A Fuel Depot is a massive structure used for the storage of fuel. This can be purchased by a ship's captain. Fuel is expended when a ship travels between systems in a cluster, and as such requires replenishing.
Mass Effect 2[]
Fuel costs 1 credit per unit to restore at a fuel depot, with a minimum cost of 25 credits to start refueling, even if the Normandy is less than 25 units of fuel away from fully fueled. Hitting the refuel button while the Normandy SR-2 is at a depot's location on the Galaxy Map will start a continuous refueling that restores fuel in 25 unit increments until the ship is fully refueled. Once started, the only ways to cancel refueling early are to fly the ship away from the depot or to leave the Galaxy Map entirely (e.g. by hitting ESCAPE on PC).
Note: On the Xbox 360, the refueling button must be held down to refuel continuously; tapping refuel lightly will restore only 25 units of fuel.
Note: If the player runs out of credits while refueling, refueling will continue as normal at 1 credit/unit to the maximum 1000 or 1500 units with the Extended Fuel Cells upgrade, leaving the account with a negative balance. However, if the player begins refueling with a negative credit balance, the fuel depot provides fuel at no charge, though probes cannot be purchased.
Legendary Edition: It is possible to cancel refueling or refuel incrementally by selecting the Buy Fuel button repeatedly, but this can be somewhat unreliable.
In Mass Effect 2, fuel depots also sell probes. Probes are used to discover landing sites, and to extract valuable minerals from unexplored planets. Probes can only be purchased 5 at a time for 100 credits. The game charges 100 credits even if 5 probes would put you over your maximum capacity.
Running out of Fuel[]
EDI provides a verbal warning when fuel reserves are halfway depleted. If fuel is exhausted, EDI will expend a quantity of a valuable mineral to fly the Normandy to the nearest system with a fuel depot, and travel between systems is no longer possible until the player refuels, though mass relays can still be used. Minerals are expended until stocks of that mineral are depleted with the following priority: either Iridium or Palladium, and then Platinum if stocks of the first two are both depleted. Element Zero is never expended even when the other resources are totally depleted. The amount expended depends on how far the Normandy is from the home system when fuel depletes, and can run anywhere from a few thousand mineral units when far away down to a few hundred if close to home.
Note: If the ship runs out of fuel after departing the Sowilo system at the conclusion of Lair of the Shadow Broker, the ship will be returned to the relay system at no cost in resources.
Depot Locations[]
The locations of the fuel depots are:
- Aquila
- Aralakh
- Balor
- Chandrasekhar
- Dakka
- Enoch
- Hekate
- Imir
- Nariph
- Osun
- Pranas
- Raheel-Leyya
- Sahrabarik
- Skepsis
- Tasale
- Tassrah
- Widow (requires the Firewalker Pack)
- Xe Cha
Mass Effect 3[]
In Mass Effect 3, many fuel depots have been destroyed due to the Reaper invasion. Scanning will detect destroyed fuel depots, from which anywhere from 50 to 800 units of fuel can be recovered. Intact fuel depots can still be found in certain systems, though using them can be avoided entirely if salvaged fuel from scanning is used judiciously.
As in the previous game, refueling at a depot costs 1 credit per unit of fuel. Selecting the Buy Fuel button while the Normandy is at the depot on the Galaxy Map will start a continuous refueling that restores fuel in 25 unit increments. Once started, the only way to cancel refueling early is to fly the ship away from the depot or to leave the Galaxy Map entirely.
Running out of fuel instantly transports the Normandy to the nearest system with a mass relay, locking out non-mass-relay travel between systems until the ship is refueled.
The Normandy can also be refueled by docking at the Citadel. Refueling at the Citadel occurs automatically and at no charge. Note that it is necessary to actually dock, simply entering the Serpent Nebula or orbit of the station will not result in refueling. It isn't necessary to do anything while docked, the Normandy will be refueled if Shepard simply leaves immediately.
Depot Locations[]
The locations of intact fuel depots are in the systems that contain the mass relays of the following sectors:
- Annos Basin
- Apien Crest
- Athena Nebula
- Krogan DMZ
- Horsehead Nebula
- Ismar Frontier
- Ninmah Cluster
- Silean Nebula
Trivia[]
- In The Art of Mass Effect, a vessel similar in appearance to a fuel depot is presented as a design for a turian ship. These vessels can be seen during the cutscene that occurs when first arriving at the Citadel in Mass Effect, and they are also depicted as turian warships in Mass Effect: Evolution.