Engines

Engines are single-use devices for Realm 4 and above. Your Engineering Lab forges them with resources, they wait in that colony's Colony Stores, and you deploy one into a planet's Shipyard to speed it up for a limited time. They are built for the moment after a hard battle: rebuilding a fleet or getting graveyard hull back sooner.

Engines are bought with resources only, never with Quantum Shards. They are valuable, and stored engines can be stolen in raids.

Build them at Engineering Lab → Open Workshop → Engines, see them in Inventory → Colony Stores, and run them from Shipyard → Engines (the Engine Bay). In game: Quick Guides → Engines.

Engine types

Engine	Engine Bay slot	Effect while running
Ship Production Engine	Forge	Ships in that Shipyard build faster. It can take ships up to 2× below the minimum build time, but it never offsets the Tonnage over-capacity penalty.
Graveyard Reconstruction Engine	Recovery	Every recovering graveyard batch on that planet recovers faster, including buybacks made while it runs. A batch is never shortened below 12h in total.

The speed applies from the moment you deploy. Progress already made is kept, and nothing is lost when the engine ends.

Grades

Engine	Grade	Speed	Runs	Forge time	Cost (raw)	Cargo space	Engineering Lab (build and run)
Ship Production	Mk I	×1.25	72h	4h	≈ 50T	5T	31
	Mk II	×1.5	72h	12h	≈ 150T	15T	33
	Mk III	×2	72h	24h	≈ 400T	40T	35
Graveyard Reconstruction	Mk I	×1.5	24h	4h	≈ 60T	6T	31
	Mk II	×2	24h	12h	≈ 180T	18T	33
	Mk III	×3	24h	24h	≈ 500T	50T	35

Cost is about 80% steel and quartz; the rest is rare resources (iridium, silicium, elerium; gas for graveyard engines). The Workshop shows the exact price.
Higher grades (Mk IV at lab 37, Mk V at lab 39) are planned.

Building (forging)

Open an Engineering Lab (planet or moon) and tap Open Workshop → Engines.
Pick the engine, the grade and how many, then tap Build. The colony pays straight away.
The lab forges each engine for the grade's forge time. Each colony forges one engine after another, so orders queue; the Workshop shows the queue with timers.
A finished engine moves into that colony's Colony Stores.

Rules:

The colony's Engineering Lab must be at the grade's level (31 / 33 / 35)
Progressive price: every engine of the same type you ordered in the last 7 days (any grade, any colony) adds 5% to the next price
Not available in vacation mode or on alliance colonies
Engines still being forged cannot be raided, moved or deployed

Colony Stores

Inventory → Colony Stores lists the engines held on each colony and the ones still being forged. Stored engines:

do not expire
cannot be sold back for resources
can be deployed (on a planet with a Shipyard), transported, or raided

Deploying (Engine Bay)

Open the planet's Shipyard and tap Engines in its tool row. The Engine Bay has two slots, one engine each:

Forge slot: Ship Production Engine
Recovery slot: Graveyard Reconstruction Engine

To deploy:

the engine must be in that planet's Colony Stores
the planet's Engineering Lab must meet the grade's level
there must be something to speed up: a ship order (Forge) or a recovering graveyard batch (Recovery)

Deploying uses the engine up. Removing it destroys it and its remaining time is lost. The timer runs in real time, pauses only in vacation mode, and you get a mail when it ends. While an engine runs, that planet's Engineering Lab cannot be downgraded below the engine's level. The Shipyard progress bar and the Graveyard screen show the running engine.

Raiding

Engines in Colony Stores are loot. Running engines and engines still being forged are safe.

Rule	Detail
Share	Same as resources: the loot rate and Resource Protection apply to engines up to your warehouse capacity (in cargo space); engines beyond it are fully exposed.
Inactive colony	Flat 80% of stored engines
Cargo	Engines and resources share the raiders' free cargo in proportion, in whole engines
War fatigue	Reduces engines like resources
Joint attacks	Captured engines are split between fleets by contribution; a fleet that is wiped out loses its share
Pirates and NPCs	Never take engines

Battle reports list Engines Captured (attacker) or Engines Lost (defender). Captured engines land in the attacker's home colony stores when the fleet docks.

Worked example: a raid has 25,000 free cargo. The target exposes 80,000 steel and 8 engines of 18 cargo each (144). Total 80,144 > 25,000, so everything is scaled by 25,000 / 80,144 ≈ 0.31: about 24,950 steel and 2 engines.

Transport

Use Transport or Dispatch. The fleet send screen has an Engines section listing the source colony's stored engines. Each engine takes cargo space equal to 1/10 of its resource cost, shared with the resources you load.

Deliver to your own colonies or to another player who has reached Realm 4 (the usual transport rules apply)
If the target cannot receive engines, they stay aboard and come home
Recalled fleets bring their engines back; fleet details list the engines aboard
Engines are lost if the carrying fleet is destroyed

Scouting

Scout reports show a Colony Stores section: the number of stored engines from intel level −5, and the breakdown by type and grade from −2. Running engines are never shown.

Tips

Deploy when the work is there: a long ship queue after losses, or a big graveyard buyback.
Keep stored engines within your warehouse share, or deploy them; above it they are fully exposed.
Engines are the most valuable loot per cargo space, so expect raiders to look for them.
A captured Mk III needs Engineering Lab 35 to run. Store it, move it to a lab that can, or send it to an ally.

FAQ

Why does the Engine Bay say "Lab 35"?

An engine only runs on a planet whose Engineering Lab meets its grade: 31 (Mk I), 33 (Mk II), 35 (Mk III).

Why can't I downgrade my Engineering Lab?

A running engine on that planet needs the lab at its grade's level. Wait for it to finish, or remove it (which destroys it).

Can I cancel a forging order?

No. The colony pays when you tap Build and the engines arrive when forging ends.

Related pages

Engineering Lab · Shipyard · Fleet Combat · Resource Protection · Tonnage · Translocator / Colony Relocate