Factorio – Infinite Resources

This is a weird concept as the base game had you mining patches that eventually dried up, forcing you to move. Space Age adds more weirdness as resources become infinite if you know where to look. I won’t cover legendary materials here, only the normal ones. You will never need legendary materials to beat the game.

Space

  • Iron, Copper, Ice, Calcite, Carbon, Sulfur are all free in space. You can make Coal too from Carbon. At decent volumes. You’ll likely want a ship that does this above Aquilo.
This thing generates a LOT of items for free. Belt management is key to prevent backups and dump excess.

Nauvis

  • Water is infinite.
  • Uranium is sort of infinite with the Kovarex process.

Vulcanus

  • Iron & Copper are infinite here from Foundries as lava is infinite. At crazy rates too.
  • Stone is infinite here if you create copper plates, dump them into lava, and collect the stone by product.

Fulgora

  • Heavy Oil is infinite.

Gleba

  • Rocket Fuel, Plastic, Bioflux, Nutrients, Iron, and Copper are all infinite here.

Aquilo

  • Ammonia is infinite.

For the material that is NOT infinite, there are a few ways to get more of them and reduce the impacts downstream. I assume legendary modules here, but the benefits are still amazing with normal quality. Know that Speed modules decrease Quality, and that Efficiency modules are all but required until you unlock Plasma Energy.

  • Pumpjacks are interesting. Odds are you want speed to get enough throughput to feed other machines. Productivity (at best) gives -30% speed for 50% bonus. Speed gives 250% boost at max. Your best bet here is to put productivity in the pump and then a beacon with speed.
  • Any minable material should have a Big Miner with productivity modules. Research mining as well, as each is a 10% increase in output for the same amount mined.
  • Recyclers cannot use productivity, but do have research for 10% boost to scrap results. This really only applies to Holmium Ore, which should have a productivity boost on the next step in the production chain making it somewhat irrelevant.
  • In general, you want to use Cryogenic Plants, Electromagnetic Plants, and Foundries instead of their alternatives. The latter two have 4 modules + a 50% boost (which means 150%), and the Cryo Plants allow 8 modules (or 200% boost).
  • A quick note on beacons as the math can get complicated. If more than 1 beacon affects a building, then it has diminishing returns. Assuming a building is hit by only 1 beacon, the effects are 1.5x to 2.5x the value of the module (depending on quality). Use beacons + efficiency to start (buildings cap at -80% power consumption). Late game, legendary beacons + legendary speed modules = 625% speed boost. That level of speed is very likely to generate issues with belts.

The net result here is that Vulcanus has the most amount of infinite base material by a long shot. Infinite material = no need to ship between planets = improved logistics. Add a space platform to farm the missing materials, and it’s even more bonkers.

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