Adjacency Bonus — Getting More From the Same Modules
The same modules perform differently depending on where you put them. Placing technologies and upgrade modules next to each other grants an adjacency bonus. The problem is that the game barely explains the rules, so it’s easy to arrange things by the coloured borders and get nothing.
Supercharged slots are a separate system, covered in Supercharged Slots.
Rule 1 — edges, not corners
The bonus is calculated for every side of every technology. Only up, down, left, and right count — diagonals don’t.
So when planning a layout, the number to count isn’t how many cells you used. It’s how many edges touch.
Rule 2 — same family only
Every technology in the game belongs to a hard-coded “family”. Place technologies of the same family next to each other and they gain a coloured border.
Different families do nothing for each other. Putting a weapon module beside your hyperdrive achieves precisely nothing.
Don’t trust the colours. The wiki flags this in bold: matching colours do not always mean two things are boosting each other. When in doubt, compare the stat with the module adjacent and then removed.
Rule 3 — the calculation runs one way
This is the part that decides your whole layout. The bonus is the product of:
(the “bonus power” of the technology that owns the side) × (the “bonus multiplier” of the technology that side faces)
The key consequence: core technologies mostly have a bonus power of 0. They emit nothing themselves — but they amplify a module sitting next to them.
Upgrade modules, by contrast, emit 5% of their own stat as bonus power.
The class bonus (C/B/A/S) is applied separately, after adjacency is summed. No source says adjacency itself varies by class, but a better-rolled module emits more bonus power, so stronger modules do link harder in practice.
The most common trap
The wiki’s worked example makes this vivid.
- Four base drives (Cadmium, Emeril, Indium) plus an Emergency Warp Unit packed into a 2×2 → zero extra hyperdrive range, no matter how many edges touch. All four have zero bonus power.
- The same four arranged in a cross around one hyperdrive upgrade module → the module emits 5 ly (5% of its 100 ly) in three directions, adding 20.5 ly.
Identical edge count, completely different result. Which gives you the one principle that matters:
Put your best module in the centre, with as many things touching it as possible.
Rule 4 — a box beats an L
The recommended shape is a box. Pack the same family into as square a cluster as you can, and make sure the best item in that family has the most neighbours touching it.
- A full box always produces more adjacency bonus than an L.
- A cross (+) is occasionally better, but rarely worth disrupting the rest of the layout for.
Three modules per technology
You can install up to three upgrade modules of the same type, and only in the technology inventory.
The old rule was “3 in general + 3 in technology = 6”. Waypoint (4.05) removed the general inventory, cutting the maximum from 6 to 3. Guides still stating 6 are out of date.
The wiki quantifies how much that hurt: even with all three modules in supercharged slots and boosts on every side, the result falls short of the old six — roughly the equivalent of 3.88 modules at best.
Exceptions worth knowing
Not everything follows the pattern.
- Pulse Engine blocks the 5.5% links of other modules.
- Photonix Core, Flight Assist Override, and Pulse Engine Upgrade have their bonus blocked when paired with the base engine.
- Phase Beam only counts module links.
- Instability Drive and Sub-Light Amplifier give no bonus at all.