Stronger Beams
Every NauTec machine that needs a laser beam has a minimum: the AP per tick it must receive before it runs at all. A beam stronger than that minimum is never wasted. Most machines run faster on it, and the Deep Sea Drain pumps more.
The Rule
Speed = the square root of (beam ÷ what the machine needs).
Four times the power runs a machine twice as fast. Nine times runs it three times as fast. There is no upper limit, but each extra step costs more power than the last.
| Beam, as a multiple of what the machine needs | Speed |
|---|---|
| less than 1× | does not run |
| 1× | ×1 (normal) |
| 2× | ×1.41 |
| 4× | ×2 |
| 9× | ×3 |
| 16× | ×4 |
| 25× | ×5 |
| 100× | ×10 |
A machine on a 40 AP beam that needs 10 AP runs at ×2. The same machine on 90 AP runs at ×3.
Purity does not speed anything up. A machine that needs a minimum purity (the Advanced Bacterial Analyzer, the Colony Replicator and the Grafting Station) still stops below it, however much power arrives.
Which Machines
| Machine | Needs (default) | What a stronger beam speeds up |
|---|---|---|
| Mixer | 10 AP | more crafts per cycle, one per 10 AP up to 64; past 640 AP each cycle runs faster |
| Mutator | 10 AP | mutation attempts, so more tries per minute |
| Incubator | 20 AP | growth cycles, and the nutrient each cycle eats |
| Bacterial Analyzer | 5 AP | analysis |
| Advanced Bacterial Analyzer | 40 AP at purity 2.1 | analysis of all nine dishes |
| Pressure Forge | 40 AP | forging |
| Colony Replicator | 80 AP at purity 2.0 | each copy |
| Grafting Station | 100 AP at purity 2.8, 500 AP with an Advanced Grafting Anchor | each graft |
| Bio Reactor | 5 AP, plus 15 per colony, times its upgrades | production |
| Industrial Bio Reactor | 100 AP, plus 50 per colony, times its upgrades | production |
| Augmentation Station | 25 AP into each extension in use | installing an augment, at the pace of the weakest extension |
| Submarine Dock | 20 AP | how fast it charges a docked submarine |
| Deep Sea Drain | more than 20 AP | Salt Water pumped each second, in direct proportion to the beam |
| Osmosis Filter | none | water output doubles every 40 AP |
Stacking. The Bio Reactors work out what they need from their colonies and upgrades first, and a stronger beam then speeds up on top of their Speed Upgrades. A reactor whose upgrades make it run ×1.5 and that gets four times the power it needs runs ×3. A stronger beam does not make a colony eat its nutrient any faster, so it is pure extra output. The Advanced Grafting Anchor works the same way: it raises the station's need to 500 AP and grafts faster, and a beam above 500 AP speeds it up again.
No speed-up. The Laser Purification Smelter runs at the speed of its conduit upgrade, however strong the beam. A purer beam lowers the AP it needs instead.
Already scaling. The Resonance Chamber charges by however much power it receives, and a Crystal Cradle grows by the total power it has taken in, so both already go faster on a stronger beam, in direct proportion.
Seeing It
Jade shows the speed on any of these machines, with the beam it is getting and what it needs, for example "Speed x2.00 on a 40 AP beam (needs 10)". A beam that is too weak shows in red. A 
Prism Monocle shows the power and purity arriving at any laser block.
To get a stronger beam, merge several sources with a Laser Junction, or feed a machine from a stronger generator such as an Energy Converter.
For Pack Makers
beamOverclock in config/nautec-common.toml turns the speed-up off, so every machine runs at normal speed above its minimum. beamOverclockMaxSpeed caps the speed multiplier; 0 means no cap. The Deep Sea Drain's pumping has its own settings, described on its page.