Interplanetary Launcher

The Interplanetary Launcher is a late-game space building used to send cargo between asteroids. It launches materials in a straight line through the star map, allowing colonies to move resources, supplies, and even weapons to remote destinations. If precise placement matters, it can be paired with a Targeting Beacon to control where the cargo lands on the destination asteroid.

Using the launcher consumes radbolts rather than duplicant labor, and the required amount scales with distance. The cost is 10 radiation particles per hex of travel distance, where distance is measured by counting the hexes between the two asteroids along the route, excluding the asteroids themselves. Cargo mass does not affect radiation particle consumption. The launcher can be configured with a minimum launch mass from 2 kg to 200 kg; if the total available cargo for a launch does not meet that threshold, it will not fire.

When multiple material types are present, the launcher prioritizes them in this order: liquids first, then gases, then solids. A launch takes almost no time, but every 6 launches the building pauses to perform a 30-second automatic maintenance cycle before resuming operation. The launched cargo travels at 0.1 cycles per tile, or 10 tiles per cycle, though the apparent distance is based on travel from one asteroid’s orbit to another, so orbital offset reduces the effective distance compared to a raw map count.

The launcher is physically large, occupying 5 tiles of width. Its firing path is sensitive to obstruction: in the five tiles above the building, blocking any of the leftmost four tiles can interfere with the launch path, while blocking the rightmost tile does not affect firing. Its line of sight must also remain completely unobstructed by solid objects.

A notable use for the Interplanetary Launcher is weapon delivery. It can launch Nuclear Warheads, which can deal up to 500 damage, but the impact area becomes irradiated afterward. This makes the building useful for late-game military strikes as well as logistics, though the radioactive fallout makes such attacks hazardous to both target and surroundings.

The building’s flavor text reflects its unusual scale and invites curiosity, but entering it is not a good idea.