This guide will be covering the details of all power parts in Hydroneer. In addition, discover the prices of each part in the game. If you’re one of the Hydroneer players who are planning to get some upgrade, make sure to check the details below.
Power Parts Mechanism
Reactor
Any beginning powered setup will require this insane piece of equipment. It’s got 2 ports and takes up a 1 square by 2.5 square space. It’s more like 2, but its top opens and ends up adding just that little bit. To get it running you’ll need water pumping into the pipe connection, a shard or shard bar, and a power line running out of the socket. You are able to stack as many shards in there as you want, but these will act similarly to the Pressure Pipes. If you open the top while it’s running the whole system will shut down until you close the lid.
Price: 25,500
Powered Magnet
A stationary magnet that can pull any resource from a maximum of 2 squares away. After testing this out, I’ve concluded that this is 2 squares away in a direct line from the face of the magnet. So it’s not like the Magnet on a Stick or the Magnet Staff that have a more of a sphere of influence; rather it’s just a solid block column that’s 1x1x2 in size. This is a pretty decent piece of new equipment, as it will grab any and all resources that fall within that area of effect. An example would be the corner of a gold bar just slipping into that 1x1x2 area will bring the entire bar into the magnets pull. This component needs to have a power supplied through the plug on its back via power lines or a charged battery.
Price: 3,570
Powered Battery
These can only be charged from running reactors. They are a bit finicky in the way they may interfere/contend a reactor in powering a system. What I mean by this is if you want to charge a battery, you have to start a reactor and then plug in the empty battery to the end of a power line. If the battery has any amount of charge and is left on the power lines, it will start powering the system, even if your reactor is off (which is kind of its purpose). If you then turn on your reactor, you’ll hear a buzzing from your reactor of power leaking out. This is because the system is recognizing the battery as the power source and the reactor not having anywhere to send its power to. If you’re aware of this when you go to charge your batteries, you’ll have fewer problems. I haven’t been able to get an accurate reading so far on how long it takes to charge a battery or even go up one bar, but it’s never taken longer than a day in-game. Finally, on the subject of batteries, yes you can charge a battery from a battery.
Price: 630
Cork
Not a new piece but it will act on power lines and logic cables the exact same way it does on water pipes. If you have never used the cork, it stops the flow of water/power/data from leaking out of the end of an open conduit. Nothing really special other than its use has been extended to these new features.
Price: 15
Power Lines
I’m going to cover all 3 that are next in the picture at once. (Those who care and are especially astute have probably noticed I’ve been listing things from the screenshot or as they are seen in-game from left to right.) They’re simply a straight, 90-degree bend and a 3-way T lines for transmitting power. The way to tell power plugs from logic sockets from pipe connections is that power plugs all have 2 prongs “sticking out” from the middle of them, just as each end of each pipe has. I don’t know how that should work, but it does.
Price: 84
Powered D.A.V.I.D.
Just like the D.A.V.I.D. added before, except this one is more maintenance-free. As its name suggests it’s powered, but that’s it. It’s only powered. No extra water pipes, no extra shards, just extra power lines. . . But it does the same thing as the original; it spits out dumplings of dirt. A charged battery can also keep this going for a little while.
Price: 2,340
Powered Filter
Probably one of my favourite new editions to the roster. You add power to it, it filters the water flowing through it to 100%. No more filtered pipe upon filtered pipe to save your rams and harvesters. You tack on this sucker and plug it in and it will completely filter your water flow for a bit of constant power drain. *Note: this new component does take damage over time and does need to be repaired using a spanner or a tool bag.
Price: 17,500
Powered Intake Pipe
This one confused me because I was a bit dumb when I first dove into power and logic. It’s an intake pipe that produces 100% water pressure from the get-go. All it needs is a body of water it can be submerged in and power via reactor or charged battery. Don’t be dumb like me. You can’t start your adventure into power systems by using a reactor to power this intake pump to pump water into the reactor. Don’t know why I got caught on that for a good hour, but this is better used to power belts.
Price: 670
Powered Destroyer
I haven’t found much of a use for this one. Other than the one time I was a little lazy, didn’t want to take my starting pans and buckets to the scrapyard, back to base, smelt them into a bar, and get pennies for it. It takes anything dropped into it and erases it. So just be careful if you do get this. You can lose a lot very easily if you’re not careful with it. It takes power from a reactor or a charged battery.
Price: 2340
Light Power Line
This power line was featured in the update announcement, but the whole appeal point of it wasn’t clearly explained in layman terms. I’ll go over that in a later segment. This is a power line with an industrial light tacked onto it. The light will suck a small amount of power out to run. It has a logic port and is compatible with some complex and simple logic. Beyond the bells and whistles, it’s just a straight power line that lights up.
Price: 120
Pressure Booster
Another favorite of mine. This beast is similar to the Powered Filter in that it trades a little power for 100%, but that’s 100% water pressure. Similar to what happened to the D.A.V.I.D., no more shards (directly). You simply fit this on your pipeline and hook power up to it and it will boost the water pressure out of it to 100%. It’s pretty handy to put right before harvesters and rams, as their performance is based on water pressure.
Price: 12,600
Pilot Light Power Line
This straight power line is more of an indication tool for us as the players. If power is running through this at all, the light will go on; rocket surgery this ain’t. Why is this a “feature”? Remember the batteries and reactors not getting along? It’s a bit innocuous, but it will at least let you know if there’s power still in your system. It’s better for larger systems where more can go wrong, but definitely don’t rely on it to light up the night.
Price: 84
Straight Power Valve
This probably seems a bit confusing as to why you’d want this. It’s a valve for power. Moreover, it’s a valve for power with a logic port on it. There are some valid uses for this, like turning your Powered Magnet, Powered Destroyer, or Power Line used to charge your Batteries on and off without having to shut down your entire system. It’s a niche thing, but it can have a use.
Price: 102
And there you go, all 12 (13 if you include the cork) power parts. Some things to note is that while the reactor doesn’t seem to have a performance variable when it comes to filtered and pressurized water. When a power line is exposed, instead of a water “glob” dropping out of it, a bundle of “lightning bolts” will trickle out of it and you’ll hear a zap. This leaked power is wasted and cannot be collected/arced onto another open system (like IRL electricity would from wire to wire.)
