Drives, Servers and Signal Grades

It is natural to assume the server bank governs how fast data downloads. It does not. The servers control how quickly your signals can be upgraded - the processing pipeline, not the transfer pipe. Getting this backwards leads to buying capacity you do not need while wondering why upgrades crawl.

If downloads feel slow, the fix is on the download side of the loop: detector and download status, media, and the transfer itself. If upgrades feel slow, that is the server bank.

A drive is not infinite and its capacity is the real constraint on a shift. The catalogue on this site lists volume per unit for every supply entry, and the same thinking applies to the media you carry: a heavy return can consume most of a drive, and two heavy returns can leave you choosing which one to keep.

This is where the sell ladder intersects with logistics. A tier-four sale on a signal you cannot fit is worth nothing; a tier-one sale on three small signals you could fit may beat it.

A raw return is unrefined. Processing moves it up through grades, and each grade is a different object with a different value. The console tracks the grade, the task paperwork sometimes demands a specific one, and the sell ladder reflects it directly.

The practical consequence is that you should decide the destination of a signal before you spend processing time on it. Raw for the job, graded for the market - and never the other way round by accident.

Priority one is whatever removes a hard blocker: a spare fuse, an empty drive, the tool you keep wishing you had. Priority two is server capacity, because it compounds across every future signal. Priority three is comfort - storage, decoration, convenience - and it should never come before the first two.

The supply catalogue on this site lists 253 entries across eight categories with buy price, sell price, cart size and volume recorded as published. Read the volume column before the price column: the cheapest item that fills your entire cargo hold is not cheap.