Reactors

In Starmade there are a variety of vessels and systems that require power. To generate power on your vessels to power these systems a reactor is required. These reactors can range from absolutely tiny at a few blocks large, to infinitely large, and reactor setups have an equally large range of complexity.

Reactor Basics

Reactor Conduit
Hit Points	25
Armor	0.0%
Mass	0.10
Luminosity	none
Data Value (ID)	1010

Reactor Power Chamber
Hit Points	50
Armor	?
Mass	0.20
Luminosity	none
Data Value (ID)	?

Reactor Stabilizer
Hit Points	100
Armor	0.5%
Volume	0.1
Mass	0.15
Luminosity	none
Data Value (ID)	1009

Reactor Power
Hit Points	100
Armor	0.5%
Mass	0.40
Luminosity	none
Data Value (ID)	1008

There are four components to reactors. reactor blocks, stabilizer blocks, and reactor chambers and reactor conduits

A reactor that consists of 10 or fewer reactor blocks is the simplest reactor possible in the game. A reactor of this size does not require stabilizer blocks to reach peak reactor efficiency or mitigate integrity loses. As long as your reactor is 10 blocks or fewer there is very little need to worry.

Stabilizers are required for a ship with a reactor larger than 10 blocks. Stabilizers need to be placed at a certain distance away from the active reactor to bring the reactors efficiency, or max power generation, up to 100%. The number of stabilizers required for a reactor is determined by the reactor's size, or block-count. The distance that the stabilizers must be placed away from the reactor is also determined by reactor size. Stabilizer distance in relation to the active reactor is shown in build mode when placing stabilizer blocks.

Reactor chambers Provide ship-wide buffs and abilities, however add complexity to the reactor. Reactor chambers are linked to your reactor with reactor conduits. The minimum size of the reactor chambers is also tied to reactor size. This minimum size can be seen in the reactor menu. The abilities of the reactor chambers require that your reactor capacity (also sometimes referred to as tech points) be less than 100%. Every chamber ability costs reactor capacity.

Building Your Reactor

Developer Chart From Jan 20, 2018 News Update.

Reactor Stabilizer Stream Node
Hit Points	50
Armor	0.0%
Mass	0.10
Luminosity	none
Data Value (ID)	66

To build a relatively basic reactor that is larger than 10 blocks you are going to need reactor blocks, stabilizer blocks, and power node blocks.

First, choose the placement and guesstimate the size of reactor that you are going to need.

Once you have built the core of your reactor out of reactor blocks then switch your hotbar to the stabilizer blocks. In advanced buildmode (spacebar from the ship's core or a build block) you should see a set of numbers as well as a line connecting to the current active reactor. The most important numbers are those pertaining to stabilizer distance, and stabilizer efficiency. Stabilizer distance consists of two numbers. The first number is the distance from the reactor at which you are about to place the stabilizer block, while the second number is the distance at which the stabilizer block would be at 100% efficiency. Stabilizer efficiency is the efficiency of the block that you are about to place.

Stabilizer efficiency is slightly different, but related to, reactor efficiency. If all your stabilizers are placed at 100% efficiency it means that you will be using the minimum number of stabilizers required to boost your reactor to 100% power generation. Stabilizers can be placed at distances with less efficiency, however more stabilizers may be required.

Once you have placed several stabilizers directly adjacent to one another you will have created a stabilizer group. The stabilizer group will then have a power stream connecting it to the reactor. The reactor stream is a non-solid line that connects from the center of the active reactor to the center of any stabilizer groups. Currently reactor streams have very little purpose in terms of mechanics. To redirect the reactor stream reactor nodes must be placed. The reactor will link to the closest node to itself. To further link nodes to one another, select the first node with 'C' then link it to the next node in the chain with 'V'.

It is important to note that each node block can only re-route the stream to one stabilizer group

The chart to the right is a developer-published visualization of the reactor, reactor stabilizers, reactor streams, and reactor nodes.

Legacy Reactors

Information on legacy power can be found here . If you are returning to Starmade after a long hiatus it is strongly recommended that you no longer use legacy power. It will cause glitches and game-breaking lag.