The island power grid (Power Trip)

Overview

The Power Trip update, which landed with the August 2026 force wipe on 6 August, connected the island’s monuments to a single electrical grid running out of Power Plant. It is the largest change to monument play in years and most guides written before it are now wrong about recyclers.

Heavy Fuses are not Electric Fuses

Heavy Fuses are a separate item, found in ordinary crates and in Underwater Labs. They go into a heavy fuse box in the green-card room at Power Plant. Once seated, a Heavy Fuse cannot be removed — trying to pull one injures you.

Fuses decay, so the grid needs feeding

Installed fuses lose condition over time, and a fuse below 30% deteriorates faster than the rest. If none has dropped below that threshold, the weakest takes the accelerated damage instead. Holding the grid up is an ongoing supply job, not a one-off.

What the grid unlocks

Each additional bank of fuses raises the island another power stage. Across the map:

• Launch Site: a satellite control station that calls a satellite crash, costing Tech Trash and an Aiming Module, on a 12 to 16 in-game-hour cooldown. The wreckage yields high quality metal, Tech Trash, CCTV cameras, targeting computers and thruster modules.
• Dome: three crude oil pumps, fed by switches on the Oil Rigs — small rig at half rate, large rig at full.
• Airfield: two control tower terminals, one raising airdrop rates and one calling a Chinook resupply crate to the tarmac.
• Water Treatment: a gearbox-driven valve wheel that pressurises the central tank and restores flow to the roadside pipes.
• Oxum’s Gas Station: a working car lift, which when raised reveals a cave with advanced vehicle part crates.
• Supermarket: working freezers that restock on a cycle.
• Roadside poles: working boxes providing up to 30 power across six connections, scaling with how much of the grid is installed.

The recycler consequence

This is the part that breaks old guides. Green recyclers now return less until the grid is powered, and at maximum power a 75% red recycler with a four-second cycle appears at Power Plant. Where you recycle is now a strategic question rather than a convenience one.

What the game data shows about the stages

The stage requirements are written into the monuments themselves.

• Roadside power poles come on from stage 1.
• The Airfield’s two control-tower terminals come on at stages 3 and 4; the Chinook call terminal is also wired through two fuse boxes at the top of the tower.
• At Power Plant, the powered loot room holds elite and military crates and resets every 30 minutes.

Why groups fight for it

Whoever keeps Heavy Fuses in the Power Plant boxes sets the economy for everyone on the server, and the marketplace needs grid charge to operate. Denying the grid is a legitimate way to starve a stronger group.

Related tools and guides

• Power Plant puzzle
• Launch Site puzzle