Labs & Production
Labs let you make your own product instead of buying it to trade. A lab is a physical site you build at an airport. Once it is running it produces on its own in the background, dropping finished product into that airport's stash for you to fly out and sell. Labs are also the strongest way to hold ground, because an airport with your lab on it cannot be taken from you.
- You do not feed a lab anything. There are no ingredients or supplies to ferry in. You build it, and it produces.
- A lab does not sell for you. It stockpiles product at its own airport. Getting it to a buyer is a separate step (fly it, or dispatch a smuggler).
- A lab keeps running while the app is closed, but only catches up so far. Leave it too long and you lose the overflow.
Building a lab
The Lab tab unlocks at Level 16. To build, pick an airport you have discovered and pay the build cost. You choose the airport for each lab, and you can run more than one.
There are four separate production lines, each unlocking at a higher level. Later lines make higher-value product, but they cost more to build, cost more to run, and turn out fewer units per batch. In the app each line is a tab along the top of the Lab screen.
| Production line | Unlocks at | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| First line | Level 16 | Cheapest to build and run, highest volume, lowest value per unit |
| Second line | Level 25 | Higher value, higher running cost |
| Third line | Level 34 | Higher value again, lower volume |
| Fourth line | Level 36 | Highest value per unit, lowest volume, highest running cost, and needs a safe house (see below) |
Each line can be upgraded through three tiers. Every upgrade costs cash and raises both how much the line makes per batch and how much it costs to run.
How production works
- Production runs in batches. A batch completes roughly every 3 hours.
- Each finished batch is deposited straight into the stash at the lab's own airport. Nothing is consumed to make it.
- Higher tiers and later lines change how many units a batch produces, but the timing stays the same.
Running costs
A lab is not free money. Every completed batch charges a cash running cost, which is roughly a fifth of what the batch is worth. Higher tiers and later lines cost a lot more to run than the entry line does.
Offline progress
- Labs keep producing while the app is open. When you relaunch after being away, each lab catches up on the batches it missed.
- Catch-up is capped at 24 hours of production. Anything beyond that window is lost, not banked.
- In practice: check in on your labs at least once a day so you are not leaving product on the table.
Getting product to market
Everything a lab makes waits in the stash at that airport until you move it. You have two ways to sell it:
- Fly it yourself: land at the lab's airport, load the product into your aircraft, and dispatch it to a market that buys it.
- Send a smuggler: from the Lab screen, hit Dispatch and choose a crew member. They pick the product up themselves, so you do not need to be there.
Either way, product sells at the destination's market price, so it pays to know where your product is worth most. See the Economy & Trading guide for prices and the Crew & Smugglers guide for dispatching.
Labs and territory
A lab is a fortress for the airport it sits on:
- The lab's airport is pinned to full influence and cannot decay.
- Rivals cannot attack an airport that has your lab on it. It is yours to keep.
- Output grows with your empire: controlling more territory raises every lab's yield, a Fortified airport adds an extra unit per batch, and a Logistics Chief crew member stationed at the lab boosts its output further.
See the Rivals & Territory guide for how influence and hold tiers work.
The safe house requirement
The fourth and highest production line only runs while you own a safe house at the same airport. If you sell that safe house out from under it, the line quietly pauses until you own one there again. The other three lines have no such requirement.