Warp Drive is the late game engine tech in SFC2. Every level adds 30% to the speed of any ship running a Warp Drive, the biggest per level bonus of the three engine techs, and it gates the five heaviest units in the game.
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
Two things.
- It makes Warp Drive ships faster. Every level adds 30% of the ship's printed base speed. It does not compound, so level 5 is two and a half times base speed and level 10 is four times base.
- It unlocks units. Five ships list a Warp Drive level as a requirement, and a sixth, the Ares Class Bomber, swaps its engine over to a Warp Drive at level 8.
That is the whole list. It does not touch cargo capacity, hull, shields, weapons or fuel burn, and despite the name it has nothing to do with the Warp Gate.
Requirements
Research Lab level 7, on the planet you start the research from, and FTL Tech level 3. Those are the only two requirements, and they are the same at every level.
Research Lab 7 is the real gate. FTL Tech 3 is cheap and most players have it long before the lab is tall enough.
What it unlocks
| Unit | Needs Warp Drive | Also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Athena Class Battleship | 4 | Shipyard 7 |
| Hades Class Battleship | 5 | FTL Tech 5, Laser Tech 12, Shipyard 8 |
| Prometheus Class Destroyer | 6 | FTL Tech 5, Shipyard 9 |
| Zeus Class | 8 | Energy 11, Plasma 9, Laser 14, Weapons 11, FTL 9, A.I. 12, Shipyard 12 |
| Hephaestus Class Attack Platform | 9 | Particle 10, Armor 12, Weapons 12, Shield 12, Expedition 8, Shipyard 13, Foundry 3 |
Level 4 is the one that matters. The Athena is the most cost efficient heavy ship in the game and it is where most players' real fleets start.
The Ares Class Bomber is not on that list. It never needs Warp Drive to build, only Pulse Drive 6. What Warp Drive 8 does to the Ares is swap the engine it flies on, covered below.
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
Five ships run a Warp Drive for their whole life:
| Ship | Base speed | Cargo | Fuel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athena Class Battleship | 10,000 | 1,500 | 500 |
| Hades Class Battleship | 10,000 | 750 | 250 |
| Prometheus Class Destroyer | 5,000 | 2,000 | 1,000 |
| Zeus Class | 100 | 1,000,000 | 1 |
| Hephaestus Class Attack Platform | 90 | 1,000,000,000 | 450,000 |
The Ares Class Bomber joins them at Warp Drive 8. Everything else in the game runs a Jet Drive or a Pulse Drive, so Warp Drive levels do nothing for them.
The Zeus and the Hephaestus sit at 100 and 90 on purpose. They are moon sized and they crawl, and Warp Drive is the only tech that ever makes moving them less of an ordeal. A deployed Hephaestus platform relocates on the same number: ten solar systems takes about 5 hours at Warp Drive 9 and about 4 hours 10 minutes at Warp Drive 15.
Speed by level
| Warp Drive | Athena / Hades | Prometheus | Zeus | Hephaestus | Ares* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| base | 10,000 | 5,000 | 100 | 90 | 4,000 |
| 1 | 13,000 | 6,500 | 130 | 117 | on Pulse Drive |
| 2 | 16,000 | 8,000 | 160 | 144 | on Pulse Drive |
| 3 | 19,000 | 9,500 | 190 | 171 | on Pulse Drive |
| 4 | 22,000 | 11,000 | 220 | 198 | on Pulse Drive |
| 5 | 25,000 | 12,500 | 250 | 225 | on Pulse Drive |
| 6 | 28,000 | 14,000 | 280 | 251 | on Pulse Drive |
| 7 | 31,000 | 15,500 | 310 | 279 | on Pulse Drive |
| 8 | 34,000 | 17,000 | 340 | 306 | 17,000 |
| 9 | 37,000 | 18,500 | 370 | 333 | 18,500 |
| 10 | 40,000 | 20,000 | 400 | 360 | 20,000 |
| 11 | 43,000 | 21,500 | 430 | 387 | 21,500 |
| 12 | 46,000 | 23,000 | 460 | 414 | 23,000 |
| 13 | 49,000 | 24,500 | 490 | 441 | 24,500 |
| 14 | 52,000 | 26,000 | 520 | 468 | 26,000 |
| 15 | 55,000 | 27,500 | 550 | 495 | 27,500 |
*The Ares runs a Pulse Drive until Warp Drive 8. After the swap its base becomes 5,000 and it scales off Warp Drive like everything else in the table.
There is no level cap, so the pattern keeps going: every extra level is another 30% 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 Hades at Warp Drive 8. Base 10,000, current 34,000.
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 one level of Warp Drive off a fresh ship is about 12% off the clock, and doubling your speed cuts about 29%.
Same 25 Hades, same trip, three levels of Warp Drive apart. 36% more speed bought 14% less time, and the hydrogen bill did not move.
A Hades flying ten solar systems inside its own galaxy at 100% speed:
| Warp Drive | Speed | Flight time |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 25,000 | 35m 20s |
| 6 | 28,000 | 33m 24s |
| 8 | 34,000 | 30m 19s |
| 10 | 40,000 | 27m 57s |
| 12 | 46,000 | 26m 04s |
| 15 | 55,000 | 23m 51s |
| 20 | 70,000 | 21m 09s |
Two things to keep in mind:
- A fleet always moves at the speed of its slowest ship. A 34,000 Hades sent alongside a 90 Hephaestus gets you 90.
- Warp Drive levels do not change your fuel bill. A fleet of nothing but Warp Drive ships burns the same hydrogen at level 5 as it does at level 15.
The Ares swaps engines at level 8
The Ares Class Bomber is built around a Pulse Drive. The moment your Warp Drive hits level 8, every Ares you own switches over. There is no button and no warning. Its base speed rises from 4,000 to 5,000 and it starts scaling at 30% a level off Warp Drive instead of 20% a level off Pulse Drive. Fuel does not change.
That is the same Ares one level of Warp Drive apart, on an account sitting at Pulse Drive 8. Current speed jumps from 10,400 to 17,000 overnight.
Three things follow from the swap:
- Warp Drive levels 1 to 7 do nothing at all for your Ares fleet. It is still on a Pulse Drive there.
- After the swap, Pulse Drive levels do nothing for your Ares fleet either. You still need Pulse Drive 6 to build one and that requirement never goes away, but if the Ares was your reason for pushing Pulse Drive past 6, stop.
- The swap is only a downgrade if your Pulse Drive is at 17 or higher when Warp Drive reaches 8. Below that the Ares comes out faster, and one more level of Warp Drive settles it either way.
What it does not do
- It does not unlock the Warp Gate. That building wants FTL Tech 7 and a Lunar Base. Warp Drive is not in its requirements at all. The two just share a word.
- It does not touch missiles. Missile range comes off Pulse Drive and missile flight time is a flat rate. Warp Drive has no part in either.
- It does not change fuel consumption. Not for Warp Drive ships and not for the Ares after its swap.
- It does not add hull, shields, weapons or cargo. Speed and unlocks, nothing else.
Cost
Level 1 costs 10,000 ore, 20,000 crystal and 6,000 hydrogen. Every level after that doubles all three. That first level alone is five times what Pulse Drive level 1 costs, which is a fair warning about the rest of the track.
| Level | Ore | Crystal | Hydrogen | Speed bonus | Ore so far | Crystal so far | Hydrogen so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 6,000 | +30% | 10,000 | 20,000 | 6,000 |
| 2 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 12,000 | +60% | 30,000 | 60,000 | 18,000 |
| 3 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 24,000 | +90% | 70,000 | 140,000 | 42,000 |
| 4 | 80,000 | 160,000 | 48,000 | +120% | 150,000 | 300,000 | 90,000 |
| 5 | 160,000 | 320,000 | 96,000 | +150% | 310,000 | 620,000 | 186,000 |
| 6 | 320,000 | 640,000 | 192,000 | +180% | 630,000 | 1,260,000 | 378,000 |
| 7 | 640,000 | 1,280,000 | 384,000 | +210% | 1,270,000 | 2,540,000 | 762,000 |
| 8 | 1,280,000 | 2,560,000 | 768,000 | +240% | 2,550,000 | 5,100,000 | 1,530,000 |
| 9 | 2,560,000 | 5,120,000 | 1,536,000 | +270% | 5,110,000 | 10,220,000 | 3,066,000 |
| 10 | 5,120,000 | 10,240,000 | 3,072,000 | +300% | 10,230,000 | 20,460,000 | 6,138,000 |
| 11 | 10,240,000 | 20,480,000 | 6,144,000 | +330% | 20,470,000 | 40,940,000 | 12,282,000 |
| 12 | 20,480,000 | 40,960,000 | 12,288,000 | +360% | 40,950,000 | 81,900,000 | 24,570,000 |
| 13 | 40,960,000 | 81,920,000 | 24,576,000 | +390% | 81,910,000 | 163,820,000 | 49,146,000 |
| 14 | 81,920,000 | 163,840,000 | 49,152,000 | +420% | 163,830,000 | 327,660,000 | 98,298,000 |
| 15 | 163,840,000 | 327,680,000 | 98,304,000 | +450% | 327,670,000 | 655,340,000 | 196,602,000 |
Crystal is the pinch. Warp Drive asks for twice as much crystal as ore at every level, and crystal is the slower mine to grow. Getting to level 4 for the Athena costs 300,000 crystal all in.
Research time
Research time counts ore and crystal only. Hydrogen is free time-wise.
Hours = (Ore + Crystal) ÷ (2,000 × (Research Lab level + 1))
Warp Drive needs a lab at level 7, so lab 7 is the shortest column that can ever run it.
| Level | Ore + Crystal | Lab 7 | Lab 10 | Lab 14 | Lab 20 | Lab 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30,000 | 1h 52m | 1h 21m | 1h 00m | 42m 52s | 29m 02s |
| 2 | 60,000 | 3h 45m | 2h 43m | 2h 00m | 1h 25m | 58m 04s |
| 3 | 120,000 | 7h 30m | 5h 27m | 4h 00m | 2h 51m | 1h 56m |
| 4 | 240,000 | 15h 00m | 10h 54m | 8h 00m | 5h 42m | 3h 52m |
| 5 | 480,000 | 1d 6h | 21h 49m | 16h 00m | 11h 25m | 7h 44m |
| 6 | 960,000 | 2d 12h | 1d 19h | 1d 8h | 22h 51m | 15h 29m |
| 7 | 1,920,000 | 5d 0h | 3d 15h | 2d 16h | 1d 21h | 1d 6h |
| 8 | 3,840,000 | 10d 0h | 7d 6h | 5d 8h | 3d 19h | 2d 13h |
| 9 | 7,680,000 | 20d 0h | 14d 13h | 10d 16h | 7d 14h | 5d 3h |
| 10 | 15,360,000 | 40d 0h | 29d 2h | 21d 8h | 15d 5h | 10d 7h |
| 11 | 30,720,000 | 80d 0h | 58d 4h | 42d 16h | 30d 11h | 20d 15h |
| 12 | 61,440,000 | 160d 0h | 116d 8h | 85d 8h | 60d 22h | 41d 6h |
| 13 | 122,880,000 | 320d 0h | 232d 17h | 170d 16h | 121d 21h | 82d 13h |
| 14 | 245,760,000 | 640d 0h | 465d 10h | 341d 8h | 243d 19h | 165d 3h |
| 15 | 491,520,000 | 1280d 0h | 930d 21h | 682d 16h | 487d 14h | 330d 7h |
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. Only labs at level 7 or higher count toward Warp Drive, because 7 is the tech's own lab requirement.
- 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 4 is the first real target. Nothing before it unlocks anything, and the Athena is worth the trip on its own.
- Level 8 pays twice. It unlocks the Zeus and swaps every Ares you own onto a Warp Drive on the same day.
- Warp Drive has the biggest per level speed bonus in the game, but it only reaches six units. Jet Drive at 10% a level covers far more of a normal fleet, and it is a lot cheaper.
- Four quests pay out on this tech, at Warp Drive 1, 4, 7 and 9. The level 7 one hands back 348,200 ore.
- Like everything else you spend, the resources sunk into Warp Drive count toward your rank.
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