Dilithium Generators produce Dilithium, the crystalline mineral you spend on research and on building advanced ship components. Your station holds eight of them, lettered A through H. Every generator is the same building with the same output at a given level, and the only thing that changes from one letter to the next is the requirement to place it. Each one upgrades to level 80, and at level 61 it switches from producing raw Dilithium to producing Σ-Dilithium.
When each Dilithium Generator unlocks
All eight generators reach level 80. What separates them is the unlock requirement, which climbs with each letter and, for the later ones, depends on an earlier generator already standing on your station.
| Variant | Unlocks at | Max level |
|---|---|---|
| Dilithium-Generator A | Betrieb 10 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator B | Operations 13, Dilithium Generator A 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator C | Operations 20, Dilithium Generator A 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator D | Operations 30, Dilithium Generator B 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator E | Operations 40, Dilithium Generator C 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator F | Operations 50, Dilithium Generator D 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator G | Operations 50, Dilithium Generator E 1 | 80 |
| Dilithium-Generator H | Operations 50, Dilithium Generator F 1 | 80 |
- Dilithium Generator A unlocks at Operations level 10 and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator B unlocks at Operations level 13 once Dilithium Generator A is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator C unlocks at Operations level 20 once Dilithium Generator A is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator D unlocks at Operations level 30 once Dilithium Generator B is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator E unlocks at Operations level 40 once Dilithium Generator C is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator F unlocks at Operations level 50 once Dilithium Generator D is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator G unlocks at Operations level 50 once Dilithium Generator E is built, and upgrades to level 80.
- Dilithium Generator H unlocks at Operations level 50 once Dilithium Generator F is built, and upgrades to level 80.
What Dilithium Generators do
Each generator produces Dilithium every hour and holds a stockpile until you collect it. Production and storage both climb with every upgrade. At level 1 a generator makes about 2 Dilithium per hour and stores 1; by level 60 the same generator produces roughly 4.5 million per hour and stores about 91 million, as of the latest game Daten. Because all eight variants share the same output values, adding another generator is a direct multiplier on your passive Dilithium income.
Dilithium sits at the center of your research economy. You spend it to unlock and level nodes across the research trees, and higher-tier ship components draw on it as well. Each generator accrues output only up to its storage cap, so a generator whose stockpile is full stops adding more until you collect. Running several generators keeps more total Dilithium flowing and raises the ceiling before a collection run is needed.
At level 61 the generator changes what it makes. The raw Dilithium production and storage give way to Σ-Dilithium, a higher-tier form used in late-game research and construction. Σ-Dilithium production starts at 1 per hour at level 61 and reaches about 1,593 per hour at level 80, while Σ-Dilithium storage grows from 25 to roughly 34,090 over the same range. This is a switchover, not a shutdown: past level 60 the building produces the Sigma resource in place of the base one.
Dilithium Generators A and B also carry a weapon damage bonus that activates once you reach Syndicate level 35. It scales with the generator’s level and reaches its highest value at level 80. The other six generators produce Dilithium only.
Upgrade costs and build times
The figures below come from Dilithium Generator A and stand in for the whole family. Outputs are identical across all eight variants; the upgrade costs and build times differ only slightly from one letter to the next, with Generator B matching A on most levels and the rest differing on about half. Treat this as the representative curve rather than an exact match for every generator.
| Ebene | Kosten | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 300 Tritanium, 400 Parsteel | 45s | Operations 10 |
| 10 | 1,500 Tritanium, 2,000 Parsteel | 1h 6m | Operations 10 |
| 20 | 42,500 Tritanium, 57,800 Parsteel | 18h 33m | Operations 20 |
| 30 | 3.9M Tritanium, 5.304M Parsteel | 1d 23h | Operations 30 |
| 40 | 301M Tritanium, 1.146B Parsteel, plus refined Erze | 32d 7h | Operations 40 |
| 50 | 18.38B Tritanium, 49.98B Parsteel | 553d 9h | Operations 50 |
| 60 | 2.462T Tritanium, 16.08T Parsteel, plus refined materials | 1165d 22h | Operations 60 |
| 70 | 7.933M Σ-Tritanium, 10.79M Σ-Parsteel, plus refined Gas and ore | 307d 12h | Operations 70 |
| 80 | 968.1M Σ-Tritanium, 5.267B Σ-Parsteel, plus refined gas and ore | 7423d 3h | Operations 80 |
Taking a single generator from level 1 to level 80 costs on the order of 9.86 trillion Tritanium and 64.96 trillion Parsteel, plus billions of Σ-Tritanium and Σ-Parsteel and hundreds of thousands of refined ore and gas at the top tiers. The cumulative build time is about 41,831 days unboosted, which is why construction speedups and building-cost reductions matter so much at high levels.
How Dilithium Generators fit your station
The unlock pacing spreads the generators across your progression. Generator A arrives at Operations 10 and B soon after at 13, so you get two of them early. C comes at Operations 20, D at 30, and E at 40. The last three, F, G, and H, all gate at Operations 50 and each needs an earlier generator in place, so they land together in the mid-to-late game.
The letter dependencies form a chain rather than a straight line. B and C both branch off A, D follows B, E follows C, and F, G, and H each follow D, E, and F in turn. In practice you rarely notice the chain, since you will have built the earlier generators long before the requirement is checked, but it does mean you cannot jump straight to Generator H without the earlier letters standing first.
Early on, the jump in output between generator levels is small in absolute terms, so the first handful of upgrades are cheap and quick. The curve steepens sharply in the mid-game, and by the time you are chasing the Operations 50 unlocks for F, G, and H, each upgrade is a real investment of resources and time. Deciding which generators to push and which to leave a few levels behind becomes part of managing your station.
Because Dilithium feeds research and advanced ship components, your generators are the passive supply behind most of your upgrades. Keeping them close to your Operations level, and building each new one as soon as it unlocks, raises that income without any active effort. The Σ-Dilithium switchover at level 61 only starts to matter once you are deep into the late-game trees that spend the Sigma resource.
Are Dilithium Generators worth upgrading?
Yes, within reason. Dilithium is a currency you spend constantly on research and components, and these generators are your only passive source, so leveling them pays off across your whole account. The caution is the cost curve: past level 50 a single upgrade runs into years of unboosted build time and trillions of resources. Upgrade to match what your current research and ship goals actually consume rather than pushing every generator to 80 for its own sake.