Adjacency Bonuses 101

[fragger]

How Upgrade Adjacency Bonuses w@&k

I thought it might be useful to have a separate topic for this. I'm addressing it primarily to any newcomers to No Man's Sky as it's a fairly important aspect of the game, yet the game itself makes no effort whatsoever to explain it. But if properly understood it can make quite a difference to how well your equipment functions, such as your Multitool (which is the only personal "weapon" in the game, it is used primarily to mine minerals but can also function as a weapon), your ship's systems such as engines, weapons and shields, and your environment suit - your "Exosuit".

A word first about upgrades. During the game you will come across "blueprints" for upgrades (or as the game calls them, "companions", but they're upgrades, so we'll refer to them as such). Once you have a blueprint for an upgrade, you can select a vacant slot within the appropriate inventory, craft the upgrade (provided you have the required materials) and the upgrade will appear in that slot. You have three inventories  - one for your Exosuit, one for your Starship and one for your Multitool. You can at any time "dismantle" an existing upgrade from an inventory to free up that slot, as upgrades cannot be moved from one inventory slot to another (but mined resources and collectibles can). Once you receive any blueprint you will retain it for the rest of the game, so you can always craft a dismantled upgrade again sometime. This is in fact the only way you can "move" an upgrade from one inventory slot to another - dismantle it where it is and re-craft it in another slot. When you dismantle an upgrade, you will receive back half of the minerals it took to craft it. Upgrades are always crafted from combinations of various minerals - you can't just buy them from somewhere.

When you receive a blueprint, a description will appear which includes one of these upgrade level designations: a Sigma, a Tau, a Theta or an Omega. These designations (Greek letter names) represent the level of the upgrade, which is also expressed as a Level number on that upgrade's icon in your inventory once it's crafted. They translate thus:

Sigma  -  Level 1 upgrade
Tau  -  Level 2 upgrade
Theta  -  Level 3 upgrade
Omega  -  Level 4 upgrade

When you receive a blueprint, a dialog like this will be displayed (click for clearer image):

[smg id=9074 align=center width=600]

This tells me that the blueprint is for a Beam Coolant System "Tau" upgrade for the Multitool's Mining Beam (as shown in the list above, a Tau designation equates to Level 2). Then there is a description of what the upgrade does, followed by the minerals required to craft it (as you can see, I don't yet have enough Iridium to craft this).

To craft the upgrade, you click on a vacant slot in the appropriate inventory (in this case, Multitool) and craft it there. Once it's there, the upgrade will look like this (I blew this image up a bit):

[smg id=9075 align=center width=100]

The upgrade title continually scrolls back and forth in the inventory slot so you can read it all, which is why you can only see "oolant System" here.

When upgrades for the same piece of equipment or system are placed adjacently to each other in an inventory, either horizontally or vertically, a colour-coded highlight will appear around them. This indicates that you are now receiving an "adjacency bonus" from these upgrades. This means simply that in addition to the benefits conveyed by the upgrades themselves, they are now "feeding off" each other to boost those benefits even further.

It's believed that the upgrades don't actually have to be adjacent to the thing they're upgrading, as long as the upgrades themselves are adjacent to each other. The online jury still appears to be out on this, but the fact that you always start a new game with your Jetpack positioned in your Exosuit inventory in such a way that you cannot craft any upgrades adjacently to it would indicate that no, the upgrades don't have to be adjacent to the Jetpack to convey the adjacency bonus. As long as the Jetpack upgrades themselves are adjacent to each other, you will get the adjacency bonus. Note that if upgrades for something are not adjacent to each other they will still function as upgrades, but having them adjacent to each other will boost their effects.

The most important part is this. Others have done the math, and it appears that just having upgrades adjacent to each other is not the end of the story. It's the way adjacent upgrades are placed relative to one another which will affect how much of a bonus you will get. It has been established by experimenters  that if you can place your highest-level upgrades in a central location, with the lower-level upgrades radiating out from it in a cross-and-square arrangement, this will convey the maximum adjacency bonus values. For example, there is an add-on projectile-type weapon system for the Multitool called a "Boltcaster", and one experimenter found that his Boltcaster Clip Extension upgrade provided his Boltcaster weapon with more rounds per clip with the above arrangement than if the upgrades were still adjacent but sloppily arranged in value. Essentially, any upgrade that has another related upgrade adjacent to it will get an incremental boost, so if an upgrade has four other upgrades adjacent to it, one on each side, the central upgrade will get four incremental boosts, while the four surrounding upgrades will each get one boost from the central one. So if you can arrange your upgrades in such a way that the highest level upgrades have the most adjacencies possible, you will maximize your bonuses.

This is my Multitool inventory (once again, blown up for viewability):

[smg id=9076 align=center width=600]

In the top left corner you can see my Mining Beam - this can't be moved as it's an actual piece of equipment. In the middle row and third from the left you see the highest Mining Beam upgrade I have, a Combat Amplifier Omega - a fourth-level upgrade as indicated by the "+4" (because of the scrolling title, you can only see "Amplifier Ome" here). As far as I can tell, this is the only Level 4 Mining Beam upgrade in the game, so I have placed it in the centre with my other Mining Beam upgrades arranged around it in descending numerical order from the centre outwards (there's a blank space near the centre, which is awaiting a #3 Combat Amplifier). You can see how they all have a green highlight around them due to their being adjacent to each other, as do all the adjacent Grenade and Scanner upgrades. I have also tried to arrange the upgrades so that the highest-level ones have the most adjacencies. Once the Level 3 Combat Amplifier is in place, the Mining Beam will be greatly more harder-hitting as a weapon than it is now.

It doesn't really matter which upgrades are adjacent to which - it's the upgrade level values that count. You can see that my #3 Beam Focus upgrade is in the top row, third from left, while my #2 Beam Focus is in the bottom row, fourth from left. It doesn't matter where they are in relation to each other, as long as they are adjacent to other upgrades for the same piece of equipment and have a good "inside to outside" arrangement of level values, i.e. the highest level upgrades have the most adjacencies. The only real consideration is which type of upgrade function you want to prioritise. In the above example, you can see that my Level 3 Beam Intensifier (middle row, second from left) has 4 adjacencies, while my Level 3 Beam Focus (top row, third form left) has only 3 adjacencies. So the #3 Beam Intensifier is being boosted more than my #3 Beam Focus, despite them both being Level 3. If I swapped those two around, Beam Focus would then be boosted more than Beam Intensifier. But this is the way I wanted it.

So it's worth putting some thought into how you arrange your upgrades. If you change your mind or make a mistake you can change it, but it will mean having to dismantle any upgrades you want to relocate. You will get half that upgrade's resource value back, but will have to expend more resources to re-craft it - and if you're short of any, you'll have to mine or try to buy more. Once I received this 24-slot Multitool, which is the highest number of inventory slots you can have for the Multitool (you start the game with just a 5-slotter), I first worked out on paper how best to place my upgrades.

One final note: Adjacency only works horizontally and vertically, not diagonally.

[Art Blade]

Excellent. Thanks for the effort and illustration, fragger :)

+1 :-X and stickied.  :-D

[fragger]

My pleasure, and thank you Art :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yes, cool, that answers a few of my questions.

[Art Blade]

fragger, I have been looking at the pic and the empty slot again where you said the #3 combat amplifier would go.

I think you should swap #3 with #4. If #4 is where now the empty slot is, then it will be the highest upgrade with the most adjacencies and all of them are the same type, better than #3 going in there I suppose. Or am I missing something?

[fragger]

I see what you're getting at, but no, I don't think it would make any difference which way around those two were as they will still have 4 adjacencies each. The adjacent upgrades don't pass on their values (+2, +3, etc) when they're adjacent, they all boost equally regardless of their "+" value, merely by being adjacent. If the #4 had four #3s adjacent to it, it would get the same boost as it would if it had four #1s adjacent to it.

This arrangement:

      +2
+2  +4  +2
      +2

would not boost the 4 any more than this would:

      +1
+1  +4  +1
      +1

as the "+" values are not part of the bonus. It's solely how many adjacent upgrades there are than count. At least, that's my understanding. You mat be right and I may be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time :-()

It would be nice if the game would explain exactly how it works. Why it has to be such a big mystery I don't know.

[Art Blade]

I think you're right. :) Thanks for the detailed explanation :-X :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

So, wouldn't it be better to have the larger bonus surround by the next level bonus? Like this:

+1 +2 +3 +2 +1
+2 +3 +4 +3 +2
+1 +2 +3 +2 +1

and so on? So that the the highest upgrade gets the most adjacent bonus? In other words, only have the main unit and the +1's on the outer edges where they don't get as much bonus, because it's better to have the higher upgrades get the most bonus?

Or would this be better:

+1 +1 +1 +1 +1
+2 +3 +4 +3 +2
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1

Since it doesn't matter what the upgrade is, as long as the highest upgrades have the most adjacent bonus. Have your +1 and at most +2 on the outer edge and the +3 and +4 in the middle rows. I'm talking mostly about the multi-tool as it only has three rows to use, the suit and ship would be different as you have more rows to adjust how things fit.

[fragger]

Since it doesn't matter what the upgrade is, as long as the highest upgrades have the most adjacent bonus.

Those arrangements would be better if you had that many of each number for a single piece of equipment, but you don't. The upgrades have to be for the same piece of equipment for the adjacency bonus to w@&k, i.e. a Boltcaster upgrade won't boost a Mining Beam upgrade even if they're adjacent. However, a Beam Focus upgrade adjacent to a Beam Intensifier upgrade will provide a bonus as they are both upgrades for the Mining Beam. Otherwise no, it doesn't matter what order the upgrades are in, but they must be for the same piece of equipment, hence the colour-coding.

Since there are 13 Mining Beam upgrades (4 of each Sigma, Tau, Theta and one Omega) and the Mining Beam itself is fixed in the top-left corner, the arrangement I have seemed about as good as I could get. I mucked around with little pieces of numbered paper to see what combos worked best, and this appeared to be the best for having the most adjacencies for the highest-value upgrades given that there are just those 13 Mining Beam upgrades to w@&k with.

[Dweller_Benthos]

ah, OK, I wasn't taking into consideration that there are limited upgrades. Makes sense. So next time I play, I'll fool around with them a bit see if I can copy your layout.

[Art Blade]

Here's my latest w@&k.

[smg id=9171 type=preview align=center caption="ship layout complete"]
[smg id=9172 type=preview align=center caption="multi tool layout complete"]

[Art Blade]

by the way, this is how the railshot adapter works.. it actually gives the mining laser the power of a bolt caster. I can kill drones and the likes very easily and even melt doors down.  :) A juiced-up grenade, however, doesn't attract drones, unlike melting down a door. But drones melt just as easily. >:D

[smg id=9177 type=preview align=center caption="multi tool red laser"]

[Binnatics]

Excellent layout on the ship upgrades Art! I am thinking of something alike, although I won't be able to locate the apps for the hyper- and pulse drive as optimal as you did. I lack the free space between the default devices on the first row :-D

Here's my spaceship before adding any upgrades. I finally got a 48 slotter. And; good looking ;)

[smg id=9183 type=preview align=center caption="20160904030147 1"]

[Art Blade]

thanks and yes, it is  :-X :)

[Art Blade]

I came across a very nice-looking multi-tool that unfortunately had only 23 slots, else I would have loved to pick it up. I saw it in the gun cabinet of that space anomaly where you meet that priest and Polo on your Atlas path. And then I found it just there again (different anomaly) and this time it actually had 24 slots so I just had to get it ^-^ Upgrading it yet again to the max was a different story, though  ::) However, since I had to do it, I reconsidered my layout and changed it.

I made the cooling components the centre of the build (using 4 adjacencies for each) because at least to me it is most important that it doesn't overheat, I hate it when it does. The old one, for some reason, tended to overheat rather quickly by comparison, at least I wished it had stayed cool for longer not to say that I wished it hadn't overheated at all.

The next thing I changed was the combat parts. I know those contain the only +4 unit which makes that one very likely to be placed into a four adjacency spot (did that before) but then again, I actually don't fight a lot. More frequently, I just mine stuff. So I want to get the maximum result for mining. And cooling. So I placed intensifier and focus units in the next best slots for maximum effect without sacrificing the cooling. I placed the combat units where there was still room.

Turns out that the combat effect is very intense, too. I only have to hit a drone with it, like sweeping around and when it hits, it's devastating. Drones just melt in a split second which is amazing.  :-D

Maybe, just maybe it has got to do with something I only believe in, I don't know whether or not it actually does have an impact, but I think it might be a good idea to surround high end components with high end components. And, if possible, the same type next to the same type. E.g. cooling units adjacent to cooling units, combat units adjacent to combat units. Like, let's stick those threes and fours together if possible. Maybe the adjacency gets a tad more of a boost if we do. At least it feels as if it did because mining and fighting seems to be a lot easier and quicker and it doesn't overheat.  :-X :)


So here it is, I like the small weapon and the "payload" is excellent, too.

Edit: Looking at it, I should have swapped the bottom left corner combat unit and stuck it to the top row next to the other combat units. It's not there (yet) because when I just got that tool, I was so out of materials that I was only able to build just a few parts to get started and then forgot to change them later. I will have to do that now, I reckon  :-()

[smg id=9198 type=preview align=center caption="cooled mining tool"]

Since I got my new ship and had to do the upgrading marathon yet again, I also reconsidered the weapons layout. This one is actually very powerful and effective. Note that I created a 3x3 cube for the photon cannon. Like that, you have more adjacencies than using columns of 2. I also "bent" the shield and the pulse drive because it doesn't make a difference whether you create one column or some L-shape. But I prefer the empty slots around the shield for storing oxides in case I need shield repairs and the way the other free slots are organised is just fine for me.

[smg id=9199 type=preview align=center caption="different weapons layout"]

Both the upper and the lower image show some efficiency graphs to the right in shape of more or less complete coloured circles around the corresponding category such as weapons and shields and so on.

If you look closely, you'll note that within most coloured circles there are darker parts. Like, a broken circle ends in a darker colour or a darker colour completes the circle.

Those darker parts represent the effect of adjacency bonuses. The higher the adjacency bonus, the more of the dark colour.  :)

[Binnatics]

Interesting new layout indeed. Quite a puzzle the adjacency bonuses :)

[fragger]

I too went for the 3x3 cannon layout:

[smg id=9200 align=center width=600]

I'm staying with 40 slots, so since I don't plan to build the upgrades again I don't really need the extra 8 slots for the required materials. In fact, since I plan to just jump a lot now and the only resources really required for more Warp fuel are Plutonium, Carbon, Zinc, Heridium and Thamium9 I think I'll sell off the other stuff I've got on the ship and just focus on those. I generally carry just one slot of Plutonium and Thamium9 on the ship as reserve, and keep the main "top-up" supply in the suit, since every planet has Plutonium on it (haven't seen one yet that doesn't) as well as plenty of Carbon sources. The majority of planets have plenty of Heridium on them as well. To get more Thamium9, I move the full slot from the ship to the suit, then fill the ship up by mining asteroids, which every planet also has, and use the Thamium9 in the suit for Pulse Engine top-ups and Warp Cells. The Zinc is the scarcest of these minerals, but if worse comes to worst it's always available for purchase from somewhere, or someone.

I like to carry some Iron for Deflector Shield repairs resulting from pirate encounters, so I don't have to use up any Zinc there. The only times I might be needing other stuff is to repair systems damaged by black hole jumps, but I can hunt those down as needed. I do carry a full slot of Omegon in the suit, just in case, and some Radnox might not go astray either :-()

I'm finally in a Gek system with six planets, so I might as well stay here for a while and try to get their whole story. Of all the jumps I've made, I've only come across two Gek systems (I seem to get Korvax ones mostly), so I might as well make the most of the opportunity while I'm here. I'm still curious as to whether learning all three stories will result in anything noteworthy.

[fragger]

After a bit of cargo-bay reorganising, it's now optimized for carrying plenty of Warp Cell ingredients (i.e. the minerals needed for Suspension Fluid, Electron Vapor, Antimatter and Warp Cells). Anything else I need goes in the suit.

[smg id=9201 align=center width=600]

I decided I don't want to part with the Goose, I love it too much :-() So it's going all the way with me, even if it is 8 slots short of ideal.

[Art Blade]

 :)

[Art Blade]

Thanks to a mod that allows me to install everything I've got blueprints for without using resources, I've been extensively playing around with my multi-tool and exosuit but also with the ship.

Here is what I've come up with. Note that whenever possible I added Theta components in a square formation, for instance in the exosuit, the environmental shields form a big cross composed of L-shaped groups, the centre of which is a square group of Thetas. Or I use a T-formation as seen in the ship's Hyperdrive and Shield formation with the Theta in the T-junction. The last option is a line or an L-shape, Theta in the centre with two adjacencies.

Also note the efficiency indicators to the right hand side, how close to a full circle those different components are (apart from the obviously already closed circles) - I think this is the maximum you can get.

The multi-tool is a mixture of land-disruption grenades (it contains the homing app, better than the rebound nonsense) with focus on strength and radius (which is why I placed corresponding units in the centre of T-junctions so they all get three adjacencies) and a combat mining laser which at the time is an efficient mining tool. It is essential to put the red railshot adapter in the centre of the mining laser group -- it amplifies both the combat and the mining aspect. I deviated from the rule of putting Thetas in the centre in favour of strengthening the combat components -- they are in the centre of T-junctions each of which connect with the centre of the 3x3 cube, the railshot adapter.

[smg id=9218 type=preview align=center caption="adjacency optimisation 01"]
[smg id=9219 type=preview align=center caption="adjacency optimisation 02"]
[smg id=9220 type=preview align=center caption="adjacency optimisation 03"]

[Art Blade]

OK.. why bother with pleasantries. Let's talk business. >:D

[smg id=9244 type=preview align=center caption="new brutal toy"]

[Binnatics]

Okay, so with the newest mods there's no hassle getting stuff for upgrades any more, neither there's need for mining let alone scanning. All there is now, is need for firepower. Currently searching a planet with those bloody sentinels on a hostile state of mind, and then I'll talk business:

[smg id=9245 type=preview align=center caption="Sentinel crusher"]

>:D >:D >:D

[Art Blade]

  >:D

[fragger]

Give 'em hell >:D

[Binnatics]

[smg id=9263 type=preview align=center caption="Massive Sentinel, floored"]

It took quite a while before I found a planet where the sentinels weren't 'relaxed', 'average', 'minimal' or just totally 'absent'. Anyway, when I found some, it took a while before they got on full alert. And when they finally did, this bugger showed up. He was no match for my tool-terror though, and after he fell down nothing else showed up. However, I got screwed with the 'wanted level', which wouldn't disappear.
Finally I decided I might as well go into space and see if I could get rid of it there; no luck. I had a good fight with multiple sentinels, sentinel starships (huge battle ships looking like aircraft carriers with additional laser beams all over the place) and with the quick shield-repair-mod it's nothing to worry about.

[smg id=9265 type=preview align=center caption="Sentinel carrier"]
(btw, I don't know why it says; nothing found)

Anyway, I couldn't get rid of the heat in space either. Every time when I was about to kill the big starship it would vanish, and I would get stuck with a 'one star wanted level'. More sentinels would come and the whole story restarted. Finally I turned my back on them; I took the "star-bus intergalactica"and moved to another system. That helped; they didn't follow ^-^