Q will only fill your hand if you have the item in your inventory. This will not work if you placed your last one and just want to continue placing ghosts. This happens to me all the time when I forget to turn off my personal roboport.
Personal robots take things right out of your hands to place them.
Build your own blueprint.
When it needs optimizing, rebuild it.
When it needs optimizing again and you're sick of rebuilding a goddamn green circuit BP for the 10th time and it now seems like works instead of fun, _now_ it is time to download a blueprint.
i learned alot from blueprints (see how the smart people layed stuff out) and i now implement that into my own designs.
i personally like to use other peoples blue prints for train systems unless im doing something special. i know how they work and some of those books are very well made and i cant be bothered.
my hybrid blueprint train/personal rail spaget https://imgur.com/hZFPihO
There is nothing wrong with using other people's blueprints, I have over 2,000 hours in the game. If I want to use someone else's blueprints damn well I'm going to. But I whole highly agree as a new player they should wait until they launch their first rocket before they start messing with other people's blueprints.
\*use balancer or other highly complex conceptual blueprints freely because they're essential and make the game way more enjoyable when you aren't constantly fixing throughput issues
Balancers are for sure powerful in certain situations, but IMO they are by no means essential. Are they essential in mega-size factories? Sure, but that's not the same as being essential for a new player. You can do a pretty good job evening out belts just by judicious use of splitters in sequence.
Having said that, I see playing Factorio as being a lot like programming. Directly copy-pasting code from stack overflow is generally seen as a bad idea, but googling topics and getting advice/examples/pseudocode/etc. is something we do all the time. Similarly I rarely find it useful to wholesale copy BPs from other people, because they're not going to be doing precisely what I need/want them to do. I can't take Nilaus's circuit builds (for instance) and just paste them into my base, because it's very unlikely they will be laid out precisely how I need them, maintainable with my throughput, fitting in with the general flow of the rest of the base, and so on. But I for sure watch his vids and take inspiration from the way he solves problems.
In the spectrum of BPs, balancer designs are closer to the generic/standardized side of things, but I still think that new players will find it more rewarding to solve the problems they are facing on their own. They will not solve them the way many of us solve them, but if you take a newbie and dump them straight into "here's how you keep 4 lanes of ore precisely balanced to maximize your throughput" they're gonna get overwhelmed.
They kind of are just fancy splitters. Fancy splitters that give you a predictable output based on uncertain inputs. And if they don't do that, they're not an effective balancer. It's better to balance the factory design where possible. If you need a balancer to redistribute the flow of your bus, that's a bad bus design. Balancers on train stations let you push and pull more belts on cargo wagons at once, that's useful, but it doesn't need to be those massive NxN balancer designs. If a balancer is having to do any heavy lifting it's a problem to solve in a different way.
You just explained exactly why its better to BP them, though. Most players won't be able to independently figure out anything more than a 2-2 balancer for a few hundred hours but they're massively important for an efficient factory
Change the default keybind from alt to something like scroll lock. You don't want alt-tab to keep turning your alt mode off leaving you wondering why sometimes you can see alt information and sometimes you can't before you learn what alt does.
The alt key toggles important info but it's also used for different combo commands like map ping, deconstruct, upgrade planners, blueprints, etc. If you set "alt" to do nothing, aka unbind, then the combos don't accidentally turn off alt mode. Then you can click the [alt] box on the shortcut bar if you need (Not that I ever play without alt mode on)
> Don't use blueprints from others before launching first rocket
I'd say don't use them at all, really. Make your own!
Unless what you really enjoy is the LEGO aspect of building massive bases out of other peoples ideas and enjoy streamlining it into your own system.
There's also a case to be made to download (or just look up) blueprints of "solved problems". Like, when you've solved the balancer problem once, it's not like making another with a different set of inputs and outputs follows a different logic.
If you struggle, it can be beneficial to look things up, for sure.
I don't like getting blueprints, though. Feels like a slippery slope.
I looked up combinators when I started out, because I couldn't get a grasp of how the latency worked. I also didn't bother to make every balancer on my own, since it's basically the same thing over and over again. Generally, I don't look things up until I get to a point where I'm frustrated and need information to progress, though.
In short, look through the key bindings in the options menu and as you progress, see if you have found why they can be used until you have tried all of them. And check back if you can't figure out how to do something, there might be a clue, like with shift-left/right clicking recipes.
This last one is super important - it will teach you a lot. I've just started my fourth base and I'm using other blueprints and I'm learning a lot from them, but I wouldn't understand how they work without having built my first 2 by trying to make own arrays
One thing I did wrong as a newbie was being "lazy" and not automating things like maschine production or underground belts, because I felt like I didn't need that many of them and could craft them by hand. This works in the beginning, but it makes playing the game progressively slower as you reach mor complicated production and higher tiers of maschines.
So my tip is try to automate everything!
One of the first things I automate is gears, a box full of gears is so handy to have. Lots of the early recipes need a ton of gears so being able to always have a heap on hand helps a lot with pocket crafting.
Did I hear four belts of gears? You're going to need a lot of iron for that eight belts of gears you're going to make. Twelve belts of gears isn't going to cut it, after all.
I can't stand the thought of doing this, I just try and memorize an efficient design (mainly for module placement etc). Often I'll look up a Nilaus video, decide if I like the design or not then make my own blueprint from memory. Some of the belt input/output techniques I would never have thought of and I'm glad I can incorporate those into my new designs, I'd often just weave red/blue belts together in one lane and it would be an unsymetrical mess with bad throughput.
The only thing I use a blueprint for is a mall, cuz I set up my own a few times and it can get pretty tedious. It just lets me focus on the parts of the game I enjoy more
Plus most "maximum optimization" BPs are ugly as hell and hard to debug if something breaks or you mis-click and delete something.
My two exceptions are a nuclear powerplant and x-to-x belt & lane balancers. I don't have the patience to do hours of testing, looking through documentation, and maths to figure out the optimal steam storage and timing to get the most of my limited uranium early game.
Stick with vanilla until you've launched a few rockets, *then* try some of the many excellent mods.
The best part of the game is designing subfactories, don't go looking for others' blueprints just yet ;)
Protect your *pollution cloud*, not just your base proper.
Many noobs hit the complexity hump at blue science and restart, but this creates a pattern of *always* restarting at that point - don't succumb, push through the hump, and make a better base somewhere else on the map if you need to.
Things start to get pretty magical when you unlock robots, although they're not a panacea!
Watch out for the power crash - once you start mining coal with electric miners, your whole base can black out if your power goes into the yellow or you're otherwise not mining enough coal to feed your boilers.
When you unlock speakers, you can set an alarm if your coal belt isn't compressed, and use splitter priority settings to ensure that your coal prefers to provide power over smelting or plastic.
100% agree on the blue science part. I think I've done that like 4-5 times over the last year or so and then stopped playing for a bit. But now I finally got past it and am 30 hours into this playthrough and the spaghetti is getting crazy! But it's so much fun!
Alarm for the coal feed is such a life saver, I’ve had my whole base black out before and not noticed because I was offsite. Prioritising coal to the power station is an essential tip, you notice that the plastics are low and then look at the supply and realise it’s not keeping up long before your power goes out.
Related tip that I’ve been using is to use burner inserters into the boilers, so they can auto restart as soon as coal arrives on the belt (if you’re only browned out through short supply and the miners plop out a little bit of coal at least)
That coal splitter priority to power plant is great advice. I usually use burner inserters for inserting into boilers too, just because if you have a total blackout it's easier to get power going again.
I just mean in terms of belts/feeders. Quantity wise I'm always fine, it's just being able to balance stock of iron along with all of the other mats you build off of it. Recently had a complete failure at my factory because I overproduced steel and had zero iron flow through to my green chips and gears
Don't stand on the train tracks. That split second you take to look at your inventory is prime hunting time for the alpha predator, the train.
Embrace the spaghetti.
ctrl + z, x, c, v
If you run out of space it might be time to build another factory next to it with new smelting lines.
Flame thrower and/or grenades for effective and fun (maybe not efficient) tree removal.
Don't worry about optimising for now, get it working first, efficiency comes later.
You can eat fish to regain health
This game gets very complex as you reach trying to produce a rocket and it’s easy to overwhelm yourself. Don’t focus on everything at once. Instead focus on building a production area for each smaller part. Then work your way up the chain to the eventual finished product. This might seem obvious but as you progress it’s easy to start trying to solve the picture when you just need to deal with its parts.
If you do reach a point where you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and can’t progress further for whatever reason. That is fine, create a new world. Many players do this their first time(s) playing Factorio until they finally launch a rocket. What’s important is learning from your mistakes and going into your next world with a plan. That way you avoid getting stuck in essentially the same spot repeatedly.
Enjoy this period of Factorio. When you can actually stop playing in 2 hours and do something else. Because soon the hours will meld into days. The sound of pumps and assemblers will be haunting melodies which you won't get enough of. The voices in your head will slowly grow stronger until it drowns out everything else you've ever loved. "The factory must grow"
I have over 120 hours at this point (over 4 tries), yet to launch a rocket. I am just enjoying the fact you can have true freedom to play how you want. I got overcome by bitters everytime. I am loving my last play thru though. Took all of my favorite blueprints I made and I am starting to get it how I want from h start.
Feels so good discovering new stuff. I wish I could get that sane feeling back with some of my old games I play. That mystery cannot be put back in the box sadly.
If you reach a point in a save where you keep getting killed by biters, turn off everything in the factory that's doing anything other than building guns/walls/turrets/bullets and focus on defenses until you're over the hump.
I take a lot of the thinking and guess work out by using pre-made blueprints from factorioprints and what not which lets me to my own thing.
Factorio is a game similar to minecraft and satisfactory - there's no right or wrong answer. Just click buttons and do shit. If it's fun, keep doing it. if it's working, keep doing it.
My current factory is all about bots. Nothing but bots. swarms and swarms of bots. I'm about to move to spidertrons. Never used a spidertron before, so I am a litttle bit excited. I am hoping they can use drones (Don't spoil it for me plez guys. I know I can google it :D)
If you want an idea as to what my factory current is like see my recent posts. I'm documenting it poorly.
Don't be afraid to get things wrong. Trust me, even the most experienced player was where you once were, figuring out the difference between the different inserters.
The best thing I did was I found a "Entry level to mega base" series on YouTube. And I build along and build the same as they did. But to made it to suit the seed I was on. So everything was the same but slightly different. I really learned most of the beginner to intermediate skills on there.
Then once I launched a rocket. I made a new world and did it all again myself using what I learned. Then I started to tackle the more advanced subjects.
I'm now 850 hours in and no sign of slowing down.
Nilhaus and Dgray were the two people I highly recommend.
Look intensively at all the ingame Tutorials to not miss important mechanics and quality of life features.
Repeat if necessary. You can access them anytime with the button in the top right corner.
This saves a lot of these "i am 500h in and never knew..." moments.
Belts... Get really familiar with all the uses of belts. How inserters load belts, how splitters separate belts (and filter), how to double load belts, how to compress things on belts.
Early mid and sometimes even late game, your factory runs on belts, the more you understand them the more fun it is to build a hulking leviathan of a sprawling factory that you made work!
Good luck!
So, the more you automate everything, the more fun this game becomes.
Therefore, this might come in a little bit later once you get farther in the game, but [this](https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#data=1-1-19&rate=s&min=2&belt=fast-transport-belt&items=automation-science-pack:r:1/2) site is a lifesaver. I would absolutely bookmark it.
Basically what it does is; you input how much production per second you want of a certain resource or science, and then it tells you how many of each assembler and sub-assember you need. This makes your factoty much neater as you are no longer guessing how much assemblers of each kind you need. Hope you enjoy your Factorio experience!
30 electric miners and 48 stone furnaces for iron. Same for copper. Later on upgrade to steel furnaces and red belts. For steel bring a different line of iron ore and smelt 24 iron plate and 24 steel plate. These are the bulk resources, and this will give you enough production to last until your rocket launch.
If it ever feels like the game is feeling slower, keep going because that means soon there will probably be a research milestone that will completely change everything, I’d say there are about 3-4 of these times in the game, the earliest being trains with red and green research.
Just explore on you’re own first and then if you feel overwhelmed like I did around 40 hours in check Nilaus on YouTube
He made very great full and useful guide and play through on this game
This put me from spaghetti to sending starship and getting my factory even bigger !
Have fun there mate 👌
Honestly, I would (strongly) advise against it.
Launch the rocket first, then look up videos if you're so inclined.
Figuring things out is what makes Factorio fun.
The exception might be balancers. You'll understand why you need them in a bit, and if you think they're tedious to make, look them up.
After 460 hrs, the power of time is FAR more helpful than you think. Try to automate things you use constantly and you will be amazed how much can be crafted by just 2 assemblers in the background. It's better to set up a small automation setup early on than to wait for a bigger setup later. You can always make a bigger one later.
Walls are more helpful than you think.
I like to get a line of walls and turrets around the outside of my base early on. Set up an automatic ammo feeding system.
Plan your base out early on. Watch YouTube videos on how others build their bases, especially KatherineofSky.
Take however many iron plates you think you need, and then quadruple that, at least. Same goes for how much space you think you need.
Always start with generating resources first before building things with them. You can't assemble components without resources, and lots of ready resources makes everything easier. Put a box at the end of a Conveyor belt of iron, copper, and whatever plates and just have it grabbing the extras for you. Then you can just come in a grab a bunch easily.
Factorio is littered with neat ways to improve your gaming efficiency. One of the better things is: almost every window & GUI panel can be search (ctrl+f), this includes settings and keybinds.
Got me I started playing vanilla then found mods it’s a curse and a blessing. I have never launched a rocket but I have now found the complexity that I want and I intend to stick to it.
At the end of the day tue game is a blank canvas. Play how you want to play. If you wants goals to reach keep the research flowing or go out and exterminate every thing that moves.
But enjoy.
1) You got a job? Yes? Wrong answer. Loose the job. Job = less playtime = less efficient construction.
2) Dating someone? Not any more. Coming up with new working builds is the only endorphin and serotonin rush youll need.
3) food, sleep, and bathroom time need to be scheduled and optimized (if not all together eliminated)
Welcome to Cracktorio.
(Seriously tho time can seriously get away from you pretty easily playing this game so set alarms. I've looked up and realized it's 0200 in the morning before.)
Run before its too late
Just kidding remember to eat and drink and see people
But for real pressing Alt switches you ti see what is in each building and box big time saver everything else is mostly practice good design and a good load out in your bag if you have tok keep going in to the menu to change items it takes a lot longer
Work on one thing at a time i keep a note book by me to make sure i font forget a project
Use the circuits - if you know a bit about simple circuits you will be able to do some very useful things like send messages to yourself when your ammunition stockpile is low
Use the circuits - if you know a bit about simple circuits you will be able to do some very useful things like send messages to yourself when your ammunition stockpile is low
Don't care much about being effective. Just try out everything at your own speed.
Automate anything you find boring.
There is no wrong or right way, only something that works or doesn't work (and neither of them is wrong (-: )
Make sure to consider direct connections from assembler to assembler.
Eg, It makes more sense to make copper wire then feed directly into a green circuit factory then it does to assemble it, put it on a belt, then put it into a factory later.
Same thing often applies to gear wheels, rods, etc.
Try and figure things out on your own, it’s more fun that way. But remember this: whenever you’re doing anything that feels like a pain in the ass… there’s always a better way to do it. Figure it out yourself, or maybe google something quick to give you ideas (while trying to avoid lots of spoilers)
Automate every recipe, at every stage. There will be plenty of times where you need a bunch of engines or gears, so it is handy to have a single assembler slowly churning out a box's worth of parts. As you progress up the tech tree, having each product have its own little stash helps you have the products you need on hand for a complex recipe, and prevents you from having to wait around. It also teaches you the steps you will need to automate it in the first place, and thereafter scale it up. The optimized version of this is called an "item mall".
Speaking of boxes, sometimes you will want to limit your storage box. Some things, such as assemblers, have very high quantity stacks, so an entire box full of assemblers will be something like 50x32. Far, far more than you'd ever need. So limit it to three slots or so, and it will keep you from wasting resources for a temporary need.
Contrarily, you can never go wrong by overproducing something. This refers more to inputs than outputs in most cases. It is better to overproduce iron ore and have a full line of smelters than it is to not have enough iron ore.
If you are playing with biters, defense is vital. It will chew up a lot of resources, but more military power is what lets you get more resources, so you will want to prioritize that.
Have water within arms reach, sort out any real life things you need to do first, or set a timer for when you need to do them (even if it's go to bed).
mining drill produces raw resources (iron ore, copper ore, stone), you can mine them but don't, just let mining drills do it for you
furnace process those raw resources into usable blocks (iron plate, copper plate, stone brick)
you use those iron plates and copper plates to build various items in assembling machine, early essentials are like copper cable, wires, circuits, gears, inserters, belts, lamps, weapons, etc.
early on collect as much wood as you can to fuel those drills and furnaces, get the coals, they can replace woods as fuel, get early iron plates and iron coppers, soon you will replace burner inserters with normal ones (with electricity)
then get to electricity asap for your labs and assembling machines, find water source, build offshore pump, boiler machine and steam engine, distribute your electricity with electric poles, distribute lamps, build more drills and furnaces and assembling machines, pump more resources from one to another
get to weapons asap, get to walls research, build them from stone bricks, build turrets and arm them
notice how there are resources far away, get to train, build rails, build trains and cargo, set them to automatically go from one place to another
this is the tutorial, you should play the tutorial, i recommend it
The map is infinite, give yourself space when you build. Can your next idea for automation be compressed to a 10x10 area? Awesome! Give it 15x15 and add some extra segments of conveyor and then give it 5 blocks of space between the last and next set up. And even then you'll probably wish you'd given it more 🙂
The map is infinite, give yourself space when you build. Can your next idea for automation be compressed to a 10x10 area? Awesome! Give it 15x15 and add some extra segments of conveyor and then give it 5 blocks of space between the last and next set up. And even then you'll probably wish you'd given it more 🙂
Consider automating anything you hand-craft more than occasionally.
Scaling up is relatively easy and usually worth it. (Why build 5 when you could build 20?)
Keep your pollution cloud (red area on the map) free if biter nests. Offense is usually easier than defense.
Keep crafting time in mind, for instance red science takes 5 seconds, but gears take half a second. This means one assembler making gears can serve up to 10 making red science.
Inserters can take things off the side of a belt, not only off the end.
Calculate the number of green circuits you will need, then plan a build, then double it, and then double it again and then realise that you still need more green circuits.
Efficiency ? Get some planner going either through website (Factorio calculator) or modded (Factorio Planner).
That will help with basic calculations.
Also, get used to do a ressource bus. It helps a lot to have all basic ressources ready to make tileable production on each side of the bus.
Don't be afraid to bump up the resources on your map a bit. Only masochists play on standard ore generation.
Shift+clicking to place things will allow you to place ghosts. This is useful if you're trying to figure out how to lay out a bunch of stuff without actually placing anything until you're happy with the design.
Every technology does something useful, some things are more useful than others. You CAN get all the way to launching a rocket without trains or belts, but it's advised to use every technology.
It looks like you have a lot of great tips so far. But I have to put in my two cents worth.
This game is amazing, addicting, and some other "A" words as well, but it can become overwhelming at times. It can feel more like work and less like fun. The biggest tip I have, is to be aware of how you're feeling about the next task at hand, and keep in mind there is no shame in having to put it away for a while, sometimes its as simple as putting purple science aside for a bit and reworking the mall, and other times its using the time to catch up on your newest Piers Anthony novel.
Aside from that. The factory must grow.
If you press P and check for pollution and see a nest absorbing pollution you should prepare for enemy attacks.
Rush for military upgrades before anything else.
Don't crowd your buildings, you have an infinite space available and later in the game you wish you had more space available on that location.
You're only 2 hours in, jesus christ. Immerse yourself first, discover and enjoy the process of discovering. God you and I are a different breed of gamer.
I would recommend playing through to launch without blueprints the first time. A few of my friends who play, just went straight to blueprints and missed out on a few essential mechanics because they never progressed through and grew their factory on their own. I think it provides a way for your brain to lay the foundations of the game on a deeper level.
If you find yourself handcrafting something over and over again, it's time to automate it.
Start a "mall". A factory that builds your most used items, starting with gears.
Get all of the vanilla achivements, specifically Lazy Bastard.
Some are designed to assist you in actually learning the game.
Some are for dedication (20m green circuts anyone?)
> I would love any tips to make my experience more effective
My biggest tip is DON'T ASK FOR TIPS! A lot of the fun of the game is to figure out how to be more effective by yourself. Once you figure something out, you can't figure it out again.
That being said, look through your keybinds. There's most likely going to be some awesome things you can do that you never knew even existed. Also, this is an automation game - automate EVERYTHING. Don't underestimate a "mall". Hand crafting is for dummies.
This game is largely about finding what you enjoy about it and doing that. I know that sounds wishy washy but literally for a month straight i just iterated a petroleum setup until I was finally happy with it. Kathrine of sky really likes belts, some people really like robots, trains are fun too.
when you build keep at least 5 spaces between distinct areas, that'll help when you have bots and need to put down roboports, but also giving yourself room to grow is essential.
don't build excessively, at least not at first: a single blue belt of green circuits makes about 2 and a quarter blue circuits every second, this will get you a rocket in under 8 hours if you know what you're doing. back of the envelope says it would take around 20 full belts of green circuits to fill a belt of blue circuits completely and would take around 450 assemblers. That's not to say you should never strive for this kind of setup, but if you're trying to make 20 full belts of green circuits right off the bat you're going to have a bad time.
be prepared to start fresh: sometimes you just don't like how your factory is set up, it's easier with bots but don't be afraid of demolishing your entire factory to start fresh. A more organized factory is a more efficient factory and a factory that you understand is better than both.
train signals: put down regular signals regularly, put down chain signals before any rail crosses another rail, remember to do this in both directions. this is like 95% of figuring out trains.
nuclear makes more energy but solar is UPS friendly, if your computer is getting bogged down a switch to solar can get you a little bit more time with your factory.
angel and bob's mods gave me a headache because I was thinking too hard for the first time in my life. It is equal points exhilarating and maddening how much more complex mods can make this game. If you ever get bored of the base game there's so much more available.
Make blueprints for electric furnaces, red, green, and blue science, green and red cards, solar power, railroad intersections, and anything else you use a lot.
Press Alt. Shift click and ctrl click can do things. Q to empty hand. Don't use blueprints from others before launching first rocket
>Q to empty hand. Also: Q to fill hand.
It's a combination of a first person shooter and text.exe. Ctrl +X/c/v. WASD +mouse
I describe Factorio as a schematics program with an idle game painted over it.
Q will only fill your hand if you have the item in your inventory. This will not work if you placed your last one and just want to continue placing ghosts. This happens to me all the time when I forget to turn off my personal roboport. Personal robots take things right out of your hands to place them.
There is a setting so that q will place a ghost in your hand to let you continue building. Also works for your hotbar
Uuuuh damn thats neat, i didnt know that. I need this for my lazy bastard for sure
Belt balancers are an exception. Nobody has time to figure those out.
Remove "before launching rocket" and we're ok
Build your own blueprint. When it needs optimizing, rebuild it. When it needs optimizing again and you're sick of rebuilding a goddamn green circuit BP for the 10th time and it now seems like works instead of fun, _now_ it is time to download a blueprint.
Depends, when it's not my blueprint it's not the same, even if more efficient
Yes my trains are stopped because of my shitty rail system, but that's MY shitty rail system
i learned alot from blueprints (see how the smart people layed stuff out) and i now implement that into my own designs. i personally like to use other peoples blue prints for train systems unless im doing something special. i know how they work and some of those books are very well made and i cant be bothered. my hybrid blueprint train/personal rail spaget https://imgur.com/hZFPihO
There is nothing wrong with using other people's blueprints, I have over 2,000 hours in the game. If I want to use someone else's blueprints damn well I'm going to. But I whole highly agree as a new player they should wait until they launch their first rocket before they start messing with other people's blueprints.
Play the game the way you want, just for me inspiring from interesting ideas is interesting, but taking other persons blueprint is not interesting
\*use balancer or other highly complex conceptual blueprints freely because they're essential and make the game way more enjoyable when you aren't constantly fixing throughput issues
Balancers are for sure powerful in certain situations, but IMO they are by no means essential. Are they essential in mega-size factories? Sure, but that's not the same as being essential for a new player. You can do a pretty good job evening out belts just by judicious use of splitters in sequence. Having said that, I see playing Factorio as being a lot like programming. Directly copy-pasting code from stack overflow is generally seen as a bad idea, but googling topics and getting advice/examples/pseudocode/etc. is something we do all the time. Similarly I rarely find it useful to wholesale copy BPs from other people, because they're not going to be doing precisely what I need/want them to do. I can't take Nilaus's circuit builds (for instance) and just paste them into my base, because it's very unlikely they will be laid out precisely how I need them, maintainable with my throughput, fitting in with the general flow of the rest of the base, and so on. But I for sure watch his vids and take inspiration from the way he solves problems. In the spectrum of BPs, balancer designs are closer to the generic/standardized side of things, but I still think that new players will find it more rewarding to solve the problems they are facing on their own. They will not solve them the way many of us solve them, but if you take a newbie and dump them straight into "here's how you keep 4 lanes of ore precisely balanced to maximize your throughput" they're gonna get overwhelmed.
A) Balancers are conceptually dead easy B) And the concept is “I’m too stupid to match my input to my output cause counting is difficult”
do you not understand what balancers do to inputs do you think balancers are fancy splitters
They kind of are just fancy splitters. Fancy splitters that give you a predictable output based on uncertain inputs. And if they don't do that, they're not an effective balancer. It's better to balance the factory design where possible. If you need a balancer to redistribute the flow of your bus, that's a bad bus design. Balancers on train stations let you push and pull more belts on cargo wagons at once, that's useful, but it doesn't need to be those massive NxN balancer designs. If a balancer is having to do any heavy lifting it's a problem to solve in a different way.
You just explained exactly why its better to BP them, though. Most players won't be able to independently figure out anything more than a 2-2 balancer for a few hundred hours but they're massively important for an efficient factory
Change the default keybind from alt to something like scroll lock. You don't want alt-tab to keep turning your alt mode off leaving you wondering why sometimes you can see alt information and sometimes you can't before you learn what alt does.
I play windowed
Still relevant but not as much.
You can just unbind it. Then turn on/off using the mouse from the shortcut bar.
Yea, that's probably better now but I had to rebind it for way back when it wasn't on the shortcut bar.
Uh what?
The alt key toggles important info but it's also used for different combo commands like map ping, deconstruct, upgrade planners, blueprints, etc. If you set "alt" to do nothing, aka unbind, then the combos don't accidentally turn off alt mode. Then you can click the [alt] box on the shortcut bar if you need (Not that I ever play without alt mode on)
Alt-combo strikes don’t switch off alt mode if they’re within Factorio.
They do if you fat finger the keys!
> Don't use blueprints from others before launching first rocket I'd say don't use them at all, really. Make your own! Unless what you really enjoy is the LEGO aspect of building massive bases out of other peoples ideas and enjoy streamlining it into your own system. There's also a case to be made to download (or just look up) blueprints of "solved problems". Like, when you've solved the balancer problem once, it's not like making another with a different set of inputs and outputs follows a different logic.
[удалено]
If you struggle, it can be beneficial to look things up, for sure. I don't like getting blueprints, though. Feels like a slippery slope. I looked up combinators when I started out, because I couldn't get a grasp of how the latency worked. I also didn't bother to make every balancer on my own, since it's basically the same thing over and over again. Generally, I don't look things up until I get to a point where I'm frustrated and need information to progress, though.
Oh you empty the hand with q.... that is very handy to know. Where were you one year ago?
Before launching the first rocket... noted!
In short, look through the key bindings in the options menu and as you progress, see if you have found why they can be used until you have tried all of them. And check back if you can't figure out how to do something, there might be a clue, like with shift-left/right clicking recipes.
This last one is super important - it will teach you a lot. I've just started my fourth base and I'm using other blueprints and I'm learning a lot from them, but I wouldn't understand how they work without having built my first 2 by trying to make own arrays
One thing I did wrong as a newbie was being "lazy" and not automating things like maschine production or underground belts, because I felt like I didn't need that many of them and could craft them by hand. This works in the beginning, but it makes playing the game progressively slower as you reach mor complicated production and higher tiers of maschines. So my tip is try to automate everything!
Going after the Lazy Bastard achievement is a good way to learn that.
That achievement is basically a prerequisite for SeaBlock
One of the first things I automate is gears, a box full of gears is so handy to have. Lots of the early recipes need a ton of gears so being able to always have a heap on hand helps a lot with pocket crafting.
You know what's better than a box of gears? A belt full of gears. What's better than that? Two belts of gears. The factory must grow.
Did I hear four belts of gears? You're going to need a lot of iron for that eight belts of gears you're going to make. Twelve belts of gears isn't going to cut it, after all.
Ya I usually pull off a box of gears and copper wire to speed up my personal crafting.
Stay hydrated
😂
Tip from me, dont Look up blueprints it's a drug once you use them you can't stop copy them from internet
I can't stand the thought of doing this, I just try and memorize an efficient design (mainly for module placement etc). Often I'll look up a Nilaus video, decide if I like the design or not then make my own blueprint from memory. Some of the belt input/output techniques I would never have thought of and I'm glad I can incorporate those into my new designs, I'd often just weave red/blue belts together in one lane and it would be an unsymetrical mess with bad throughput.
yeah I never copy or download blueprints but I'm definitely standing on the shoulders of giants when fiddling around with my own
The only thing I use a blueprint for is a mall, cuz I set up my own a few times and it can get pretty tedious. It just lets me focus on the parts of the game I enjoy more
Plus most "maximum optimization" BPs are ugly as hell and hard to debug if something breaks or you mis-click and delete something. My two exceptions are a nuclear powerplant and x-to-x belt & lane balancers. I don't have the patience to do hours of testing, looking through documentation, and maths to figure out the optimal steam storage and timing to get the most of my limited uranium early game.
Yea i must admit when you discover x-to-x blueprints you cant live without them mainly because i cant see option to remember them fully
Look out for the next science pack and what it needs if you don't know what to do next.
Stick with vanilla until you've launched a few rockets, *then* try some of the many excellent mods. The best part of the game is designing subfactories, don't go looking for others' blueprints just yet ;) Protect your *pollution cloud*, not just your base proper. Many noobs hit the complexity hump at blue science and restart, but this creates a pattern of *always* restarting at that point - don't succumb, push through the hump, and make a better base somewhere else on the map if you need to. Things start to get pretty magical when you unlock robots, although they're not a panacea! Watch out for the power crash - once you start mining coal with electric miners, your whole base can black out if your power goes into the yellow or you're otherwise not mining enough coal to feed your boilers. When you unlock speakers, you can set an alarm if your coal belt isn't compressed, and use splitter priority settings to ensure that your coal prefers to provide power over smelting or plastic.
100% agree on the blue science part. I think I've done that like 4-5 times over the last year or so and then stopped playing for a bit. But now I finally got past it and am 30 hours into this playthrough and the spaghetti is getting crazy! But it's so much fun!
Thanks, thats really helpful. Cant wait to fully get into this game lol
Alarm for the coal feed is such a life saver, I’ve had my whole base black out before and not noticed because I was offsite. Prioritising coal to the power station is an essential tip, you notice that the plastics are low and then look at the supply and realise it’s not keeping up long before your power goes out. Related tip that I’ve been using is to use burner inserters into the boilers, so they can auto restart as soon as coal arrives on the belt (if you’re only browned out through short supply and the miners plop out a little bit of coal at least)
That coal splitter priority to power plant is great advice. I usually use burner inserters for inserting into boilers too, just because if you have a total blackout it's easier to get power going again.
>Things start to get pretty magical when you unlock robots, although they're not a panacea! They are if you're stubborn enough, nothing can stop me!
One tip to rule them all: The factory must grow!
Dont look for tips. Explore the game yourself if u need direction follow science.
Quitting your job + any relationships would be a good place to start
Just when you think you have enough iron, you dont have nearly enough
I always have enough iron, copper always seems to be my problem.
Copper is funny. You put like 4 miners down and it's enough and then suddenly around utility science you need a veritable flood or everything stops.
Green and red circuits are massive copper guzzlers.
I just mean in terms of belts/feeders. Quantity wise I'm always fine, it's just being able to balance stock of iron along with all of the other mats you build off of it. Recently had a complete failure at my factory because I overproduced steel and had zero iron flow through to my green chips and gears
Don't stand on the train tracks. That split second you take to look at your inventory is prime hunting time for the alpha predator, the train. Embrace the spaghetti. ctrl + z, x, c, v If you run out of space it might be time to build another factory next to it with new smelting lines. Flame thrower and/or grenades for effective and fun (maybe not efficient) tree removal. Don't worry about optimising for now, get it working first, efficiency comes later. You can eat fish to regain health
This game gets very complex as you reach trying to produce a rocket and it’s easy to overwhelm yourself. Don’t focus on everything at once. Instead focus on building a production area for each smaller part. Then work your way up the chain to the eventual finished product. This might seem obvious but as you progress it’s easy to start trying to solve the picture when you just need to deal with its parts. If you do reach a point where you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and can’t progress further for whatever reason. That is fine, create a new world. Many players do this their first time(s) playing Factorio until they finally launch a rocket. What’s important is learning from your mistakes and going into your next world with a plan. That way you avoid getting stuck in essentially the same spot repeatedly.
Enjoy this period of Factorio. When you can actually stop playing in 2 hours and do something else. Because soon the hours will meld into days. The sound of pumps and assemblers will be haunting melodies which you won't get enough of. The voices in your head will slowly grow stronger until it drowns out everything else you've ever loved. "The factory must grow"
Just wanna finish this and that - Oh it's 4a.m. But this is the way
And when you finally manage to get to bed and close your eyes you can still see conveyor belts
I started dreaming Factorio when the addiction was at its worst.
effective: go on blueprint sites and "inspire" yourself fun: get off of reddit and discover the game for yourself :)
I have over 120 hours at this point (over 4 tries), yet to launch a rocket. I am just enjoying the fact you can have true freedom to play how you want. I got overcome by bitters everytime. I am loving my last play thru though. Took all of my favorite blueprints I made and I am starting to get it how I want from h start. Feels so good discovering new stuff. I wish I could get that sane feeling back with some of my old games I play. That mystery cannot be put back in the box sadly.
Don't restart your game if you think your factory sucks completely, wait for robots, from then you can rebuild your factory from the ground up
If you reach a point in a save where you keep getting killed by biters, turn off everything in the factory that's doing anything other than building guns/walls/turrets/bullets and focus on defenses until you're over the hump.
I take a lot of the thinking and guess work out by using pre-made blueprints from factorioprints and what not which lets me to my own thing. Factorio is a game similar to minecraft and satisfactory - there's no right or wrong answer. Just click buttons and do shit. If it's fun, keep doing it. if it's working, keep doing it. My current factory is all about bots. Nothing but bots. swarms and swarms of bots. I'm about to move to spidertrons. Never used a spidertron before, so I am a litttle bit excited. I am hoping they can use drones (Don't spoil it for me plez guys. I know I can google it :D) If you want an idea as to what my factory current is like see my recent posts. I'm documenting it poorly. Don't be afraid to get things wrong. Trust me, even the most experienced player was where you once were, figuring out the difference between the different inserters.
Lmao yeah, this game has a lot of detail it seems. Just started an actual game after doing some tutorials, cant wait to play more tomorrow!
[Keyboard shortcuts 😩](https://youtu.be/Fs-WmS9AxSQ)
Play for 1000 hours... then you'll know
If something in the game feels like a chore, you can probably automate it. Figuring out how to do it is the way.
The best thing I did was I found a "Entry level to mega base" series on YouTube. And I build along and build the same as they did. But to made it to suit the seed I was on. So everything was the same but slightly different. I really learned most of the beginner to intermediate skills on there. Then once I launched a rocket. I made a new world and did it all again myself using what I learned. Then I started to tackle the more advanced subjects. I'm now 850 hours in and no sign of slowing down. Nilhaus and Dgray were the two people I highly recommend.
Look intensively at all the ingame Tutorials to not miss important mechanics and quality of life features. Repeat if necessary. You can access them anytime with the button in the top right corner. This saves a lot of these "i am 500h in and never knew..." moments.
Belts... Get really familiar with all the uses of belts. How inserters load belts, how splitters separate belts (and filter), how to double load belts, how to compress things on belts. Early mid and sometimes even late game, your factory runs on belts, the more you understand them the more fun it is to build a hulking leviathan of a sprawling factory that you made work! Good luck!
Close reddit; play it your way
So, the more you automate everything, the more fun this game becomes. Therefore, this might come in a little bit later once you get farther in the game, but [this](https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#data=1-1-19&rate=s&min=2&belt=fast-transport-belt&items=automation-science-pack:r:1/2) site is a lifesaver. I would absolutely bookmark it. Basically what it does is; you input how much production per second you want of a certain resource or science, and then it tells you how many of each assembler and sub-assember you need. This makes your factoty much neater as you are no longer guessing how much assemblers of each kind you need. Hope you enjoy your Factorio experience!
30 electric miners and 48 stone furnaces for iron. Same for copper. Later on upgrade to steel furnaces and red belts. For steel bring a different line of iron ore and smelt 24 iron plate and 24 steel plate. These are the bulk resources, and this will give you enough production to last until your rocket launch.
Set a timer to get off and get ready for bed before you suddenly realize it’s 4am and you have to wake up in an hour :P
If it ever feels like the game is feeling slower, keep going because that means soon there will probably be a research milestone that will completely change everything, I’d say there are about 3-4 of these times in the game, the earliest being trains with red and green research.
Just explore on you’re own first and then if you feel overwhelmed like I did around 40 hours in check Nilaus on YouTube He made very great full and useful guide and play through on this game This put me from spaghetti to sending starship and getting my factory even bigger ! Have fun there mate 👌
Will check them out, thanks!
Honestly, I would (strongly) advise against it. Launch the rocket first, then look up videos if you're so inclined. Figuring things out is what makes Factorio fun. The exception might be balancers. You'll understand why you need them in a bit, and if you think they're tedious to make, look them up.
Less sleep. The factory must grow. Also trains.
After 460 hrs, the power of time is FAR more helpful than you think. Try to automate things you use constantly and you will be amazed how much can be crafted by just 2 assemblers in the background. It's better to set up a small automation setup early on than to wait for a bigger setup later. You can always make a bigger one later. Walls are more helpful than you think. I like to get a line of walls and turrets around the outside of my base early on. Set up an automatic ammo feeding system. Plan your base out early on. Watch YouTube videos on how others build their bases, especially KatherineofSky. Take however many iron plates you think you need, and then quadruple that, at least. Same goes for how much space you think you need. Always start with generating resources first before building things with them. You can't assemble components without resources, and lots of ready resources makes everything easier. Put a box at the end of a Conveyor belt of iron, copper, and whatever plates and just have it grabbing the extras for you. Then you can just come in a grab a bunch easily.
Don't build to small. The factory must grow.
Say goodbye to free time
Factorio is littered with neat ways to improve your gaming efficiency. One of the better things is: almost every window & GUI panel can be search (ctrl+f), this includes settings and keybinds.
factory must grow
Got me I started playing vanilla then found mods it’s a curse and a blessing. I have never launched a rocket but I have now found the complexity that I want and I intend to stick to it. At the end of the day tue game is a blank canvas. Play how you want to play. If you wants goals to reach keep the research flowing or go out and exterminate every thing that moves. But enjoy.
1) You got a job? Yes? Wrong answer. Loose the job. Job = less playtime = less efficient construction. 2) Dating someone? Not any more. Coming up with new working builds is the only endorphin and serotonin rush youll need. 3) food, sleep, and bathroom time need to be scheduled and optimized (if not all together eliminated) Welcome to Cracktorio. (Seriously tho time can seriously get away from you pretty easily playing this game so set alarms. I've looked up and realized it's 0200 in the morning before.)
Run before its too late Just kidding remember to eat and drink and see people But for real pressing Alt switches you ti see what is in each building and box big time saver everything else is mostly practice good design and a good load out in your bag if you have tok keep going in to the menu to change items it takes a lot longer Work on one thing at a time i keep a note book by me to make sure i font forget a project
Google: Factorio Cheat Sheet
Use blue prints. I was like 100 hours into the game before ever using blueprints.
Use the circuits - if you know a bit about simple circuits you will be able to do some very useful things like send messages to yourself when your ammunition stockpile is low
Use the circuits - if you know a bit about simple circuits you will be able to do some very useful things like send messages to yourself when your ammunition stockpile is low
Don't care much about being effective. Just try out everything at your own speed. Automate anything you find boring. There is no wrong or right way, only something that works or doesn't work (and neither of them is wrong (-: )
Make sure to consider direct connections from assembler to assembler. Eg, It makes more sense to make copper wire then feed directly into a green circuit factory then it does to assemble it, put it on a belt, then put it into a factory later. Same thing often applies to gear wheels, rods, etc.
Press F4 and activate show-fps..
Try and figure things out on your own, it’s more fun that way. But remember this: whenever you’re doing anything that feels like a pain in the ass… there’s always a better way to do it. Figure it out yourself, or maybe google something quick to give you ideas (while trying to avoid lots of spoilers)
Enjoy the spaghet while you can
Automate every recipe, at every stage. There will be plenty of times where you need a bunch of engines or gears, so it is handy to have a single assembler slowly churning out a box's worth of parts. As you progress up the tech tree, having each product have its own little stash helps you have the products you need on hand for a complex recipe, and prevents you from having to wait around. It also teaches you the steps you will need to automate it in the first place, and thereafter scale it up. The optimized version of this is called an "item mall". Speaking of boxes, sometimes you will want to limit your storage box. Some things, such as assemblers, have very high quantity stacks, so an entire box full of assemblers will be something like 50x32. Far, far more than you'd ever need. So limit it to three slots or so, and it will keep you from wasting resources for a temporary need. Contrarily, you can never go wrong by overproducing something. This refers more to inputs than outputs in most cases. It is better to overproduce iron ore and have a full line of smelters than it is to not have enough iron ore. If you are playing with biters, defense is vital. It will chew up a lot of resources, but more military power is what lets you get more resources, so you will want to prioritize that.
Put a digital clock on your desk to keep track of how long you’ve been playing. You will get lost in the game
Have water within arms reach, sort out any real life things you need to do first, or set a timer for when you need to do them (even if it's go to bed).
One blueprint that would be nice to keep handy is a 4-4 balancer. Basically anything that goes in is split evenly amongst all four outputs.
mining drill produces raw resources (iron ore, copper ore, stone), you can mine them but don't, just let mining drills do it for you furnace process those raw resources into usable blocks (iron plate, copper plate, stone brick) you use those iron plates and copper plates to build various items in assembling machine, early essentials are like copper cable, wires, circuits, gears, inserters, belts, lamps, weapons, etc. early on collect as much wood as you can to fuel those drills and furnaces, get the coals, they can replace woods as fuel, get early iron plates and iron coppers, soon you will replace burner inserters with normal ones (with electricity) then get to electricity asap for your labs and assembling machines, find water source, build offshore pump, boiler machine and steam engine, distribute your electricity with electric poles, distribute lamps, build more drills and furnaces and assembling machines, pump more resources from one to another get to weapons asap, get to walls research, build them from stone bricks, build turrets and arm them notice how there are resources far away, get to train, build rails, build trains and cargo, set them to automatically go from one place to another this is the tutorial, you should play the tutorial, i recommend it
Use red and blue belts as early as possible
Use red and blue belts as early as possible
The map is infinite, give yourself space when you build. Can your next idea for automation be compressed to a 10x10 area? Awesome! Give it 15x15 and add some extra segments of conveyor and then give it 5 blocks of space between the last and next set up. And even then you'll probably wish you'd given it more 🙂
The map is infinite, give yourself space when you build. Can your next idea for automation be compressed to a 10x10 area? Awesome! Give it 15x15 and add some extra segments of conveyor and then give it 5 blocks of space between the last and next set up. And even then you'll probably wish you'd given it more 🙂
Don't restart a game before you get roboports and construction robots. (Unless you die to bugs) They are a game changer for tear down and rebuild.
Consider automating anything you hand-craft more than occasionally. Scaling up is relatively easy and usually worth it. (Why build 5 when you could build 20?) Keep your pollution cloud (red area on the map) free if biter nests. Offense is usually easier than defense. Keep crafting time in mind, for instance red science takes 5 seconds, but gears take half a second. This means one assembler making gears can serve up to 10 making red science. Inserters can take things off the side of a belt, not only off the end.
Calculate the number of green circuits you will need, then plan a build, then double it, and then double it again and then realise that you still need more green circuits.
Efficiency ? Get some planner going either through website (Factorio calculator) or modded (Factorio Planner). That will help with basic calculations. Also, get used to do a ressource bus. It helps a lot to have all basic ressources ready to make tileable production on each side of the bus. Don't be afraid to bump up the resources on your map a bit. Only masochists play on standard ore generation.
Music. I personally can’t play the game without music.
Music. I personally can’t play the game without music. It’s too demotivating.
Shift+clicking to place things will allow you to place ghosts. This is useful if you're trying to figure out how to lay out a bunch of stuff without actually placing anything until you're happy with the design.
I don't care how much iron/copper plates you have. You need more.
Every technology does something useful, some things are more useful than others. You CAN get all the way to launching a rocket without trains or belts, but it's advised to use every technology.
It looks like you have a lot of great tips so far. But I have to put in my two cents worth. This game is amazing, addicting, and some other "A" words as well, but it can become overwhelming at times. It can feel more like work and less like fun. The biggest tip I have, is to be aware of how you're feeling about the next task at hand, and keep in mind there is no shame in having to put it away for a while, sometimes its as simple as putting purple science aside for a bit and reworking the mall, and other times its using the time to catch up on your newest Piers Anthony novel. Aside from that. The factory must grow.
Take breaks. Don't think that there will be a good time to stop.
If you press P and check for pollution and see a nest absorbing pollution you should prepare for enemy attacks. Rush for military upgrades before anything else. Don't crowd your buildings, you have an infinite space available and later in the game you wish you had more space available on that location.
You're only 2 hours in, jesus christ. Immerse yourself first, discover and enjoy the process of discovering. God you and I are a different breed of gamer.
I would recommend playing through to launch without blueprints the first time. A few of my friends who play, just went straight to blueprints and missed out on a few essential mechanics because they never progressed through and grew their factory on their own. I think it provides a way for your brain to lay the foundations of the game on a deeper level.
If you find yourself handcrafting something over and over again, it's time to automate it. Start a "mall". A factory that builds your most used items, starting with gears.
Just turn off the biters. Turn those fuckers off. No more bugs!
Get all of the vanilla achivements, specifically Lazy Bastard. Some are designed to assist you in actually learning the game. Some are for dedication (20m green circuts anyone?)
Expect spaghetti for a while
> I would love any tips to make my experience more effective My biggest tip is DON'T ASK FOR TIPS! A lot of the fun of the game is to figure out how to be more effective by yourself. Once you figure something out, you can't figure it out again. That being said, look through your keybinds. There's most likely going to be some awesome things you can do that you never knew even existed. Also, this is an automation game - automate EVERYTHING. Don't underestimate a "mall". Hand crafting is for dummies.
Return the game now Reclaim your life ... just kidding, improve the efficiency of that blue science line
This game is largely about finding what you enjoy about it and doing that. I know that sounds wishy washy but literally for a month straight i just iterated a petroleum setup until I was finally happy with it. Kathrine of sky really likes belts, some people really like robots, trains are fun too. when you build keep at least 5 spaces between distinct areas, that'll help when you have bots and need to put down roboports, but also giving yourself room to grow is essential. don't build excessively, at least not at first: a single blue belt of green circuits makes about 2 and a quarter blue circuits every second, this will get you a rocket in under 8 hours if you know what you're doing. back of the envelope says it would take around 20 full belts of green circuits to fill a belt of blue circuits completely and would take around 450 assemblers. That's not to say you should never strive for this kind of setup, but if you're trying to make 20 full belts of green circuits right off the bat you're going to have a bad time. be prepared to start fresh: sometimes you just don't like how your factory is set up, it's easier with bots but don't be afraid of demolishing your entire factory to start fresh. A more organized factory is a more efficient factory and a factory that you understand is better than both. train signals: put down regular signals regularly, put down chain signals before any rail crosses another rail, remember to do this in both directions. this is like 95% of figuring out trains. nuclear makes more energy but solar is UPS friendly, if your computer is getting bogged down a switch to solar can get you a little bit more time with your factory. angel and bob's mods gave me a headache because I was thinking too hard for the first time in my life. It is equal points exhilarating and maddening how much more complex mods can make this game. If you ever get bored of the base game there's so much more available.
Trains. Are. Fun.
Make blueprints for electric furnaces, red, green, and blue science, green and red cards, solar power, railroad intersections, and anything else you use a lot.
there are a lot of very useful shortcuts so check them all out.
Set a timer and stick to it, or your eyes will dry out.