The Facade is a Section 31 station building that opens up once your Operations reaches level 30. It raises your ships’ damage in Wave Defense, boosts base hull health across your whole fleet, and lifts base officer stats, with two more combat buffs that switch on at the higher levels. It upgrades all the way to level 80 and leans heavily on Section 31 Transmitters, so it rewards players already working that faction.
What the Facade does
In story terms the Facade is a front for a mysterious organization. In gameplay terms it works as a broad stat booster tied to the Section 31 faction. Three buffs are active from the moment you place the level 1 building, and two more come online in the upper levels. Every upgrade pushes the values higher.
| Buff | Active from level | Value range (level 1 to 80) |
|---|---|---|
| Wave Defense Damage Bonus | Level 1 | 5% at L1 rising to 7,000% at L80 |
| Hull Health Bonus | Level 1 | 10% at L1 rising to 5,000% at L80 |
| Officer Stats Bonus | Level 1 | 2% at L1 rising to 2,000% at L80 |
| Armada Countdown Speed Ups | Level 1 | 9,000 at L1 rising to 31,500 at L80 |
| PvP Critical FKR Damage | Level 61 | 50% at L61 rising to 300% at L80 |
| Shield Health Bonus | Level 71 | 600% at L71 rising to 5,000% at L80 |
The Wave Defense Damage Bonus lifts your ships’ base damage against Wave Defense hostiles, the Hull Health Bonus raises base hull health for every ship you own, and the Officer Stats Bonus increases base attack, defense, and health for all officers. The Armada Countdown Speed Ups value only matters if you have unlocked the Armada Quick Start favor in the Section 31 faction store, which grants a daily gift of Armada Countdown Speed Ups; a higher Facade level increases that daily amount. The two late buffs, PvP Critical FKR Damage from level 61 and the Shield Health Bonus from level 71, add combat value only once you are deep into the upper levels.
How to unlock the Facade
The Facade becomes available when your Operations building reaches level 30. That is the only gate. Placing the level 1 building costs 800 Parsteel and 10 Section 31 Transmitter and finishes in about 35 seconds. From there, every upgrade stays gated behind your current Operations level, so your station’s overall progress sets the pace rather than any separate building.
Upgrade costs and build times
Costs start small and climb steeply. Early levels spend Parsteel and Section 31 Transmitter; from level 65 the building switches to Enhanced Section 31 Transmitter and the Sigma resource Σ-Parsteel. The table below shows milestone levels. All numbers are current as of the latest game data.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 800 Parsteel, 10 Section 31 Transmitter | 35s | Operations 30 |
| 10 | 7,000 Parsteel, 45 Section 31 Transmitter | 1h 50m | Operations 30 |
| 20 | 144,500 Parsteel, 96 Section 31 Transmitter | 1d 5h | Operations 30 |
| 30 | 13.26M Parsteel, 264 Section 31 Transmitter | 3d 1h | Operations 30 |
| 40 | 2.866B Parsteel, 840 Section 31 Transmitter | 48d 11h | Operations 40 |
| 50 | 125B Parsteel, 2,760 Section 31 Transmitter | 830d 2h | Operations 50 |
| 60 | 40.19T Parsteel, 10,800 Section 31 Transmitter | 1,748d 22h | Operations 60 |
| 65 | 780 Enhanced Section 31 Transmitter, 11.8M Σ-Parsteel | 134d 9h | Operations 65 |
| 70 | 1,320 Enhanced Section 31 Transmitter, 69.5M Σ-Parsteel | 538d 4h | Operations 70 |
| 80 | 4,620 Enhanced Section 31 Transmitter, 2.308B Σ-Parsteel | 2,690d 20h | Operations 80 |
Taking the Facade from level 1 to level 80 costs roughly 114.2T Parsteel, 87,160 Section 31 Transmitter, 34,260 Enhanced Section 31 Transmitter, and 7.798B Σ-Parsteel. The cumulative build time runs to about 34,496 days unboosted, so in practice you rely on speedups, build-time research, and any active bonuses to move through the top levels at all.
How the Facade fits your station
The Facade arrives fairly late, at Operations 30, so it is a mid-to-endgame building rather than an early priority. Its biggest draw for most players is the fleetwide Hull Health Bonus and the Officer Stats Bonus, both of which apply to every ship and officer you field, not just Section 31 hulls. That makes early levels genuinely useful even if you never touch the Wave Defense side of the game.
The catch is the resource bill. Section 31 Transmitter is a faction resource, so your upgrade speed is tied to how actively you farm Section 31 content. If you are not spending time in that faction, the Facade will crawl. The Armada Countdown Speed Ups buff also does nothing unless you have the Armada Quick Start favor unlocked, so treat that line as a bonus for Section 31 armada players rather than a reason to rush the building.
Is the Facade worth upgrading?
For a Section 31 player, yes. The hull health and officer stat boosts help across your entire roster, and the early levels are cheap enough to grab quickly once you hit Operations 30. Beyond that, the Facade is a long-term project: the mid and high levels demand large amounts of faction resources and enormous build times, so push it as far as your Section 31 Transmitter income comfortably allows and leave the level 70-plus grind for when the rest of your station is already strong.