NS2 has two kinds of resources.
| Team resources (tres) | Personal resources (pres) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who spends it | The commander | Each player |
| Spent on | Structures, research, commander abilities, drops | Weapons, jetpacks, exos (marines); lifeforms and upgrades (aliens) |
| Starting amount | 60 | Marines 20, aliens 15, commander 0 |
| Cap | 200 | 100 |
Income#
Both come from resource towers (Extractors for marines, Harvesters for aliens) built on the map's resource nodes. Every 6 seconds, each working tower gives:
- 1 team resource, and
- 0.1 personal resources to every player on the team (not the commander).
| Towers | Team res per minute | Personal res per player per minute |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 1 |
| 3 | 30 | 3 |
| 5 | 50 | 5 |
| 7 | 70 | 7 |
A team with no working towers still gets 1 team res every 12 s so it is never completely stuck.
Kills give no resources (0 team, 0 personal). The only way to get richer is to hold more towers than the enemy, and to kill theirs.
Why towers matter so much#
Because every player gets pres from every tower, a team with 6 towers against 3 gets its fades, onos, jetpacks and exos twice as fast. Killing an enemy tower is often worth more than killing a player. Protecting your own is half of the commander's job.
Getting resources back#
- Recycling a marine structure refunds 75% of its cost after 12 s.
- Aliens can consume structures the same way.
- Pres spent on a lifeform or a weapon is lost when you die (dropped marine weapons can be picked up by teammates).