Palladium Extractor
An automated mining rig anchored to the richest asteroid belts and crusts in the system. It does one thing: pull palladium out of the rocks, around the clock.
What it does
The Palladium Extractor adds a flat per-minute palladium income to its system. Whatever the rate says, that's how much lands in your depot every minute, even while you're offline.
Higher levels mean a higher rate.
Why it matters
Palladium pays for almost every upgrade in the game. Hulls, plating, foundations, everything sits on a palladium budget. If your palladium income is slow, your whole empire grows slow.
Every claimed system has its own Palladium Extractor. They all run in parallel and they all feed into that system's local depot.
What stops the income
Two things can throttle the rate without an obvious deficit warning:
A full depot. If the system's palladium stockpile is at cap, production stops cold until you spend something or upgrade the depot.
An energy deficit. Like every other structure, the extractor draws on the system's energy grid. If the Reactor can't cover the load, the deficit multiplier slows the extractor's output along with everything else. See Energy.
Strategy
Pair extractor upgrades with depot upgrades. An extractor running into a too-small depot is wasted potential.
Keep the Palladium and Iridium Extractors close in level. Most upgrades cost both resources and letting one fall behind just bottlenecks the queue.
