Overdrive

Overdrive is a commander from the Dragon Army faction. His ability theme revolves around resource management and upgrades.

## Abilities - Passive

Upgrade speed is increased by 100%.

Repair Stations have 100 metal and 1000 energy storage.

Devices and weapons can be downgraded to recover 100% of resources spent.

## Abilities - Active

Resource collectors have 100% increased production.

## Damage received or dealt required to charge the active ability

### Overview

The first one of Overdrive's passive abilities increases the speed at which upgrades are conducted by 100%, making the Upgrade Center more valuable. He's also the only commander with the ability to *downgrade* the upgraded devices/weapons to their basic form (for example, downgrading an AP Sniper into a regular Sniper). This process reclaims 100% of the resources which were spent on the initial upgrade. Another passive ability grants the Repair Stations a small additional utility by making them provide 100 metal storage and 1000 energy storage.

Overdrive's active ability is possibly the most impactful, as it causes all resource collecting buildings (Reactors, Mines, Wind Turbines, Propellers, Smoke Stacks) to generate double the amount of resources for the duration.

### Playstyle

Overdrive is generally a defensive commander, and greatly favors the approach of heavy economy. Upgrade Center is perhaps his most important device, as it both allows to take advantage of his passive abilities, and makes it possible to further bolster the economy by upgrading metal and energy generators, further amplifying the power of his active ability.

Downgrade ability can be used to flexibly transition back and forth between the basic and upgraded states of the weapons as and when needed (AP Sniper to Sniper, Rocket to EMP, etc.). It can also be used to micromanage resources - downgrading a Mine or a Wind Turbine in order to get a quick boost of resources required to fire a weapon or to place down an urgently needed building.

In a sense, Overdrive can be considered the opposite of Architect. While both commanders favor defensive playstyle, Architect requires a well-established resource production to sustain her construction-boosting abilities, whereas Overdrive directly buffs resource production, but requires a great deal of dexterity, APM, and planning, in order to invest the resources properly and make the most of his perks.

### Counters

As can be expected, Overdrive is extremely vulnerable to attacks targeting his resource production buildings. Destroying his Wind Turbines or Mines, completely neutralizes his most important abilities.

The emphasis on heavy eco builds also make Overdrive vulnerable to early aggression strategies. Stopping Overdrive from building up his economy, or preventing him from building up his weapons positions can be considered a strong counter. This can be a double-edged sword however, as dealing damage will charge Overdrive's active ability, giving him means of surviving the assault, and once his resource production is maximized, on most maps he's able to outright out-tank the attacks from early weapons by the sheer economy.

Another approach is to deliberately target multiple different points of Overdrive's base. As his playstyle requires high APM to begin with, an attack which forces him to attend to multiple places at once aggravates this weakness and can make it difficult for him to spend the resources effectively.

Scattershot and Pinchfist in particular can put a thorn in Overdrive's side. Their abilities and quick weapon timings can overwhelm Overdrive's eco before it can really kick in and be a major factor in the match. Buster can also do fairly well against Overdrive due to his ability to chip down the core and destroy Overdrive's devices, eventually winning a war of attrition.

### Trivia

* Repair Stations built by Overdrive have a different look, signifying the fact that they provide metal and energy storage.
* Overdrive has an exceptionally slow charging active ability. His defensive gauge (amount of damage he needs to receive in order to charge the ability) is 4455 - the highest of all commanders in the game. His offensive gauge on the other hand is 2nd highest in the game - at 11088 points, it is only topped by Seep's offensive gauge.
* On steam trading cards, Overdrive is instead referred to as "Overclocker", which is also how he's called internally in the game files.