Vinculum is an Epic Chaos Tech artifact built for mining. It slots onto a G7 or higher Survey ship and speeds up how fast that ship pulls Parsteel, Tritanium, and Dilithium, along with their refined Sigma forms. It also adds warp range and protected cargo. If you run G7 miners, it is one of the strongest mining upgrades you can chase in the Chaos Tech system.
What Vinculum does
Vinculum’s main job is mining speed. Installed on a G7+ Survey ship, it raises the mining rate for Parsteel, Tritanium, and Dilithium, including their refined Sigma versions. Those are the raw materials G7 miners pull most, so the buff applies to nearly every run those ships make. Two support buffs come with it: more warp range, so the ship reaches farther nodes, and protected cargo, so more of your haul survives if the miner gets destroyed.
| Buff | Unlocks at tier | Unlock value | Max value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining rate (Parsteel, Tritanium, Dilithium and Sigma) | 1 | 150% | 1,500% |
| Warp range | 1 | 5 | 400 |
| Protected cargo | 2 | 10% | 750% |
The mining rate buff is the reason to equip it. Going from 150% at unlock to 1,500% at max roughly multiplies what a G7 miner brings back on those three resources.
How to get Vinculum
Vinculum is Chaos Tech, so it runs on the Chaos Tech economy rather than the standard Forbidden Tech fragments. You open a Chaos Tech slot (or clear one) with Chaos Tech Fusion Rods, then unlock and build the piece from Chaos Tech materials. Those materials come from the Continuum refinery and the store. Chaos Tech Fragments exchange into the materials in the refinery, and you earn fragments when you pick up excess Chaos Tech shards. Much of the supply chain runs through Assimilated El-Aurian hostiles: defeating them drops loot you exchange in the refinery for the currencies below.
Upgrading Vinculum
There are two upgrade tracks. Tiers raise the level cap and turn on the later buff; levels scale the numbers. Vinculum goes to tier 12 and level 60. Protected cargo switches on at tier 2, so an early tier-up matters if you want that buff sooner. Tier-ups cost Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst; levels cost Chaos Tech Reactor and Chaosmatter.
| Tier | Level cap | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Starting tier (no cost) |
| 7 | 35 | 58,300 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
| 12 | 60 | 70,400 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst |
Reaching tier 12 costs 598,400 Chaos Tech Tier-Up Catalyst in total. Leveling all the way from 2 to 60 costs 347,050 Chaos Tech Reactor and 803,110 Chaosmatter.
Best ships and uses for Vinculum
Vinculum is a mining piece, so it belongs on your dedicated G7 Survey ships. It only works on G7 or higher miners, so there is no reason to hold a slot for it on a combat ship or a lower-grade survey ship. Put it on the miner you run most for Parsteel, Tritanium, and Dilithium, since those are the resources it speeds up. The warp range buff helps that same miner reach deeper systems where richer nodes sit, and protected cargo means a raid on your loaded miner costs you less. Because the buffs only apply on G7 and up, the piece pays off most once your survey ships are already at that grade and you are mining those three resources at volume.
Vinculum in Star Trek
In Star Trek canon, the vinculum is the processing device at the center of a Borg vessel that interconnects the minds of every drone aboard. It keeps the Collective’s thoughts unified and holds each drone’s individuality in check. In Star Trek: Voyager’s “Infinite Regress,” a malfunctioning vinculum recovered from a destroyed Borg ship reaches out and floods Seven of Nine with the stored personalities of thousands of assimilated victims, and the crew has to shut it down before it overwhelms her. The game’s flavor casts the same device as the Collective’s brain, and a dangerous prize, because whoever controls it could turn the Borg’s own network against them.
Is Vinculum worth it?
If you take mining seriously, yes. A 1,500% mining rate buff on your main G7 miner is a large jump in how fast you fill your resource stores, and the warp and cargo buffs make that miner safer and more flexible. It is Epic Chaos Tech, so the material cost is steep and worth pacing. Push tier 2 early for protected cargo, then level it as your Chaos Tech income allows.