Reclaiming and Resurrecting
Reclaiming a feature, such as a wreck, a tree or a rock, follows a different rule from reclaiming a unit. Feature reclaim runs on a fixed timer that does not depend on the builder. Unit reclaim wears the unit down like a weapon and depends a great deal on the builder.
Wrecks, Trees and Rocks
The time to reclaim a feature, in ticks, is half of its metal plus energy, plus 15:
time in seconds = (metal + energy) ÷ 60 + 0.5
- Build power plays no part. The Commander reclaims a wreck no faster than a Construction KBot.
- Construction aircraft take half a second longer for every feature.
- The yield arrives all at once when the time runs out. A builder that stops early gets nothing.
- The yield reaches your stores at the next settle. Anything above your storage is lost.
| Feature | Metal | Energy | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peewee heap | 21 | 0 | 0.8 seconds |
| Peewee wreck | 42 | 0 | 1.2 seconds |
| Rock, green worlds | 100 | 0 | 2.2 seconds |
| Tree, green worlds | 0 | 250 | 4.7 seconds |
| Bulldog wreck | 374 | 0 | 6.7 seconds |
| Big Bertha wreck | 4147 | 0 | 69.6 seconds |
Because the time does not depend on the builder, a field of small wrecks is cleared fastest by spreading many cheap builders across it. The wrecks page explains which wreck a unit leaves.
Living Units
Builders can also reclaim units, their own as well as the enemy's. Commanders cannot be reclaimed, and neither can aircraft in flight. Reclaiming a unit does not use a timer: the builder takes hit points off the unit every 16 ticks, about every half second, until it dies.
hit points per pulse = build power × the unit's maximum hit points ÷ (20 × the unit's metal cost)
The result is rounded down, and it is at least 1. A metal cost below 10 counts as 10. Here the full build power counts: a Construction KBot uses all 80, not the 60 it builds with.
- The time to reclaim a healthy unit comes to about 10.7 × its metal cost ÷ build power seconds, however many hit points it has.
- The builder's veterancy multiplies the pulses by 1 + its kills ÷ 5, rounded down: a builder with 5 kills reclaims twice as fast.
- The unit's armour and veterancy reduce the pulses, as they reduce weapon damage.
- When the unit dies, you get its whole metal cost, or the share of it that was built. You get no energy, and the unit leaves no wreck.
| Unit reclaimed | Metal | Commander | Construction KBot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peewee | 53 | 2.1 seconds | 7.5 seconds |
| Solar Collector | 145 | 5.3 seconds | 21.9 seconds |
| Bulldog | 467 | 17.1 seconds | 62.4 seconds |
A Peewee's wreck holds 42 metal, but reclaiming the Peewee itself returns all 53. A unit you no longer need gives back more metal reclaimed whole than it would as a wreck, though its energy is lost either way.
Resurrecting
The Core Resurrection Kbot, one of Cavedog's free download units, can bring a wreck back to life. It is the only unit that can.
- The time, in ticks, is 0.3 × the unit's build time ÷ the resurrector's rounded build power per tick. With a build power of 160, it adds 5 points a tick.
- Resurrection costs nothing.
- The unit comes back finished, with 1 hit point, and the Resurrection Kbot then repairs it at the normal repair rate.
A Bulldog wreck takes 0.3 × 8675 ÷ 5 = 520 ticks, 17.3 seconds, to resurrect. Repairing the new Bulldog to its full 2102 hit points then takes 70 seconds and 2101 energy.
The game decides which unit to bring back from the wreck's name. A few units use another unit's wreck in the data, and resurrect as that unit: the Core Goliath leaves a Diplomat wreck, and the Core Fortitude Missile Defense leaves the wreck of the Arm Protector.