Build Power, Assisting and Decay
Every unit has a build time in the game data, and every builder has a build power, its workertime value. The game turns these into seconds with one detail that the numbers on their own do not show: build power is rounded down.
Build Power Is Rounded Down
Every tick, a builder adds its build power divided by 30, rounded down to a whole number, to the job. In effect, build power is rounded down to a multiple of 30, and whatever is left over is lost:
| Builder | Build power | Used | Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commander | 300 | 300 | 0% |
| FARK | 180 | 180 | 0% |
| Adv. Construction Kbot | 160 | 150 | 6% |
| Construction Ship | 125 | 120 | 4% |
| Adv. Kbot Lab, Adv. Vehicle Plant, Adv. Aircraft Plant, Adv. Shipyard | 200 | 180 | 10% |
| Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard | 100 | 90 | 10% |
| Construction Vehicle | 100 | 90 | 10% |
| Construction KBot | 80 | 60 | 25% |
| Construction Aircraft | 50 | 30 | 40% |
The build time in seconds is the unit's build time divided by the build power used, rounded up to the next tick. A builder with a build power below 30 could not build at all. The weakest builder in the game, the Decoy Commander, has exactly 30.
The Solar Collector has a build time of 2495:
| Builder | Build time ÷ build power | Real time |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | 8.3 | 8.3 seconds |
| Adv. Construction Kbot | 15.6 | 16.6 seconds |
| Construction KBot | 31.2 | 41.6 seconds |
| Construction Aircraft | 49.9 | 83.2 seconds |
The Construction KBot's 80 looks like more than a quarter of the Commander's 300, but it builds at one fifth of the speed.
Cost and Health While Building
The price is spread evenly over the build. Each tick of work takes the same share of the energy and metal, and the total is exactly the unit's cost. A new frame starts with 0 hit points and gains them in step with the work done. In a tick when a builder cannot pay, because it has a debt from a stall, the frame gets no work and no hit points.
The Commander adds 10 points a tick to a Metal Extractor, whose build time is 1800. The job takes exactly 180 ticks, or 6 seconds, and the extractor's 521 energy and 50 metal are drawn at 86.8 energy and 8.3 metal a second.
Assisting
Each builder that helps adds its own rounded build power every tick, and there is no limit to how many can help. Each helper pays from your stores on its own account and stops on its own if it has a debt. A helper must stay within its build distance of the job.
The Commander and a Construction KBot together add 10 + 2 = 12 points a tick. They build a Solar Collector in 208 ticks, 6.9 seconds, against 8.3 for the Commander alone.
A unit on a Guard order helps the unit it guards with building only while both of your stores are at least one fifth full. When metal or energy runs low, guards stop helping.
Unfinished Buildings Decay
When no builder has worked on a frame for 1 second, it starts to come apart. It loses progress in steps every 11 ticks, at a rate that would take it from finished to nothing in its energy cost divided by 30 seconds. As it shrinks, the metal that was spent on it comes back to you; the energy does not. When nothing is left, the frame disappears without a wreck.
A Solar Collector left half built has 760 energy as its cost, so the frame takes 380 ticks, about 12.7 seconds, to disappear once it starts to decay. Its 72.5 metal comes back to you, and the 380 energy spent on it is lost.
Cancelling a unit in a factory returns the metal spent on it so far, rounded down. The energy is lost here too.
Damage to Unfinished Units
Damage to a frame lowers its hit points but does not undo any of the work. A frame destroyed before it is finished leaves no wreck and does not count as a kill. Frames cannot be captured or carried by transports.