The question we get most from players arriving from other Recoil-family games: why won't my constructors repair? The answer: because damage is supposed to cost something.

What it changes

A tank that comes out of a fight at 40% stays at 40%. A turret line that held off three attacks may not hold off a fourth. You cannot pull your army home, patch it up, and send it back out fresh. So every fight has a lasting cost, and you count what condition the winner's army is in afterwards — not just who won.

• Trading efficiently is everything. Losing 300 metal to kill 500 is a real victory even if you "lost the fight".
• Wounded units still have full-strength guns. Pull them to the second rank; let the healthy units eat the fire.
• Attrition warfare is lethal. Poke at a defended position, take chip damage, go home to "recover" — there is no recovery. Commit, or don't go.
• Turtling has a shelf life. Defences degrade permanently under repeated pressure.

What it does for the factions

Only two things in the whole game restore health, and both belong to the Federation: hull regeneration and the Healstation. Loz shields recharge, but the hull underneath never does. Without the no-repair rule, that asymmetry would be a footnote. With it, it's the core of the matchup: Fed damage is a loan, Loz damage is a bill, and neither faction wants the fight the other one wants.

The Healstation is worth a note of its own. It projects a 500-radius repair field that pauses briefly when a unit takes damage, so it heals units rotating off the line rather than units still on it. It's a recovery point, not a battle station. Build it behind your front.

The consolation prize

Reclaim. When a unit dies it has a chance to drop a part worth a high percentage of its cost, and after a large engagement the ground is a bank. Given that damaged units can't be repaired, reclaim is your only way to recover value from a battle. Put constructors on patrol across the field and they'll do it hands-free. Combined with the research points every kill pays out, a won battle pays twice.