How to make your factory way better than satisfactory in Satisfactory

GamesSimSatisfactoryHow to make your factory way better than satisfactory in SatisfactoryWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory 1.0

I’m going to open this article with a controversial tip: Don’t play Satisfactory unless you have a surplus of free time, because it could plausibly derail your life. I mean it! One minute you think you’ll build some fun assembly lines, the next you’re 100 hours in thinking about erasing the last dozen hours of progress so you can add, like, one more notch of space between each building just to make your masterwork 5% more aesthetically pleasing. It’s a curse!

Satisfactory explains its basic mechanics quite well, but I’ve sunk enough time into the game to now have some tips I wish I’d known at the start. Let my inefficiencies be your gains!

Play with a friend

I quite enjoy the exploration in Satisfactory, making my way around the huge map to find new places to build, useful items, and constructing ludicrously long roadways or conveyor belts to attach two factory setups to one another. I do like setting up a smooth-running operation, but not as much as my buddy wholivesto see every machine operating at precisely 100% efficiency, not one iota of productivity wasted. He’s happy to break out a calculator to get it just right, where I’m more likely to just build in overkill. I love going off on a mad mission or messing around with vehicles while he’s perfecting our oil power facility. We both get to spend more time doing our favorite stuff, and we make much faster progress working together.

Make sure you’re doing manual crafting the easy way

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory crafting

Let me be very clear: When manually crafting at a crafting bench, only press spacebaronce.Do not hold the spacebar down. It might seem like you need to hold spacebar, but you can just press it one time to initiate building a component. It’ll keep going until you run out of parts. Go grab a drink!

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Build way, way more concrete and iron plates and rods than you think you need

Screws will one day be the bane of your existence.(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory

The very first objectives in Satisfactory will have you mining iron ore to create iron plates and iron rods, and mining limestone to compact into concrete. Initially you’ll have plenty of these parts, because the early quotas for them—which you’ll fulfill to unlock the first several progression tiers—are pretty modest. But iron plates and rods end up getting used in freakingeverything, so the more of them you plan to build from the start, the better.

Don’t worry about it at theverystart of the game. But as soon as you’ve finished Tier 1 and unlocked storage containers, conveyor belt splitters/mergers and foundation pieces (which makes it much easier to align rows of machines), go spend some time expanding and optimizing your iron rod/plate production. Max out two or three iron nodes and then build as many constructors as you can feed to bulk up your output. As soon as you have to start making screws, reinforced plates and more advanced parts that pull on those simple iron components, you’re really going to be thankful you have a healthy surplus.

That surplus will inevitably disappear, inspiring you to build a whole new,biggerfactory to catch up to demand, but that’s kind of the point of the game. Still, making sure you’re well-stocked on iron from the beginning will make the early game smoother.

You’ll also want loads of concrete and iron plates for this next tip.

Exploring to find power slugs and crashed drop pods really pays off

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory power slug

Satisfactory’s map is big and hand-crafted, and it’s covered with two very valuable resources aside from the ones you use to construct your factories. Power slugs, which glow and thus are pretty easy to spot from a distance, can be used to create power shards—key items you insert into your buildings to overclock them and improve their output. You’ll eventually want as many of those as you can get. My favorite way to find them is to load up my inventory with concrete and iron plates, which are used to create foundation floor pieces and ramps, and set out to build my way across gaps and up and down sheer cliff faces, picking up slugs as I spot them. Keep in mind there is fall damage—hence needing to build safe passages for yourself early on, before you gain access to helpful tools like the jetpack.

Learning hotkeys will pay mega dividends

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory hotkeys

There are multiple hotkeys in Satisfactory that feel as essential as Ctrl+Z or Alt+Tab do in everyday computing—especially if you’ve played hours of the game without realizing these superpowers were lurking on your keyboard the whole time. Here’s a few you gotta take advantage of:

You can copy/paste settings between buildings without opening their menus

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Studios)

Satisfactory copy settings

This is another hotkey tip, but significant enough to break out on its own. When you’re laying down a row of 10 (or 100) constructors, it’s a pain to click into each one to select the part you plan to build. They’re all going to be doing the same damn thing! Well there is, indeed, a better way.

Open up one building, select the recipe you want, and then hit Ctrl+C. Close the building’s menu and then just aim at any other building you want to apply the same recipe to and hit Ctrl+V. The settings will copy over, no menu action required. Efficiency!

Train tracks carry power

At some point in Satisfactory you’ll find yourself walking halfway across the map placing power lines to deliver power between outposts or connect up a far-flung coal or oil or nuclear facility to your main base. But there’s a way cooler way to unify your power grid: Trains! Rails convey power, so if you build a train station at each base and lay down some tracks, you can keep everything collectively juiced without defacing nature with a whole bunch of power lines.

I mean, you’ll still be defacing it with monstrous assembly lines and miles of train tracks elevated atop enormous concrete pillars, but hey, fewer cables!

Use the Satisfactory Calculator (or a regular calculator) if you get in deep

(Image credit: Satisfactory Tools)

Satisfactory Tools fan-made calculator

Make it into the mid- or late-game of Satisfactory and you may well find yourself needing (or even wanting) to do some serious math around the inputs and outputs of your production facility. While it’s always possible to just buildmore, a lot of the satisfaction comes in when you have a series of constructors and assemblers and snaking conveyor belts all carrying the absolute maximum number of parts possible, ensuring not an ounce of power or per-second productivity is wasted. This can get pretty complex, requiring you to overclock or underclock certain buildings to balance everything. But there are tools to help you figure out those numbers!

Most popular isSatisfactory Calculator, a community website with data on resource extraction rates and aproduction plannerto help you, well, plan your production.

You can also check out the siteSatisfactory Tools, which offers a similar resource. You can choose what part you want to build or even input the data for an entire factory to get info on your production totals, power usage, etc.

It’s also completely okay not to get this granular with the game if you don’t want to—it’s just an option if you thrive on spreadsheets and eking out 3% productivity boosts.

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The Factorio ‘God Factory’ was one of this year’s greatest gaming feats: ‘Most players will never find themselves hitting the limits of the game. We are.‘Rule the talking movie industry in tycoon game Hollywood Animal

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The Factorio ‘God Factory’ was one of this year’s greatest gaming feats: ‘Most players will never find themselves hitting the limits of the game. We are.’

Screenshot of a movie-making compound from game Hollywood Animal

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LatestCruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you deadSee more latest►

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Play with a friend#

Make sure you’re doing manual crafting the easy way#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Build way, way more concrete and iron plates and rods than you think you need#

Exploring to find power slugs and crashed drop pods really pays off#

Learning hotkeys will pay mega dividends#

You can copy/paste settings between buildings without opening their menus#

Train tracks carry power#

Use the Satisfactory Calculator (or a regular calculator) if you get in deep#

Play with a friend

Make sure you’re doing manual crafting the easy way

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Build way, way more concrete and iron plates and rods than you think you need

Exploring to find power slugs and crashed drop pods really pays off

Learning hotkeys will pay mega dividends

You can copy/paste settings between buildings without opening their menus

Train tracks carry power

Use the Satisfactory Calculator (or a regular calculator) if you get in deep