The Transogen Forge is a station building that speeds up your Transogen mining, raises the payout from your Transogen refineries, and stacks several ship-wide combat and utility bonuses on top. It unlocks at Operations level 30 and upgrades all the way to level 70. If you mine and refine Transogen, it earns its place quickly, and the Isolytic damage and Apex Barrier bonuses give it value well beyond mining. Every upgrade after level 1 is paid in Transogen Forge Foundations: 1,210 to reach level 20, 6,475 to reach level 40 and 59,970 to finish level 70.
What the Transogen Forge does
The Forge works two angles at once. It increases your Common, Uncommon, and Rare Transogen mining rate and lifts the rewards you pull from the matching refineries, while a set of ship-wide buffs climbs with every level. It also opens the Forge Exocomp slot, which holds powerful Forge Consumables. Once you research the Forge Reward Claim Unlock node, the building also hands out one-time reward bundles of Refined Transogen, Parsteel, Tritanium, Dilithium, and Sigma-tier resources.
The buffs below all switch on at level 1 and scale up as you upgrade. The PvP Apex Barrier bonus does not apply when Tal is assigned to your bridge or station combat, so plan around that if you run that officer.
| Buff | Active from level | Value (level 1 to level 70) |
|---|---|---|
| Isolytic Damage (all ships) | Level 1 | 1% to 75% |
| PvP Apex Barrier (all ships vs players) | Level 1 | 250 to 12,500 |
| Common Transogen mining rate | Level 1 | 100% to 9,800% |
| Uncommon Transogen mining rate | Level 1 | 100% to 23,700% |
| Rare Transogen mining rate | Level 1 | 100% to 31,500% |
| Ship scrapping speed | Level 1 | 2% to 300% |
| Transogen Exocomp slot | Level 1 | 1 slot |
The mining percentages read high because they are bonuses on top of a low base rate, so treat them as relative gains rather than a flat multiplier on your total haul.
How to unlock the Transogen Forge
The Transogen Forge becomes available once your Operations building reaches level 30, which places it firmly in the mid-to-late game rather than early station development. Placing the level 1 Forge costs 100 Transogen Forge Keys and 800 Parsteel. After that, every upgrade needs Transogen Forge Foundations plus a Parsteel bill that grows fast.
The Transogen Forge Key comes from the Gifts section of the store once you reach level 30, so the building is ready to place as soon as Operations 30 finishes. The Forge also gates research: the Serene Squall Common, Uncommon and Rare Transogen Mining nodes in Starships research each need Transogen Forge level 1.
Transogen Forge Foundations needed by level
Transogen Forge Foundations are used only to upgrade this building. The table lists the Foundations for each milestone level and the running total from level 1, so you can see how many you need to reach any target.
| Level | Foundations for this level | Foundations from level 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 35 | 135 |
| 10 | 55 | 375 |
| 15 | 80 | 715 |
| 20 | 115 | 1,210 |
| 25 | 160 | 1,910 |
| 30 | 235 | 2,925 |
| 35 | 335 | 4,380 |
| 40 | 480 | 6,475 |
| 45 | 690 | 9,480 |
| 50 | 990 | 13,800 |
| 55 | 1,420 | 19,990 |
| 60 | 2,045 | 28,880 |
| 65 | 2,935 | 41,645 |
| 70 | 4,210 | 59,970 |
The per-level cost climbs slowly at first and then roughly doubles every ten levels past level 40: 480 at level 40, 990 at level 50, 2,045 at level 60 and 4,210 at level 70. More than half of the 59,970 total, 31,090 Foundations, goes into levels 61 to 70, so a Foundation stockpile matters most at the very end.
A related item, Transogen Forge Dust, is earned from the store and the Common Transogen Refinery. It pays for the Forge Reward Claim research and for Insta Jump abilities for FKR combat ships in the Transogen Refinery. See the Transogen guide for the mining side.
Upgrade costs and build times
The table below shows milestone levels. Costs stay modest through the teens, then climb hard from level 30 onward.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 Transogen Forge Key, 800 Parsteel | 35s | Operations 30 |
| 5 | 35 Foundation, 1,800 Parsteel | 13m | Operations 30 |
| 10 | 55 Foundation, 7,000 Parsteel | 1h 50m | Operations 30 |
| 20 | 115 Foundation, 144,500 Parsteel | 1d 5h | Operations 30 |
| 30 | 235 Foundation, 13.26M Parsteel | 3d 1h | Operations 30 |
| 40 | 480 Foundation, 2.866B Parsteel | 14d 22h | Operations 40 |
| 50 | 990 Foundation, 125B Parsteel | 42d 22h | Operations 50 |
| 60 | 2,045 Foundation, 40.19T Parsteel | 108d 12h | Operations 60 |
| 65 | 2,935 Foundation, 6.015M Σ-Parsteel | 134d 9h | Operations 65 |
| 70 | 4,210 Foundation, 26.97M Σ-Parsteel | 538d 4h | Operations 70 |
At level 65 the Parsteel cost switches over to Σ-Parsteel, the Sigma-tier version of the resource, which is why the numbers appear to drop at the top of the table even though those upgrades are the most demanding. Across all 70 levels the Forge asks for 100 Transogen Forge Keys, about 114.2 trillion Parsteel, 59,970 Transogen Forge Foundations, and roughly 88.39 million Σ-Parsteel. The cumulative unboosted build time comes to about 3,265 days, so build-cost reductions and speedups matter here as much as the raw resources.
How the Transogen Forge fits your station
Because every buff turns on at level 1, the first few upgrades are worth grabbing even if Transogen mining is not your main focus. The Isolytic damage and Apex Barrier bonuses apply to all ships and help in PvP and Armadas, so the Forge quietly doubles as a combat building. If you do farm Transogen, the mining-rate and refinery-reward buffs pay for themselves over time and justify pushing the building higher.
The Forge Exocomp slot is the other reason to invest. It lets you slot Forge Consumables for extra output when you need a push. Past level 40 the resource and time costs become long-haul projects, so most players raise the Forge in steps between other priorities rather than rushing it to 70.
Is the Transogen Forge worth upgrading?
For active Transogen miners, yes. The mining and refinery bonuses compound, and the Exocomp slot adds flexibility you cannot get elsewhere. Even players who ignore Transogen get real value from the early levels thanks to the Isolytic damage and Apex Barrier buffs. The top levels are a long grind, so treat level 70 as a stretch goal and bank the cheaper early gains first.
