Skip to content
Afterlight Station

Synergy

Commander’s manual · Rules v3

11 Synergy

When a module is installed, identify every installed module connected to it by a corridor whose department differs from the installed module's department. These are its qualifying neighbors. The Command Core is never a qualifying neighbor.

  • Fewer than two qualifying neighbors: no Synergy.
  • At least two qualifying neighbors: 2 Renown.
  • Qualifying neighbors from at least three different departments: 3 Renown instead.

Qualifying neighbors may share a department with each other; two Reactor neighbors around an Observatory earn the 2 Renown award.

  • Synergy is evaluated only for the module being installed, at the moment it is installed. A module already in the station never scores later because a neighbor arrives.
  • Every module can earn Synergy only once during the match, at whichever tier it first qualifies.
  • A module installed from the Dry Dock may score if it has never scored Synergy before.
  • Moving or reinstalling a previously scored module cannot score it again.
  • Synergy points are kept if the module is later docked or moved.
A Synergy placementA close view of sectors 0 to 2. A Laboratory pod M on the middle ring of sector 1 has three corridors: inward to a Greenhouse on the inner ring, clockwise to a Habitation on the middle ring of sector 2, and counterclockwise to another Laboratory on the middle ring of sector 0. The Greenhouse and Habitation corridors are numbered 1 and 2 because those departments differ from Laboratory; the corridor to the other Laboratory is marked as not counting. M has two qualifying neighbors from two departments, so it earns 2 Renown from Synergy.COREGRNLABHABLABM12=

Figure 4 · Synergy

Module M is a Laboratory on the middle ring of sector 1. It has three corridors: inward to a Greenhouse , clockwise to a Habitation , and counterclockwise to another Laboratory, marked because it shares M's department. Two qualifying neighbors differ from Laboratory, so installing M earns 2 Renown. A third qualifying neighbor from a third department would raise that to 3, as Figure 5 shows.

Had the Habitation been a second Greenhouse, M would still score: the two connected modules may share a department with each other. The Core, though it is reachable through the Greenhouse, is never a connected module. Only M is evaluated, at the moment M is installed; the Greenhouse and the Habitation, already in the station, score nothing from M's arrival.

A Synergy placement across three departmentsThe same close view of sectors 0 to 2. The Laboratory pod M on the middle ring of sector 1 again has three corridors: inward to a Greenhouse on the inner ring, clockwise to a Habitation on the middle ring of sector 2, and counterclockwise to a Reactor on the middle ring of sector 0. All three corridors are numbered because Greenhouse, Habitation, and Reactor each differ from Laboratory and from one another. Three qualifying neighbors from three departments, so M earns 3 Renown from Synergy.COREGRNLABHABREAM123

Figure 5 · Synergy across three departments

The same Laboratory M, with a Reactor on the middle ring of sector 0 in place of the second Laboratory. Its three corridors now reach a Greenhouse , a Habitation , and a Reactor : three qualifying neighbors from three different departments, so installing M earns 3 Renown.

The tier is decided by the departments among the qualifying neighbors, not by the number of corridors. Four corridors to modules from only two other departments would still earn 2, and a fourth corridor to a second Reactor here would change nothing.