Link amplifiers (often called link amps) increase the link range of portals. These are essential for large scale fielding ops and long-distance artifact transfers, but are not generally useful for more typical Ingress activities. Common link amps do not currently exist. Very rare link amps are not hackable; they are only obtainable via
The SoftBank Ultra Link (also called ultra link, SBUL, or simply UL) is a sponsored variant of the link amp, first discovered in the Ingress 1.79.0 teardown and released on 20 June 2015. It is considered very rare, but unlike the regular very rare link amp, it can be hacked from portals. (SoftBank branded portals drop them more frequently.) In addition to increasing link range, they also permit eight more outbound links from a portal per SBUL and amplifies link mitigation. Note that this is different from portal shields; SBULs do not add mitigation to portals themselves. An unshielded portal with an SBUL and no links will have a total mitigation of 0. But if you then add a link, the mitigation from that link will be higher due to the SBUL.
The range increase for each type of link amp is as follows:
- Rare: ×2
- SoftBank Ultra Link: ×5
- Very Rare: ×7
If you have more than one link amp deployed on a portal, only the rarest one will provide the full link range boost; the next will be only one-fourth as effective, and the remaining two will be one-eighth as effective. (Very rare link amps are presumably prioritized over SBULs.) The chart below shows the resulting link range multipliers from every possible combination of installed link amps:
Mod 1 | Mod 2 | Mod 3 | Mod 4 | Link Range Multiplier |
---|---|---|---|---|
×1.000 | ||||
Rare | ×2.000 | |||
Rare | Rare | ×2.500 | ||
Rare | Rare | Rare | ×2.750 | |
Rare | Rare | Rare | Rare | ×3.000 |
SBUL | ×5.000 | |||
SBUL | Rare | ×5.500 | ||
SBUL | Rare | Rare | ×5.750 | |
SBUL | Rare | Rare | Rare | ×6.000 |
SBUL | SBUL | ×6.250 | ||
SBUL | SBUL | Rare | ×6.500 | |
SBUL | SBUL | Rare | Rare | ×6.750 |
SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | ×6.875 | |
SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | Rare | ×7.125 |
SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | ×7.500 |
Very Rare | ×7.000 | |||
Very Rare | Rare | ×7.500 | ||
Very Rare | Rare | Rare | ×7.750 | |
Very Rare | Rare | Rare | Rare | ×8.000 |
Very Rare | SBUL | ×8.250 | ||
Very Rare | SBUL | Rare | ×8.500 | |
Very Rare | SBUL | Rare | Rare | ×8.750 |
Very Rare | SBUL | SBUL | ×8.875 | |
Very Rare | SBUL | SBUL | Rare | ×9.125 |
Very Rare | SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | ×9.500 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | ×8.750 | ||
Very Rare | Very Rare | Rare | ×9.000 | |
Very Rare | Very Rare | Rare | Rare | ×9.250 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | SBUL | ×9.375 | |
Very Rare | Very Rare | SBUL | Rare | ×9.625 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | SBUL | SBUL | ×10.000 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | Very Rare | ×9.625 | |
Very Rare | Very Rare | Very Rare | Rare | ×9.875 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | Very Rare | SBUL | ×10.250 |
Very Rare | Very Rare | Very Rare | Very Rare | ×10.500 |
The effect of multiple SBULs on the link mitigation multiplier is unconfirmed at this time, but initial data indicates that it may also have diminishing returns:
Mod 1 | Mod 2 | Mod 3 | Mod 4 | Link Mitigation Multiplier |
---|---|---|---|---|
×1.000 | ||||
SBUL | ×1.500 | |||
SBUL | SBUL | ×1.625 | ||
SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | ×1.688 | |
SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | SBUL | ×1.750 |