Resource Depot

A network of orbital storage tanks and warehouses parked in the system. The Depot is what decides how much palladium and iridium the system can hold onto before the tanks overflow and production grinds to a halt.

What it does

The Resource Depot sets a single cap that both palladium and iridium share. As long as either resource is under the cap, its extractor keeps producing. Once a resource hits the cap, that extractor stops.

Why it matters

The Depot is the easiest structure to neglect and the most expensive one to neglect for long.

Your extractors keep running while you're offline. If your Depot is too small, they fill it up halfway through the night and then sit idle until you log in and spend something. Every minute the extractors are idle are resources you will not get back.

A big Depot is what turns offline hours into actual progress.

When to upgrade

Look at the gap between your current stockpile and the cap. If you regularly come back to a system at cap, the Depot is the right next upgrade. If you're nowhere near the cap, the extractors or the Reactor probably matter more.

A rough rule: keep the Depot at least one upgrade ahead of your extractors. Extractors raise income; the Depot raises how long that income can run unattended.

Strategy

The Depot doesn't make you stronger directly. It makes the rest of your empire stronger by letting it run unattended. Cheap and easy to forget, but the difference between a small and a large Depot is the difference between waking up to a full system and waking up to a system that's been idle for hours.