// Designer

Power & Reactors

Every Icaroid runs on a per-round power budget. Its core reactor generates a fixed amount of power each round; passive components quietly draw some of it just by being installed; and energy weapons and abilities spend the rest when they fire or activate. Unlike ammo, power does not bank - whatever you do not spend is gone when the round ends.

The power budget

At the start of every round your power resets to a fresh budget:

Per-round budget

Power this round = reactor generation − passive upkeep. It refills to this value each round and never carries over - there is no battery to charge up, so holding fire does not bank energy for a bigger turn later.

If a loadout's passive upkeep ever exceeds its generation, the budget floors at zero and the Icaroid simply cannot power its energy weapons or abilities. Power-hungry builds have to earn their firepower with a bigger reactor, not just bolt on more energy guns.

Generation & upkeep

Two numbers, summed across the whole Icaroid, define the budget:

Stat	Where it comes from
Reactor Power (generation)	Mostly the core. Solari cores generate the most - they are built to run energy weapons indefinitely - while a few utilities (e.g. the Electropanel power conduit) add a little more.
Power Upkeep	Always-on passive components: shield generators, ECM and thermal systems, sensor and point-defense arrays, grid stabilizers. Each draws a small amount every round whether or not you act.

Read the budget in the bay

The designer shows your power as gen − upkeep while you build, and the battle panel shows your current power as a bar that drains as you fire. Watch it the same way you watch ammo.

Spending power

Energy weapons pay a power cost each time they fire. If the remaining budget cannot cover the cost, the weapon holds fire that round - exactly like running dry on ammo.
Abilities can also cost power - a Jump, Charged Dash or Resonate draws from the same budget. An ability you cannot afford simply will not activate.
Movement and ballistic fire are free of power - they are limited by mobility and ammo instead.

Because the budget is shared, a heavy alpha strike can leave nothing for an ability later in the same round. Sequencing your shots and activations against the budget is part of piloting an energy build.

Energy vs ammo

Power and ammo are the two competing logistics systems, and most weapons lean on one or the other:

	Energy weapons	Ballistic / missile weapons
Limited by	Per-round power budget	Shared ammo pool
Refills	Fully, every round	Slowly, via replenishment
Runs dry when	You over-fire in one round	The pool is exhausted for the battle
Best on	Solari / Chorus high-reactor cores	Welter / Ironfall ammo cores

Energy weapons never need resupply, so they shine on sustained Solari and Chorus builds - provided the reactor keeps up. Ballistic weapons do not touch power at all, so an ammo-faction build can fire freely as long as the pool holds. Mixing the two lets a struggling reactor fall back on ballistic firepower when the budget is spent.

Power effects

Several status effects bend the power math each round:

Power Surge - raises the reactor's per-round generation.
Power Crippled - cuts generation, shrinking the budget; a power-starved Icaroid may be unable to fire its energy weapons at all.
Power Efficient - lowers the power cost of firing and activating abilities, stretching the same budget further.