Etherium is a green-glowing, energy-rich mineral used as the predominant energy source by most in the galaxy. It is heavily sought after by many as a result, with many alliances and wars revolving around the precious mineral.
Etherium is used for building towers, upgrading towers, and buying units. It is usually measured in 'Etherwatts' when stored.
Obtaining Etherium[]
Etherium can be obtained from Etherium refineries, which will passively extract Etherium from the deposit they are built on. There are three sizes of Etherium deposits- small, medium, and large- which correspond to the extraction rate and storage capacity of the refinery.
Brawlers will passively extract Etherium when idle if you have the Harvester upgrade.
You can also find raw Etherium pickups near hard to find places, especially on the final level of Sagan-1.
The Power Converter and Recycling upgrades allow you to recover some Etherium when disbanding or dismantling a squad/tower, or when a tower is destroyed respectively.
The Etherium Cache upgrade grants 50/75 Etherium on the start of each mission.
Storage[]
There is a storage limit on Etherium beyond which refineries and Brawlers will stop extracting. Picking up raw Etherium allows you to exceed the storage limit. This is useful for purchasing upgrades which cost more than your storage limit.
Strategy[]
Maintaining a steady supply of Etherium is vital to winning most missions, as well as losing your central refinery often being a lose condition. As such, it is important to invest some Etherium in static defenses which are much more powerful than units. The Radar upgrade on the refinery is cheap and extremely powerful, extending the vision range of each tower slightly beyond its attack range, allowing them to better defend your refinery. Etherium pickups can seriously aid in kickstarting the defenses of newly constructed refineries or boosting others. It is highly recommended to scout all areas of the map for these.
While expensive in tech points, the Etherium Cache upgrade allows you to quickly get a tower or refinery upgrade to help you defend when there are no pickups available.
Trivia/Notes[]
-A loading screen tip claims that the extraction speed of refineries decreases over time, but this is unconfirmed.
-There is only one enemy in the game which can steal your etherium, the aptly named Etherleeches.
-Etherium is used as a spice by the inhabitants of Borealis.
-Sagan-1 was likely invaded by the Fell purely in search of Etherium.
-Despite being an almost completely artificial planet, Ascendaar has many Etherium deposits dotted across the land.