Prototech
The free content of the 1.205 update brings new end-game content to vanilla Space Engineers: You can find unique Prototech blocks and new rare components in Encounters with the Factorum faction. You can recognise Prototech items by their golden trims.
If you grind down Prototech blocks, you lose Prototech components, highlighted in red in the grinder tooltip. Instead, grind the armor blocks around the Prototech blocks to extract them intact, hack them if needed, and add them to your grids using merge blocks. Alternatively, if you've acquired a Prototech Assembler, you can manufacture some of the components from Prototech Scrap.
Prototech Blocks
Prototech Assembler
Prototech Battery
Prototech Drill
Prototech Gyroscope
Prototech Jump Drive
Prototech Refinery
Prototech Thruster
Prototech Fusion Reactor
Prototech Components
Prototech Frame
Prototech Cooling Unit
Prototech Circuitry
Prototech Machinery
Prototech Propulsion Unit
Prototech Capacitor
Prototech Panel
Prototech Material
Lore
Trivia
You can sometimes find a data pad in Global Encounters inventories that explains that ProtoTech is short for "prototype technology."
Introduction
"In 1.205 we’re adding Prototech blocks. These are powerful, "end-game" blocks, found in new Global Encounters. Prototech is a powerful technology created by the secretive Factorum faction. They have gone to great lengths to ensure components cannot be reverse engineered!
This means you cannot simply grind these blocks down and take their components, like you can with ordinary blocks. Instead, you’ll have to extract them intact, and then add them onto existing grids using merge blocks. Alternatively, if you’ve acquired a Prototech Assembler, you can manufacture new components from Prototech Scrap.
But take note: The Prototech Frame component, which is at the foundation of every Prototech block, cannot be manufactured! Finally, lucky explorers can find Prototech components (including Prototech Frames) in the cargo storages in the various new NPC encounters. Collect enough of these, and you may be able to construct a new Prototech block without an Assembler." [1]
Keen teased the new content in summer 2024 by showing mysterious messages and screenshots in their monthly newsletter.
The blurred caption can be reconstructed as "Prototech Assembler"[2]!["We found a mysterious message in a datapad. What is a “Prototech Panel”, a new block? What’s going on? And who is [REDACTED]?!"[3]](/images/thumb/e/ee/Prototech-datapad-prototech-panels.png/120px-Prototech-datapad-prototech-panels.png?aba012)
"We found a mysterious message in a datapad. What is a “Prototech Panel”, a new block? What’s going on? And who is [REDACTED]?!"[3]!["We also have a cool piece of concept art for something new, coming in Update 1.205.", the Prototech Large Ion Thruster (Concept C).[3]](/images/thumb/b/be/Prototech-reveal-newsletter-may-2024.jpg/120px-Prototech-reveal-newsletter-may-2024.jpg?76e430)
"We also have a cool piece of concept art for something new, coming in Update 1.205.", the Prototech Large Ion Thruster (Concept C).[3]![Teaser shot of Prototech components.[4]](/images/thumb/6/6a/Prototech-components-teaser.jpg/120px-Prototech-components-teaser.jpg?6cef14)
Teaser shot of Prototech components.[4]
!["We found a mysterious message in a datapad. What is a “Prototech Panel”, a new block? What’s going on? And who is [REDACTED]?!"[3]](/wiki/File:Prototech-datapad-prototech-panels.png)
!["We also have a cool piece of concept art for something new, coming in Update 1.205.", the Prototech Large Ion Thruster (Concept C).[3]](/wiki/File:Prototech-reveal-newsletter-may-2024.jpg)
![Teaser shot of Prototech components.[4]](/wiki/File:Prototech-components-teaser.jpg)
The following video was released as a sneak-peek[5] of one of the Prototech blocks:
The following video was released as a sneak-peek[6] of the ProtoTech jump drive: