Welcome to the Components section of our Railjack Guide series. In this article I will provide you a basic understanding of components, and how they affect your Railjack. They may appear simple, but there not all parts are created equal.
Components affect Railjack defenses, speed, and Avionics capacity.
When you finally finish your Railjack and have access to the configuration console in your dry dock, you’ll find the first tab handles your “Components”. These three items – the shield array, engines, and reactor – are all associated with the non-offensive stats of your Railjack. While the majority of your power will come from Avionics (I.E. Railjack’s version of mods), these three pieces of equipment will form the skeleton of your ship. There are three houses a component can come from (Lavan, Vidar, and Zetki), each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
First up is the shield array, which will provide an increase to your shield capacity, reduce the shield recharge delay, and even boost the shield recharge rate. Personally, I’d argue this is the least important of the three, seeing as Railjack armor and hull (it’s health) are more important than shields. You certainly shouldn’t sleep on your shield array, but when it comes time to repair wreckage you’ll want to prioritize this last.
Second are the engines, which will increase your Railjacks top-speed and engine boost. The faster you are and the greater your boost the more evasive you can be. This will be critical when you have a volley of enemy ramsleds bearing down on you like meteors full of malevolent Grineer.
Third and last is your reactor, which is arguably the most important component on your Railjack. You see, Avionics function similarly to mods, which means you’ll have a capacity limit to work around. Every Railjack has 30 Avionics as its base capacity, but a good reactor will raise this cap, up to a max of 130 Avionics (including the base 30, so a god-roll reactor can provide up to 100 Avionics).
Considering Avionics are where the true power of your Railjack rests, a good reactor can be the difference between success and brutal, explosive failure. It can also boost your Flux Capacity (your Railjack’s energy for ship abilities, which are unlocked via – you guessed it – Avionics), and Forge capacity (where you resupply mid-mission: more on that here), but you should focus on your Avionics capacity early on.
Any changes a new component makes to your Railjack can bee seen in the table on the right, with boosts to the stats being green, and reductions highlighted in red. You’ll want to prioritize reactors for repairs when you start, considering the importance of Avionics, then follow-up with your engines, then finally your shields. Wreckage can be found in Railjack missions, but you can also research upgrades in your dry dock to the base sigma components that will provide you some flexibility as you farm your perfect drop.
That said, each tier of research takes three days, and you can’t move up until the previous tier has been researched. Essentially: you won’t be making MK III Sigma equipment overnight. Also, wreckage scales with the Proxima you are in, so Earth will drop MK I components, Saturn MK II, and the Veil MK III. Personal recommendation: hitch a ride on other Tenno’s Railjacks until you can farm the Veil, and save resources to repair those components.
That will conclude the components guide. For the other guides check back in with the Railjack guide hub, where we cover everything from the Forge, to piloting, and how best to farm materials.
