The Foundry is an armor tech research facility on your station. Every time you upgrade it, the armor value of all your ships goes up, and your battleships gain extra shield health on top. You unlock it by completing the Unlock Foundry research, and it upgrades all the way to level 80. If you fly battleships or just want tougher ships across the board, the Foundry earns its spot on the station.
What the Foundry does
The Foundry has one job: making your ships harder to kill. It carries two passive bonuses that climb every time you upgrade the building, and both apply automatically once the Foundry is standing.
The first is an armor bonus that raises the armor value of every ship in your fleet. The second raises the shield health of your battleships specifically, so combat lineups built around battleships get a second layer of protection. Both start small at level 1 and grow into large percentages by the level cap.
| Buff | Active from level | Value at level milestones |
|---|---|---|
| Armor bonus (all ships) | 1 | 1% at L1, 20% at L20, 54% at L40, 140% at L60, 700% at L80 |
| Battleship shield health | 1 | 3% at L1, 60% at L20, 120% at L40, 180% at L60, 1,200% at L80 |
These percentages reflect the current game data. The jumps get steep in the high 60s and 70s, which is where most of the Foundry’s defensive value is concentrated.
How to unlock the Foundry
Placing the level 1 Foundry requires the Unlock Foundry research. Once that research is done, the first Foundry costs 243,338 Parsteel and 3 2★ Uncommon Refined Gas, with an 18 second build time.
From level 5 onward, each upgrade is gated by your Operations and R&D Department at the matching level (Operations 5 and R&D Department 5 for Foundry level 5, and so on up the ladder). Two levels also call for another building: level 65 needs the Engine Technology Lab at 65, and level 75 needs the Engine Technology Lab at 75.
Upgrade costs and build times
Costs stay light through the early tiers and then climb hard. Here are milestone levels across the full 1 to 80 range.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 243,338 Parsteel, 3 2★ Uncommon Refined Gas | 18s | Unlock Foundry research |
| 10 | 248,370 Parsteel, 225 Tritanium | 50m | Operations 10, R&D Department 10 |
| 20 | 387,770 Parsteel, 6,375 Tritanium | 13h 55m | Operations 20, R&D Department 20 |
| 30 | 13.26M Parsteel, 585,000 Tritanium, plus refined gas | 1d 11h | Operations 30, R&D Department 30 |
| 40 | 2.866B Parsteel, 45.15M Tritanium, plus 4★ refined gas | 24d 5h | Operations 40, R&D Department 40 |
| 50 | 125B Parsteel, 2.756B Tritanium | 415d 1h | Operations 50, R&D Department 50 |
| 60 | 40.19T Parsteel, 369.4B Tritanium, plus 5★ refined gas | 874d 10h | Operations 60, R&D Department 60 |
| 65 | 6.015M Σ-Parsteel, 176,906 Σ-Tritanium, plus 6★ refined resources | 57d 14h | Operations 65, R&D Department 65, Engine Technology Lab 65 |
| 70 | 26.97M Σ-Parsteel, 1.19M Σ-Tritanium, plus 6★ refined resources | 230d 15h | Operations 70, R&D Department 70 |
| 80 | 13.17B Σ-Parsteel, 145.2M Σ-Tritanium, plus 7★ refined resources | 5567d 8h | Operations 80, R&D Department 80 |
Taking the Foundry from level 1 to 80 costs roughly 114.2 trillion Parsteel and 1.036 trillion Tritanium, plus large quantities of refined gas and crystal and, at the top tiers, Σ-Parsteel and Σ-Tritanium. The cumulative unboosted build time is about 30,499 days, so construction speedups and build-speed research carry the late levels.
How the Foundry fits your station
The Foundry is a survivability building, not an economy or ship-building one. Because the armor bonus touches every hull you own, it helps in almost any fight, and the battleship shield bonus makes it a priority if your combat roster leans on battleships. The early levels are cheap and quick, so there is little reason to leave the Foundry far behind your Operations level through the first 20 or so tiers.
The cost and time curve steepens sharply past level 40, where each upgrade starts to compete with your other station projects for Tritanium and Parsteel. From there, treat the Foundry like your other defense buildings and keep it moving in step with them rather than sprinting it ahead of everything else.
Is the Foundry worth upgrading?
Yes, within reason. The armor bonus alone justifies steady upgrades because it improves every ship you fly, and battleship pilots get a second large boost stacked on top. Through the mid levels the returns come cheap and fast. At the highest tiers the Parsteel and Tritanium bills are enormous and the unboosted build times run into years, so pace the final stretch to match your real combat needs instead of rushing it to the cap.