Overclocking & Power Shards

Basic rules

• Clock speed can be set from 1 % to 250 % (in 1 % steps or typed freely with decimals; the UI accepts 4 decimals and evaluates expressions such as 120/140*100).
• Underclocking (< 100 %) needs no shards. Overclocking needs one Power Shard per +50 %: 150 % = 1 shard, 200 % = 2, 250 % = 3.
• Overclocking is unlocked by the MAM research Power Slugs – Overclock Production (1 Power Shard, 50 Iron Plate, 50 Wire).
• The production rate (inputs and outputs) scales linearly with the clock: 250 % = 2.5× the rate.
• A Resource Well Pressurizer's overclock applies to all satellite extractors of the well at once. The Geothermal Generator and the AWESOME Sink cannot be overclocked.
• “45-81 rule”: rates that are multiples or divisors of 45 or 81 give finite percentages; the UI rounds otherwise.

Power draw of production buildings and extractors

P(clock) = P₁₀₀ × (clock / 100 %) ^ 1.321928

The exponent is log₂(2.5): doubling the production costs 2.5× the power.

Consequences:

• Underclocking saves energy per item: two machines at 50 % need 80 % of the power of one machine at 100 %.
• Overclocking to 250 % costs 34 % more power per item but saves buildings and their build cost.
• Idle draw is 0.1 MW per building, even when the computed draw at a heavy underclock would be lower.

Examples (P₁₀₀ from the game data):

Building	100 %	150 %	200 %	250 %
Constructor (4 MW)	4	6.84	10	13.43
Assembler (15 MW)	15	25.64	37.5	50.37
Manufacturer (55 MW)	55	94.00	137.5	184.67
Refinery (30 MW)	30	51.27	75	100.73
Blender (75 MW)	75	128.18	187.5	251.83
Miner Mk.3 (45 MW)	45	76.91	112.5	151.10
Water Extractor (20 MW)	20	34.18	50	67.15
Oil Extractor (40 MW)	40	68.36	100	134.31

For variable-power buildings (Particle Accelerator, Converter, Quantum Encoder) the recipe's min/max range is scaled with the same factor.

Generators

Generators scale linearly: P = P₁₀₀ × clock; fuel and water consumption scale linearly as well. There is no efficiency gain or loss – overclocking only saves buildings. (The game data contains an exponent of 1.6 for generators that has not been applied since Patch 0.7/1.0.)

Generator	100 %	250 %	Fuel at 250 %
Coal-Powered Generator	75 MW, 15 Coal/min, 45 m³ Water	187.5 MW	37.5 Coal/min, 112.5 m³ Water
Fuel-Powered Generator	250 MW, 20 m³ Fuel/min	625 MW	50 m³ Fuel/min
Nuclear Power Plant	2 500 MW, 0.2 rods/min, 240 m³ Water	6 250 MW	0.5 rods/min, 600 m³ Water

Combined with a Somersloop

Power = P₁₀₀ × clock^1.321928 × (1 + used slots / total slots)². Fully slotted at 250 %: 3.3577 × 4 = 13.43× the power for 5× the output (2 × 2.5). See Somersloop production amplifier.

Rules of thumb

• For whole numbers of buildings prefer underclocking the last machine (no shard needed) over overclocking the chain – underclocking also saves power per item.
• Overclocking miners is worth it: shards are finite, but nodes are more limited – 1 Miner Mk.3 on a pure node at 250 % gives 1 200/min (= a Mk.6 belt) and replaces 2.5 miners. See Resource nodes & miners.
• Generators have no penalty, so overclock them freely to save space.

Where shards come from

Source	Amount
Blue Power Slug (596 on the map)	1 shard per slug (Constructor, 8 s → 7.5/min)
Yellow Power Slug (389)	2 shards per slug (12 s → 10/min)
Purple Power Slug (257)	5 shards per slug (24 s → 12.5/min)
Total from slugs	2 650 shards (5 300 with a Somersloop in the Constructor)
Synthetic Power Shard (Quantum Encoder)	unlimited; 2 Time Crystal, 2 Dark Matter Crystal, 12 Quartz Crystal, 12 m³ Excited Photonic Matter → 1 per 12 s; 0–2 000 MW
AWESOME Shop	Synthetic Power Shard for 10 Coupons

One slug of each colour is consumed by MAM research; 3 slugs are unreachable. Details: Power Slugs.

In this planner every machine node has a clock-speed field; the Power shards total in the summary strip counts the shards your plan needs – see Using SatisfactoryBase.