What it is
A reactor core mod. A medium-footprint archetype in the Mod Grid catalog that contributes flat additive shield capacity and flat additive shield regeneration per second to every run it is placed on. Display label in the inventory and grid UI reads as the shield mod.
Identity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Display name | +SHIELD |
| Footprint | 2x2 |
| Cells occupied | 4 |
| Shape | filled rectangle |
| Effects | none |
The footprint is a fully filled 2x2 square with no tetris cutouts. Rotation has no effect on placement because the shape is symmetric in every orientation.
Base stats (T1 Common)
| Stat | Value | Stat type |
|---|---|---|
| shieldMax | 25 | flat additive shield capacity |
| shieldRegenRate | 2 | flat additive shield points per second |
Two stat fields are carried; both apply additively on top of base ship stats and any other shield sources in the run. No HP, damage, speed, magnet, or other bonuses.
Per-tier values
Rarity multiplies the entire base stat block by a fixed factor. Both fields scale together at the same multiplier.
| Stat | T1 Common | T2 Uncommon | T3 Rare | T4 Epic | T5 Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rarity multiplier | 1x | 2x | 4x | 8x | 16x |
| shieldMax | 25 | 50 | 100 | 200 | 400 |
| shieldRegenRate | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 32 |
| Tier | Acquisition |
|---|---|
| T1 Common | Mission drop |
| T2 Uncommon | Merge 3 commons |
| T3 Rare | Merge 3 uncommons |
| T4 Epic | Merge 3 rares |
| T5 Legendary | Merge 3 epics |
Legendary never drops; it is reachable only by merging three Epics. Eighty-one Commons fully merge into one Legendary of this template.
How it fits on the grid
The Mod Grid is a 4x4 board with unlock progression starting from the upper-left 2x2 free zone. Because this mod occupies a 2x2 block of contiguous cells, it requires four unlocked cells arranged as a square. The free-zone region is itself a 2x2 square, so this mod is placeable on a fresh account with no unlocks beyond the starting region.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Cells required | 4 (2x2 contiguous) |
| Compatible zones | Any 2x2 square of unlocked cells |
| Rotation states | 4 (all visually identical) |
| Can occupy a corner cell | yes (covers a corner plus three adjacent cells) |
| Can occupy the free-zone region at session start | yes (fills the entire free zone exactly) |
Placing this mod inside the free zone consumes all four starting cells, blocking any other mod from sharing the free zone. Multiple instances of this mod can sit on the grid simultaneously when enough 2x2 regions are unlocked; bonuses from each placed copy stack flat-additively with every other source of shield capacity and shield regeneration in the run.
Drop info
Mods drop only at mission end. Template selection is uniform across the nine archetypes, and every drop enters inventory at Common — higher rarities exist only via merge.
| Outcome | Probability per drop |
|---|---|
| This template selected | 1/9 (uniform across nine templates) |
| Drop rolls Common (T1) | 100% (the only droppable rarity) |
| Drop rolls Uncommon or higher directly | 0% (merge-only) |
| Joint outcome | Probability per drop |
|---|---|
| This template at Common | 11.111% (1/9 of 100%) |
| This template at any tier | 11.111% (Common is the only droppable rarity) |
The number of drops awarded per mission depends on tier-reached versus the player’s per-planet best — see the mods overview for the drop-count table. New drops surface a “NEW” badge until viewed.
EXTRACT-CANDIDATE: The rarity multiplier row, acquisition table, and drop-probability math (1/9 template selection, Common-only drops, 81-commons-per-legendary) repeat the same numbers on every per-mod page and on mods.md. Numeric tables are fine to duplicate per the project’s “tables can duplicate, prose cannot” rule, but the acquisition method column and the 1/9-template math could live as a shared snippet referenced from each per-mod page.
EXTRACT-CANDIDATE: “How it fits on the grid” footprint analysis (cells required, compatible zones, rotation count, free-zone eligibility) is mechanical and derivable from the footprint size for every per-mod page. A shared authoring-guide table or helper page mapping footprint shape → eligible zones would let per-mod pages link instead of repeating the analysis.
EXTRACT-CANDIDATE: The existing chip-targeting.md page lists drop rarity as 70% Common / 30% Uncommon, which contradicts _types.ts::DROP_RARITY = 'common' (all drops are Common, higher rarities are merge-only). One of the two is stale. Source code as of commit 690e163 supports Common-only drops; the chip-targeting page should be reconciled.