Before starting this guide it's important to note that most of this guide requires some fundamental knowledge of the power system and has a lot of SPOILERS, I recommend, spoiler free, MechWarden's guide to
Batteries & How to Use Them
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255972657

This guide represents the current power system as is when written, things are bound to change as the game evolves and patches things.

In every video game I have played I have always loved the technical aspects, such as, power systems. It's important to note why I have written this guide. Batteries, and their counterparts, Lasers, are some of the most broken tech in the game, and as the game progresses we can take advantage of such systems to have near endless power. What are batteries? What are their uses? And how can I break them? I'll tell you how in this guide.

If you stumbled here by chance, make sure to check out the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/


I've had Abiotic Factor since Flathill first got released, and what has been added since then has been remarkable. The team at DeepField have really gave this game their all and it shows, I wrote this guide not to laugh at the mistakes that DeepField have made on the power system, but show the community how to properly handle batteries, even without fancy techniques and contraptions.
You can skip over the guide to copy the different circuits I have made but I highly recommend you read the basics on how power, batteries and lasers work first to get a proper understanding, this can help even in a general experience - I'm not just teaching you how to break the system but also how to use it properly.
It's also crucial to know that this is an updated guide, meaning there will be more information and in-depth explanation as compared to my last guide.

We will go over:
How it is generated, and how it can be used.
How they work, The math behind them, and how to use them properly.
How they work, and how to use them properly.
What it is, and how to negate it.
How to properly utilize batteries and load to make energy efficient circuits and arrays.
How to piece different pieces of equipment to create a greater efficiency of power.
Some practical circuits and theories based around infinite energy.
My thoughts on the current power system, what can be done, and what can be changed.

Why would you need to learn this? Because it lessens your burden on foraging for computer equipment. For a first time playthrough, you shouldn't be reading this guide in the first place. This is an advanced guide for people who have had their fill of gathering computers, going from anteverse to anteverse and taking their precious time away.

In this section I will explain to you the fundamentals of the power system and things such as:
The Basics of the Power System
Environmental Power
Made Power (including batteries)

It's important to understand the difference between environmental power from a socket and laser are fundamentally different than made power from a battery.
Environmental Power always outputs power at a fixed rate with no load whatsoever, whereas batteries output power at a contingent rate depending on it's bank, which means depending on it's load it can consume more or less power on top of having a finite amount of energy to store.
Furthermore, power can not transfer through culled rooms, if you run a cable reroute from one part of the facility to another and you unload the room where the power source is then you will not receive any power on the other end.
Let's look at the type of equipment that can produce and/or bank power:

The Power Socket is an environmental power source and the first thing you'll encounter related to power, it has infinite power with no load, it's basically infinite power but the caveat is it only produces power in the day. The off times of the Power Socket is 21:00 (9:00PM) to 06:00 (6:00AM). Depending on what sandbox settings your save has you can have either no power all the time or power all the time.

The Laser is an environmental power source and is very rare with only a few spots in the game having it. The Laser has infinite power with no load and is functionally infinite power which doesn't turn off, opposed to the Power Socket which turns off at night.

The 2 problems with environmental Lasers is how impractically placed they are, in areas so far away from the trams and main objectives that the only excuse to use them is through Personal Teleporters[abioticfactor.wiki.gg] or Teleporter Pads[abioticfactor.wiki.gg] - even then the rooms they are in are small and inconvenient.
The other problem is how awkward it is to place Laser Power Converters since every environmental laser always has an angle, making it incredibly difficult. An important thing to note is environmental Lasers are different from made Lasers.
However, If you manage to set up a base with an environmental laser and you have access to Laser Power Converters and teleporters then you have infinite energy, that's it! It's an easy way to infinite power with the sacrifice of having bad base positioning.

To clear a misunderstanding it's important to note that Power Sockets and environmental Lasers produce the same amount of energy, meaning they both fill a makeshift battery to 50 units of power in the same amount of time.

Batteries are a contingent power source and only deliver power if it has any on bank.
Batteries are mans best friend, being the best way to handle power in this game.
There are 4 batteries in the game:
The Makeshift Battery[abioticfactor.wiki.gg]
The Industrial Battery[abioticfactor.wiki.gg]
The Carbon Battery[abioticfactor.wiki.gg]
The Quantum Battery[abioticfactor.wiki.gg]
Respectively, every battery has a power hold of 50, 100, 350, and 750.

Batteries can be charged with the GATE Charging Station[abioticfactor.wiki.gg]

This is useful as Environmental Charging Stations are constantly on even at night, and can charge batteries even faster than a wall socket. You can put a battery on the Charging Station by holding E and selecting the battery in your Inventory/Hotbar.

A Battery with a hold of 50, Charge time of 2:03, and Use time of 2:05

Still to this day I hold the Makeshift Battery up high, this battery is the BEST in the game being incredibly cheap, with the resources that are needed to make it being in abundance in every part of the game. Although the battery is relatively inefficient it still offers a lot, because, all batteries in the game have the same load coefficient, meaning it has the same exact load hold as a Quantum Battery but is very cheap. As said in my last guide, I still use the makeshift batteries even in my late-game saves.

A Battery with a hold of 100, Charge time of 2:03, and Use time of 4:10

In my last guide I said this battery was useless, after the update however, it has been absolutely changed. To completely power an appliance through the night you need 100 units of power under 1-2 load, meaning instead of 2 Makeshift Batteries under 3 units of load you can instead use an Industrial Battery under 1 unit of load to power an appliance through the night, not only that but it can also charge in the same amount of time it takes to charge a makeshift battery, making it energy efficient. Due to the recipe change of the Carbon Battery I highly recommend upgrading to these as soon as possible so you can later use them for crafting Carbon Batteries.

A Battery with a hold of 350, Charge time of 2:25, and Use time of 15:42

Carbon Batteries are really good mid-late game batteries but after the 1.0 update they have been even harder to craft. The recipe now requiring 2 Leyak essence and an Industrial Battery now; that being, even though after Manufacturing it's incredibly easy to farm Power Cells, it isn't so easy farming Leyak Essence in the Laboratories. But is is still an incredibly useful battery even compared to the Quantum battery because it is still really cheap even after the crafting nerf, and is incredibly worthwhile because of it's nearly 16 minute use time. I still recommend using them in Arrays and I think DeepField included the Industrial Battery in the recipe to encourage players to use Industrial Batteries to later upgrade when they progress into Laboratories.

A Battery with a hold of 750, Charge time of 3:05, and Use time of 31:14

There is no need going over the Quantum Battery, it's an end-game battery which holds a staggering 31 minutes of use time. It's going to be expensive and it's going to be good. I would use it to bring to the poop world to power my base and just change it out because there are no sockets in that anteverse

Originally posted by author:

Note: Use time was tested under 1 load, and Charge Time and Use Time are all in IRL minutes.

A unit of power is the amount of power a battery can hold, this is fundamentally different from load as load is a coefficient applied after a unit of power, We will talk more about load in it's own section, for now let's talk about a unit of power. The math behind a unit is simple! For 1 unit of power under 1 load it take's 2.5 seconds to deplete. For context a Makeshift Battery hold 125 seconds of power.

The math behind this is​:
Total Drain Time (T) / Total Power (P) = T unit (Time it takes to drain)
or
T unit = T/P
so
125 / 50 = 2.5
and
2.5 * 50 = 125

This isn't important as of now but it's useful to note for the equation that after applying a load coefficient, it can help you make arrays or different laser circuits, or it can just help you minmax your base load.

It is a bit strange but the different types batteries (Industrial, Carbon, Quantum) hold more or less seconds of power per unit compared to the Makeshift Battery, this can probably be singled down to how bad I am at timing the outages of the batteries. However, it could also be another coefficient which changes the per second output of a unit of power.

Lasers (Made) are the foundation of circuits. Before we get into the intricate details, it's important to learn the fundamentals of lasers. Lasers can be crafted mid-game in the Hydroplant sector since it requires a Photon Receptor as a component. Lasers are incredibly broken, even normally you can completely skip the use of cable rerouting across distances (with the exception of the laser being culled) and can use them for reloading energy powered weapons. Lasers can only be in 1 linear direction and cannot turn.

There are 4 main laser components.

The laser emitter is as the name states, it emits a laser through a power source and is the starting point of all circuits.
The Laser Power Converter converts laser energy to energy.
The Laser Prism splits a laser into 3 separate lasers with 2 of the lasers being blue and green. It also negates the laser power by a third.
The Laser Reflector redirects a laser wherever it is pointing. It also negates the laser power by a third.

Lasers can be redirected or prismed a total of 3 times before not being able to be redirected anymore. A laser charges a battery at nearly a third of a power slower than a socket or environmental laser.

It's important to note that the power of a laser does not change the amount of power it charges a battery.

Prior to the 1.0 update, if lasers hit a man-made object (Barricade, Barricade, Bag Wall, etc) then it wouldn't reduce the power of a battery; unfortunately, after the 1.0 release, lasers now drain power regardless of what the laser is hitting.

Load is what can make or break a Battery array and laser circuits. It's important to note that load is not shared but structured by hierarchy of the beginning of an array/circuit and branches out to all other batteries.

In this example you can see that the battery at the origin of the array has a load of 7, because there is a total of 7 objects in the array (Batteries) connected to it total. The batteries marked at a load of 2 have 2 objects connected to them total, the battery marked at a load of 1 only has 1 other object connected to it, and the batteries marked at a load of 0 have no objects connected at them.
Adding anything to the array will increase the load by 1 from where it branches all the way to the battery at the origin, but it won't change the load of the other branches since they aren't connected to this new object. This array is just used as an example for how load works and is a very energy inefficient array so don't use it.
Understanding load is crucial to understanding a more advanced structure of the power system.

Some math behind load, simply put, is a multiplicative variable that is applied when energy is output from a battery, the more load a battery has, the more energy the battery uses just to power one thing. This is incredibly bad as you will be wasting a substantial amount of power even with a load of only 2 you would be losing half the output of a battery. Since load is also multiplicative and not linear, the more load you apply on an array the less the coefficient applies, going from half efficiency at one load to only taking away around 1% efficiency past 10 load; however, this still doesn't mean you should always apply load to your base.
With a Makeshift Battery under:
This is the table under a graph. Note that I did not include milliseconds in my table and graph so it is not precise as compared to the game but still trustworthy information.

As you can see, the more load applied, the less the coefficient still applies; an inverse relationship, meaning as the load increases, the drain time decreases. This is technically a good thing but in the bigger picture having your battery drain in 11 seconds as compared to 125 is still a bad thing.

We can approximate the load coefficient like this:
(The coefficient for load is approximately 0.4016, with a standard deviation of 0.0249)
Drain Rate (units/second) ≈ 0.4016×Number of Loads
so
0.4016*3 ≈ 1.204 units a second
Can approximate with a range for error of 20-30 seconds.

Knowing this should make you realize that load is a very bad thing that should be avoided at all costs.

Whilst this math is reputable and has been double check, I had a very small control group, so I cannot entirely guarantee that it's 100% right, but for normal uses this math works. Remember - this is not for technical demonstration but to have you, the reader, realize how bad load is.

Now that all the boring foundational and math things are out of the way, let's have some fun making some things. And if you didn't read it then shame on you, you need to realize how important load negating is!

First let's discuss what an array is. In the real world, the term "Battery Array" (henceforth labelled array) is used when multiple batteries are interconnected to work together in a more efficient manner. This definition is exactly how it's put in game. An arrays main purpose is to lessen the effects of load for a more efficient and inexpensive system. Spending less time beating computers for batteries and more time enjoying the game.
Let's first go over the 2 main battery arrays the community uses:


This is the worst community made array, it's the easiest but most expensive. It's normal for a first, second and dare I say... third playthrough, but it's incredibly inefficient. Never ever EVER do this. With only 5 batteries in a daisy chain you are wasting more than 75% of your power potential. I have seen people with end-game bases with 40-50 something makeshift batteries powering their whole base in a Daisy Chain, now don't get me wrong, it works. But you sacrificed an hour or more of your time for that? And by the time you want to add even more appliances to your base, you'd eventually end up having to add even more batteries.


This is the best community made array, it's clean and efficient and very cheap to maintain. Instead of bunching all the batteries together and having them bear the load of all of the appliances, you can spread out the effect of load to only one battery - the battery at the origin of the array. This means every battery that is powering an appliance only takes on 1 load.



Some people reached out to me after my last guide, I had mentioned this array just briefly. I wanted to make it clear that the Hybrid Array sucks! Don't use it, thanks.

Those 2 arrays the Daisy Chain, and Branch Array are the only ones worth mentioning, if you want to look at some experimental arrays then look at my older guide.

It is important that if you don't want to use more advanced power systems then use the branching array. Remember to use Industrial Batteries instead of Makeshift Batteries when the time comes, as the latest update has made the Makeshift Battery worse.

Now we're playing with lasers!
First let's understand what a circuit is. A circuit is a complete laser array (array in this case is referring to a collection of components), it has an origin and an output.

For example, in this image the RED represents the whole circuit, the GREEN represents the origin, and the BLUE represents the output.
Batteries can also be included in a circuit!

It also seems that adding a battery made it into a sub-circuit.
A sub-circuit is just a circuit in a circuit. I have labelled these as such to make it easier to understand laser arrays, it's digestible to understand what your origin, and output is, and is also simple to understand a sub-circuit as opposed to just telling you what the components are and what angle to put them.
Here's another example of a sub-circuit.

As you can see you can make whatever logic you want as such.
You can have as many sub-circuits in a circuit and even sub-circuits in sub-circuits - the worlds your oyster.

Why even use circuits? Well as I said at the intro paragraph. Lasers are broken. For the simple fact that -
Ultimately, this is incredibly broken. The ability to carry over power with no load whatsoever. This is where the null loader comes in, my pride and joy of the technical side of this game.
A simple 3 component circuit:
1 Industrial Battery (or 2 makeshift)
1 Laser Emitter
and 1 Laser Power Converter

This circuit can connect up to however many appliances you can muster and will still only run at one load, with the use of a battery that has 100 or more units of power, it can run all night with only 1 load.
This is INCREDIBLY broken.
As soon as you reach Hydrodam, rush to make an Emitter and Power Converter ASAP.

What else can we make with circuits?

To be fair, I only recently came up with this system a couple months ago and haven't put too much progress towards it. However, I do know of some useful circuits that can help you in your save.



A simple pylon design. I use these for my bases, I usually run it 3 or 4 bags high instead of 2 bags in the example. They are very useful as it saves a lot of space, and comes included with a null loader. I normally run them like this:

Pylons are common within the community so it's very easy to understand. It's important to note that laser pylons lose their effectiveness once your socket get's culled and cuts power to the pylon, so only use pylons near your origin.

A simple energy recycler which also comes included as a null loader. You can squeeze up to a minute of extra power. I don't use this design because there is not much use for them, but I'm sure someone would appreciate it.
Please read this guide on LOGIC GATES.
Advanced Electrical Engineering: A Guide to Logic Gates - Hiemas
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429302792
It's extremely useful and goes over a different technical side of Abiotic Factor.
Since Logic Gates are another side of technical Abiotic Factor, and is a different topic from this guide, then I don't need to go into detail about it. But it's important as a community that we learn how these work, Logic Gates are an important aspect to the technical side and can help with base building.

The Feedback Machine or as know: Infinite Energy.
On each side is a null loader, inputting in a Makeshift Battery which allows an energy cycle between the Carbon Batteries. The machine is technically modular but it's a very complex thing to combine multiple power sources into one.
This is a design that was worked out from a YouTuber named Smile.
The 1.0 update did change the aspect a tiny bit, the machine of course still works. But it doesn't generate as fast compared to Dark Energy.


The Pyramid Reactor follows the same design principles as the Feedback Machine but in turn has 3 cycles instead of 2, this allows the machine to have a faster up-time, and better stability. The problem with most Infinite Energy Machines is that after a world reload, the emitters don't output lasers - which of course is a very bad thing, completely destroying the machine until it is manually fixed. The Pyramid Reactor uses the third cycle as a fail-safe (intentionally or not) and keeps a laser loaded even after world restart to kick start the loop back up in case anything happens.
This is a copy of a design from Discord user Kad (kadigan_ksb) on the DeepField Discord Server.
The Pyramid Reactor was a design adapted from Speedrunner Wavuvi (although I'm not sure if they're the one that made the design).


Throughout Crush Depth, Dark Energy, and, the early 1.0 release you could just feed one part of a laser splitter into the battery powering it, this is a very simple design, which is a good thing as simplicity will always be more reliable than complexity; however, this design was patched, multiple times. You are not allowed to close a circuit, whenever you try and connect a battery back to itself no matter how long the circuit is the game will not let you connect the last cable, or, if you force it then the output element of the circuit will not provide any power.
It's unknown who made the first Laser Loop, as it was a design that came out day 1 Crush Depth.


Some theories about infinite energy is based on how units of energy are used.
A theory of mine yet to be tested is that power isn't exactly dependent on delta time, based on it's own time tick system or depending on how far away you are from a system. I think if you can limit or unlock your fps you'd be able to squeeze just a little more power; however, I don't really know how to use this information. For now the Feedback Machine is the only machine that currently WORKS.

Power sockets are in abundance in the facility, however, there are some spots in the game that are perfect for base building. But they're inaccessible for base building, an example of this is, Some Distant Shore[abioticfactor.wiki.gg] anteverse. This is just an example but if you look around the world of Abiotic Factor you can see some really good basing spots without sockets, that's where this machine comes in handy.
If your base has a socket, or an environmental laser, then the Feedback Machine is basically useless - the only use for this are locations without power sockets.
This machine is technically better than a socket, as it provides the same amount of power as a socket but it runs 24/7 unlike the socket, so you don't have to worry about any battery arrays.
I usually use the machine for teleport spots out of bounds connected to work benches, as in the 1.0 update they started getting rid of sockets out of bounds.

Ask some questions in the comments and YouTube videos, and I'll try my best to answer them in this section:

Q: What are the differences between lasers in the 1.0 update, compared to Dark Energy?
A: There is not much of a difference, although there has been quite a few small changes that weren't noted in the change-logs and patches. From what I know, Lasers no longer keep energy when hitting a man-made object. In Dark Energy, when a laser was pointing at something that was made by a player it wouldn't use any power, however now, it uses the same amount of power as if it was pointing at something else.

Q: What are the pros and cons of the different batteries?
A: The best and most cost efficient batteries are Makeshift Batteries, however, the next best thing are Carbon Batteries. I would only ever use Industrial or Quantum batteries at the start of an array or only use Industrial batteries as the battery for a Null Loader.

Q: Is my old guide still trustworthy?
A: Only some information, the only things that haven't changed is Load and a select small things.

Q: Are lasers cost effective?
A: Lasers are a late mid-game commodity, you can only use them in the middle of the Hydro-Dam questline due to their material cost. But one Emitter and Laser Converter can cover you the rest of the game.

When I first played this game there was barely anyone here, now as the game progresses and more and more people come it's been so fun.
As I said in my last guide I'm happy to be part of this community, I don't play the game as much but I still enjoy it from time to time.
If you want to see me make a YouTube video based on this guide, please let me know and I will make it happen.
This game is absolutely amazing. I really hope it wins game of the year, because, there's so much in this game. Truly I do wish the best.

But I do still have some thoughts on the current power system.
I expected a lot more from Deep Field, and I know, they're a small game company... but. I expected a lot more than just a few small changes to the power system when it came to the 1.0 update. Of course I'm not angry or frustrated, they never promised anything with the power system to begin with, it's just for a game that has so much effort put into it, I wanted to see more from the most talked about update since this games release.

I was ecstatic when they introduced lasers, but since the first major update Crush Depth, there hasn't been any news on the power system. I went on a rant on my last guide because the power system felt so hand held, there was no fun way to do things, just a bunch of deployables that transfer items to chests or let you craft using materials in nearby chests, it was never fun. It let the new players get a grasp and help them progress faster but that's it, there's no advanced circuitry just a broken mess of lasers that unbalance the load system.
It's too simple, it's too slow, and, it's too stupid.

I know one man like me can't change it but I want you guys to know that I respect this game and I just want the power system to be the tiniest bit better. Change the ways batteries work, have them take multiple inputs, add deployable logic gates, buttons, electric doors. The game already has a fluid system, add diesel generators! There's so much to do with the systems already in place. Add pipes for liquid and items! Add automation! How many hours would I play this game if I knew I could have a factory do everything for me?!

But that's enough ranting. I respect Deep Field because they gave me a game I will never forget and I hope it stays in development for 10 years.
Thank you guys for reading my guide and any questions you have, please let me know, I will gladly answer anything.

Current Guide Version | v1.1

Fixed the times regarding battery charge and battery drain rate. (Still trying to figure out why the times for me are different) - Thank you user Fullmetal Schizoid.
Fixed info regarding the load times and coefficient - Thank you user Fullmetal Schizoid.
Added recent designs on the Feedback Machine and other Infinite Energy Machines.