What Energy is
Every machine in Zone77 has a spring. Wind it up with Energy and the work goes faster. Your Energy bar holds 10 points (the Time Keepers hold 11). You get 1 Energy back every 2h 24m, also when you are offline or the game is paused, until the bar is full. A Master Tinker can spend 1 more point safely from a full bar.
What Energy does
- Speed up a building or a research: 1 Energy each time. Soldiers cannot be sped up.
- Start a power: its cost in Energy (1 to 4 points, shown on each power).
Safe or risky
From a full bar, your first 3 points are safe. After that, every point you spend can jam the spring, and the chance grows as the bar gets lower: 20% at first, 15% more for every point, up to 80%.
For example, from a full bar of 10:
- points 1 to 3: safe
- the 4th point: 20% chance to jam
- the 5th point: 35% chance to jam
- the 6th point: 50% chance to jam
- the 7th point: 65% chance to jam
- the 8th to the 10th point: 80% chance to jam
The Time Keepers' bar of 11 goes on:
- the 11th point: 80% chance to jam
A Master Tinker's first 4 points are safe, so everything starts one point later: their 5th point has a 20% chance to jam.
The risk follows your bar, not what you speed up. Energy that comes back makes the next point safer again.
Speed-ups
- Building: a speed-up takes off half of the building's full time. If half or less is left, the building is finished at once. For example, a 2-hour building loses 1 hour.
- Lucky speed-ups: 9% of the time the first building in the list is finished right away, and 1% of the time the first 3 are. The next building in the list starts as soon as one is finished.
- Research: a speed-up takes off half of the full research time, and finishes it if half or less is left. 10% of the time it is finished right away.
If a speed-up jams
The building or research gets stuck and takes longer: 25% of its full time is added. For example, a 2-hour building that jams takes 30 minutes longer. The Energy point is spent all the same.
Powers
A power helps all your towns for a few hours. Your Engine Hall unlocks one at every second level. Start a power in the Energy card of your town. Different powers can run at the same time, but not the same one twice.
| Power | What it does | Time | Energy | Engine Hall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Far Sight | Spies count double | 4 hours | 1 | Level 2 |
| Fast Lab | Research finishes 30% faster | 3 hours | 1 | Level 4 |
| Overdrive | Soldiers train 30% faster | 2 hours | 2 | Level 6 |
| Full Steam | Armies march 30% faster | 1 hour | 2 | Level 8 |
| Boiler Burst | +30% resource production | 3 hours | 3 | Level 10 |
| Quick Hands | Buildings finish 25% faster | 10 hours | 2 | Level 12 |
| Market Rush | Carts travel 2x as fast | 3 hours | 2 | Level 14 |
| Iron Walls | +25% defense | 4 hours | 3 | Level 16 |
| Night Shift | +25% resource production | 6 hours | 4 | Level 18 |
| Grand Overdrive | +20% to everything: soldier training, army marching, building, research, resource production and defense | 5 hours | 4 | Level 20 |
Starting a power
A power is as risky as the last point it uses. For example, from 8 Energy, Boiler Burst (3 Energy) uses points 3 to 5: the 5th is risky (35% chance to jam). From a full bar it uses points 1 to 3, which are safe.
When you pick a power, striped segments on the Energy bar show the points it would use, and the line under the bar tells the chance.
If the spring jams, nothing starts and you lose only 1 Energy, not the full cost. From 8 you would have 7 and can try again. If it works, the whole cost is spent: from 8 you would have 5.
Tips
- Start powers from a fuller bar. The first 3 points of a full bar are safe, so a power that costs 3 or less is safe from a full bar.
- Speed-ups and powers share one bar: a speed-up now makes the next power riskier, and a power makes the next speed-up riskier.
- After a jam, wait a little. You get 1 Energy back every 2h 24m, and every point makes the next try safer.
Master Tinker
A Master Tinker can spend 1 more point of Energy safely, and gets 2 more places in the building list.