Equipment & Module Upgrade Guide -- Tech Upgrade Priority That Actually Works

You Have Tech Points. You Have No Idea What to Spend Them On.

The Tech Upgrades system (added in v0.1.2.5, reworked for 1.0) gives you Tech Points from station leveling and artifact caches. Spend them in the wrong order and you end up with a +5% mining speed boost when you desperately needed drone cargo capacity. Tech Points do not reset. There is no respec.

The Equipment Station lets you craft gear that boosts your drones. The Module Priority system decides what your buildings work on first. Both systems are easy to ignore until you hit Level 8 and realize your drones are making 15-second round trips with 2 items at a time.

Quick-Fix: Upgrade Priority Table

Rule of thumb: Logistics upgrades before production upgrades. A faster drone carries more stuff and serves more buildings. A slightly faster Smelter only helps one building.

The Equipment System

The Equipment Station (unlocked around Level 7) lets you craft equipment pieces that slot into your drones. Think of it as gear for your automated workforce.

Equipment Types

Crafting Priority

1. Cargo Expander x2 – Two equipped drones carry as much as five unequipped ones
2. Speed Thruster x1 – For your long-haul freighter drone
3. Repair Kit x1 – For the drone running through combat zones
4. Shield Module x1 – For hazard-area supply routes

Tech Upgrade System (v0.1.2.5+)

Tech Points are earned from:

• Station Level progression (+2-5 per level)
• Artifact caches found on planets (+1-3 per cache)
• Void exploration rewards (+5-10 rare)

The Three Tech Trees

Recommended Point Allocation (Total ~60)

1. Cargo Capacity Rank 2 (8 points) – doubles logistics throughput
2. HUB Slot Upgrade (5 points) – +2 drone slots = more coverage
3. Equipment Station Unlock (8 points) – enables equipment crafting
4. Drone Speed Rank 1 (3 points) – faster routes
5. Station Module Priority (5 points) – fixes production bottlenecks
6. Cargo Capacity Rank 3 (5 points) – 3x base capacity
7. Equipment Quality Rank 1 (5 points) – better crafted equipment
8. Remaining – situational picks

Module Priority System

The reworked Module Priority system (v0.1.2.6) lets you control what each building produces first when it has multiple recipes.

How It Works

When to Use Priority

• Set Smelters to High Priority for Superalloy once you unlock it – you always need more
• Set Assemblers to High Priority for Hull Parts during station expansion
• Set Refineries to Low Priority for anything not critical (e.g., backup gas types)
• Leave Crafting Stations on Normal unless you have a specific bottleneck

Real Scenario: The Drone That Could Not Carry Enough

At Level 7, I had three drones serving 12 buildings across two wings. Each round trip took 12 seconds but carried only 3-4 items. Half my Smelters were idle waiting for materials while the drones were constantly in transit.

The fix: I spent 8 Tech Points on Cargo Capacity Rank 2, unlocking carry capacity of 10 items per trip. Then I crafted two Cargo Expanders at the Equipment Station for my busiest drones. Trip count per minute went from 5 to 2, effective throughput went from 15 items/min to 35 items/min. Same drones, same routes. Just proper upgrades.

For production stacking strategies, see our Assembly Line Ratios Guide. For drone network optimization, see the Cargo Drone Network Guide.

Community Resources

• Steam Guides (opens in new tab)
• Outworld Station on Reddit (opens in new tab)