The Armory is a station building that makes your whole fleet tougher in combat. It raises the hull health, shield health, and mitigation of every ship you own, and it hands you the refit shards needed to unlock new active abilities on certain ships. It becomes available at Operations level 25 and upgrades all the way to level 70. If you fight other players or grind hostiles, this is one of the buildings worth prioritizing.
What the Armory does
The Armory does two jobs. First, it applies three passive bonuses to your entire fleet: more hull health, more shield health, and higher mitigation. These apply to every ship, so the benefit grows as your roster grows. Second, it gates ship refits. Reaching certain Armory levels grants enough refit shards to fully unlock the refits for specific ships, and those refits are where the new active abilities come from. Level 26 covers the Mayflower, D3, and Legionary. Level 28 covers the Saladin, Bortas, and Centurion. Level 42 covers the Kelvin, K’T’inga, and Valdore. Level 53 covers the Northcutt, Vor’cha, and Corvus.
All three combat bonuses turn on at level 1 and climb together as you upgrade. Here is how they scale across the level range:
| Buff | Active from | Level 1 | Level 25 | Level 50 | Level 70 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull health bonus | Level 1 | 5% | 140% | 338% | 700% |
| Shield health bonus | Level 1 | 5% | 140% | 338% | 700% |
| Mitigation stats bonus | Level 1 | 5% | 140% | 338% | 700% |
The three bonuses share the same scaling, running from 5% at level 1 to 700% at level 70. Values are current as of the latest game data.
How to unlock the Armory
The Armory becomes available once your Operations building reaches level 25. That is its only placement requirement. After that, the deeper upgrade tiers are gated by your Operations level too: from level 30 onward each Armory milestone needs Operations at a matching level, so your Operations building sets the pace for how far you can push the Armory.
Upgrade costs and build times
Costs start small and grow steeply. The table below shows milestone levels with their build cost, unboosted build time, and the Operations level each one requires.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150 Nadion, 800 Parsteel | 35s | Operations 25 |
| 10 | 375 Nadion, 7,000 Parsteel | 1h 50m | Operations 25 |
| 20 | 900 Nadion, 144,500 Parsteel | 1d 5h | Operations 25 |
| 25 | 1,350 Nadion, 1.591M Parsteel | 1d 9h | Operations 25 |
| 30 | 2,075 Nadion, 13.26M Parsteel | 3d 1h | Operations 30 |
| 40 | 4,850 Nadion, 2.866B Parsteel | 48d 11h | Operations 40 |
| 50 | 11,525 Nadion, 125B Parsteel | 830d 2h | Operations 50 |
| 60 | 24,850 Nadion, 40.19T Parsteel | 1748d 22h | Operations 60 |
| 65 | 24,850 Nadion, 603,500 Σ-Parsteel | 133d 16h | Operations 65 |
| 70 | 24,850 Nadion, 4.845M Σ-Parsteel | 535d 7h | Operations 70 |
Nadion is the specialist resource the Armory draws on at every level, while the bulk resource shifts from Parsteel to Σ-Parsteel at the highest tiers. Taken from level 1 to level 70, the Armory costs 560,475 Nadion, 114.2 trillion Parsteel, and 13.94 million Σ-Parsteel, with a cumulative unboosted build time of 18,797 days. Speedups and build-time reductions cut that figure heavily in practice.
How the Armory fits your station
Because it unlocks at Operations 25, the Armory arrives in the mid game, around the point where combat starts to weigh more than raw economy. The three fleet-wide bonuses make it useful the moment you place it, and they keep scaling, so the early levels are cheap and fast to bank. The refit unlocks are the bigger draw for combat players: if you fly any of the ships tied to levels 26, 28, 42, or 53, pushing the Armory to that level pays off right away. Past level 30 your Operations level caps how high you can go, so the Armory usually climbs alongside Operations rather than ahead of it.
Is the Armory worth upgrading?
For anyone who fights, yes. The hull, shield, and mitigation bonuses apply to every ship and grow with each level, and the refit shards unlock abilities you cannot get any other way. The early levels are quick and worth grabbing as soon as the building opens. The deep levels demand enormous amounts of Parsteel and time, so treat those as long-term goals you chip away at as your Operations level allows rather than a rush.