If you have questions about the reactors in Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, you will find solutions for each reactor in this guide.
Simple Reactor Strategy
There is a solution that will work 100% of the time, on every reactor you’ll ever see, and you will always have enough time to do it.
Before You Accept A Reactor Job
Do yourself a favour and grab a pump. There’s a very good chance you’ll need it if the cooler is listed as needing repair.
It helps to be generally familiar with what you need to do before you start. I recommend reading your manual before accepting a reactor job, and then reading this if you’re feeling unsure about how to manage under the time pressure.
You Got a Reactor Job
Grab your list and get to the reactor module (in most ships this is up in the top right; lower the pit to reach it). You can also skip to the next part if you remember what your list says you need to fix. I can never keep that information in my head, so I just go look at the reactor, given the chances are I’ll be pulling it out anyway.
Open up the reactor module, and you’ll find a screen that looks like this:
Hit the green button, and the module will open up. You can now see three lines that show you the levels of your fuel (A), coolant (B) and reactant (C).
Take note of these levels.
What Do your Prioritise
If only the coolant is depleted even when the slider is pulled UP, you can leave the reactor module and fix the cooler (the module is usually quite close to the reactor module, probably above it and to the right). You may need to grab a new fuel pump. If you don’t have one in your inventory, you do have time to grab one if you step lively. Make sure the fuel pump is on, create neat little balls of ice, drop them in the tube, and then go back to the reactor and make sure you’ve pulled the coolant slider up to roughly the same level as fuel.
If you’ve done that correctly, the reactor will start to stabilise (see last section of guide for example) and you’ll be safe now for the rest of the job.
If you’re not comfortable fixing coolant quickly, you can go to the next section and follow along how to pull out the reactor core to give yourself more time.
If coolant is fine, and only the fuel is depleted, and you have fuel cells ready in your inventory, you may have time to replace them. Make sure you have plenty of coolant, and turn the fuel switch (D in the above diagram) off by flipping it UP before you switch to the fuel module to do this. Don’t forget to come back and turn the fuel back on as soon as you’ve got the new fuel cells swapped in.
However, I’ve found that generally it’s best to pull the reactor out at this stage because swapping out the fuel takes a little longer than fixing the cooler.
If the reactor looks kinda funny and only has a triangle in the middle, pull it out now! It needs replacing anyway.
If in doubt, just pull the reactor out.
How To Pull Out The Reactor
To remove the reactor, you need to turn the fuel and coolant off. Do that first, and then you won’t forget.
The fuel switch should be flipped UP to turn it off.
The coolant slider should be pulled all the way DOWN to turn it off.
Undo the bolts, starting with the two lower bolts. Undoing the third bolt will spin the whole thing open.
You can now see three clips holding the reactor in. Double-check you have flipped the fuel switch UP to turn it off, and that you have pulled the coolant slider DOWN to turn that off.
Undo the three clips.
Grab the reactor core and place it in your inventory. If it has only a green triangle in the middle and doesn’t look like normal, you need to go get a new one. If it looks okay, then you can use it when you’re ready to put it back in.
Now that you’ve pulled out the reactor, your time limit has gone. The reactor cannot blow while it has no core.
How To Put The Reactor Back In
Don’t do this until you have, at minimum, refuelled and fixed the cooler.
If you’ve done that, then let’s put the reactor core back in! Get it out of your inventory and put it back inside. You are now on the clock again.
Lock it in place with the three clips.
Do the bolts back up, starting with the top one.
Flip the fuel switch DOWN to turn it on.
Pull the coolant slider UP to start the flow of coolant.
If all is well, beeping will slow down and your reactor core will start regaining bars until it looks like this.
If it doesn’t look like that/stability is declining, you’ve done something wrong. Pull it back out to figure out where you goofed safely.
If the reactor is now stable, you can continue with the job at your leisure. The reactor is no longer a problem.
You’re Done!
Reactors cause a lot of angst, but as you can see, they don’t have to!
Just remember: if in doubt, pull it out. You’re always safe if the reactor has no core.
