Modules & fitting

"Buying a robot only gets you the chassis." Outfitting it with modules is where a robot becomes what you need it to be. Fitting means both the module loadout ("send me your fitting") and the CPU/reactor budget it consumes.

flowchart TD
    subgraph Frame["Robot frame budget"]
        CPU["CPU cap"]
        PG["Reactor (powergrid) cap"]
    end
    S["Slot\ntyped by a bitmask:\nturret / missile / head / industrial /\nEWar / size (S·M·L)"] --> R{"Module fits?"}
    R -->|"module flags ⊆ slot flags"| FIT["Fitted"]
    R -->|"no"| NO["Refused"]
    FIT --> B{"Sum of CPU + reactor\ndraw within frame caps?"}
    B -->|yes| OK["Robot stats re-derived"]
    B -->|no| NO2["Over budget — remove or\nupgrade (coprocessor, reactor upgrade)"]

Slots & resources

A robot's frame has a fixed set of slots, defined by its chassis. Each slot is typed by a bitmask — turret, missile launcher, head, industrial, EWar/engineering, size (small / medium / large) — and a module only fits a slot when its own type mask is a subset of the slot's. So a turret slot on a caster accepts small, medium or large turret modules, but no missile launcher will ever go in a turret slot. Head modules (coprocessors, tuning modules) and chassis/leg modules (plates, frames) occupy their own dedicated slots.

Every module draws CPU and reactor (powergrid) from the frame — the sum of everything fitted must stay under both limits, and some modules also draw accumulator (core) per cycle. Leftover capacity is the available output shown in the fitting window. Rough chassis scale (T1/T2/T3 examples):

When you're short on capacity: CPU — coprocessor modules (e.g. the T3 coprocessor grants +20% CPU) or T2 module variants (lower draw). Reactor — reactor upgrades (e.g. T3 gives +20% reactor output) or reactor sealing (lowers radiation, which also protects you from EnWar — see below).

The module families

Per-model numbers live in the items catalog and the formats reference; this is the family map.

Weapons & ammo

Four weapon technologies, each with its own ammo and distance profile:

Damage falls off with distance on a smooth cosine curve: full damage at optimal range, zero at optimal + falloff (see damage falloff).

Ammo is where you tune damage: primary + secondary damage types let you fine-tune against a target (see damage types) — at the cost of a bit of total damage versus pure-primary ammo.

Turrets come in small/medium/large; match the size to the robot (small bots run small modules, mechs and heavies run medium/large).

Defense

• Armor plates — the main hitpoint pool; when armor hits zero, the robot explodes. LWF (lightweight frame) plates trade durability for speed: a T2 LWF plate multiplies armor by ~0.73 but grants +19% speed, −0.2 signature and −0.2 mass.
• Shield generator — an accumulator-fed barrier that absorbs damage ahead of armor. The shield spends your own core to absorb: a hit that would deal 100 damage on a 2× shield draws 50 core instead of 100 armor. While the shield is active your own weapons cannot fire. Absorption quality scales with the shield radius relative to your signature — big shields on small frames work best.
• Armor repair — active repair modules (small/medium/large); remote armor repair reaches a locked target (allies, or a PBS) but has a short range and a longer cycle.
• Armor hardeners — passive resist points per damage type (chemical / kinetic / thermal / explosive variants).
• Adaptive alloy — a passive that learns the damage mix it takes and redistributes a fixed pool of resist points toward whatever you've been hit with most.
• Evasive / maneuvering — signature-reduction modules and NEXUS (below) make the target smaller: less damage from area effects and a harder lock.

Energy

• Reactor — the sustained output limit; reactor upgrades raise it, reactor sealing lowers radiation (less EnWar damage taken, at a small reactor cost).
• Accumulator (core) — the burst-energy reserve that powers module cycles. It recharges over time (chassis core_recharge_time, ~120 ms on a T1 crawler); accumulator rechargers speed the recharge.
• Energy injectors (core boosters) — consume a charge to instantly top up the accumulator.
• Energy transferers — beam core from your robot to a locked ally (players can't beam NPCs).

Electronics

• Sensor booster — passive, self: shortens your lock time and extends your lock range.
• Remote sensor booster — active, target: same boost applied to a locked ally for ~10.5 s.
• Coprocessors — raise the frame's CPU limit (T1 +10% … T3 +20%).
• Weapon stabilizers — improve weapon accuracy (smaller effective area radius) and shave a bit of mass.
• Tuning modules (head slots) — flat bonuses to specific families: damage mods (+25% damage per weapon family at T3), mining upgrades (+10% mining and harvesting at T3), armor-repairer upgrades (+16% repair, −8% cycle at T3).

Electronic Warfare (EWar)

Make the enemy blind and deaf:

• Sensor dampener — ranged debuff: lengthens the target's lock time and cuts its lock range for ~5.5 s. Only lands if your ECM strength beats the target's (randomized) sensor strength.
• Sensor jammer — instant: resets all of the target's locks on a successful ECM check.
• ECCM — self buff for 20 s: raises sensor strength and lock resistance, and cures ECM-vulnerable debuffs (dampeners, webs).
• Neuralyzer — resets the locks of every player within ~1.65 km. A panic button.

Counterplay: sensor strength (chassis), ECCM, and keeping distance.

Stealth & detection

• Stealth module — ~10.5 s of stealth; the drain scales with your signature radius (bigger frame, faster core burn).
• Target painter — ~10.5 s debuff that strips the target's stealth strength.
• Detection module — passive boost to your detection strength.

Detection strength vs. stealth strength decides whether you can see (and lock) a cloaked target at all — see detection & masking.

Energy Warfare (EnWar)

Drain or cut the enemy's energy:

• Drainers (energy vampires) — siphon core from a locked target and add it to your own accumulator.
• Neutralizers — the same, but the drained core is destroyed.
• Both are weakened by the target's reactor radiation — sealing is a real counter.
• Demobilizers (webs) — ~5.5 s speed reduction on the target; the effect scales with the target's mass (heavy frames are slowed less) and fails against targets outside the module's optimal range.
• Scorcher — an electric weapon that chains up to 5 targets, hitting shields and armor with penetrating damage.

Industrial

• Drills (small / large) and harvesters (small / large) — the gathering modules; yield, cycle time and accumulator use are the stats that matter. Mining grants EP (with a daily cap and liquid penalty).
• Geoscanner — scans the mineral field around you with the probe's accuracy; the result is a map of what's under the ground (see gathering).
• Excavator — aura module: boosts mining/harvesting yield of nearby units (T3: +50%) at the cost of stealth.
• Terraforming (gamma zones) — terrain locks that raise, lower or level ground (max radius 5 m) and grow wall plants; see the zones section.
• Remote controllers — turrets and drones on a leash: each controller module carries a bandwidth (how many), an operational range and a drone lifetime (5–10 min by tier). Variants: tactical (damage/cycle), assault (damage), support (remote repair), industrial (mining/harvesting drones), hunter. A remote command translator module amplifies drone damage, armor, mining yield and repair output (T3: +7.5% each) and can extend the controller's bandwidth.

NEXUS

Networked Extension Utilization Systems: squad buffs. A NEXUS module emits an aura around its own robot that buffs gang members (and their turrets/drones) within the aura radius — default 10 m, refreshable every 10 s. Rules:

• a robot can carry at most 3 NEXUS auras, and at most one of each type;
• the aura only reaches units in your gang, not random allies.

The T3 type list (13): velocity, armor, shield, farlock (lock range), lock booster (lock time), critical hit, assault (weapon cycle), EW (EWar range), evasive (signature), repairer, industrial (accumulator use while gathering), fast extractor (gathering cycle), recharger (core recharge). Each T3 module grants roughly +7.5% of its stat; e.g. the velocity NEXUS multiplies max speed by 1.075 for every gangmate standing within 10 m.

NOX

Cultist-grade counters: negator modules that disable enemy modules inside their radius — a shield negator (cuts shield absorption by ~90%), a repair negator (cuts repair output) and a teleport negator (blocks teleporting). Each activation consumes plasma from your cargo, and using one on an open (non-training) zone flags your character for PvP.

Special-purpose

• Siege hack module — the active-SAP tool: 5 s cycle, 3 m range (see outposts).
• Self-destruct — arms an 8-second countdown; the beam is visible for 600 m. Last-resort cleanup.
• Mine detector — extends the frame's mine detection range.
• Blob emitters — deploy an emitter that spreads a blob field; the emission-modulator module tunes the field (see combat).
• PBS construction — the module used to place PBS structures on gamma zones.

Rules of thumb

1. Don't mix your guns. Magnetic + laser + missiles on one bot usually underperforms all three; mixing short- and long-range rarely ends well.
2. Mind the mass. Every plate and shield module adds mass and signature — sometimes speed matters more than defense.
3. Don't do everything. A bot that mines, scans and shoots does none of it as well as a specialist.
4. Size-match your modules to the robot, and leave a little CPU/reactor head for the tuning modules that make a build actually work.
5. …and yes, some niche fits break all of the above and still work. Just put some thought into it.