Factorio Basic Factorio Guidebook

The Engineer

Before getting start, here is some basic tips. Patience is golden.

Logistics problems can be very frustration, but it is also very rewarding for solving them.

Simplified and organized

A "spaghetti" type of factory may not be completely bad, but a simple layout can makes logistic problems less of a pain.

Keep an eye on Biters

Biters are extremely hostile and territorial. They will attack your factory in group as soon as the pollution (from your factory) reaches their nest (Unless playing in peaceful mode)

Engineering can be a game of guessing or calculating.

Most logistic problems in the game can be solved by a simple solution (such as "adding more resources!") but sometime they don't, so by understanding ratio and basic math can help a lot.

Any mistake can be deadly

Misplaced the layout by one block can result in an entire factory block to be removed.

The outpost running out of ammo can result in an entire production section to be shut down.

Ran out of electricity can result in the base being overrun by hostile faunas.

One mistake in this game is mostly resulted in something very bad, so be careful!

Resources

No factory can run without resources. And running out of them sometime can be extremely dangerous (like fuels) so watch out!

The line between disorder and order lies in logistics

Your factory will need a lot of raw material. It is your job to keep the supply coming.

Depending on coal power too much is not ideal.

Coals are essential to productivity and electricity. But depending too much on coal means a coal shortage can black out your factory. Having an additional source of electricity like solar or nuclear power can help.

Raw woods, don't throw them away!

Woods can be used as an emergency fuel. Storing them somewhere near a steam power plant and put them in the system when coals are running low.

Use the rail network, you must.

Rail system can deliver a lot of resources in quantity and less cost than an alternative (transport belts/robots). It is vital for engineer to learn how to set them up.

Electricity

Electricity is a life force of factory. Without it, your factory will be shut down and leaded to more problems down the line. There are three ways that electricity can be produced in game : steam power, solar power, and nuclear power, as shown below here.

Steam PowerThe effective ratio of steam power production is :

Offshore pumps Boilers Steam engines Electric mining drills12040 ≤18*

Max electricity output : 36 MW

Solar PowerThe effective ratio of solar power production is :

Solar panels Accumulators10084

Max electricity output : 6 MW (4.2 MW Average)

Max electricity store : 420 MJ*

Note (*) : This power can run a factory with 42 MW/s consumption for 10 second.

Nuclear PowerThere is no solid ratio for nuclear power plant but here is the crucial part :

TypeGiven (per unit)Consumed (per unit)Bonus Nuclear Reactor40 MW1 / 200 sec+40MW neighbor core Heat exchanger~103 Steam/ sec10 MW- Steam turbine5.82 MW60 Steam / sec-

The basic nuclear layout is depending on the neighbor bonus of the reactor, which is :

ReactorOffshore pumpHeat exchanger Steam turbine Output0% (1 reactor)147~40 MW

ReactorOffshore pumpHeat exchanger Steam turbine Output100% (2 reactors)21628~160 MW

ReactorOffshore pumpHeat exchanger Steam turbine Output200% (3 reactors)32848~280 MW

Miscellaneous Electricity info can tell you how much electricity is needed.

You can open an electricity info by clicking on any electric pole nearby or in a map. The first bar (satisfaction) need to be longer than the second bar (production) or your factory will run out of juice (electricity).

A table comparing steam / solar / nuclear power

Comparison Steam Power Solar Power Nuclear Power Power Production Per UnitModerateLowExtremely High PollutionExtremely HighNoneLow Source of powerFuelsDaylightUranium Fuel Cell Technology RequireNoneSolar TechsNuclear Techs Resource InvestmentModerateHighExtremely High Space RequireModerateExtremely HighLow Risk of Faunas AttackExtremely HighNearly ZeroNearly Zero Effect ByFuel ShortageNight TimeUranium Shortage

Both steam and solar power are good combination.

Steam power will keep your factory running at night and stop at day when solar power kicks in, which will save a lot of coal in the process.

Nuclear power will keep burning your nuclear power cell continually!

Once you have nuclear power set up, it is advised to remove other sources of power to avoid wasting your nuclear fuel.

Transport Belts

Transport belts are one of the three method (and the most basic way) in the game to move stuffs around your factory automatically. DO NOT mix items on the same side

Each transport belt have two side (left and right). It is NOT wise to put different items on the same side (unless there can be filtered by well-placed splitters) or else the contaminated belt will cause the line to be stuck and wasted time.

Avoid a 'Spaghetti' transport belts

Curvy main bus* and assembly line may not necessary be ineffective, but straight main bus and assembly line are much more easier to organize and expand.

(*) Note : "Main bus" is an organized pack of transport belt that carry a large various kind of item like a tree trunk which can be broken into branches to feed the resources to assembly lines. it is the most common way to set up a base in Factorio.

A common way to mixing items on the belts is showing in the picture below :

Inserter

Inserters are machines that can put material into assembly machines or others automatically. They will move items from its front (indicated with yellow line) to its back (indicated with yellow arrow) as long as they have electricity/fuels (and are programmed for filter inserters). There are 7 types of inserter, with different color and unique ability :

Type Featured Speed Burner inserter Run with coals / Required no electricity Extremely slow (Normal) inserter Cheap to produce and low power drain Slow Long handed inserter Two tiles range Moderated Fast inserter Faster than normal inserter Fast Filter inserter Can take specific items set by the engineer Fast Stack inserter Can take multiple items at once Fast Filter stack inserter Is Filter and Stack inserter combine Fast

Normal, Fast and Long handed inserter are essential. For instance,

Normal Inserters can provide material for assembling machines with long production time or low priority to lower electricity consumption.

Fast Inserters can provide material for assembling machines with short production time or high priority.

Long Hand Inserters can provide material for assembling machines from other belt, chests, machinery from 2 block away.

Stack inseters are excelled at a train station

They can pick up multiple items at once at high speed; very useful at load/unload cargo.

Inserters will not put unrelated items to its target

For example, they will not put items into an assembling machine that do not required such items (like copper ores into a gear assembly machine), or chests with a limited quota (set within the chest - shown as a red square) or anything but fuels into a fuel-powered machine.

Inserter can interact with anything with item slots as shown in the table below :

Furnaces

Assemble machined

Chemical plant

Lab

Gun turret

Locomotive

Cargo wagon

Vehicles

Boiler

Burner mining drill

Roboport

Centrifuge

Oil refinery

Rocket silo

Chests

Buffer Chest

Active Chest

Passive Chest

Requester Chest

Storage Chest

Techs

Techs provide players with cool stuffs, better equipment, bonus, and advancement to win the game. However, one techs can only be researched at a time (multiple labs only speed the process up) so make it count.

Tech Priority

Priority First Second Machines Advanced Electronics (2)

Automation (3)

Electric Energy Acumulators

Fluid Handling

Logistics (3)

Oil Processing

Rocket Silo

Solar Energy Electric Energy Distribution (2)

Fast Inserter

Nuclear Power

Stack Inserter Crafting Logistic Science Pack

Chemical Science Pack

Production Science Pack

Utility Science Pack

Advanced Material Processing (2)

Advanced Oil Processing

Battery

Concrete

Electric Engine

Electronics

Engine

Explosives

Flammables

Low density structure

Lubricant

Plastics

Robotics

Rocket Control Unit

Rocket Fuel

Steel Processing

Sulfur Processing Circuit Network

Cliff Explosive

Coal liquefaction

Kovarex Enrichment

Landfill

Laser

Logistic System

Military Science Pack

Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing

Optics

Space Science Pack

Uranium Processing Military Military (4) Atomic Bomb

Defender

Distractor

Destroyer

Explosive rocketry

Flamethrower

Rocketry

Uranium Ammo Modules Modules

Productivity Module (3)

Speed Module (3) Effectivity Module (3)

Effect transmission Transportation Railway (Others) Bonus N/A (All Available)

Armor Modules N/A (All Available) Augmentation N/A (All Available) Defense N/A (All Available)

Note : First priority techs are required to build a rocket silo in Factorio.

Second priority techs are improving engineer's quality of life and work.

Rail Transportation

Train systems can transport resources at long range in low cost and quantity. It is required lots of skill to set its layout properly and effectively. A brief train setup procedure is :

Build railways

Connecting your base to your destination with rail. Either by robots (through SHIFT key) or manually place the rail.

Place a train stop

Place train stop on top of the rail at your destination and your base (if didn't have one). The arrow of the train stop MUST match the way of an incoming train, or the train will not dock in.

Setup item loaders

The inserters can be either Fast / Filter inserters or Stack / Stact Filter inserters like this :

Place Rail Chain / Rail signal on crosses and junctions

Rail Chain signals (the blue one) will indicate where the train should stop and set the rail to be a one-way rail (indicated by its arrow).

Rail Signals (the three light one) can be placed beside the Rail Chain signals to set the rail to be a two-way rail again.

In case of junction :

Rail Chain signals' arrow must be pointing toward the crossing / junction.

Rail signals' arrow must be pointing away from the crossing / junction.

Place your locomotives and cargo wagons on the rail

Set a schedule on your locomotives and (optional) set filters by clicking a middle mouse on a specific (empty) slot in the cargo.

Additionally, two or more locomotives can be placed on each sides of cargo to make the train move back and forward in an automatic mode. An example is shown below here :

Note : it is not advice to set up a train like this but using a double rail system instead.

Set off the train

Switch train mode to "Automatic" (in the train GUI) to set off the train.

Avoid sharing a rail between two or more trains

Especially for an inexperienced engineer who never built a multiple-way railway before. Running an experiment on your rail first to prevent a potential disaster or use a double railway instead.

Vehicle

Vehicle can be researched and used for various role with its unique features. General Info of land vehicle:

Type Health Armor Lowest Top Speed Inventory slots Weapon Car 450 Light 87.6 km/h 80 Heavy machine gun Tank 2000 Medium 50.1 km/h 80 Cannon / Flamethrower / HMG Spidertron 3000 Heavy ~46 km/h 80 + 10x6 grid Cannon / Flamethrower / HMG

Weapons :

Type Primary Secondary Support Car --- Mags --- Tank Cannon shells Mags Flamethrower ammo Spitron Rockets x 4 slots --- ---

Tank is good at mid-game

They can be used to crush faunas nests and providing player a additional protection and firepower. But be careful, tanks can get stuck and quickly surrounded by faunas quite easily.

Car is the best vehicle to navigate around

Knowing how to use car properly can help you expanding your base or exploring greatly.

Vehicle are portable.

You can put your vehicles in your inventory at anytime (by hold a RMB on it). But you can't use their extra inventory this way and have to refuel it every time you place them.

Spidertrons can be remotely controlled.

Spidertrons are expensive but can carry and use module equipment and can be ordered to moving around with a remote controller. Which making them a secondary engineer by practice (like using robot, firing laser, repairing, building, etc).

Robots

Robots can help player doing some chores or delivering goodies in a tight spot. How do Logistic chests work :

Type Receive Item From Additional Taken / Recieve Storage Chest Active Provider Chest Engineers' Request / Trash Slots Requester Chest Other Logistic Chests Engineers' Trash Slots Buffer Chest Other Logistic Chests, but blue Engineers' Request / Trash Slots

Passive Provider and Requester Chest are needed for a simple logistic network

Request lists in Requester Chest can be set by cilck on the chest, click in a request slot in the middle of GUI (Graphical user interface), and select the item and number you want.

Here is all info you should know about roboport :

Roboport's green area means the range of Construction robot. Brown area means the range of Construction and Logistic robot.

The brown area need to be connected in order to share robots and networks. The connected roboport will be shown with dash lines.

Construction robots (in Roboport) will take any available items in logistic chests (in its range) to build, repair, and reconstruction.

Logistic robots (in Roboport) will take items in logistic chests to another (in its range).

See the table above to learn how item will be delivered for each chest.

Here is all info about Personal Roboport :

Modular or Power Armors can be modified with a portable roboport to let Construction robots working from your inventory.

You can command your Construction robot (to build) by holding SHIFT key and places the building (in your cursor).

If there is not enough Construction robots in your inventory, A roboport (in range) nearby will sent their robots to complete your order (by using resources in its network).

Construction robots in engineer's inventory with active Personal roboport will exclusively take any items in engineer's inventory to operate.

Biters

You are not alone on this planet. Biters are hostile and will make your life miserable. You need to learn about your enemy as well as yourself, as the wise man once said, "Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories".

Enemy info Land Faunas

BiterRange (m)DamageSpeed (km/h)Health SmallMelee7 (Physical)43.215 MediumMelee15 (Physical)51.875 BigMelee30 (Physical)49.7375 BehemothMelee90 (Physical)64.83000SpitterRange (m)DamageSpeed (km/h)Health Small1312 (Acid)4010 Medium1424 (Acid)35.650 Big1536 (Acid)32.4200 Behemoth1660 (Acid)32.41500WormRange (m)DamageSpeed (km/h)Health Small2536 (Acid)(Static)200 Medium3048 (Acid)(Static)400 Big3872 (Acid)(Static)750 Behemoth4896 (Acid)(Static)750

Faunas Nest

Type Health Spawner 350 Enemy Tactic Biters and Spitter will swarm and overwhelm their enemy in possible quantity.

Biter and Spitter will not give up on attack or defend until they died.

The attack direction are random and not specific.

the number and strength of faunas are depending on pollution level of the world

Spitter and worms will predict and shoot their acid ahead of moving enemy.

Only worms will not move out of faunas' nest and will protect them to the dead.

Weapon And Security System

There are a lot of choices to defend and attack in Factorio. You maybe provide with a pitiful firearm at first but as the tech go, you will get access to more firearms with high caliber and good defensive structures. Use them, plan them, adapt them as you must to survive on the planet and keep the factory grows.

Personal Weapon

Type of weaponType of ammoShooting speedTech Pistol MagsFast (4 / sec)[None] Submachine gun MagsVery Fast (10 / sec) Military 1 Shotgun Shotgun shellsSlow (1 / sec) Military 1 Combat shotgun Shotgun shellsModerate (2 / sec) Military 3 Flamethrower Flamethrower ammosRapid (60 / sec) Flamethrower Rocket launcher RocketsSlow (1 / sec) Rocketry

Support Weapon

Type of weaponBase DamageEffectTech Grenade35 explosionN/A Military 2 Cluster grenade35 explosionExtra grenades Military 4 Land mine250 explosionStun large targets Land mines Slowdown capsuleN/ASlow enemy Military 3 Poison capsule8 poison / secN/A Military 3 Defender drone5 PhysicalN/A Defender Distractor drone7.5 Laser3 units / capsule Distractor Destroyer drone10 Electric5 units / capsule Destroyer

Security Structure

BuildingDamageAccuracySpeedRequired Gun Turret(Depend on Ammo)Always hitFast (10/s) Ammo Laser Turret20 (Laser)Always hitSlow (1.5/s) Electricity Flame Turret3 (Fire) + IgnitionLowRapid (30/s) Oil Artillery turret500 (Area of Effect)Hit on targetSlothful (0.3/s) Artillery shell

Defensive Structure

StructureHealthUsageRequired Stone wall350Barricade Stone wall Gate350Entrance Gate

Combat And Strategy

Fighting biters do not required much of planing since the player always have an upper hand of techs and biters have none but numbers. As long as the factory is well planned and well supplied, you will always win.

Armors / Modular Armors / Armor modules Armor

Type Grid Size Tech Investment Light armor N/A N/A Low Heavy armor N/A Heavy armor Fairly Low Modular armor 5x5 Modular armor Moderate Power armor 7x7 Power armor Slightly High Power armor MK2 10x10 Power armor 2 Extremely High

Armor Modules

Disclaimer : Every Modules with MK2 REQUIRED their weaker one to craft.

Every Modules is stackable, EXCEPT Nightvision and Discharge Defense.

Every Modules REQUIRED their own tech to craft.

Power Generator Power output Grid Taken Solar Panel 10 kW 1x1 Fusion Reactor 750 kW 4x4 Energy Storage Power Capacity Grid Taken Battery 20 MJ 1x2 Battery MK2 100 MJ 1x2 Energy Shield Energy Usage Grid Taken Shield Points Energy Shield 24 kW 2x2 50 Energy Shield MK2 36 kW 2x2 150 Defense Device Energy Usage Grid Taken Damage Laser Defense 600kW 2x2 75 (Range : 15) Discharge Defense [All Available] 2x2 100 (AOE : 8) Equipment Energy Usage Grid Taken Bonus Nightvision 10 kW 3x2 Nightvision Exoskeleton 200 kW 2x4 + 30% Speed Belt immunity 100 kW 1x1 Immovable by Belt Portable Roboport Capacity / Charging Grid Taken Max / Recharge Working Area Roboport 35 MJ / 20 kW 2x2 10 robots / 2 ports 30x30 tiles Roboport MK2 35 MJ / 20 kW 2x2 25 robots / 4 ports 40x40 tiles Strategy Tactic 1 : Maintain your logistic network

You can NOT win over the faunas without a well-supplied and well-maintained base. Reduce all possibility of logistic meltdown (resources shortage / radar shutdown / power outage / worn down defensive line) to make sure the faunas will stand no change against your mighty machinery.

Tactic 2 : Best equipment first

There is no need to safe your best equipment for the later use. Use them as you must.

Tactic 3 : Kill them with fire. Burn the xeno.

Faunas are weak to fire attack. But be careful not to burn a forest down. A wildfire can spread very quickly if left unchecked.

Tactic 4 : No Senseless Massacre

More of fauna nests destroy, the stronger they become. Only destroy their nest if it's necessary (like the nests that are too close to your base/outpost or on needed resources).

Tactic 5 : Always Fortified Your Base

Especially around a power plant or a vital part of base / transportation.

Tactic 6 : Turret Creep

It is not wise to approach faunas nests in the early game. However, with a help of gun turrets; you can somewhat eradicate a small nest without much of injury.

To do a turret creep,

Place turrets near a faunas nest.

Quickly loaded the turret by Shift-click with mags and let the turret do the job.

Get closer and repeated until all the nest is destroyed.

Tactic 7 : Multiple layers walls

Walls can be place double for a better defense line. This tactic was used once in an ancient time to effectively slow down and pull back enemy siege.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=918717124

Basic Factorio Guidebook