UnOff. Factorio FAQ: Goal Check List

Frequently Asked Questions

for the computer game

Factorio

(UnOfficial FAQ: Goal Check List)

www.factorio.com

(official link, though)

Link back to the index.

Q: What are some of the milestones in factory progression? How can I know how well I'm doing?

A: How about this?

0. You've landed on the planet and looked around, determined that your starting area is acceptable (meaning it has good deposits of Iron Ore and Coal, and at least a small amount of Copper Ore and Stone, and some visible Crude Oil, as opposed to an utterly crappy starting area that justifies regenerating the map)
1. You've got at least two Burner Mining Drills on Coal, three pairs of Burner Mining Drill+Stone Furnace on Iron Ore, one Burner Mining Drill+Furnace on Copper Ore, and one Burner Mining Drill mining Stone into a Chest
2. You've set up an elecricity production facility that can easily be expanded to the full 2×13 Boilers and 2×10 Steam Engines (giving 2×5 MW power)
3. You've researched the techs Automation, Logistics and Turrets
4. You've automated the production of Red Magic Science Potions (5 ns), and set up at least some kind of automated smelting of Iron Plates, and use Belts to move Coal from where it's mined to where your power production setup is. You're also wearing Iron Armor, and holding an SMG, you have at least a primitive setup for making Steel Plate and Brick, and you have one Radar auto-mapping the surrounding area for you
5. Automated production of Green Magic Science Potions (6 ns). Plus you're wearing Heavy Armor, and your SMG is now loaded with Armor-Piercing bullets (the red clips), and you've set up several Gun Turrets (initially loaded with normal ammo, the yellow clips) to protect your most vital machines
6. You've placed multiple Pumpjacks on Crude Oil patches, and are refining that, with 1 Storage Tank for Petrol Gas, and at least 1 each for Light Oil and Heavy Oil. You should also have a good furnace setup for making Copper Plates and Steel Plates and a machine setup for making Electric Circuits
7. Automated production of Plastic, Sulphuric Acid and Batteries (4 s). You've now set up some Walls around your base, with Gun Turrets behind those walls (i.e. you've switched from critial point defence to comprehensive all-around perimeter defence)
8. Automated production of Advanced Circuits (the red ones, 8 ns) and the Blue Magic Science Potions (12 ns), baby steps production of Engine Units (20 ns), and Lubricant, and a furnace setup for making Brick (large or small depending on whether you want to pave most of your factory or not)
9. Baby steps production of Processing Units (the blue ones, 20 ns!) and you have made a set of Modular Armor. The production of Electric Engine Units (20 ns) is  now fully automated, and you have switched to Advanced Oil Refining (to get more of the nice Petrol Gas and less of the crappy Heavy Oil)
10. You can now use your Modular Armor to move faster, via Exoskeleton modules. You're also thinking about upgrading to Power Armor MkI, and you've set up to produce Purple Magic Science Potions
11. You're setting up the first few RoboPorts, and have at least a couple dozen each of Construction Robots and Logistics Robots, and you're using those to set up more furnaces for Iron Plate and Steel Plates (and Copper Plate or Brick if needed), as well as for expanding your mining to new patches in anticipation of need
12. Automated production of RoboPorts and Robot Frames and Solar Panels, as well as Accumlators and Substations. This means you can rapidly and easily expand your base, and also start the gradual transition towards independence of fossil fuels as an energy source
13. Your production of both Advanced Circuits and Processing Units is reliably high, enabling you to get started on automated production of Speed Modules and Efficiency Modules (and later also Productivity Modules). Your butt is also encased in a Power Armor MkI, and the idea of upgrading to a Power Armor MkII no longer seems so intimidatingly distant
14. Automated production of Walls, and of either Gun Turrets and ammo or of Laser Turrets, so that you can quickly add defences via Blueprints+Robots as you expand your base
15. Automated production of Concrete, Rocket Fuel and Low Density Structure components, all required in large amounts to achieve the end game Rocket/Satellite launch goal

1 ns is 1 nominal second, the time it'd take to hand-craft the item, but you won't be doing it yourself, no, you'll be using Assembler Machines, mostly the tier 2 ones, and they take 1¹/₃ longer to craft (their crafting speed is 0.75) thus 8 ns is the same as 10²/₃ real seconds. Batteries are made in Chemical Plants, each taking 4s; they can't be hand-crafted.

The reason I've included some crafting times above is to encourage you to go for large-scale production (or at least to go for exapandable production).

E.g.: 4 machines making Advanced Circuits would be making 22.5 per minute, which is disastrously little. Likewise, 2 machines making Engine Units to feed another 2 machines making Electric Engine Units would output only 4.5 Electric Engine per minute, which is a bit low.

I might want 12 or 16 machines making Advanced Circuits (and definitely more for a MP factory!) and 4 or 5 machines making Electric Engine Units (or probably 7 for an ambituous MP factory).

Peter34