Restoration Energy and levels

Every hour you ship turns into Restoration Energy (RE). RE sets what you're paid per hour, and your level is a readout of how much of it you've built up.

RE is permanent. You never spend it, it doesn't decay, nobody takes it away. Pixels are what you spend in the shop. RE decides how many pixels an hour of your work is worth.

Tiers determine RE per hour

When a reviewer approves a project they give it a tier, 1 to 4, based on how ambitious it is, how deep it goes technically, and how well it's put together.

Tiers are about the build, not the builder. A first-timer who makes something genuinely impressive gets the higher tier. Padding a simple project with hours won't move it, because reviewers read the code.

Your rate ramps permanently

Your lifetime RE, the total across every approved ship, sets your hourly rate. It's linear: each 1,875 RE adds $1.00/hr, starting at $4.00/hr and stopping at $6.00/hr once you reach 3,750 RE.

Rates only go up. Every ship after a milestone pays at the new rate, including the one that pushed you past it.

The hours in brackets run from all-T4 builds (fastest) to all-T1 builds (slowest).

Rate progression by tier

Shipping only T4 Nexus builds

Shipping only T3 Grid builds

Shipping only T2 Signal builds

Shipping only T1 Spark builds

Two examples. A single 150-hour T4 project takes you all the way to the $6.00/hr cap on its own and pays $900.00 (9000 px). Start with a 5-hour T1 project instead and it pays around $4.03/hr (202 px), but the RE stays on your profile and raises the rate for whatever you build next.

Levels

Your level, 1 to 100, is just a readout of your lifetime RE. It doesn't feed into your pay. It's a marker for how much you've shipped.

The first few levels go quickly. A couple of hours on your first build moves you more than one.

Where to check your stats

The top bar of your Builder Terminal shows your level, lifetime RE and current rate. It updates the moment an approval goes through.