Shield Cell Bank icon
Shield Cells are consumed to quickly repair an active shield. Once activated, a shield cell requires a warm up period before it will regenerate the shield. During this period the shield is vulnerable to further attack; if the shield collapses during the warm up period the shield cell will still be spent but will have no effect.
— In-Game Description
A Shield Cell Bank is a module that can be activated to quickly regenerate a ship's shields on the fly. It is useful in combat to mitigate shield damage, but does not regenerate collapsed shields.
Usage[]
Multiple Shield Cell Banks can be installed in the same ship, and only one at a time will be activated even if multiple banks are installed. They draw a significant amount of power, however, so it can still be helpful to arrange multiple SCBs in a "cascade": have only a single Shield Cell Bank powered at any given time, power down the rest and turn on the next when the first SCB runs out of charges. For example, if three SCBs are installed, turn off two and use the first one until it runs out of charges, then power that one down and power up the next loaded module. Keep in mind that powering up an inactive SCB takes 25 seconds before the first shield cell is ready to be used.
If shields are on the verge of collapsing from attacks, it is advised to divert energy into the SYS capacitor in order to strengthen the shields prior to using a SCB charge as doing so can prevent shields from collapsing and wasting a charge.
Shield Cell Banks have three stages of use and activation: boot-up, spin-up, and duration. Boot-up speed is normally only an important factor to pilots with significant power concerns that cannot leave their Shield Cell Banks powered at all times, and refers to the amount of time it takes for the Shield Cell Bank to be ready for use after being powered on from a powered-off state. Spin-up speed refers to the "activation" time of the shield cell. This is the amount of time needed for the shield cell to "charge" before actually providing any shield reinforcement effects. Also noteworthy, this spin-up stage is the point in which Railguns engineered with Feedback Cascade are effective in stopping the shield reinforcement effectiveness of SCBs. Shortening spin up time equates to less time for them to possibly be disrupted, however, it also means you are dealt the heating effects over a shorter period of time, thus the heating is more severe. Lastly, duration refers to the amount of time the shield cell remains on actively reinforcing shields. If a ship's shields fail at any point before spin-up finishes, the ship will not receive any shield reinforcement, but it will still have used one of the available charges and still be subjected to the full spin-up heating effects, thus good timing is essential.
During the spin-up period is when the Shield Cell Bank creates a large amount of heat. This heat can be managed in a number of ways: activating a Heatsink Launcher, lowering the Shield Cell Bank's thermal load, increasing the spin-up time, or by using other Engineer modifications such as a Beam Laser's Thermal Vent. Spin-up time, boot-time, duration, thermal load, and shield reinforcement per second are all able to be modified through Engineering. Be aware that without using any of these methods to deal with heating issues, the ship will overheat when a Shield Cell Bank is used, and its modules and hull will begin to take damage until the temperature drops to a safe level. This self-inflicted damage may seem minor at first, but the additive damage of this overheating will build when using multiple charges and/or multiple charges across multiple different cell banks. This repeated heat damage can rapidly accumulate and eventually cause malfunctions across multiple different modules, which can severely hamper combat efficiency and possibly even lead to loss of the ship. Consequently, some form of heat management is always strongly recommended when using Shield Cell Banks.
The amount of heat generated depends on the following: ship heat capacity, power plant rating,[1] heat level before the use of a charge (higher initial heat percentage increases the peak heat percentage that a shield cell will generate), and the number of charges used at a time.
Specifications[]
| Class | Rating | Mass (T) |
Integrity | Power Draw |
Ammo Maximum |
Duration
(seconds) |
Shield Reinforcement | Thermal Load | Value
(CR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | 1.30 | 32 | 0.410 | 3 | 1 | 12.0/s | 170 | 517 |
| 1 | D | 0.50 | 24 | 0.550 | 1 | 1 | 16.0/s | 170 | 1,293 |
| 1 | C | 1.30 | 40 | 0.690 | 2 | 1 | 20.0/s | 170 | 3,231 |
| 1 | B | 2.00 | 56 | 0.830 | 3 | 1 | 24.0/s | 170 | 8,078 |
| 1 | A | 1.30 | 48 | 0.970 | 2 | 1 | 28.0/s | 170 | 20,195 |
| 2 | E | 2.50 | 41 | 0.500 | 4 | 2 | 14.0/s | 240 | 1,448 |
| 2 | D | 1.00 | 31 | 0.670 | 2 | 2 | 18.0/s | 240 | 3,619 |
| 2 | C | 2.50 | 51 | 0.840 | 3 | 2 | 23.0/s | 240 | 9,048 |
| 2 | B | 4.00 | 71 | 1.010 | 4 | 2 | 28.0/s | 240 | 22,619 |
| 2 | A | 2.50 | 61 | 1.180 | 3 | 2 | 32.0/s | 240 | 56,547 |
| 3 | E | 5.00 | 51 | 0.610 | 4 | 2 | 17.0/s | 340 | 4,053 |
| 3 | D | 2.00 | 38 | 0.820 | 2 | 2 | 23.0/s | 340 | 10,133 |
| 3 | C | 5.00 | 64 | 1.020 | 3 | 2 | 29.0/s | 340 | 25,333 |
| 3 | B | 8.00 | 90 | 1.220 | 4 | 2 | 35.0/s | 340 | 63,333 |
| 3 | A | 5.00 | 77 | 1.430 | 3 | 2 | 41.0/s | 340 | 158,331 |
| 4 | E | 10.00 | 64 | 0.740 | 4 | 3 | 20.0/s | 410 | 11,349 |
| 4 | D | 4.00 | 48 | 0.980 | 2 | 3 | 26.0/s | 410 | 28,373 |
| 4 | C | 10.00 | 80 | 1.230 | 3 | 3 | 33.0/s | 410 | 70,932 |
| 4 | B | 16.00 | 112 | 1.480 | 4 | 3 | 39.0/s | 410 | 177,331 |
| 4 | A | 10.00 | 96 | 1.720 | 3 | 3 | 46.0/s | 410 | 443,328 |
| 5 | E | 20.00 | 77 | 0.900 | 4 | 5 | 21.0/s | 540 | 31,778 |
| 5 | D | 8.00 | 58 | 1.200 | 2 | 5 | 28.0/s | 540 | 79,444 |
| 5 | C | 20.00 | 96 | 1.500 | 3 | 5 | 35.0/s | 540 | 198,611 |
| 5 | B | 32.00 | 134 | 1.800 | 4 | 5 | 41.0/s | 540 | 496,527 |
| 5 | A | 20.00 | 115 | 2.100 | 3 | 5 | 48.0/s | 540 | 1,241,317 |
| 6 | E | 40.00 | 90 | 1.060 | 6 | 8 | 20.0/s | 640 | 88,978 |
| 6 | D | 16.00 | 68 | 1.420 | 4 | 8 | 26.0/s | 640 | 222,444 |
| 6 | C | 40.00 | 113 | 1.770 | 5 | 8 | 33.0/s | 640 | 556,110 |
| 6 | B | 64.00 | 158 | 2.120 | 6 | 8 | 39.0/s | 640 | 1,390,275 |
| 6 | A | 40.00 | 136 | 2.480 | 5 | 8 | 46.0/s | 640 | 3,475,688 |
| 7 | E | 80.00 | 105 | 1.240 | 5 | 11 | 24.0/s | 720 | 249,137 |
| 7 | D | 32.00 | 79 | 1.660 | 3 | 11 | 32.0/s | 720 | 622,843 |
| 7 | C | 80.00 | 131 | 2.070 | 4 | 11 | 41.0/s | 720 | 1,557,108 |
| 7 | B | 128.00 | 183 | 2.480 | 5 | 11 | 49.0/s | 720 | 3,892,770 |
| 7 | A | 80.00 | 157 | 2.900 | 4 | 11 | 57.0/s | 720 | 9,731,925 |
| 8 | E | 160.00 | 120 | 1.440 | 5 | 17 | 28.0/s | 800 | 680,145 |
| 8 | D | 64.00 | 90 | 1.920 | 3 | 17 | 37.0/s | 800 | 1,700,362 |
| 8 | C | 160.00 | 150 | 2.400 | 4 | 17 | 47.0/s | 800 | 4,250,906 |
| 8 | B | 256.00 | 210 | 2.880 | 5 | 17 | 56.0/s | 800 | 10,627,263 |
| 8 | A | 160.00 | 180 | 3.360 | 4 | 17 | 65.0/s | 800 | 26,568,157 |
Engineering[]
The following modifications can be applied to this module by Engineers to enhance its abilities:
Modifications[]
Experimental Effects[]
The following Experimental Effects can be applied to the module:
Notes[]
- Shield Cell Banks can be placed in an Optional Internal Compartment or Core Military Compartment (see Outfitting).
