Production buildings
Your production chain is built on five buildings: three resource extractors (metal, silicon, deuterium) and two energy producers (solar plant and fusion reactor). Each level multiplies output by a fixed factor, but also raises energy consumption: balancing the chain is the key to a productive planet.
The five production buildings
Here are the five buildings with their costs and growth factors. The production factor tells you by how much your throughput is multiplied at each higher level.
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Generic production formula
All production buildings follow the same exponential formula: the output at level N equals the base output times the production factor raised to the Nth power. The higher you go, the more each level yields — but the more its cost explodes too.
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Production slider
Every production building has a 0–100% slider that scales both output AND energy consumption simultaneously. It provides no efficiency gain — it's a regulation tool to save energy during shortages.
- At 100%: full output and full consumption
- At 50%: output halved, consumption halved
- Lowering a power-hungry mine frees up electricity for the others — use it when your energy balance falls below zero
Energy balance
Metal, silicon and deuterium mines all consume energy. If your energy output falls short, mines throttle proportionally to the deficit. Always watch your balance before raising a mine level.
- Solar Plant: output multiplied by the energy bonus of your orbital position (closer to the star = more energy). See Star types.
- Solar Satellites: same mechanic as the plant, produce energy from orbit (see Ships)
- Fusion Reactor: independent of the star, but continuously consumes deuterium — the higher you go, the faster your deuterium stock drains
- Energy Technology: each level adds 1% to the multiplier of your plants and satellites
The deuterium special case
The Deuterium Synthesizer is the only production building affected by the planet's temperature. Its output is multiplied by a temperature factor ranging from ×1.36 (very cold planets) down to a floor of ×0.5 (burning planets above 215 °C). See the full formula in Temperature & habitability.
Strategic advice
- Keep a healthy ratio between metal, silicon and deuterium — a very high metal mine without enough silicon will quickly be bottlenecked by your research
- Always build your energy BEFORE raising your mines, to avoid a throughput drop
- On very hot planets (close to a luminous star), deuterium yields little — favor the more fundamental mines
- The cost factor compounds every level: doubling a level becomes increasingly expensive; building medium mines on several planets may pay off better than an extreme mine on a single one