Circuit Protocols

Circuit protocols split across two target kinds. Turret Target has 5 protocols. Signal Tower Target has 4. TBUG lists both on the same Circuit shelf.

The factory three are Turret Short Circuit, Circuit Overload, and Virus Broadcast. The other six need chips. Virus Broadcast and Grid Blackout reach about 400 tiles, enough to cover both floors of a void station. Privilege Escalation is written onto a signal tower. While it lasts, your other protocols cost less, upload faster, and ignore range. RAM does not recover during that window.

Turrets

Protocol	Category	RAM	Upload	Duration	Source	Effect
Turret Short Circuit	Tile Manip	3	about 1.5 s	4 s	Factory	Instantly discharges the turret’s energy to briefly stall it, immediately coming back online after recovery.
Circuit Overload	Tile Manip	6	3 s	12 s	Factory	Injects reverse current into the turret’s power circuit, completely disabling it for a long duration.
Turret Hijack	Control	5	2 s	8 s	Turret Hijack Chip	Tampers with the IFF recognition module, temporarily flipping the turret’s friend-or-foe identification.
Munition Swap	Control	5	about 2.3 s	20 s	Munition Swap Chip	The turret fires ammo from your inventory, dealing your damage
Turret Mesh	Contagion	7	about 3.3 s	15 s	Turret Mesh Chip	Links nearby turrets into one volley at your cursor, forty shots total

Turret Short Circuit comes back online after about 4 seconds. Circuit Overload keeps a turret down for about 12 seconds. Turret Hijack flips friend-or-foe for about 8 seconds.

Signal towers

Protocol	Category	RAM	Upload	Duration	Source	Effect
Virus Broadcast	Contagion	8	4 s	20 s	Factory	Injects worm code into the signal tower, causing it to emit cyber EMP waves that short-circuit all turrets within broadcast range for a long duration.
Beacon Forge	Contagion	6	3 s	30 s	Beacon Forge Chip	The tower fakes a distress call, luring enemies from a wide area
Privilege Escalation	Covert	8	4 s	45 s	Privilege Escalation Chip	Protocols cost less, upload faster, ignore range; RAM stops recovering
Grid Blackout	Control	7	about 3.3 s	15 s	Grid Blackout Chip	Uses the signal tower to cut power to every machine in a wide radius.

The Virus Broadcast wave itself lasts about 2.5 seconds. Turrets it hits stay shorted for about 20 seconds. Grid Blackout cuts machine power for about 15 seconds. Beacon Forge lasts 30 seconds. Privilege Escalation lasts 45 seconds.