Pulse Drive is the mid game engine tech in SFC2. Every level adds 20% to the speed of any ship running a Pulse Drive, and the tech gates four ships plus the game's only offensive missile. It is also the only thing that sets how far your missiles can reach.
You research it from the Research page like any other tech. The level is account wide, so research it once and every planet you own has it, including colonies you found later.
What it does
Three things.
- It makes Pulse Drive ships faster. Every level adds 20% of the ship's printed base speed. It does not compound, so level 5 is double base speed and level 10 is triple.
- It unlocks units. Four ships and the Interplanetary Ballistic Missile list a Pulse Drive level as a requirement.
- It sets your missile range. How far an IPBM can fly comes straight off your Pulse Drive level and nothing else.
That is the whole list. It does not touch cargo capacity, hull, shields or weapons, and it does not change fuel burn either, with one exception covered below.
Requirements
Research Lab level 2, on the planet you start the research from. That is the only requirement, at every level.
The game's data also lists Energy Tech level 1, but every player starts at Energy Tech 3, so it never bites. That is why the game's own requirements panel leaves it out.
What it unlocks
| Unit | Needs Pulse Drive | Also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Interplanetary Ballistic Missile | 1 | Missile Silo 4 |
| Apollo Class Fighter | 2 | Armor Tech 2, Shipyard 3 |
| Gaia Class Colony Ship | 3 | Shipyard 4 |
| Poseidon Class Cruiser | 4 | Particle Tech 2, Shipyard 5 |
| Ares Class Bomber | 6 | Plasma Tech 5, Shipyard 8 |
Level 3 is the one every new player has to reach, because the Gaia is how you claim your second planet. Nothing else in the game colonises.
The More Info button on the Research page opens that list for any tech, with a green dot next to everything you already qualify for.
Ships that use it
Three ships run a Pulse Drive for their whole life:
| Ship | Base speed | Cargo | Fuel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poseidon Class Cruiser | 15,000 | 800 | 300 |
| Apollo Class Fighter | 10,000 | 100 | 75 |
| Gaia Class Colony Ship | 2,500 | 7,500 | 1,000 |
Two more pass through it. The Atlas Class Cargo starts on a Jet Drive and moves onto a Pulse Drive at level 5. The Ares Class Bomber starts on a Pulse Drive and moves onto a Warp Drive at Warp Drive 8. Both swaps are covered below.
Everything else in the game runs a Jet Drive or a Warp Drive, so Pulse Drive levels do nothing for them.
Speed by level
| Pulse Drive | Poseidon | Apollo | Gaia | Atlas* | Ares** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| base | 15,000 | 10,000 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 4,000 |
| 1 | 18,000 | 12,000 | 3,000 | on Jet Drive | 4,800 |
| 2 | 21,000 | 14,000 | 3,500 | on Jet Drive | 5,600 |
| 3 | 24,000 | 16,000 | 4,000 | on Jet Drive | 6,400 |
| 4 | 27,000 | 18,000 | 4,500 | on Jet Drive | 7,200 |
| 5 | 30,000 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 | 8,000 |
| 6 | 33,000 | 22,000 | 5,500 | 22,000 | 8,800 |
| 7 | 36,000 | 24,000 | 6,000 | 24,000 | 9,600 |
| 8 | 39,000 | 26,000 | 6,500 | 26,000 | 10,400 |
| 9 | 42,000 | 28,000 | 7,000 | 28,000 | 11,200 |
| 10 | 45,000 | 30,000 | 7,500 | 30,000 | 12,000 |
| 11 | 48,000 | 32,000 | 8,000 | 32,000 | 12,800 |
| 12 | 51,000 | 34,000 | 8,500 | 34,000 | 13,600 |
| 13 | 54,000 | 36,000 | 9,000 | 36,000 | 14,400 |
| 14 | 57,000 | 38,000 | 9,500 | 38,000 | 15,200 |
| 15 | 60,000 | 40,000 | 10,000 | 40,000 | 16,000 |
*The Atlas ignores Pulse Drive until level 5, then jumps to a base of 10,000 and scales from there.
**The Ares column only holds until you research Warp Drive to level 8. After that it scales off Warp Drive instead.
There is no level cap, so the pattern keeps going: every extra level is another 20% of the base figure.
You never have to work any of this out yourself. The Shipyard prints both numbers on every ship. Base is the printed speed, Current is what your techs have made of it.
That is a Poseidon at Pulse Drive 6. Base 15,000, current 33,000.
What the speed actually buys you
Travel time does not fall as fast as speed rises. The game takes the square root of the distance over speed, so doubling your speed cuts about 29% off the clock, not half.
A Poseidon flying ten solar systems inside its own galaxy at 100% speed:
| Pulse Drive | Speed | Flight time |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 15,000 | 45m 35s |
| 2 | 21,000 | 38m 33s |
| 4 | 27,000 | 34m 00s |
| 6 | 33,000 | 30m 46s |
| 8 | 39,000 | 28m 18s |
| 10 | 45,000 | 26m 22s |
| 15 | 60,000 | 22m 50s |
| 20 | 75,000 | 20m 26s |
Two things to keep in mind:
- A fleet always moves at the speed of its slowest ship. A 33,000 Poseidon sent alongside a 5,500 Gaia gets you 5,500.
- Pulse Drive levels do not change your fuel bill. Fuel is worked out from how far above the fleet's slowest speed each ship sits, so a fleet of nothing but Pulse Drive ships costs the same hydrogen at level 2 as at level 15. The one real exception is the Atlas swap.
The Atlas swaps engines at level 5
The Atlas Class Cargo is built around a Jet Drive. The moment your Pulse Drive hits level 5, every Atlas you own switches over. There is no button and no warning. Its base speed doubles from 5,000 to 10,000 and it starts scaling at 20% a level off Pulse Drive instead of 10% a level off Jet Drive.
The price is hydrogen. An Atlas on a Pulse Drive burns exactly twice as much fuel per trip, forever.
That is the same 20 Atlas run over the same distance, one level of Pulse Drive apart, on an account sitting at Jet Drive 8. The trip comes down by a third and the fuel bill doubles. How much time you save depends on your Jet Drive level, but the doubled fuel is the same for everyone.
Two things follow from the swap:
- Pulse Drive levels 1 to 4 do nothing at all for your Atlas fleet. It is still on Jet Drive there.
- After the swap, Jet Drive levels do nothing for your Atlas fleet. If the Atlas was your reason for pushing Jet Drive, stop at level 5 of Pulse Drive.
The Hercules and the Carmanor stay on Jet Drive forever, so on a long haul with mixed cargo the Atlas is no longer the ship holding you back.
The Ares leaves at Warp Drive 8
The Ares Class Bomber works the other way round. It needs Pulse Drive 6 to build and runs a Pulse Drive until you research Warp Drive to level 8. At that point its base speed rises from 4,000 to 5,000 and it scales at 30% a level off Warp Drive. Fuel does not change.
| Warp Drive | Ares speed | Ten systems |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 7 | 12,000 (Pulse Drive 10) | 50m 58s |
| 8 | 17,000 | 42m 50s |
| 10 | 20,000 | 39m 30s |
| 12 | 23,000 | 36m 50s |
Once that swap happens, further Pulse Drive levels stop helping your Ares. You still need Pulse Drive 6 to build one, and the requirement never goes away.
Missile range
Pulse Drive is the only tech that decides how far an Interplanetary Ballistic Missile can fly.
Range = (5 × Pulse Drive level) − 1 solar systems
Missiles never cross a galaxy boundary, no matter how high the tech goes. Both planets have to sit in the same galaxy.
| Pulse Drive | Range |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 systems |
| 2 | 9 systems |
| 4 | 19 systems |
| 6 | 29 systems |
| 8 | 39 systems |
| 10 | 49 systems |
| 15 | 74 systems |
The Galaxy page grays out the missile icon on anything outside that reach, and opening the strike screen anyway tells you the distance and your current range side by side.
The level does not make missiles arrive any faster. Flight time is a flat 15 seconds plus 30 seconds for every solar system crossed, whatever you have researched. Range is the whole story.
Cost
Level 1 costs 2,000 ore, 4,000 crystal and 600 hydrogen. Every level after that doubles all three.
| Level | Ore | Crystal | Hydrogen | Speed bonus | Ore so far | Crystal so far | Hydrogen so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 600 | +20% | 2,000 | 4,000 | 600 |
| 2 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 1,200 | +40% | 6,000 | 12,000 | 1,800 |
| 3 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 2,400 | +60% | 14,000 | 28,000 | 4,200 |
| 4 | 16,000 | 32,000 | 4,800 | +80% | 30,000 | 60,000 | 9,000 |
| 5 | 32,000 | 64,000 | 9,600 | +100% | 62,000 | 124,000 | 18,600 |
| 6 | 64,000 | 128,000 | 19,200 | +120% | 126,000 | 252,000 | 37,800 |
| 7 | 128,000 | 256,000 | 38,400 | +140% | 254,000 | 508,000 | 76,200 |
| 8 | 256,000 | 512,000 | 76,800 | +160% | 510,000 | 1,020,000 | 153,000 |
| 9 | 512,000 | 1,024,000 | 153,600 | +180% | 1,022,000 | 2,044,000 | 306,600 |
| 10 | 1,024,000 | 2,048,000 | 307,200 | +200% | 2,046,000 | 4,092,000 | 613,800 |
| 11 | 2,048,000 | 4,096,000 | 614,400 | +220% | 4,094,000 | 8,188,000 | 1,228,200 |
| 12 | 4,096,000 | 8,192,000 | 1,228,800 | +240% | 8,190,000 | 16,380,000 | 2,457,000 |
| 13 | 8,192,000 | 16,384,000 | 2,457,600 | +260% | 16,382,000 | 32,764,000 | 4,914,600 |
| 14 | 16,384,000 | 32,768,000 | 4,915,200 | +280% | 32,766,000 | 65,532,000 | 9,829,800 |
| 15 | 32,768,000 | 65,536,000 | 9,830,400 | +300% | 65,534,000 | 131,068,000 | 19,660,200 |
Crystal is the pinch. Pulse Drive asks for twice as much crystal as ore at every level, and crystal is the slower mine to grow. Getting to level 3 for the Gaia costs 28,000 crystal all in, which is a real early game bill.
Research time
Research time counts ore and crystal only. Hydrogen is free time-wise.
Hours = (Ore + Crystal) ÷ (2,000 × (Research Lab level + 1))
| Level | Ore + Crystal | Lab 2 | Lab 4 | Lab 8 | Lab 12 | Lab 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6,000 | 1h 00m | 36m 00s | 20m 00s | 13m 51s | 8m 35s |
| 2 | 12,000 | 2h 00m | 1h 12m | 40m 00s | 27m 42s | 17m 09s |
| 3 | 24,000 | 4h 00m | 2h 24m | 1h 20m | 55m 23s | 34m 17s |
| 4 | 48,000 | 8h 00m | 4h 48m | 2h 40m | 1h 50m | 1h 08m |
| 5 | 96,000 | 16h 00m | 9h 36m | 5h 20m | 3h 41m | 2h 17m |
| 6 | 192,000 | 1d 8h | 19h 12m | 10h 40m | 7h 23m | 4h 34m |
| 7 | 384,000 | 2d 16h | 1d 14h | 21h 20m | 14h 46m | 9h 08m |
| 8 | 768,000 | 5d 8h | 3d 4h | 1d 18h | 1d 5h | 18h 17m |
| 9 | 1,536,000 | 10d 16h | 6d 9h | 3d 13h | 2d 11h | 1d 12h |
| 10 | 3,072,000 | 21d 8h | 12d 19h | 7d 2h | 4d 22h | 3d 1h |
| 11 | 6,144,000 | 42d 16h | 25d 14h | 14d 5h | 9d 20h | 6d 2h |
| 12 | 12,288,000 | 85d 8h | 51d 4h | 28d 10h | 19d 16h | 12d 4h |
| 13 | 24,576,000 | 170d 16h | 102d 9h | 56d 21h | 39d 9h | 24d 9h |
| 14 | 49,152,000 | 341d 8h | 204d 19h | 113d 18h | 78d 18h | 48d 18h |
| 15 | 98,304,000 | 682d 16h | 409d 14h | 227d 13h | 157d 12h | 97d 12h |
The usual research rules apply:
- The lab that counts is the one on the planet you press the button from. Once you have the Advanced Research Communication Network, your labs are added together instead, one to start with plus one more for every ARCNet level, and it stops mattering where you start from.
- The Research Relay alliance perk divides the time, up to half at the top level.
- Only one research runs at a time across your whole account, and you cannot start one while a Research Lab is upgrading on any of your planets.
- Cancelling a research in progress refunds the full cost to the planet that paid. You can also finish it instantly with credits, which costs 1.12 credits per second remaining and is free once there are under five minutes left.
Worth knowing
- Level 3 is not optional. Without a Gaia you cannot take a second planet, and a one planet account goes nowhere.
- Level 4 is the next real target. The Poseidon is the first ship most players attack with, and at 15,000 it has the highest base speed of any warship in the game.
- Level 5 is a decision, not a freebie. It doubles your Atlas speed and doubles your Atlas fuel bill on the same day. If you are running long haul cargo on a thin hydrogen income, look at your Hydrogen Synthesizer before you press the button.
- Four quests pay out on this tech, at Pulse Drive 2, 3, 6 and 10. The level 6 one hands back 85,900 ore, more than the 64,000 that level costs.
- If you build missiles, this is your range tech and there is no other. Every level pushes your reach out another five solar systems.
- Like everything else you spend, the resources sunk into Pulse Drive count toward your rank.
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