Welcome to the ultimate beginner’s guide to Factorio! Whether you’re brand new or looking to sharpen your early-game skills, this guide walks you through the fundamentals—from resource gathering and automation to electricity, science, and defending against alien threats.
What Is Factorio?
Factorio is a construction and management simulation game where your goal is to build a vast, automated factory that harvests resources, produces advanced technologies, and eventually launches a rocket into space. Along the way, you’ll tackle resource bottlenecks, defend against alien attacks, and constantly improve your designs.
Setting Up Your World
🌍 World Generator Settings
Before you begin, customize your world for a smoother experience:
- Resource Frequency, Size, Richness: Increase these for a more forgiving start.
- Oil Availability: Crude oil is crucial mid-game—make sure it’s accessible.
- Enemy Settings:
- Peaceful Mode: Enemies won’t attack unless provoked—ideal for learning.
- Reduce Size/Frequency: Makes alien threats more manageable.
- Disable Enemies: For a combat-free experience focused purely on building.
📍 Choosing a Spawn Point
Start in an area with:
- Iron, Copper, Coal, and Stone close together.
- Water nearby for your first steam power setup.
If your map lacks these, regenerate until you find a better starting seed.
Getting Started
🛠️ Initial Setup
- Place Your First Burner Drill:
- Position it on an iron ore patch facing a stone furnace.
- The drill’s output arrow must point directly into the furnace.
- Fuel Your Machines:
- Gather coal or wood to power both the drill and furnace.
- Manually gather more resources to craft additional drills and expand your setup.
🔄 Early Production
- Build more burner drills and furnaces to increase production of:
- Iron and Copper Plates
- Coal (self-fueling coal loops work well!)
- Stone (for boilers, furnaces, and later concrete)
- Prioritize around 4 iron furnaces and 2-3 for copper.
Conveyor Belts & Inserters
🚚 Conveyor Belts
- Belts move materials automatically between machines.
- Ensure belts are facing the correct direction.
- Use splitters and underground belts later for more advanced layouts.
🤖 Inserters
- Move items between belts and machines.
- Start with burner inserters, then upgrade to electric inserters.
- Use long-handed inserters for crossing belts or loading dual-input machines.
Generating Electricity
⚡ Steam Power Basics
- Build the Power Chain:
- Offshore Pump → Boiler → Steam Engine (x2).
- Fuel the Boiler:
- Use belts and inserters to automate coal delivery.
- Power Distribution:
- Place electric poles to connect everything.
- Ensure coverage (blue squares) reaches all powered devices.
🔧 Recommended Setup
- For efficient scaling: 1 offshore pump → 20 boilers → 40 steam engines.
- Automate fuel supply early to prevent power interruptions.
Automating Production
🏗️ Upgraded Mining
- Replace burner drills with electric mining drills as soon as power is stable.
- Use belts to automatically route ore to smelting arrays.
🛠️ Assembly Machines
- Build assembly machines to craft intermediate components like gears and circuits.
- Automate entire production lines using belts and inserters.
Research and Science
🧪 Science Labs
- Build at least two science labs, then power them.
- Manually craft Red Science Packs (Science Pack 1) to begin research.
🔄 Automating Science
- Science Pack 1: Combine iron gears and copper plates in assembly machines.
- Science Pack 2: Requires inserters and belts—start automating them early.
- Feed both packs into labs using belts and inserters for continuous research.
Dealing with Enemies
🛡️ Alien Threats
- Biters: Melee attackers.
- Spitters: Ranged units with acid attacks.
- Worms: Defend nests with high damage.
- Nests: Continuously spawn new enemies.
☣️ Pollution and Aggression
- Factories generate pollution, which draws enemy attention.
- Use trees as natural pollution filters.
- Monitor pollution levels on the map (press Alt + P).
🔫 Defending Your Base
- Gun Turrets: Easy to set up, but require ammo supply.
- Laser Turrets: Powerful, clean, but power-hungry.
- Flamethrowers: Excellent crowd control in chokepoints.
- Kill Boxes: Maze-like defenses that funnel enemies into heavy turret fire.
⏱️ Enemy Expansion
- Enemies attempt to form new bases every 4–60 minutes.
- Stop them by attacking the group before they finish building.
Advanced Tips
🧱 Scaling & Layout
- Keep expanding to meet growing tech demands.
- Avoid bottlenecks by organizing your factory with smart layouts:
- Main Bus: Centralized belt lanes for iron, copper, circuits, etc.
- Dedicated Production Lines: Branch off the bus for specialized manufacturing.
🔄 Experimentation & Flexibility
- Mistakes are part of the process—rebuild and iterate.
- Use blueprints to save and reuse factory designs.
- Explore mods for quality-of-life enhancements once you’re confident.
Conclusion
That wraps up this beginner’s guide to Factorio! The path from hand-mining iron to launching rockets may be long, but it’s filled with rewarding lessons in automation, problem-solving, and creativity.
Take your time, enjoy the learning process, and remember—there’s no one “right” way to build a factory. If this guide helped you, feel free to share your thoughts and subscribe for more helpful content. Good luck, and happy building!
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