Guide 02 · Troubleshooting
Why a rail doesn’t carry energy
A rail carries energy only while it is part of one unbroken chain of your team’s rail from your own generator to the active receiver. Lose any link — a gap, a cut, a piece that expired, a bridge that closed — and nothing flows. And sometimes nothing is wrong at all: pulses leave only once every 3 s.
- powered
- no power
- rival rail
01 / First, look
Read the rail
Glow or no glow
The tutorial asks you to
Ride along your glowing rail to the marker
, and a loading-screen tip warns:A broken rail goes dark
. Glow is the first thing to check.“Path broken”
When your team loses its path to the receiver, the game tells you: Path broken. That is your cue to look along the route for the cut.
Count to three
Just connected and nothing moves? Pulses leave only on the generator’s beat, every 3 s. Give it a moment before you start fixing.
02 / Diagnosis
Fourteen reasons, three kinds
It was never connected
The rail looks fine, but it isn’t part of the chain.
1. It doesn’t start at your generator
Only the part of your team’s network that is linked to your own generator is powered. A rail you started in the middle of the arena carries nothing.
FixJoin it to a powered rail of your team, or start again at the generator.
2. It leads to an inactive receiver
Only one of the three receivers is active each round. A perfect rail to one of the other two scores nothing this round. Overtime uses the central receiver.
FixFollow the arrow Receiver · 11 m; between rounds, look for the newly marked receiver.
3. There is a gap
Rail is laid only when you move to a neighbouring point. A jump, a return to the start after an overload, or being moved off a closing bridge leaves no rail. While the switch reads Rail: off, nothing is laid at all.
FixRide back over the gap with laying on.
4. You ran out of resource
Without resource no new rail is laid — you’ll see No resource. Resource never goes below zero, so the rail simply ends where your resource ran out.
FixPause for 0.8 s and it refills at 10 per second — or 15 per second on your own powered rail with laying off.
5. A rival’s rail is in the way
Every piece of rail belongs to one team. You can’t lay over a rival’s piece — you have to break it first. Rails of different teams that cross each other never connect.
FixCut it with the pulse tool, wait 1 s for the gap to settle, then ride over it.
6. It runs on another level
On Weaving Yard routes run over one another. A rail on a raised deck and a rail on the ground below never connect, even where one passes right over the other.
FixConnect the levels by riding the ramp.
7. Both teams claimed the same piece
If couriers of both teams cross the same free piece at the same moment, nobody lays it. Rare, but it happens in a scramble.
FixRide over it again.
Rival rails cross
Amber and Azure cross — no junction. Energy never jumps across.
Teammates meet
Two amber branches meet at a point — they join. A teammate’s powered rail powers yours.
Different levels
A rail on a raised deck passes over a ground rail — still not connected.
It was connected — then something broke
Pulses were flowing, then stopped.
8. A rival cut it
The pulse tool breaks a piece of unprotected enemy rail up to 6 m away. The gap sparks for 1 s and can’t be re-laid until it settles. Your team sees the message Path broken.
FixThe game’s hint:
The gap is sparking — wait a second
. Then ride over it. The Jumper module can patch up to 4 m for 4 s.9. It expired
Each piece lives 30 s after it was laid or last refreshed. For the last 3 s the game warns that it is fading — then it’s gone.
FixRefresh it: ride over your own rail with laying on (0.25 per metre).
10. A length cap trimmed it
One player can keep up to 80 m of active rail, a team up to 240 m. Go over and your oldest pieces flicker for 1 s under the warning Oldest rail will vanish, then disappear. They still conduct during that second.
FixDon’t sprawl: keep one tidy route and let a teammate lay the backup.
11. The bridge closed
Rail on a bridge conducts only while the bridge is open, and a bridge stays open only while some team powers one of its terminals. When that power goes, the game shows Bridge closing: 3s; then the bridge closes and pulses on it drop.
FixKeep a rail on the terminal powered, or route around the bridge.
12. The round ended
At the end of every round all rails and bridges reset, and pulses or sparks still on the way vanish without points. Nothing is sent during the break.
FixStart the next round from your generator towards the newly marked receiver.
Nothing is broken — it’s timing
The chain is fine; you are just watching the wrong moment.
13. The pulse dropped on the way
A pulse checks its rail at every step. If the rail ahead is cut — or a cut behind it takes away its power — it drops as a spark. At junctions it can still switch to another powered path.
FixGrab the spark and stay inside the receiver ring for 0.4 s. It lasts 6 s on the ground, 12 s in total — and a rival can grab it too.
14. It’s just the beat
Pulses leave only on the 3 s beat. Extra routes and loops don’t speed it up — it is still one pulse per beat per team.
FixNothing to fix. Wait for the next beat.
03 / Myths
What does not stop energy
- Rails are not walls: couriers ride over any rail, theirs or yours.
- Your own rail inside your start zone can’t be broken.
- Rails within 1.6 m of the active receiver can’t be broken — by either team.
- A piece under your Insulator absorbs the shot for 3 s.
- A Jumper patch conducts while it lasts (4 s); ride over it with laying on to make it permanent.
- Loops and extra branches do no harm. They don’t raise the rate either.
VELTRAIL 1.0.0 · build 1
Where the numbers come from
Every number on this page is read from the data files of VELTRAIL 1.0 (build 1). When an update changes the balance, the page changes with it.
Last compared with the game’s files:
Show the table (20)
| What | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Generator beat (one pulse per…) | 3 s | Game balance databalance.json · pulse.emission_period_s |
| Resource refill, per second | 10 per second | Game balance databalance.json · rail.regen_per_s |
| Refill starts after you stop spending | 0.8 s | Game balance databalance.json · rail.regen_delay_s |
| Refill on your own powered rail, laying off | 15 per second | Game balance databalance.json · rail.regen_on_rail_per_s |
| Pulse tool reach | 6 m | Game balance databalance.json · tool.range |
| Sparking gap after a cut | 1 s | Game balance databalance.json · rail.break_lock_s |
| Jumper: longest stretch | 4 m | Module datamodules.json · modules[id=jumper].max_length |
| Jumper: repair lasts | 4 s | Module datamodules.json · modules[id=jumper].duration_s |
| Life of a piece of rail | 30 s | Game balance databalance.json · rail.edge_life_s |
| Blinking before it expires | 3 s | Game balance databalance.json · rail.expiring_warn_s |
| Refreshing your rail, per metre | 0.25 per metre | Game balance databalance.json · rail.cost_refresh_per_m |
| Active rail per player | 80 m | Game balance databalance.json · rail.player_cap_m |
| Active rail per team | 240 m | Game balance databalance.json · rail.team_cap_m |
| Warning before the oldest rail is trimmed | 1 s | Game balance databalance.json · rail.trim_warn_s |
| Bridge closing warning | 3 s | Game balance databalance.json · bridge.closing_warn_s |
| Hand delivery: time inside the receiver ring | 0.4 s | Game balance databalance.json · spark.delivery_hold_s |
| Spark on the ground | 6 s | Game balance databalance.json · spark.ground_life_s |
| Spark, total life | 12 s | Game balance databalance.json · spark.total_life_s |
| Protected zone around the active receiver | 1.6 m | Game balance databalance.json · rule_options.receiver_guard_m |
| Insulator: shield time | 3 s | Module datamodules.json · modules[id=insulator].duration_s |