Or 482.4 energy per day)

But since you can equip 4 Relays at a time, this means you can potentially increase your energy recharge rate by 4 seconds - at a total cost of -20 max energy.

So say a player at the start of the game has a ship with 120 energy and no bonus charge. This ship recharges energy every three minutes, and gains 20 energy per hour. But after equipping four of these Relays, that same ship would have 100 max energy and would gain energy every 2 minutes 56 seconds (176 seconds), or 20.45 energy per hour (Or 490.8 energy per day)

But this is the poor man's example; this is only the first Relay, and there are plenty of better Relays available to be researched! For example in the late game, with four of the best available standard Relays equipped (in addition to all Mission Completion Rewards and 3 Silthion T-Plasma Hubs), energy recharge time falls to 40 seconds, or 90 energy per hour (Or 2160 energy per day).

Purchasing two F.A.T.H.E.R. Relays for Galaxy Points will give a further 10 second recharge increase. If they were equipped with the best Relays, the result is a 30 second energy recharge time, or 120 energy per hour (Or 2880 energy per day). That last 10 second reduction has more of an impact than the first!

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 Core Mk. IV's. This ship would have a maximum of 469 energy! However, with no energy recharge, it would take 23 hours and 27 minutes to fully recharge from 0 to 469 energy. That's not a fun wait at all! But if you install 4 X-Conduits (+15 Charge, but -50 max. energy each), the max. energy of the ship will drop down from 469 to 269, but the energy recharge time reduces from 3 minutes 0 seconds to 2 minutes 0 seconds. At this rate, the time to get to 269 energy from 0 energy would only be 8 hours and 58 minutes. Significantly faster than before, no? Plus, it's just long enough that, if you go to sleep, you should wake up to a full energy bank. :)

Hint: if you are likely to sleep for longer than 9 hours, uninstall one or two of the four conduits. It may not charge at full speed, but the extra max energy means your ship will have more energy when you wake up! ;)

Researchable Relays

These relays can be unlocked by performing Energy Research. Every second tier of research unlocks a new relay (Ie. tier 2, tier 4, tier 6, and so on). The other tiers unlock Power Cores.

Discoverable or Salvaged Relay Systems

These modules can be randomly found by killing a specific enemy in combat.

Mission Completion Rewards

Mission Completion Rewards are gained from doing what the name implies; completing missions. Complete the amount of missions specified and the module will automatically be installed on your ship. Unlike all other ship modules, Mission Completion Rewards take up zero (0) deck space on your ship. However, once installed, they cannot be uninstalled, so their effects are permanent.

G.P. Purchasable Items

The following relays can only be bought through the Artifact Market using Galaxy Points.

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