// SYSTEMS

Ammunition

What missiles need to fire, where to get it, what happens when you run out

Missiles are the only weapon type in the game that requires ammunition. Beam weapons run on energy from the reactor; projectile cannons are kinetic and don't track ammo separately; missile launchers consume physical warheads that must be carried in the ship's cargo.

The system is intentionally simple. There are five tiers of explosive ammo matching the five Mk tiers of missile weapons. Ammo is tier-matched — a Mk III missile launcher fires Explosive Ammo III, period. You can't load Mk V ammo into a Mk I launcher to get better damage, and you can't load Mk I ammo into a Mk V launcher to skip ammo cost.

The Five Tiers

All missile manufacturers (Bastion, Stratum, Vael) use the same tier-matched ammo. A Stratum Mk III missile launcher and a Bastion Salvo Mk III both fire Explosive Ammo III.

A full 500-stack at Mk III costs 30,000 credits — noticeable for an early-mid pilot, trivial for an endgame fleet pilot. The prices scale so ammo cost is always "significant but not punitive" as a percentage of contemporary credit income.

Where to Get It

Every active station sells all five tiers at standard price. Unlimited stock. No faction standing required.

In other words: if you can dock, you can buy ammo. The intent is that running dry is a temporary inconvenience, not a progress wall.

Consumables vendors also stock small stacks in a pinch, but the standard vendor inventory is the normal source.

How Firing Works

1. You equip a missile launcher in a weapon slot.
2. You target a hostile.
3. You hit fire.
4. The server checks your cargo for a matching-tier ammo item with at least 1 round remaining.
5. If present, the launcher fires and 1 round is deducted from your ammo stack.
6. If absent, the fire command is silently rejected — no message, no cooldown, no energy spent. The launcher simply doesn't fire.

When the stack hits zero, the cargo entry is removed automatically.

Running Dry

The game does not currently warn you when ammo runs out. Your missile launcher just stops firing. If you're mid-combat and something's off, check your cargo for ammo count first.

A typical combat pilot with a Mk III missile build and a full 500-stack of Explosive Ammo III can sustain roughly 500 engagements before needing to resupply. The top tiers (Mk V / Explosive Ammo V) are designed for focused endgame encounters where a 500-stack might last one boss fight.

Planning tip: before committing to a contested sector, carry at least two stacks of your tier. Ammo weight doesn't slow your ship, but cargo space it takes up does count toward your cap.

Why Only Missiles

Design intent: give every weapon type a distinct economic shape.

• Beam weapons cost energy per shot. Their throughput is gated by reactor capacity and regen, which couples directly to your reactor choice and Reactor Tech skill. Infinite shots if you manage energy.
• Projectile cannons are kinetic — treated as "infinite ammo" for game purposes since the cost of carrying ballistic mass isn't interesting to simulate at ship scale. Their throughput is gated by cooldown.
• Missile launchers consume ammo. Their throughput is gated by ammo economy and cargo space. Missiles are also the hardest-hitting weapon type by design, so the ammo tax balances that.

The three weapon types want to feel different at the supply-chain level, not just at the firing level.

Crafting Ammo

Ammo is currently vendor-only. There are no crafting recipes for it.

Design intent: leaving ammo off the crafting system means it can't be hoarded in endgame supply chains. Every missile pilot is always paying a live credit tax to stations. This gates the top-tier missile users on credit income, which is a useful pressure point to tune separately from other balance levers.

If crafted ammo becomes worth adding, the design hook is already there — item_missile.ammo_item_id points at the ammo item, and new ammo items could slot in without rework. But for now, every round comes from a vendor shelf.