For years, Satisfactory ended at Tier 4, which was more or less the Nuclear phase. In practical terms it was actually the Aluminum phase as Nuclear components were not needed, but there were power scaling issues that made it more complex to attain. Tier 4 was a balancing act, given the power / storage limitations at the time, not to mention the ‘issues’ with managing nuclear waste.

1.0 brought in Tier 5. It also brought Rocket Fuel, dimensional storage, and sommersloops which double productivity. Tier 5 itself brings more space parts but also the practical ability to create Mk6 belts (1200/m which finally supports Mk3 miners that are maxed), portals which allow instant travel across the map (later than I think it should be), and importantly the ability to create Power Shards to boost productivity.

The first time I went through this path I took a more traditional progression path. This second pass through, I opted to make improvements earlier along the progression.

First, I prioritized anything that generated power, specifically coal, fuel and then rocket fuel. Rocket fuel in particular is overly effective at generating power, to the point where Nuclear should be avoided. I did Nuclear in my first 1.0 path, skipping that here saved hours of set up.

Second, I prioritized blueprints. The 4×4 option is surprisingly effective if you apply design principles. The 5×5 option is the only option to get up to Tier 5, buildings are simply too large to fit in the standard layout. The 6×6 option… that’s too small. Or rather the buildings are too big. The Quantum Encoder only fits if it’s diagonal (use a beam laid sideways to make it click). The 5×5 blueprint is life. The auto-connect brought in with 1.1 makes it exceptionally time efficient.

Third, jetpacks + hoverpack. Get these ASAP. Massive quality of life boost.

Fourth, and counter-intuitive, I avoided trains where possible. I did need them for plastic, rubber, aluminum and quartz due to my starting location. When I unlocked drones and packaged rocket fuel, trains were completely deprecated. The reason is quite simple, laying tracks is a friggin’ nightmare. I love trains in Factorio, but this 3D layout here is horrendous. Drones used to only work with batteries, which were a huge pain in the butt to craft and it was a toss up to create those or lay out tracks. Batteries are still a huge pain to craft and you should avoid them at all costs. It’s super simple to package Rocket Fuel, distributing it even more so, and you can have multiple drones head to one location to speed up transfer rates. Trains look cool but are ever more impractical.

Finally, was thinking ahead for processing base material (ingots, concrete, rubber/plastic). I knew that I would unlock alternate recipes that are insanely more efficient, and planned accordingly. I had a ‘base material’ base which gave me construction material up until Steel Pipes. I put it in an out of the way location, with dimensional storage. My main feeds into the production bus were 100% dedicated to the bus, were built on the ground floor (the bus is very high in the air) so that I could eventually move to refineries. The basic recipes are 1:1 ore:ingot. The ‘pure’ recipes are nearly twice as efficient. Planning for this meant not having to tear up large chunks of the factory.

End result is cutting the playthrough time by a good 3/4. No major trains. No turbofuel. No batteries. No nuclear. Blueprints for 99% of the construction. Auto-connect allowing them to easily scale. Nearly all of my playtime instead is spent either building a blueprint or collecting hard drives / mercer spheres / sommersloops. Wildly efficient.

So now what? There’s not really much optimization to do, all my bus lanes are in surplus, with a 5x boost to tier 5 space parts. Anything I do past this is for aesthetics or achievements. I’ve ‘mathed’ it out, now its more about making it look pretty. I could quite honestly spend 1,000 hours making stuff look pretty, it just wouldn’t have any purpose.

Hmm, maybe I’ll just put this aside for a bit.