Logbook entry

A comprehensive Odyssey guide about Powerplay 2.0

1. What is Powerplay?
2. What rewards does Powerplay offer?
3. Are there any drawbacks of pledging to a Power?
4. How to get merits?
5. What is the fastest way to acquire merits?
6. Conclusion

• Federation: Jerome Archer, Felicia Winters
• Empire: Arissa Lavigny-Duval, Aisling Duval, Denton Patreus, Zemina Torval
• Alliance: Edmund Mahon, Nakato Kaine
• Independent: Yuri Grom, Li Yong-Rui, Pranav Antal, Archon Delaine

• All Powers: free rebuy when killed in systems controlled by either your or the enemy Powers, Power decals
• Jerome Archer: +100% bounty payouts and -30% ship weapon costs in Archer-controlled systems
• Felicia Winters: +100% salvage profits, +100% minor faction reputation gain and +60% trade profits for food and medicine in Winters-controlled systems
• Arissa Lavigny-Duval: +100% bounty payouts and -30% ship weapon costs in Lavigny-Duval-controlled systems
• Aisling Duval: +200% search and rescue profits and +100% minor faction reputation gain in Duval-controlled systems
• Denton Patreus: +80% bounty payouts, -40% ship weapon costs and -90% rearm prices in Patreus-controlled systems
• Zemina Torval: +45% mined commodities payouts, +50% trade profits for imperial slaves and +20% trade profits in Torval-controlled systems
• Edmund Mahon: +50% rare good profits, +25% trade profits and +100% minor faction reputation gain in Mahon-controlled systems
• Nakato Kaine: +50% mined commodities payouts, +120% search and rescue profits and +150% minor faction reputation gain in Kaine-controlled systems
• Yuri Grom: +60% bounty payouts, +15% exploration data payouts, +15% trade profits and -30% ship weapon costs in Grom-controlled systems
• Li Yong-Rui: +100% exploration data payouts, +25% trade profits and free refuel/repair/rearm in Yong-Rui-controlled systems
• Pranav Antal: +30% exobiology payouts, +50% trade profits for technology commodities and +150% minor faction reputation gain in Antal-controlled systems
• Archon Delaine: +30% black market profits and no bounty for committing crime in Delaine-controlled systems

• Pacifier Frag-Cannons (PFC): a class 3 fixed variant of the frag-cannons that has increased range and lower pellet spread at the cost of lower damage per shot. It is considered to be superior to the regular frag-cannons as the benefits outweigh the reduced damage, and is often used for meta PVP combat builds.
• Pulse Disruptor (PD): a class 2 fixed pulse laser that has a chance to cause temporary module malfunction (in a similar manner as the scramble spectrum experimental effect), at the cost of lowered damage, increased distributor draw, thermal load and power draw. Contrary to scramble spectrum which affects a random module, the Pulse Disruptor always disrupts the targeted module. This weapon is considered to be mostly useless due to its low damage, the difficulty to precisely hit a module with a fixed weapon, and the fact it does not cause module disruption until the target's shields are offline.
• Imperial Hammer (IH): a class 2 fixed variant of the railgun that fires three projectiles per shot instead of one. Each Imperial Hammer projectile has lower damage compared to the traditional railgun, but summed together deal more damage overall. This comes at the cost of an increased heat generation. This weapon is considered to be a more-or-less equivalent sidegrade of the traditional railgun. The increased overall damage and ability to still deal damage if some of the three projectiles miss are good upsides, but the increased thermal load on a weapon that already generates lots of heat can be a strong limiting factor when outfitting a combat ship.
• Prismatic Shields (PS): a variant of the regular shield generator existing in all sizes that has the same strength as a regular shield generator of one size above. This benefit comes at the cost of a significantly increased mass, power consumption and decreased recharge speed. Probably the most popular Powerplay-specific module, Prismatic Shields can sometimes be difficult to properly outfit due to their significant drawbacks. They truly shine for specialised builds, more specifically shield tank combat builds that want to maximise shield strength, or trade and exploration builds that want to keep strong shields in smaller internal slots to save space for other modules (e.g. cargo racks, Guardian FSD booster, etc.).
• Advanced Plasma Accelerator (APA): a class 3 fixed variant of the plasma accelerator that fires three projectiles per shot instead of one. Each projectile has lower damage than the one of a regular plasma accelerator, but the total damage of the three projectiles is higher. This comes at the cost of an increased distributor draw and thermal load. In a similar manner as the Imperial Hammer, the Advanced Plasma Accelerator is considered to be an equivalent sidegrade of the regular plasma accelerator.
• Mining Lance (ML): a class 1 fixed beam laser that can be used for both combat and mining. The Mining Lance has a reduced distributor draw and significantly increased range compared to a standard mining laser, but also increased power draw, thermal load and reduced damage and range compared to a regular beam laser. This module is considered to be worthless as a weapon due to its low DPS, and of limited usefulness as mining tool since you usually want to mine rocks that are close to your ship and limpets.
• Retributor (Ret): a class 1 fixed beam laser that increases the heat generation of its target and has lower thermal load than the regular beam laser at the cost of significantly lowered damage and increased distributor draw. This weapon is seen as the most useless Powerplay-exclusive module due to its extremely low damage output, and a supbar increase in heat profile on the target.
• Concord Cannon (CC): a class 2 gimballed variant of the cannon that fires three small projectiles in rapid succession instead of a single large one. Each projectile of the Concord Cannon has lowered damage output compared to the regular cannon, but lead to more damage overall when summed up. Recently introduced with the release of Powerplay 2.0 as Nakato Kaine's module, little experimentation has been done with Concord Cannons so far, although the first tests suggest it would be a decent sidegrade compared to regular cannons.
• Containment Missile (CM): a class 2 fixed dumbfire missile that reboots the target's FSD upon impact (both on hull or shields) at the cost of lower damage and rate of fire compared to a regular dumbfire missile rack. The FSD reboot effect is similar to the FSD interrupt experimental effect, although longer in terms of duration. This weapon is usually used for specialised pirate or PVP combat builds to prevent the target from escaping.
• Pack-Hound Missiles (PHM): a class 2 variant of the seeker missiles that fires a volley of four small missiles instead of a single large one for the regular seeker missile rack. The Pack-Hounds Missiles are much more efficient at overwhelming the target's point defences, at the cost of lower splash damage upon detonation. Pack-Hounds are often considered to be a fun weapon to use due to the very large amount of missiles that can be fired in rapid successive volleys. But their usefulness is limited by the drawbacks of seeker missiles, i.e. low ammo capacity that forces frequent reloads, and poor armour penetration that makes them subpar against large ships with strong armour hardness.
• Enforcer Cannon (EC): a class 1 fixed multicannon that deals damage equivalent to a class 3 at the cost of lowered ammo capacity and increased reload time. This weapon can be useful on ships with small hardpoints that would otherwise be "wasted" on other low damage weapons, although the lack of gimballed variant makes it more recommended for agile ships that can stay on target for longer amounts of time.
• Cytoscramblers (Cyto): a class 1 fixed burst laser that deals damage equivalent to a class 3 against shields at the cost of lowered range, nullified armour penetration and increased jitter. In a similar manner as the Enforcer Cannon, this weapon is useful on ships with small hardpoints that preferably have enough speed and agility to stay on target for long amounts of time. The significantly decreased range compared to a regular burst laser can be partially mitigated with the long range engineering modification.

• Reinforcement systems: systems controlled by your own Power that can be reinforced by earning control points in them. For most activities, control points are the amount of merits earned in the system divided by four, with the exception of exploration merits where the factor is six instead. If enough control points have been earned at the end of a cycle, the system may switch to the fortified or stronghold status which both grant extra benefits to the Power in terms of acquisition range and resistance to undermining. It is estimated that bringing a system from unoccupied to borderline fortified, and from borderline fortified to borderline stronghold both require 333,333 control points. A system maximises its stronghold status at 1,000,000 control points.
• Acquisition systems: unoccupied (but inhabited) systems that can be claimed for your Power. They must be located within 20Ly of one of your Power's fortified systems, or within 30Ly of an allied stronghold. The system is claimed for one Power if they reach a control threshold set to 120,000 control points. If two different Powers reach a minimum conflict threshold at 35,000 control points, the system becomes contested. The Power with the highest amount of control points gets the system at the end of the current cycle, provided that the control threshold was reached. If no one reaches the control threshold in time, control points are carried over from one cycle to another until the system is acquired by one Power.
• Undermining systems: systems controlled by the other Powers that can be undermined to decrease their hold on them. If enough undermining control points have been earned at the end of a cycle, the target system may switch back to unoccupied, making it a potential acquisition target for all Powers in range. The difficulty of undermining depends on the target system strength and distance to your own Power systems. A high system strength and/or distance penatly reduce the amount of merits - and therefore control points - obtained for undermining activities in the system.

• Bounty hunting (merits earned on kill and not bounty cash-in) in reinforcement and acquisition systems.
• Powerplay combat zones (merits earned on kill and not bond cash-in). Note that these zones only appear in contested acquisition systems.
• Enemy Powerplay ship hunting in any type of system. It can be noted that killing clean ships can be done without any consequence in reinforcement systems. It is an illegal action in acquisition or undermining systems, which therefore gives a bounty, but no notoriety.

• Trading commodities with a profit margin of at least 40%. Commodities must be sold in a reinforcement system but can come from anywhere. The amount of obtained merits is correlated to the profit-margin.
• Flooding markets with low-price commodities (less than 500 credits per ton) in undermining systems.
• Selling mined commodities. Note that the rules regarding the provenance and selling place for mined commodities are quite convoluted: for both undermining and reinforcement systems, the mined commodities must be mined and sold in the same system to earn merits. For acquisition, the commodities must be mined in a fortified or stronghold system of your Power, and sold in an acquisition system 20Ly or 30Ly within range, respectively. The amount of merits earned is correlated to the profit-margin.
• Hauling Powerplay-specific commodities that can be picked up at stronghold carriers to any type of system. For acquisition, Powerplay commodities must be picked up at any station of a fortified or stronghold system within 20Ly or 30Ly of the system to acquire, respectively.
• *Selling rare goods in reinforcement or acquisition systems that are bought in a system not controlled by your Power.

• Selling exploration data to Universal Cartographics in reinforcement systems. Note that systems whose data value is too low (estimated to be below 450,000 credits) do not provide any merits.
• Selling exobiology data to Vista Genomics in reinforcement systems.

• *Collecting association, political or Powerplay data from Odyssey settlements in any type of system, and handing them in at a Power contact. For reinforcement systems, the data must be obtained and handed-in in the system to reinforce. For undermining, the data must come from the system to undermine, and be handed-in in any system under your Power control. For acquisition, the same rule as undermining applies, but the data must be handed-in in a fortified or stronghold system of your Power within 20Ly and 30Ly, respectively.
• *Collecting Powerplay goods from Odyssey settlements in acquisition and undermining systems, and handing them in at a Power contact. For undermining, the goods must come from the system to undermine, and be handed-in in any system under your Power control. For acquisition, the same rule as undermining applies, but the goods must be handed-in in a fortified or stronghold system of your Power within 20Ly and 30Ly, respectively.
• Uploading Powerplay malware in a data port of an Odyssey settlement in a system to undermine or acquire. For acquisition, the data must be collected at a Power contact in a fortified or stronghold system of your Power within 20Ly and 30Ly, respectively.
• Reactivating powered down settlements in any system type.

• Scanning ships and wakes in reinforcement or contested acquisition systems.
• *Collecting escape pods and salvage and handing them in to a Power contact in all three types of systems. For acquisition, the Power contact must be located in one of your Power fortified or stronghold system within range.
• Hacking holoscreens at stations in any type of system.
• Completing donation missions in reinforcement systems.
• Scanning the uplog link of megaships in any type of system.
• Committing crimes in undermining systems.

• Combat: all combat-related activities, i.e. bounty hunting, combat zone and Powerplay ship hunting.
• Finance: all trade and mining-related activities, Powerplay commodity hauling, exploration and exobiology data sales.
• Social: search and rescue activities, support missions, Odyssey data and goods retrieval and Odyssey settlement reactivation missions.
• Covert: Odyssey data and good retrieval, Odyssey malware upload, holoscreen hacking, megaship scanning, crimes.

• For reinforcement and undermining, a system with high selling prices of a mineral or metal to mine, that contains rings with hotspots of the commodity to mine.
• For acquisition, a system with high selling prices of a mineral or metal to mine, that is located within 20Ly or 30Ly of an allied fortified or stronghold system that contains rings with hotspots of the commodity to mine.