Quantium

**Quantium** is a potent elemental substance which serves as the powerup resource in CounterAttack. Currently there are six colors of quantium: green (Q40 isotope) quantium used as power-ups for increasing stats, orange (Q41 isotope) used for ultimate skills, rare violet quantium, which instantly gives one extra Life, blue quantium which grants you a shield, yellow/gold quantium which gives instantly 1000 additional points and red quantium which triggers nuclear explosions based on the subtype collected.

## Types of Quantium powerups

### Common Powerups

Powerups of this type are frequently granted on destroying Automaton enemies and formations, but can be lost on ship destruction while the game type is set to a non-Casual type. Cargo containers typically hold both of the following powerups:

* **Weapon Upgrade Powerup (Q40):** Green in color and shaped like a lightning bolt, Q40 is a stable isotope which can be accumulated and used to supercharge various systems of the player ship for the rest of the current campaign.
	+ On non-Casual game types, ship destruction normally eliminates all unspent Q40 as well as 1 upgrade level from the lowest three stats for which the player previously used Q40 to purchase upgrades.
	+ The player ship can only hold 10 unspent Q40 at a time. Attempting to collect another Q40 while at capacity will cause the lowest available stat upgrade to be purchased automatically in order to make room.

* **Ultimate Ability Powerup (Q41):** Orange in color and shaped like a 5-point star, Q41 is an unstable isotope which can be accumulated indefinitely and consumed to activate the player ship's ultimate ability.
	+ On Arcade/Hardcore game types, ship destruction eliminates 50%/100% of all held Q41. In exchange, a large portion of the lost Q41 subsequently reappears around the site of destruction as a cloud of fresh Q41 powerups.
	+ Holding large amounts of Q41 for the current level may trigger the appearance of a dangerous Quantium Hunter on Campaign levels with a difficulty of Medium or higher.
		- On Campaign levels with a difficulty of Easy or lower, triggering a Quantium Hunter encounter will instead spawn a shielded Slow Beamer.

### Uncommon Powerups

Powerups of this type, usually spawned on destroying tougher types of Automatons, apply their effects instantly.

* **Bonus Powerup:** Yellow in color and shaped like a diamond, Bonus Quantium grants a fixed amount of Bonus Points.
	+ Known Sources: Asteroid Small, Asteroid Medium, Asteroid Large, Cargo (Bonus level variant)
	+ Collecting 100 Bonus Quantium within a campaign triggers attachment upgrades and combinations (this trigger normally occurs only at the start of each level). This bonus trigger can occur multiple times.
* **Offensive Powerup:** Three variants of offensive Quantium exist by default, all of which bear a red color.
	+ *Mini Nuke Powerup:* Shaped like a missile, collecting this type launches a single missile forward which detonates a mini nuke explosion on impact, destroying projectiles and dealing minor damage to enemies.
		- Known Sources: Shooter, Blaster
	+ *Circle of Death Powerup:* Shaped like a ring of missiles, collecting this type launches 16(?) missiles radially which create mini nuke explosions on impact, destroying projectiles and dealing minor damage to enemies over a wide area.
		- Known Sources: Large Worm [tentative name]
		- During the Valentine's Day event, this powerup type is replaced by a heart-themed seasonal variant which randomly grants Circle of Hearts on collection.
	+ *Nuke Powerup:* Shaped like a radiation hazard symbol, collecting this type detonates a large nuclear explosion around the player, destroying projectiles and dealing major damage to enemies.
		- Known Sources: Cruiser

### Rare Powerups

Powerups of this type, typically only obtainable from fixed sources within levels (usually Cargo containers), apply their effects for as long as the player can avoid collisions.

* **Shield Powerup:** Blue in color and shaped like a tower shield, Shield Quantium grants a bubble barrier which absorbs a single collision for the player ship, even if that collision is with terrain. (If the player already has a shield layer, this powerup does nothing.)
	+ Known locations:
		- Bulwark (1x in Cargo at the top edge of the battle area, 2x in blue Cargo surrounded by space station structures)
		- Minefield (1x in top edge Cargo)

* **Life Powerup:** Violet in color and shaped like an Earth Defence Force fighter, Life Quantium grants 5000 points and an extra life on collection, triggering any on-Life-purchased effects from attachments.
	+ Known locations:
		- Homefront (ground Cargo near the start)
		- Automaton Prime (easy) (Double Blaster drop near the end)
		- Outpost Ginga (Cargo container in the last station segment's top path)
		- Sentry (3x on Rock Platforms near the start, 1x in top path Cargo stack)
		- Bonus (rare Cargo drop)

## Attachments associated with Quantium

* Angry Powerup Reloader
* Angry Powerups
* Angry Trinity
* Battle Reactor
* Cargo Drop
* Copilot Computer (Adj / Imp)
* Evasive Powerups
* Explosive Powerups
* Hardened Reactor
* Liftback
* Mag Hardened Reactor
* Marconi Device
* Quantium Converter (Adj / Imp / Mod)
* Quantium Detector
* Quantium Life
* Quantium Magnet (Adj / Imp / Mod)
* Quantium Reactor (Adj / Imp.)
* Quantium Reserve
* Quantium Scavenger (Adj / Imp)
* Ship Enhancer
* Subspace Reactor
* Support Module (Adj)
* Systems Computer
* Upgrade Computer
* Utility Module