Activate Overdrive when you can keep attacking: it lasts four seconds, halves weapon cooldown and adds 15% base damage. Charge comes from dealt damage, and does not refill during the active window.
Charge through useful damage
Overdrive becomes available when dealt-damage charge reaches its threshold. It resets on activation and cannot refill while active. This makes the timing of each window important in a fight capped at 30 seconds.
If you struggle to charge it, inspect whether your attacks are landing at all. Bad range, turning delays, destroyed weapons or energy starvation can explain slow charge better than a missing upgrade.
Choose a window with weapon uptime
The bonus shortens cooldowns; it does not remove the need to face the enemy, stay in range and supply energy. If you activate while chasing, turning or cooling, part of the four-second duration can pass without useful fire.
For melee, first create contact you can maintain. For ranged weapons, look for a stable firing position and a defense interaction you can exploit. A projectile barrage into a ready Reflector can be the wrong damage plan even during Overdrive.
Compare timing in the replay
Watch the moments just before activation and after it ends. Count whether the weapons actually remain active, whether a module breaks during the burst, and whether enemy Rage forces you away. That identifies whether timing or the build itself is limiting the result.
A practical experiment is to keep the loadout fixed and move activation later by one meaningful event, such as completing a Dash or reaching contact. The strongest timing depends on that matchup; activating immediately on readiness is an option to test rather than a universal rule.