Drugs (aka Candy or Candles) allow a pilot to increase their current Action Points (APs) and are often all that stands between a failed or successful mission.

They are expensive – costing upwards of 16,000 credits per ton (or 30,000 credits if you buy them from the Black Market) but regardless of their status as illegal contraband, they are an integral part of the game and hard to ignore.

How many drugs can you take?

A pilot can use 1t drugs without incurring any penalty (with each ton of drugs offering between 200 and 250 APs). After the first 1t has been consumed, they need to wait approximately 1 hour before taking another 1t of drugs can be used for the same gains.

So as long as you take 1t drugs every hour, you will achieve the most optimal gains. A more typical pattern of drug use might be 2t every 2 hours:

  • 0000 GMT use 2t of drugs and gain 480 APs
  • 0200 GMT use 2t of drugs and gain 484 APs
  • 0400 GMT use 2t of drugs and gain 472 APs
  • … and keep taking 2t of drugs every 2 hours …
  • 2200 GMT use 2t of drugs and gain 473 APs

In a 24 hour period you could consume 24t of drugs (taking 2t at a time every 2 hours). You would gain between 5,500 and 6,000 extra APs doing this.

If you don’t wait for the effects of the first 2t of drugs to wear off, you will still be able to use them but the AP gain becomes less and less for every ton you use. Given the cost of this commodity (luxury?) it’s not a great idea to do this.

How does Trip Control work then?

The Trip Control Advanced Skill (combined with Meditiation) allows you to increase how many drugs you can initially take before you start seeing your AP gains diminish.

As long as you have Trip Control, then each level of Meditiation allows you to take 1 extra ton of drugs initially before you are affected by the penalty.

Trip Control doesn’t increase the number of drugs a pilot can take in a day… it allows a pilot to take more drugs, less times a day.

The following shows how this works in practice when combined with Meditiation at varying levels:

  • No levels of Meditation – can use 1t of drugs initially (without penalty)
  • Meditation level 1 – can use 2t drugs initially (without penalty)
  • Meditation level 2 – can use 3t drugs initially (without penalty)
  • Meditation level 3 – can use 4t drugs initially (without penalty)
  • Meditation level 4 – can use 5t drugs initially (without penalty)
  • Meditation level 5 – can use 6t drugs initially (without penalty)

You then need to wait 1 hour for each ton of drugs consumed to allow you to do it all over again (without penalty).

Here is a typical pattern of use for Trip Control and Meditation level 4:

  • 0000 GMT use 6t of Drugs and gain 1480 APs
  • 0600 GMT use 6t of Drugs and gain 1425 APs
  • 1200 GMT use 6t of Drugs and gain 1473 APs
  • 1800 GMT use 6t of Drugs and gain 1442 APs

In a 24 hour period you could consume 24t of drugs (taking 6t at a time every 6 hours). You would gain between 5,500 and 6,000 extra APs doing this (the same as the earlier example). Trip Control doesn’t increase the number of drugs a pilot can take in a day… it allows a pilot to take more drugs, less times a day.

Trip Control allows a pilot to gain the maximum number of aps from drug use without losing too much sleep. But it’s an expensive Advanced Skill when combined with all 5 levels of Meditation. That said, if you are going through 24t of drugs each day, you probably aren’t too concerned about the cost!

Special thanks to Mokos for his well structured explanation.