The Link Amp 
(short for Link Amplifier) is a Portal Mod that increases the maximum length of an outbound Link thrown from the equipped Portal. The item was introduced in Update 1.28.1.
Standard Link Amps exist at Rare and Very Rare rarity. Community studies estimate the Rare Link Amp's 
drop rate at approximately 1 in 500 item rolls. The Very Rare Link Amp 
never drops from Portals and is available exclusively through Passcodes.
The sponsored SoftBank Ultra Link 
is found at Very Rare rarity and adds unique effects to the equipped Portal. Insufficient data is available to estimate its drop rate, but it appears to be approximately 1 in 5 000 item rolls.
Standard Link Amps have 0 stickiness while the sponsored SoftBank Ultra Link has 15% stickiness which is less than a Very Rare Portal Shield 
.
Range Amplification[]
- Main article: Link#Link Range
Each Link Amp or SoftBank Ultra Link applied to a Portal increases the length at which it can link to another Portal.
Applying additional Link Amps to a Portal has diminishing effects. The table to the right summarizes multiple Mods' effect on Link range.
| Deployed Rare Link Amp(s)
|
Range Multipier* |
Deployed Very Rare Link Amp(s)
|
Range Multipier* |
Deployed (Very Rare) SoftBank Ultra Link(s)
|
Range Multipier* | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2x |
|
7x |
|
5x | ||||||||||||||
|
2.5x |
|
8.75x |
|
6.25x | ||||||||||||||
|
2.75x |
|
9.625x |
|
6.875x | ||||||||||||||
|
3x |
|
10.5x |
|
7.5x | ||||||||||||||
* Range depends on the Level of deployed Resonators  , multiplying the standard range by the numbers above gives the amplified range
| |||||||||||||||||||
The range amplification is only relevant to outbound Links. The Mod's presence does not affect other Portals' ability to link into the equipped Portal.
Destroying Link Amps has no effect on existing Links. Existing Links outside the Portal's newly-reduced range will remain standing.
Strategy[]
The Link Amp's role is obvious - throwing extremely long Links to create very large Control Fields Δ. In practice, high-level Portals have Link ranges of hundreds of Kilometers, and few Agents will ever approach the limits within their entire careers. More often than not, Link Amps are found deployed haphazardly onto low-level Portals as an Agent pads out their Engineer numbers.
That said, Link Amps enable impressive region-blanketing Mega-Fields Δ, as well as blocking Links with hard-to-reach anchors. Often, the items can be safely deployed in all four slots, as the anchor's obscure location is protection on its own.
A popular prank is for two Agents to fill capture an enemy's favourite Portal, fill its Resonator slots with L1 Resonators 
, fill its Mod slots with Link Amps , then use a Flip Card to return it to their control. "Pineappling" or "Campfiring" the Portal leaves its owner stuck with an awkward, embarrassing, and largely useless Portal.
SoftBank Ultra Link 
[]
The SoftBank Ultra Link (SBUL) is a sponsored Link Amp introduced in Scanner update 1.79.0 in partnership with the eponymous East Asian telecommunications company.[1]
In addition to increasing the range to which outbound Links can extend, the SoftBank Ultra Link increases the number of outbound Links that can be thrown from the Portal and gives bonus mitigation from each Link.
Increased Link Mitigation[]
The SoftBank Ultra Link provides a Link defense (mitigation) bonus of 1.5x. This means that the mitigation provided by the Portal's Links is multiplied by the bonus. Mitigation in excess of the maximum mitigation amount of 95% resulting from the bonus is treated the same way as excess mitigation from Portal Shields 
. The mitigation bonus is applied only to the Portal on which the SoftBank Ultra Link is deployed. The SoftBank Ultra Link does not provide any mitigation itself but instead modifies the amount of mitigation provided to the the Portal by each Link it establishes.
The SoftBank Ultra Link mitigation bonus does stack if multiple SoftBank Ultra Links are deployed on the same Portal but additional SoftBank Ultra Links provide diminishing benefit similar to other Mods.
Increased Max Outbound Links[]
Each SoftBank Ultra Link equipped to a Portal allows an additional eight outbound Links to be thrown from the Portal. This effect does not diminish like other Mod bonuses, allowing up to 40 Links to be thrown from a single Portal.[2]
| Deployed SoftBank Ultra Link(s)
|
Outbound Links |
Deployed SoftBank Ultra Links
|
Outbound Links | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
16 (+8) |
|
24 (+16) | |||||||||
|
32 (+24) |
|
40 (+32) |
Just like with regular Link Amps , destroying a SoftBank Ultra Link will not cause outbound Links in excess of the Portal's outbound Link limit to collapse although no additional outbound Links can be created until the number of outbound Links falls below the limit or the limit is increased again by deploying a new SoftBank Ultra Link .
Trivia[]
- The maximum length of a Link, using four Very Rare Link Amps , is 6 881.28 km, or about 17.2% of the Earth's equator.
- On 15. March 2018, the longest known Link of 6 881.278 km was created from New Zealand to Easter Island, 99.99997% of the maximum.
Gallery[]
model as seen in the 1.79.0 scanner update
