Help! I'm caught in the grip of a clicker game where you feed the belly of a fusion reactor

The powerfulness of the prima astatine pat tap pat of a button

I regret to pass you, I americium erstwhile again successful the grips of an idle clicker. Feed The Reactor was lone released past night, but I've already go 1 of the 0.1% of players to prestige its tech tree. In my defense, there's thing a batch much progressive and engaging astatine the halfway of this 'idle' clicker than I'm utilized to.

Though, it besides helps that Feed The Reactor's theming has maine picturing myself arsenic a laboratory boffin, cautiously crafting the premix of substance and ignition sources that volition occurrence up the bosom of a fusion reactor...

In galore idle clickers, your lone enactment is to incrementally summation your assets gain. Be it hiring much Grannies to cook biscuits successful Cookie Clicker oregon buying much AutoClippers successful Universal Paperclips. As actions go, it's a simple, one-way tool. You bargain the upgrade, your accumulation goes up. It's overmuch much 'idle' than 'clicker'.

In the clickers that thin connected this incremental progression, the different main enactment you tin instrumentality is to prestige; this resets your progress, converting everything you've built into points you tin walk connected imperishable upgrades that radically summation your assets gain. Not each upgrades are arsenic straightforward arsenic '10x the assets accumulation of factories'; Cookie Clicker's unlocks see enabling accumulation adjacent aft you've closed the game. However, arsenic actions go, it inactive asks precise small of you arsenic a player. You progress, you reset, you put your points, and repeat.

In galore respects, Feed The Reactor revolves astir the aforesaid mechanics. Your extremity is to gain a stonking large magnitude of vigor retired of a fusion generator. You pain fuel, gain energy, walk the vigor connected incremental upgrades, and yet prestige to bargain imperishable upgrades that summation your basal level of assets gain. So far, precise familiar. Where the crippled differs is that the incremental progression systems are adjacent to your main action: pouring ingredients into a large large fusion reactor similar it's a nutrient processor.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Adam Travers

When you commencement Feed The Reactor, you lone person a mates of ingredients: substance pellets and igniters. Clicking connected the substance fastener fires a yellowish orb into the reactor, whereas the igniter fastener produces a reddish pulsing three-pointed star. Each clip the pellet is caught successful the igniter's pulse it's damaged, producing vigor adjacent to that damage. Now some the igniter and the substance pellet are bought with the aforesaid constricted excavation of worldly assets – substance costs 1 material, and reactors outgo four. This acts arsenic a headdress to however galore objects you tin shovel into the reactor. Once a substance pellet's wellness is depleted, its worldly outgo is returned to the pool. You commencement the crippled with 9 material, truthful you tin spend to tract 1 reactor and 5 pellets, oregon 2 reactors and 1 pellet. As you gain energy, the incremental upgrades you tin bargain rise that worldly cap, summation the HP of substance pellets, oregon the harm of the igniters' pulses.

To level up your reactor, and unlock caller technologies you request to deed definite markers of vigor accumulation per second. How you spell astir this is up to you, and it's this state that has maine gripped.

After I had upgraded my worldly headdress a fewer times, I poured substance connected apical of my igniter, but my vigor per 2nd hardly crept up. At this constituent I'm picturing my white-coated boffin scratching their chin, penning immoderate equations connected 1 of those fancy solid whiteboards they person successful the movies, and past giving the reactor a tentative footwear to spot if that fixed anything. It didn't.

The occupation was the sheer fig of pellets wrong the device. While determination was an abundance of substance to burn, lone a tiny information was touching my azygous igniter's damaging pulse. I dumped retired the reactor vessel and started afresh, this clip with 2 igniters successful the mix. Adding a 2nd igniter ate up a chunk of my excavation of materials, but the reactor became a overmuch much effectual substance burner.

In time, you unlock antithetic kinds of substance and items, specified arsenic heaters and enrichers, that enactment arsenic buffing modifiers to your igniters' harm output and your fuels' health. Each exertion means caller decisions astir however you allocate materials and constitute the premix of substance and burners wrong your reactor.

Again and again, I find that my reactor's ratio has plateaued, that my reactor is filling with substance and it's not burning distant swiftly enough. Every clip it is an accidental to fig retired a amended premix of ingredients which which to capable my hungry, bare engine.

While you could locomotion distant and permission the reactor to tally successful the background, passively amassing resources arsenic successful different idle clickers, my hopeless request to optimise keeps dragging maine back, compelling maine to tweak the recipe. In different clickers, my occurrence feels inevitable, arsenic each click moves you towards a fixed goal. Here, a palmy resource-producing instrumentality feels, if not hard-earned, astatine slightest earned.

I've inactive hardly screatched Feed The Reactor's communicative - what the motor I'm fueling is powering is simply a enigma to maine - but I'm gripped by the progressive centre of this clicker. I stayed up precocious playing past night, forgetting my flat's deficiency of heating, not noticing my hands go icy cold.

Whatever absorption Feed The Reactor whitethorn go, and immoderate caller toys I've yet to unlock, successful giving maine moment-to-moment choices alternatively of a elemental one-way progression, it's accelerated rising supra the different idle clickers that capable my Steam library. I conscionable anticipation I my heating gets fixed soon, due to the fact that forstbite volition truly interaction my clicking efficiency.