Fusebox is a complicated game. It’s all about managing the planets you have, and trying to keep them connected to your grid. To do so, there are a lot of factors that you have to take into consideration. I’m going to lay out what all of those are for you, so you can hopefully understand the parts that aren’t explained in game.

Goal

The purpose of the game is to try and get a world plugged into to each of the 64 slots on your grid. There are a lot of factors that can keep a planet off your grid, and it can take time to build up the credits necessary to even buy a fuse for every slot. In order to plug a planet into the grid, it has to be accepted. You can send invitations to planets from the planet view, if you find one that fits your needs. They may accept or decline depending on their stats. Planets will also send requests to be added to the grid, and if you accept, then you can start installing them.

Worlds

Each world has a few stats that determine how it interacts with the grid. These are randomly determined when the planets are generated when the game first starts.

Material Composition

The most important set of stats is the material composition. Each planet is made up of various amounts of iron, nickel, silicon, and carbon. The distribution of these elements determines how well it can interact with other objects in the game. Planets with the exact same composition are 100% compatible, and for every 2 points they differ, their compatibility goes down. This comes into play when dealing with emotional loads. I’ll go into that more later, but keep it in mind. In the planet view, the color of the land masses is determined by the material composition of the planet. Iron tints the ground red, nickel makes it green, silicon turns it blue, and carbon makes it black.

Emotional Load

Planets also have factors that determine how they interact with your fuses, by way of emotional and pollution loads. Each planet has two pairs of emotions: happiness and anger, and envy and patience. Each of these pairs cancel each other out. As one increases, the other decreases, and they always total up to 100%. Planets can become angry for a number of reasons, but most often it’s based on not being connected. Moving around planets already on the grid interrupts their power, so that can raise anger as well. Planets become envious when they stagnate. Staying on the same fuse too long will make them jealous of the planets being installed on newer, better fuses. If neglected for too long, they can become frustrated and leave the grid. When a planet is installed, these emotions are added to the fuse, and how well they are managed determines the overall efficiency of your circuits.

Pollution

Each planet also has some amount of pollution in both air and water. These values increase over time when the planet is not plugged in, and decrease when they are. If a planets pollution reaches 100% in either environment, it becomes unable to sustain life, and the population goes extinct. Pollution load cannot be countered in any way other than time on the grid.

Mass

The size of the planet. This determines how much load is actually levied against the fuse. All of the emotional and pollution load values are percentages, and these are multiplied against the planet’s mass to give the actual load. Mass is measured in earth masses.

Fuses

Fuses are what allows you to put planets on the grid. Each fuse has a material component just like planets do, as well as a tolerance for negative emotions and pollution. When a planet is plugged into a fuse, it puts load on that fuse. As long as the total load of all planets on the same fuse does not exceed the fuses overall capacity, or its tolerance for individual emotions and pollutants, the fuse will give power to those planets successfully.

Emotional Negation

When two planets are on the same fuse, they can help mitigate each others negative emotions. Depending on their compatibility both with each other and with the fuse they are installed on, they can absorb some of the negative emotions being put out. For example, if you have two planets with 100% compatibility and identical mass, with a 100% compatible fuse, and one of those planets has an anger rating of 100, the other planet can absorb some of that anger, up to its total happiness rating. If the planets are only 50% compatible, then it can only absorb 50% of the load. If they are both also 50% compatible with their fuse, then the amount drops down to 25%. This is why it’s so important to make sure your planets are compatible with their fuses, and with each other.

Money

Every time you advance a day, you earn money based on the efficiency of your grid. The lower the negative load on your fuses, and the higher the fuse capacity, the more credits you earn. You can use those credits to buy more fuses, to tailor your grid to be the best fit you can make.

Tips

• When you first start the game, look for small planets. Since early fuses can’t hold larger planets, putting a lot of smaller planets on the grid will work out better.
• Aggressive planets won’t start wars if they are on the grid, even if there is no fuse installed. You can use this to pacify them for a time, but they will eventually leave and be harder to deal with.
• Pollution is your worst enemy, since its load can’t be lessened through compatibility. Fuses that mitigate pollution are more valuable in the early stages of the game