Beyond These Stars Connect Power: Grid Fixes

To connect power in Beyond These Stars, use the Home Spaceship or a Burner Generator as the source, then place the consumer directly beside the source inside its yellow power outline. Enable a fuel type, finish construction, assign workers and turn on the building recipe. Early power follows adjacency, so a factory that only looks close on screen can still remain unpowered.

What power does

Power is a special resource used by buildings such as Mines, Ore Smelters and Toolsmiths. The collected community-wiki material says it can be generated by the Home Spaceship or produced at a Burner Generator. If a powered production building lacks power, it cannot make its resources even when workers are assigned.

Power behaves as a flow rather than a stockpile in the source. It cannot be stored in a Warehouse, so a production dip between shifts calls for more generation capacity rather than a power-storage building. The separate Steam discussion records player reports about storage and waste bottlenecks, but those reports should be treated as troubleshooting evidence rather than a universal power rule.

Unlock the first dedicated generator

The source places the Burner Generator after the colony has built a Mine and produced five Iron Ore. Unlock the Burner Generator and Ore Smelter in the technology tree, then choose a site beside a road. Keep the generator away from housing where possible because burning fuel creates pollution that can reduce happiness and contribute to toxic areas when ignored.

The Home Spaceship covers the first buildings while the settlement is small. The collected player experience says it does not sustain a full industrial zone, so plan a dedicated generator before adding several consumers. Exact unlock timing outside the Mine and five-Iron-Ore step is unconfirmed if the current build displays a different technology path.

Connect a Burner Generator step by step

1. Build the Mine and produce the five Iron Ore required by the source's unlock path.
2. Place the Burner Generator beside a road and away from homes where practical.
3. Select wood, wood waste, or both in the generator controls so fuel is enabled.
4. Put the Ore Smelter and other consumers inside the yellow power outline, preferably directly adjacent.
5. Finish construction, activate the recipe and assign workers to each building.

Selecting a generator shows the range line that identifies its power coverage. A consumer directly touching the source receives electricity under the early adjacency rule. Buildings that sit outside the outline do not receive power simply because they are nearby, and the source says power does not automatically pass through other buildings at this stage.

Understand power chaining

The power-chaining perk changes the early rule. A building that receives power can supply power to another building, allowing a chain that reaches beyond the generator's original direct neighbors. The tutorial specifically tells players to place the Toolsmith next to the Ore Smelter after taking that perk.

Power Lines later remove the need for every building to touch a source or another powered building. The technology tree also lists Fuel Generators, Battery Generators and Solar Panels, but their exact costs and unlock timing are unconfirmed from the supplied material. Research them only after the current technology screen confirms their availability.

Fix a generator that produces nothing

A newly built Burner Generator can sit idle even when it appears connected. First open its controls and enable wood, wood waste, or both; a generator with no selected fuel has nothing to burn. Next check that construction is complete and that red staffing icons are not showing an empty worker assignment.

Raise building priority only as a diagnostic step. The source records a player report that priority did not help, so it is not proof that the generator is broken. Also check road access, fuel delivery and whether the settlement has enough workers after assigning Peeps to storage rooms and factories.

Fix an industrial building with no power

If an Ore Smelter, Mine or Toolsmith shows no power, select the generator and compare its yellow outline with the consumer's tile. Move the consumer into direct adjacency, take the power-chaining perk, or research Power Lines if the layout must remain spread out. Then activate the recipe and verify that workers and input materials are present.

Power alone does not make a recipe run. The source says the Ore Smelter must be told to convert Iron Ore into Iron Ingots and Soot, and a red staffing icon means no workers are assigned. A building can therefore look like a power failure while its actual problem is an unfinished build, an inactive recipe, missing workers, or a blocked delivery route.

Account for shift changes and storage

The Steam discussion reports production stopping when waste storage is full, storage rooms lack workers, factories or generators have no workers, or secondary outputs have nowhere to go. One example describes a Lumberjack's wood storage filling while the colony needs the waste stream for the generator. The discussion is a player report, so use it as a checklist rather than a confirmed rule for every version.

When a shift ends, Peeps eat and sleep, and the source records overnight power dips as a normal community report. Build surplus generation if the colony repeatedly goes dark at shift changes. Also provide storage for wood waste, soot, slag and other outputs so a full secondary store does not halt the primary chain.

Plan a lower-pollution power district

The collected source reports that a Burner Generator with four nearby empty tiles produces 25% less pollution per cycle at 20% slower production. Treat that figure as source-specific and unconfirmed in a different build. A barren edge of the buildable area can keep soot and slag farther from homes, while a Cleaner can remove those pollutants before they create toxic areas.

Leave a corridor for later Power Lines, cluster the generator with the Ore Smelter and Toolsmith, and keep housing outside the industrial district. The source also lists a Fuel Plant that converts water and slag into fuel, giving slag another use rather than leaving it in a full waste store. Exact production rates for these later technologies are unconfirmed.

Power troubleshooting checklist

When a building shows no power, check adjacency, the yellow range outline, fuel selection, construction completion, road access, staffing and the active recipe in that order. If the generator works but the consumer stops, inspect worker availability, input delivery and secondary-output storage. If pollution lowers happiness, relocate the district, preserve forest space and review Cleaner placement.

For a reported energy-supply failure involving storage, waste or workforce pressure, keep the original save and compare the warning with the Steam discussion evidence. For a building that cannot be placed, use the separate Cleaner troubleshooting page because construction suitability and operating inputs are different questions. Numerical values, exact perk costs and any behavior that conflicts with the current build remain unconfirmed.