Robot Energy & Charging: Downtime vs Durability
1. Why energy & downtime matter
A paid Customer Service or Loader bot that stops mid-rush loses the sales or dock clear you bought it for. Community guides on this site repeat the same habit: watch status / energy, place bots near work and charging, and keep kits handy before neglect escalates to fire.
- First hire frees counter or dock — only if it stays online while you VIP or explore.
- Second hire covers the chore that floods while you are away — same energy rule.
- Maintenance spend (kits) is cheaper than buying another bot to replace an idle one.
2. Status / energy loop
Across Day-1, beginner, first-robot, hire-order, and automation pages, the site wording is consistent: neglected bots stop mid-task (or worse). Treat the robot status / energy UI as a recurring check — not a one-time hire setting.
- After unpack / activate, glance at status before you leave for a VIP or city loop.
- If a bot freezes mid-task, return to the floor, check energy / status, and resume or re-place as the UI allows.
- Automation tip already on this site: keep an eye on energy / status; maintenance prevents mid-task freezes.
- Pair with consumables habit (bags, labels) so the bot has work to do when charged.
3. Durability vs energy — which bottleneck?
Site copy treats energy and durability as related but not identical. Soft read of existing pages:
| Bottleneck | What you notice | What to do (site facts) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy / status | Bot stops mid-task; work freezes while you are away | Check status UI; place near charging / shelf; do not leave neglected | first-robot · hire-order · automation · Day-1 |
| Durability wear | Machine or robot worn down from work / neglect | One repair kit restores full durability | repair-kits · codes-calculator |
| Fire (escalation) | Neglected bot catches fire | Extinguish first, then apply kit | repair-kits · robots-locations |
Practical rule: if the bot is idle but not on fire, energy / status and placement are usually the first lever. If wear or flames appear, switch to the extinguisher → kit loop on Repair kits & fire extinguisher. CS / loader bots near shelves are called out as burning both energy and durability while you are away — check both bars on busy floor bots.
4. Placement near shelf / charging
Community placement tip (first-robot & hire-order): unpack the Customer Service bot near a well-stocked shelf / charging station so it can turn and grab items quickly — and stay close to charge.
- Busy floor bots belong where work and charging overlap (shelf / charging area).
- Keep ≥1 repair kit near busy warehouse bots (charging / shelf) plus ≥1 in the van for city finds — same rule as repair-kits.
- Loader / unload placement follows the dock chore; still watch status so the hire does not idle while trucks pile up.
- Role order itself: Robot hire order.
5. Kits, fire & neglect escalation
Energy neglect and durability neglect meet at fire. Existing site loop:
- Watch status so bots do not sit neglected through a full rush.
- If a robot is burning, extinguish first when the game allows, then apply a repair kit.
- One kit restores a machine or robot to full durability from any wear level.
- Related achievements (confirm names in build): Burned Out at Work (put out a burning robot), Mechanic, Emergency Maintenance — map tips: wild robots · list: Achievements.
6. Machines vs robots
Repair kits apply to warehouse machines (including the labeling line) and hired robots. Durability numbers on this site are clearest for the manual labeler — not for robot batteries:
- Manual labeling machine: hidden durability max 100; community / developer-diary baseline ~50 uses at full durability (~2 points per use); slows as wear rises.
- Auto labelers wear slower — raise “uses per cycle” on the calculator when upgraded.
- Optional maintenance estimate: uses-per-cycle × kit price on Codes & calculators.
7. Common mistakes
- Hiring CS / Loader then leaving for VIP without checking status — bot freezes, dock or counter floods.
- Placing the CS bot far from shelf / charging so every grab is a long walk and charge is awkward.
- Treating energy downtime as a durability problem (or the reverse) without reading both bars.
- Skipping the extinguisher on a burning bot and wasting the kit interaction.
- Overstocking kits early instead of Level 2 / first robot cash — soft spend still on first-robot money.
- Assuming demo-era power numbers from old videos; prefer live UI.
8. FAQ
- Why did my robot stop mid-task?
- Community guides on this site say neglected bots stop mid-task when status / energy is ignored. Check the status UI, placement near charging, and whether the bot needs a kit after wear or fire.
- Where should I place the Customer Service bot?
- Near a well-stocked shelf / charging station (community tip on first-robot and hire-order) so it can grab items quickly and stay near charge.
- Is energy the same as durability?
- Related, not identical on this site. Energy / status downtime is the freeze / idle loop; durability is wear restored by a full repair kit; fire is the neglect escalation (extinguish → kit).
- How long does charging take?
- Unknown / not pinned here. Confirm in your build — we do not invent charge timers or drain rates.
- Do machines use the same kits as robots?
- Yes — one kit restores a machine or robot to full durability. Labeler wear numbers live on Codes & calculators; deep kit habits on repair kits.
- Where does this sit vs hire order?
- Hire order answers which bot next; this page answers how to keep them online. Soft early arc: L2 → first robot → watch energy / kits → unload help → licenses / VIP — see hire order · automation.