Power Guide

Power is required for most machines and Player Gear to function. Power is NOT required for most starships or their weapons to run - the "ship power" used by shields, thrusters, and weapons is not the same as regular power.

Basic Components

Power flows through sponges (made using printers) and wires (end rods). Sponges can move power in any direction, whereas wires move power in straight lines.

(visualization of power moved around with wires and sponges)

Extractors (crafting tables) are power outputs; you can place them next to the noteblock of a powered machine to move 1000 power out of it every second. Noteblocks are power inputs; if power reaches the noteblock of a machine, it will charge that machine.

There is a common misconception that power can only be extracted from generators or banks, which have crafting tables as part of the multiblock. This is incorrect - as long as a machine has power and a noteblock, if you place a crafting table next to that multiblock, you can move power out of that machine.

(Visualization of power being drawn out of ship factory)

Pathfinding

Understanding how power flows through wires - how it finds a path to its destination - is essential for making networks that work quickly and don't waste power.

(Visualization of a crossroads with a sponge)

When power reaches a crossroads, where it can go in multiple directions, it chooses one direction at random. When it hits a dead end, pathfinding fails, and no power is transmitted.

(Visualization of basic solar panel network)

Take, for example, this solar panel network. When power gets into the line of sponges, it can go either left or right. If it goes right, it reaches a dead end, and pathfinding fails. This means that half the power from the solars is wasted! We could fix this by connecting one end back around to the noteblock, like so:

(Visualization of solar with a loop back around)

However, this can get complicated very quickly. Instead, we can use redstone or lapis blocks.

Redstone	Lapis
Redstone blocks receive power from sponges or wires, but only output energy to wires.	Lapis blocks receive power from sponges and wires, but only output energy to sponges

Redstone and lapis are also directional, meaning they will always move power in a straight line if they can.

(Directionality visualization)

For a more in-depth guide for how to optimize your pathfinding, check out S1ice's General Guide to Wiring.

Noteblock Mechanics

Similarly to how hoppers and chests work with pipe pathfinding, when power checks a noteblock, the pathfinding does not terminate. This means that although an extractor only moves 1k power a second into a target noteblock, it can charge multiple noteblocks at the same time. This allows you to move extremely large amounts of power around very quickly.

(Noteblock mechanic visualizations)