The Treasury is a station building that unlocks at Operations level 15 and upgrades to level 70. It opens access to the Lockbox and raises three stats: mining speed and protected cargo on your Survey ships, plus cargo capacity across every ship you own. If you run a mining account, it pays for its slot early and keeps scaling as you climb the higher levels.
What the Treasury does
The Treasury has two jobs. First, it unlocks the Lockbox, the reward container you open in the store. Second, it carries three permanent buffs that grow every time you upgrade the building. Two of them target Survey ships, the miners in your fleet, and the third lifts cargo capacity on all ships.
| Buff | Applies to | Active from | Value range (L1 to L70) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining speed | Survey ships | Level 1 | 2% to 575% |
| Protected cargo | Survey ships | Level 1 | 2% to 275% |
| Cargo capacity | All ships | Level 1 | 1% to 150% |
The growth is steady through the mid game and then jumps at the top. Mining speed sits around 40% at level 20 and 175% at level 50 before spiking to 575% at level 70. Protected cargo, which shields resources from being stolen when your Survey ship is destroyed, runs from 40% at level 20 to 275% at level 70. Cargo capacity is the smaller of the three, moving from 20% at level 20 to 150% at level 70.
One milestone is worth calling out. Reaching Treasury level 40 adds bonus Prime Particles to the daily Optical Diodes claim in the store’s gift section, and that bonus runs until you finish all Prime Territory research.
How to unlock the Treasury
The Treasury needs Operations level 15 before you can place it. That is the only building requirement to get it on your station at level 1. Later upgrades raise the Operations requirement in step with the Treasury’s own level, so your Operations building has to keep pace as you go.
Upgrade costs and build times
Early levels are cheap and fast. Costs stay in Parsteel and Optical Diodes through most of the climb, then switch to Rare Optical Diodes and Sigma-Parsteel (Σ-Parsteel) at the final tiers. Here are the milestone levels.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 800 Parsteel | 35s | Operations 15 |
| 5 | 26 Optical Diode, 1,800 Parsteel | 13m | Operations 15 |
| 10 | 42 Optical Diode, 7,000 Parsteel | 1h 50m | Operations 15 |
| 20 | 100 Optical Diode, 144,500 Parsteel | 1d 5h | Operations 20 |
| 30 | 230 Optical Diode, 13.26M Parsteel | 3d 1h | Operations 30 |
| 40 | 540 Optical Diode, 2.866B Parsteel | 48d 11h | Operations 40 |
| 50 | 1,280 Optical Diode, 125B Parsteel | 830d 2h | Operations 50 |
| 60 | 2,760 Optical Diode, 40.19T Parsteel | 1748d 22h | Operations 60 |
| 65 | 7,500 Rare Optical Diode, 6.015M Σ-Parsteel | 134d 9h | Operations 65 |
| 70 | 11,000 Rare Optical Diode, 26.97M Σ-Parsteel | 538d 4h | Operations 70 |
Taking the Treasury all the way from level 1 to level 70 costs about 114.2T Parsteel, 39,346 Optical Diodes, 88.39M Σ-Parsteel, and 74,100 Rare Optical Diodes. The cumulative build time is over 18,800 days unboosted, so the top levels lean heavily on construction speedups and boosts. The build times listed are raw figures before any of those are applied.
How the Treasury fits your station
Because it lands at Operations 15, the Treasury arrives fairly early, and the payoff is strongest for players who mine a lot. Faster mining means shorter trips to gather node, and higher protected cargo means you keep more of a load when a Survey ship gets blown up in contested space. The all-ships cargo buff applies to every hauler in your fleet, so even a combat-focused account gets value from it.
Where the Treasury slows down is the same place every high-level building does: the cost and time curve. Through level 40 or so the upgrades stay reasonable. Past that, Parsteel demands and build timers climb into territory that only makes sense once your base economy and speedup supply can support them. Most players push the early and mid levels for the buff gains, then finish the last stretch when resources are plentiful.
The level 40 Prime Particles bonus is a reason to prioritize that milestone if you are actively working through Prime Territory research, since the extra daily particles shorten that grind.
Is the Treasury worth upgrading?
Yes, especially for mining accounts. The mining speed and protected cargo buffs deliver real, ongoing value, and the fleet-wide cargo boost helps everyone. Prioritize it through the mid levels where the cost stays sane, aim for level 40 if Prime Territory research is on your plate, and treat the final tiers as a long-term project rather than a near-term goal.