Ore-13

"These Rubik's Cubes just keep getting more and more difficult."

Ore-13 is the last of a series of artificially-created energon-derived ores seeded throughout the galaxy by Decepticon scientist Shockwave as part of his Regenesis project. Taking root on the planet Earth, Ore-13 boosts the power of Transformers to extreme levels, leading those who later discovered it to term it "Ultra-Energon"; Shockwave favored the more prosaic name of "Power Itself" when christening the various ores after their different effects. It is not without drawbacks, however: while it will grant a user massively enhanced strength and durability, the more its power is drawn upon, the faster it burns out, leaving a user at risk of sudden de-powering in mid-combat.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

In his youth as Jhiaxus's student, Shockwave spent a significant amount of time working on his pet project: a means to combat the increasing lack of resources that threatened Cybertron. As a Senator, Shockwave developed the idea of seeding distant worlds with energon, but this idea would not come to pass until the era of Sentinel Prime, after Shockwave's mind had been forcibly altered by shadowplay. Shockwaves

As the Great War raged, Shockwave extrapolated that the war would eventually devolve into a struggle over resources. 600,000 years ago, he turned his original plans to synthesize resources into the Regenesis project, which seeded thirteen worlds with a potent distillation of standard energon. The seedings were designed to initiate a chain reaction which would produce Energon ore in plentiful supply, giving him the balance of power when the Energon shortages he had foreseen became inevitable. Spotlight: Shockwave Unbeknownst to anyone but himself, Shockwave had not chosen Earth at random — Shockwave had selected the world because he correctly believed that it had become the resting place for Nexus Prime's Enigma of Combination. Shockwaves

A hundred thousand years later, Shockwave abandoned the Decepticons to investigate the progress of his ores, where the "Ore-13" had reacted with the local geology, threatening to become so overwhelmingly rich in Energon that the environment would become anathema to Cybertronians. Shockwave arrived over Earth ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, to continue the plan by stabilizing the ore before it destroyed the planet. Spotlight: Shockwave The Maximal starship Axalon had simultaneously detected samples of his energon and made a diversion to Earth to refuel. Shockwave shot down the ship and used its crew in a cruel experiment before returning to his business. Strange Visitors

Shockwave created global dampers that he then injected into the planetary crust to regulate the reaction, allowing the ore to safely develop into Ultra-Energon. Before he could finish the stabilization process, he was ambushed by the Dynobots and left buried by a failsafe Grimlock had arranged, that triggered a volcanic eruption in what would be later Nevada. Spotlight: Shockwave

When Shockwave's absence was discovered by Megatron, he assigned Bludgeon to investigate Shockwave's plans, and Soundwave to spy on Bludgeon in turn. While Bludgeon discovered the full extent of Shockwave's plans he fed little of it back to Megatron—and Soundwave did likewise. Spotlight: Soundwave

Around ten thousand years later,^[1] Cybertron was devastated by Thunderwing and left uninhabitable. Stormbringer Some time later, however, Bludgeon and his team returned to the planet in secret to begin work on restoring Thunderwing, and in preparation for creating their own bio-grafted exo-shells. To do this, they needed power, and so they proceeded to Earth in the early 1980s to mine "Ultra-Energon". Spotlight: Soundwave Eventually, Bludgeon's unit succeeded in restoring Thunderwing with the Ultra-Energon. Stormbringer issue 2 Soon, the drawback of the powerful substance became clear: The infused Transformer was rendered far more powerful than ever, but the Ultra-Energon burned itself out far faster than normal energon, and the more power the Transformer drew on, the faster his super-powered "high" burnt away. Stormbringer issue 4

Circa 2006, Skywatch would experiment with the substance inside a classified research bunker that had been retrofitted from Bludgeon's abandoned base. By using supplies of the material in conjunction with the alien artifact code-named "Talisman", Joe Colton and Garrison Kreiger were—after tricking Sgt. Savage into unwittingly activating the device—able to refine the volatile energies of the Talisman into a corrosive anti-Cybertronian weapon. When Eagles Scream

In the meantime, the presence of Ultra-Energon had been independently discovered back on Earth by a Decepticon infiltration team led by Starscream. It was dubbed Ore-13. After exhausting a vein of the ore beneath the original command bunker in Nebraska, Starscream built a second command bunker over a richer vein in Oregon. Although it was not enough to give Starscream any appreciable edge over Megatron, both Decepticons and Autobots believed Ore-13 could drastically tip the balance of their entire interstellar conflict. Infiltration

After Optimus Prime's arrival on Earth, he battled the Ore-13-enhanced Megatron and was nearly deactivated, surviving only by downloading his consciousness into his trailer section. However, realizing that Ore-13 was Ultra-Energon, he communicated its weakness to the other Autobots, who successfully ran Megatron down until Prime could return to his body to deliver a coup de grâce just as the Ultra-Energon high faded away. Retrieved by Skywarp, Megatron proceeded to purge his systems completely of the Ultra-Energon in a CR chamber. Escalation

The forces of the Dead Universe specifically protected Earth from the Reapers Devastation due to its Ultra-Energon; their grand scheme was reliant on vast amounts of the energy, in which Earth was now rich. Spotlight: Doubledealer

A few years later, Shockwave used Ultra-Energon to build a new body for Megatron. Enemy Mine

As part of his master plan, Shockwave merged Ore-13 with Ore-1, the fusion of the two ores allowing him control of all time in the universe. When all the assembled ores were merged through his chronal drive, Shockwave sought to use them to collapse all of time and space into raw fuel for Cybertron. The Becoming

When the unaligned scientist Mesothulas traveled to Earth, he discovered Ore-13 in its most potent form. From his experiments, he developed a modified, synthetic version he termed Obtenteum, which he used to fuel his most powerful creations such as the Tor and his army of Chimeracons. Sins of the Wreckers #3

The Titan Metrotitan teleported to Earth and settled above a large deposit of Ore-13 buried beneath Monument Valley. White Heat

After Optimus Prime annexed Earth into the Council of Worlds, Once Upon a Time on Earth the tyrant Baron Karza began transporting samples of the ore to Microspace via Micronus Prime's spacebridge in an attempt to save his own universe from a destructive entropy storm. O Ship of State As a side effect of the matter transportation process, many deposits of Ore-13 became unstable and threatened to destroy the Earth in a cataclysmic explosion, something Scarlett and Joe Colton wrongly held Optimus responsible for. Secret Raiders The destruction of Mount Olympus, housing a rich vein of Ore-13, galvanized the United States government into launching a preemptive strike on the Transformers. Concorde Hymn

The Dire Wraiths were likewise drawn to Earth for its supplies of Ore-13; with it, they could enhance their magical powers and make themselves harder to detect. The Space Knight Rom found that his armor reacted to Ore-13 and exploited to try and send the crystals into Microspace, hopefully putting it beyond the Wraiths' grasp, before Optimus Prime talked him down. O Ship of State

The Wraith that had been impersonating Joe Colton carried around a case of Ore-13 which he intended to deliver to his superiors before Rom killed him. Concorde Hymn The case fell into the hands of the President of the United States. As the Wraith invasion was obvious at this time, it was entrusted to Marissa Faireborn only for the Wraiths in the White House to obtain it. The leader of the Wraith cell used the Energon to enhance herself but was ultimately impaled on the Washington Monument by Thundercracker. Thundercracker & Buster Save the World Eventually, human collaborator Miles Mayhem openly challengd the Autobots and their allies for their supply of Ore-13, leading to an all-out battle in Monument Valley. When Baron Karza was defeated in the battle, the Ore-13, no longer destabilized, returned to normal and the crisis had passed. Valley Forge

Some months later, a wandering tribe of Junkions arrived on Earth, drawn to the planet's ample supplies of the mineral. While awaiting their arrival on the Matterhorn, Prime's half Matrix glowed in response to the ore's presence. Hoping to use the superfuel to restore their old homeworld to its former glory, the Junkion leaders Wreck-Gar and Rum-Maj offered a positron core in return. A Lonely Pillar on the Plain

After the Talisman had rendered much of Cybertron's energon unpalatable for Cybertronian consumption, The Dead Come Home, Part 1 Optimus oversaw the extraction a large Ore-13 deposit in Kentucky. The raw power in the one shipment being enough to power Cybertron and its colony worlds for weeks. Surfeit of Primes

Upon learning that G.I. Joe was deliberately withholding his teleportation powers from him, Skywarp went behind their backs to try and gain the Ore-13 he needed to fix himself. Scarlett's Strike Force #2

Once Unicron had begun consuming the worlds that were seeded with Regenesis ores, Optimus Prime realized the Ore-13 would eventually draw the monster to Earth. Our Darkest

Animated cartoon

Bulkhead compared Ultra-Energon to candy. The AllSpark Almanac

Games

Transformers: Devastation

Ore-13 was used during the cyberforming of Lithone, with the raw substance being injected into the planet's core. Devastation

Transformers: Earth Wars

Ore-13 is a mysterious substance that is an alternative to the Enigma of Combination for activating Combiners. After building a Combiner Lab, the Ore-13 Harvester and Ore-13 Storage can be built. If a player has a complete combiner, 10 Ore-13 is required to activate it and bring it into play for a limited time, however 25 Ore-13 can be used to skip the combiner's cooldown time. Transformers: Earth Wars

Transformers: Forged to Fight

So many pretty colors!

Grey Ore-13 is used to upgrade Transformers and Mods and increase their level. Class-colored Ore-13 gives an extra 25% boost if used on the correct class.

Ore-13 comes in different tier amounts:

• Tier 1 Basic Ore: 75
• Tier 2 Basic Ore: 225
• Tier 3 Basic Ore: 925
• Tier 4 Basic Ore: 4525
• Tier 5 Basic Ore: 19225
• Tier 1 Class Ore: 200 (+50)
• Tier 2 Class Ore: 800 (+200)
• Tier 3 Class Ore: 3000 (+750)
• Tier 4 Class Ore: 12000 (+3000)

Transformers: Forged to Fight

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Ore-13 (オーア13 Ōa Sātīn), Ultra-Energon (ウルトラエナジョン Urutora-Enajon)
• French: Minerai 13 ("Ore 13")

References