Unstable Reactor

“	The Unstable Reactor powers a ship's engines with dangerous volatile fuel that detonates on ship death. additional ship health increases the explosion intensity.	”
	— In-Game Description

!THIS SPECIAL CAN ONLY BE EQUIPPED ON IRON STAR COMPANY HULLS!
Unstable Reactor	I	II	III
Mass	8% ship mass	11% ship mass	14% ship mass
Power	750	1000	1300
AoE Radius	1500 m
Speed	+30 m/s	+50 m/s	+70 m/s
Turning	+3.0 deg/s	+5.0 deg/s	+7.0 deg/s
Strafe	-20%	-26%	-33%
Unlocking (Only obtainable in Search & Destroy,Catch-Up Events)
Tech Lab Required	VII	IX	X
Intel Required	50,000	200,000	500,000
Build
Time	43m 30s	1h 57m 30s	3h 30m
Helium-3	636,591	1,795,072	3,236,340
Antimatter	112,340	448,768	1,078,780
Repair
Time	0s	0s	0s

UnstableR123 — Unstable Reactor I, II, and III, Respectively

General

Unstable Reactors are engines that improve rotation and forward speed, and upon the equipped ships destruction, the unstable reactor violently detonates, damaging all nearby enemy ships in a local proximity.

UR 2 — MK V Python cutters explodes to a devastating effect on Apocrypha cruisers.

The intensity of the explosion increases as you equip heavier variants of the unstable reactor. It also increases depending on the amount of armor is on the ship - with the total damage inflicted to be roughly the power attributes in addition to roughly a quarter of the total armor on the ship. The amount of damage is also reduced the further away from the explosion ships are, with ships outside the explosive radius remaining unharmed.

It is a must have on heavily armored hulls, the ISC specialty. Due to its sheer damage aswell it is marked heavily overpowered in its level of combat and is rightfully so.

Strategy and Setup

Advantages:

UR 8 — Unstable reactors large explosion radius.

The critical advantage of the unstable reactor is delivering immense amount of damage upon the equipped ship's destruction in a massive, local area. Being Iron Star Company exclusive equipment, it scales extremely well with their high armor. The amount of damage is roughly one point of damage per two points of armor, additive to the base amount of damage of each reactor. It is incredibly potent and can turn the tides of point blank battles in a shocking instant.

It also still has a very high speed making it still able to move around as if you had Fusion Thrusters II which makes it even more necessary for ISC Hulls.

Disadvantages:

Unstable reactors do not have major disadvantages but they have slightly less speed and rotation than Fusion thrusters which is considered as negligible by the majority.

Unstable reactors do not inflict as much damage to base modules as they do to ships. The full extent of their damage and its effectiveness to base modules is very poor in compared to PvE but is still recommended.

Unstable reactors requires the ship to die in battle, in order for the unstable reactor to actually contribute to battle - you must be willing to sacrifice your ships in battle. Hence, taking losses in combat is always necessary and the high armor needed also adds huge repair.

Setup:

Their effectiveness can be used in many different areas in combat, hence here is a list:

UR 6 — A single Python cutter delivers crippling damage to a fleet of MK IV Gharial cutters.

Python cutters benefit the most from unstable reactors. They are fast and can close in on targets quickly, putting them in the kill zone of the unstable reactor. They can quickly turn the tide in point blank combat. Even damaged fleets of Python cutters are a major threat to groups of ships pursuing it. Unstable reactors make them especially effective against other cutters as other cutters are short ranged ships and struggle to escape the kill zone of the unstable reactor while engaging the enemy ships at the same time. Unstable reactors can inflict devastating damages to even MK V Covenant cruisers, clustered groups of frigates and destroyers and walls of battleships. This sort of advantage ensures the Python cutter is a volatile and effective in combat despite being heavily damaged from previous battles.
Machete destroyers do not benefit as much but they still have increased speed and rotation and punishes enemy fleets to a crippling effect who ram cutters into your destroyers at point blank ranges

Heretic cruisers possess the most amount of armor, hence deliver more damage than all other ships. This ensures damaged fleets of Heretic cruisers are still perfectly capable of delivering massive damage upon destruction against pursuing cruisers or cutters. If Heretic cruisers can close in on destroyers or battleships quick enough into point blank range, their destruction will inflict lethal damages to enemy ships and with promising potential to turn the battle in your favor.
Vigilante battleships like destroyers, do not benefit as much from the reactor. They can take enemy ship by surprise if they ram cutters into your battleships.

UR 5 — Hurricane frigates able defeat Basilisk cutters using unstable reactors.

Hurricane frigates are close and medium range warships with excellent maneuverability, making them easy to position them and send them into the thicket of grouped enemy ships. At MK V, they can be equipped with substantial armor, thus enhancing the unstable reactor to a cataclysmic effect. They are especially effective against other cutters and frigates which tend to group together.
Freyja Carriers are not typically equipped with this, as carriers avoid close combat at all costs. However, they are an acceptable substitute for Fusion thrusters III, and can cause revenge kills against unsuspecting enemy ships. Don't ram with your carrier, they are slow.

Trivia

Unstable reactors is the second legendary engine/thruster.
Unstable reactors are the first suicide thrusters ever introduced.

UR 4 — A chain reaction of unstable reactors exploding.

Players speculated that the unstable reactor incorporated a resistor prior to its release.
The scale of the damage with armor has not been disclosed by Kixeye - it is believed they intend to change the damage output surreptitiously for balance reasons without outraging players.
Ships equipped with unstable reactors fighting other ships equipped with unstable reactors at point blank ranges often ends in a chain reaction of explosions and the battle being abruptly brief, sometimes a draw.
In the game, the unstable reactor is unofficially and informally known as the Allahu Akbar reactor or the ISIS thrusters.