Batteries & How to Use Them

Simple guide on how to get the most out of your batteries during night, and data behind it.

Introduction

The facility is having an emergency because of [Insert Warning Code Here] and it is taking longer than a few hours to handle. The nightly shutdown of power is coming soon and you still need power to continue your important work. This guide will help give you the best known methods to leverage your power storage to the fullest.

If you want to skip much of the explanations, go right to the
Rule of Thumb Connection Guide.

Day/Night Cycle

Before we talk about how to set things up, it might be helpful to know what we are working with, and how strange it is.

This will change depending on server settings (i.e. changing day length, etc) and may change with later updates, but as of writing this (v. 0.9.1) the default day/night cycle consists of two simple parts.

• Day time: Lasting from 6 am to 9 pm, lasting 30 minutes in real life
  
• Night time: Lasting 9 pm to 6 am, lasting 4 minutes and 30 seconds in real life

So how could this be? Based on your in-game watch, you have 15 hours of day time and 9 hours of night. The simple answer is that time ticks differently between day and night. Each in-game day time hour takes 2 minutes, while each night time hour takes 30 seconds.

Battery Stats

While not directly said, a given battery has a charge stat. It can be seen after being charged and then picked back up.

Here you can see a (Small) Makeshift Battery, when fully charged, holds 50 units of charge. There is also an indicator poll that lights up as it gets charged. The other poll lights up based on how many other devices are plugged into it.

Doing some testing, it takes about 4 minutes 10 seconds to fully charge all 50 units (i.e. 5 seconds per unit) and takes 5 seconds to discharge one unit per device. This makes a Makeshift Battery last for 4 minutes and 10 seconds when powering one device.

You might see a problem here. You will need more batteries, or better batteries.

Better Battery Spoiler: Due to the recent Community Update, recharge times have changed for tier 2 and 3 batteries, and now closely match the Makeshift Battery charge time.

The Problem(s)

To the annoyance of many, the Makeshift Battery last 20 seconds too short to last the night. If you are powering a Crafting Bench, that could mean that its effect of suppressing nearby hostile spawns is down, and down long enough for things to pop in and say 'hi'.

Until you progress further, the only way of fixing this is to chain batteries in a row to increase the available stored power in a line, but even that has its problems. For each battery down the chain counts as another powered device and if you chain too many of them together, you will be wasting your stored power as the batteries up stream will keep dumping power into already charged batteries.

As shown by the data listed below, each added battery in series will effectively only give 1/X of its charge time. First Battery is 1/1, so it gives a full charge. A second Battery will add 1/2 of its power, as the other half is being used by the other battery down the line. A third Battery will add 1/3 of its power from dumping into two other batteries, and so on down the line.

Because of this, you will want to minimize how many batteries are in a row, while also powering your devices.

Solution

To make sure that your (Small) Makeshift Batteries have enough charge for the night, but not waste too much power from putting them in a row, setting up one battery near the power outlet at the 'base' of the circuit and then giving each device a small battery at the 'branches', with a spliter going to each (as shown on the right).

The battery at the base will drain fast, but you only need an extra 20 seconds to boost the other batteries. In practice, you can set up 5 devices this way (with there own battery, making it 10 devices) and it will barely last the night*.
*(it will cut out a second or two before power comes back)

Branching like this is the most optimal way of using your Makeshift Batteries, since it reduces the amount of power lost from too many chained batteries. Trying to power the same amount of devices with the same amount of Makeshift Batteries in one long chain at the power outlet simply will not work.

(yes, this screenshot is from the Beta Demo, and not from the current version, but it's the best I have right now. And yes, I just double posted it further down after completing the Data section)

Rule of Thumb Connection Guide

Now that you know that you need just a bit more than one Makeshift Battery for one device (regardless of apparent power usage), requiring you to put a battery at the base of your system and one at the end of each branch for a device, here is a quick way to figure out what you will need. (assuming default night time length)

• 1 Makeshift Battery at the base of your system can help boost a system with 10 devices.
  Spoiler on Battery types: 20 for Industrial and 70 for Carbon
  
• A device is anything that needs power, including other Batteries.
  
• Balance out Base vs Devices

For example, If I have a Crafting Bench, a Repair Bench, a Refrigerator, 2 Makeshift Stove Tops, and a Makeshift Battery for each, that would be 10 devices. I can have one Makeshift Battery at the base, and it would just barely cover for the night.

Note: Due to a recent Community Update that changed some battery stats the (tier 3) Carbon Battery can handle 6 devices on its own throughout the night, with no extra work or battery juggling.

Visual Guide on Battery Layout

For a nice visual guide on how early Makeshift Batteries can be connected optimally, check out this guide (which someone else beat me to the punch on)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3264049857

Battery Tiers & Crafting (Spoiler)

For those that noticed, I did call the Makeshift Battery 'Small', which implies there are different sizes, and there are. (it also used to be called 'Small Makeshift' in the Demo)

Currently there are 3 Tiers of batteries, each able to be crafted after entering a new area.
(this does imply that after the next some major update, a 4th will might be added)
(so much for that prediction)

Due to the recent Community Update, the charge times for all three battery types are about the same. Before, the charge times (due to the charge rate being the same while capacity was higher) made higher tiers of batteries more of a liability while exploring around, because batteries (currently) do not charge while in an unloaded area.

Note: Battery picture/icon taken from https://abioticfactor.wiki.gg/wiki/, because they are way better than what I could have done. Highly recommend checking that wiki out for other item details.
(Personally, I find Wiki.gg a way better browsing experience than Fandom Wiki)

Tiers

Makeshift Battery

Description
A small battery that can store incoming electricity and provide that electricity when none is available.

Where/When
You get access to this very early on in the game, typically while working toward the Energy Brick quest. It is recommended you make two of these early on for your Crafting Bench to keep it powered through out the night. Later you can use the above optimization to get the most out of them as you use more and more powered devices.

Parts Needed

• 1 Energy Brick
  
• 1 Coil
  
• 2 Metal Scrap

Capacity: 50

Industrial Battery

(Mouse here to see picture)
Description
A mid-sized battery that can store incoming electricity and provide that electricity when none is available.

Where/When
You are able to make this battery some time after progressing through the Manufacturing Sector. Many of the needed parts can be found in the Manufacturing area, with Power Cells also being available in that area, though Flathill Power Cells do respawn if you need more. Making this Battery will take a good amount of effort, as you not only need new and different parts, but you will also need to make an Air Compressor, which is a part of its own quest, requiring crafting Reinforced Hoses, finding Chain, and breaking down Fire Extinguisher to get the other needed parts.

Parts Needed

• 1 Power Cell
  
• 2 Rebar
  
• 1 Air Compressor
  
• 2 Metal Scrap

Capacity: 100

Carbon Battery

(Mouse here to see picture)
Description
A large battery that can store incoming electricity and provide that electricity when none is available.

Where/When
You are able to make this battery some time after progressing into the Lab Sector. Many of the parts needed can be found in this Sector. However, it is going to be even harder than the previous battery to make, not only needing to find rare items, like Reinforced Carbon found inside breakable sample storage boxes, but also parts to make a Memory Brick, which requires its own crafting chain of parts, needing Anteverse Gems, Optic Lens (found in the F.O.R.G.E. Blacksmith Trade), and a CPU found in the more aggressive Security Bots in that sector. Thankfully, the exotic materials are renewable, thanks to trade stations in the Lab Sector.

Parts Needed

• 1 Memory Brick
  
• 2 Reinforced Carbon
  
• 2 Metal Scrap

Capacity: 350

Thanks

I'd like to thank the great work done on the https://abioticfactor.wiki.gg/wiki/, which helped speed up the creation of this section by giving easy to reference recipe info and great picture assets. If there is any thing else I need to do to be in compliance with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Copyright License, please drop a comment and I'll get that fixed up.

Data (As of 0.8.1)

To my surprise, the data I collected several months before Early Access, during the Demo of this game, is still relevant. I made a thread about it, but it has since been deleted. However others have told me how to get access it! Here is what I wrote in that thread.

---

Setup

A few factors need to be established. In-game time to real life time, Battery characteristics, and testing method.

(Already explained Day/Night cycle and Battery Stats after reconfirming things.)

Test Method

Finally, I used my phone's stopwatch to time all of this. Due to reaction times and how synced up I happened to be to game ticks, some numbers might be off. I'm not going to change them to fit some assumed mechanic. While testing, despite devices being powered and unpowered at the same time at the source, there were times where there were noticeable fractional second differences in being powered on and off.

Test Bench

For my tests I used 3 makeshift stoves, mostly because they were there in the save file I used, but they had the added benefit of making a sound when going unpowered or powered while having a pan or pot on it, making timing easier.

---

Results

1 Battery vs Extra Powered Devices

After getting my baseline values, with a 1 to 1, Battery to Powered device time of 4:10, I wanted to see what extra Powered devices did to the charge. I progressively plugged in more stoves to the power strip and tested it on one Battery. The times I got were,

• 1 Device: 4:15 (early error on detecting power going out)
  
• 2 Devices: 2:05
  
• 3 Devices: 1:23

As you can see, this tracks with the 4:10 time I said earlier, with 2 devices cutting the time in half, and 3 dividing 250 seconds into 83.33 (aka 1:23).

Series 3 by 3

My next test was to see how much of a power loss there would be by putting 3 batteries in series and powering 3 stoves connected to one Power Strip. I assumed that there would be power losses dude to how Batteries blindly powered other Batteries, but I was not sure to what degree it was, if at all. Far as I knew, the first Battery could perfectly maintain the charge down the line and there could have been little to no loss. Turns out, I was more than right about the inefficacy.

Time Until Depleted

• Battery 1: 0:48
  
• Battery 2: 1:03 (1:51)
  
• Battery 3: 1:20 (3:12)

So it in series, it lost 1:18 of charge time (compared to baseline) as the batteries were charging themselves while powering the stoves.

Series 4 by 3

In the next test, I mimicked what I typically do for powering devices, and put N+1 Batteries in series to power N devices. Typically I use 3 Batteries for 2 devices (Crafting and Repair Benches), and it works for the night (saving me one battery from just doubling up). On another run I had 4 Batteries for 3 devices (3rd being a nearby Fridge, with no radioactive meat in it), and while it functioned, it did have issues lasting the night.

Time Until Depleted

• Battery 1: 0:42
  
• Battery 2: 0:48 (1:31)
  
• Battery 3: 1:00 (2:31)
  
• Battery 4: 1:22 (3:54)

Turns out, I might need 5 Batteries in my setup to possibly make up for the 0:36 deficit, but that would still cut it close, given the diminishing returns. It is still cheaper than using 2 batteries for each, but I felt like there could be a better way.

Branching

I guessed that maybe having one Battery powering the Power strip, and one Battery per device after the Power Strip, might work better since it there was fewer Battery to Battery steps going on. Given that the first (Base) Battery would be charging powering 6 other devices, I wasn't sure if it would last long enough for a night.

Time Until Depleted

• Battery Base: 0:44
  
• Battery Branches: 4:06 (4:50)

Turns out that even though the 'Base' Battery predictability does not last long, it lasts long enough to keep the other 3 topped off long enough, while powering the stoves, to make the entire setup last for the entire night, with 20 seconds to spare.

---

Conclusion

aka: the TL:DR part

There is indeed a substantial efficiency loss when putting Batteries in series. This gets worse as the series gets longer, because Batteries blindly push power into Powered devices, including other fully charged Batteries. The best way to handle this is to Branch out batteries, one per device. To make up for batteries not lasting the entire night, (the last 20 seconds) have a battery power the base of the Power Strip. One (small) Battery can top off an estimated 5-6 other (small) Batteries (while powering their devices) to help keep things powered through the entire night.

---

Caveats

• This data could be out out of date after an update. (will deal with editing that later)
  
• This was collected before we had access to better batteries, which does open up other methods.

Thanks!

I want to thank those that supported the original post this is guide is based on, the now deleted/moved '[Research Paper][Demo 0.8.2] Test of Small Makeshift Batteries Post Perforation Incident',

And for burger boy for telling me how to recover it, and Monokuma for correcting my dyslexic butt for misreading it the first time and giving me a URL to get into it.

[Fried Chicken Shapes]

Made a guide to follow up on this one that expands upon arrays and lasers. Hope this helps (Dark Energy Update)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3451900534

[MechWarden]

Finally got around to doing some updates to the guide. I wanted to play with the stuff first and do some testing before doing a write up.

To my surprise, the Carbon Battery seems more viable now. It was a big liability to leave a lone due to the long recharge time, but now that is addressed. Also the capacity really helps with easy of use.

Hopefully I'll get around to better polish up this guide.

[Monokuma]

Will need updating due to most recent patchnotes, as follows;

Batteries are now more powerful at higher tiers.
Industrial Battery now charges at a rate of 2, instead of 1.
Carbon Battery now charges at a rate of 6, instead of 1.
Carbon Battery now has 350 max battery, up from 200.

[Ryan]

Thanks for this.

[Obsidiyon]

TYVM, now I can properly utilize fewer batteries to power more items than the two carbon batteries on one station stupidity I had before (when I get in the zone of base management, having any bench shut down gave me an fit).

[Yaridovich]

So, after optimizing energy usage in my base... I now have 17 leftover Makeshift Batteries. Dear lord.

[iBaka.Bread]

@Yaridovich - Nice! Time to absorb power from the entire facility.

[Yaridovich]

@iBaka.Bread - It doesn't.

[iBaka.Bread]

Does re-routing power with Tech Scraps also counts as a device/reduce power efficiency?

[Yaridovich]

Makes sense, though I think we talked in a thread somewhere about how higher tier batteries aren't worth making. They're too costly - Industrial requires Power Cells and Carbon requires Jailbroken CPUs, both of which are not easy to obtain (although Jailbroken CPUs are surprisingly easier to obtain than Power Cells) - and don't provide enough return. At least right now, I think it's better to deal with Makeshift Batteries due to how they're extremely easy to make.