A beginers guide - Where do I even start? - Factorio

What is Factorio? 

It is a game about building, maintaining, optimizing, and expanding factories, while also defending yourself against local enemies.

In the game, you play as a highly skilled engineer who has crash-landed on an alien planet. Your goal is to start with almost nothing and gradually progress from chopping trees and mining resources to building a rocket capable of taking you back home.

The very basics

First things first. When starting a new game, you have two different options: Main Game or Game Scenarios.

The Main Game section contains Tutorial and Freeplay.

Tutorial

The Tutorial is a guided playthrough created by the developers to teach new players the basic mechanics of Factorio.

It introduces you to essential game controls and gives you simple explanations of mechanics such as:

• Mining resources
• Smelting ores
• Crafting items
• Using machines
• Automating basic production
• Managing your factory

Personally, I recommend playing through the Tutorial first if you are completely new to Factorio. It provides a good introduction to the basic controls and mechanics without requiring you to figure everything out on your own.

Freeplay

If you choose Freeplay, you are dropped into the main Factorio experience without the same step-by-step guidance provided by the Tutorial.

This is where the real game of Factorio begins.

You start in the Map Generator menu. Here you can set different options for your current playthrough.

At the very top, there is a list of different preset options. For your first playthrough, I recommend using the default option and simply clicking the green Play button.

After the loading cutscene, you get a welcome message. After that, you can do anything you want.

If you press the ALT key, you can see additional information about machines and items. You can also see that the crashed spaceship has some starting resources for you to use.

Your overall progression in the game will look something like this:

Gather resources → Process materials → Automate production → Research technology → Expand your factory → Repeat

Understanding resources

Resources are the foundation of every base in Factorio.

At the very beginning of the game, you will mainly work with Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Stone, and Coal. Later on, you will gain access to Crude Oil and other fluids, while Uranium Ore becomes important during the later stages of the game.

Most solid resources are found in resource patches scattered around the map. Crude Oil is different: it is extracted from oil wells, which can be found throughout the world.

Iron is used in a huge number of recipes and is one of the most important resources throughout the entire game. You will quickly notice that many machines, components, and other materials require iron in some form. At the very start of the game, you have access to Iron, Copper, Stone, and Coal. Later, during the mid game, you get access to Oil and other fluids, and during the mid-to-late game, Uranium becomes available.

It is very important to understand that Factorio's early game is very iron-focused, and almost everything uses iron in some form or another.

Resources are found in patches, while Crude Oil is extracted from oil wells.

Tip: You can inspect resource patches by opening the map with M and hovering your cursor over a resource patch. The game will show information about the resource and its estimated amount.

To gather resources, simply place a Mining Drill on a resource patch, power it, and use transport belts to bring the resources to your desired destination.

Manual crafing vs automation 

Yes, you can craft many items manually in Factorio.

However, some recipes cannot be crafted by the player and require machines, especially more complicated products or recipes involving fluids. Even when manual crafting is possible, you should try to rely on it as little as possible. The Engineer is useful for getting your factory started, but machines are much better at producing items continuously and at scale. If you need the same item repeatedly, manually crafting it will quickly become inefficient.

This is one of the main ideas behind Factorio:

You automate something, and while the machines are working for you, you can focus on other tasks.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with manual crafting, especially during the early stages of a new factory. The important idea is to gradually replace repetitive manual tasks with automated production.

Tip: If you find yourself crafting the same item over and over again, it is probably time to automate it.

Power

Your factory needs power to operate.

In the early game, one of the main ways to generate electricity is through steam power.

The basic setup looks like this:

Here we have an Offshore Pump (1) supplying water to the boiler. We also have a chest of coal with an Inserter (2) feeding coal into the Boiler (3). The boiler uses the coal to heat the water and produce steam. The steam is then used by the Steam Engine (4) to generate power.

Generally, the ratio of boilers to steam engines is 1:2. To one boiler you need to connect two steam engines.

You can then connect your machines to the power network using Power Poles.

As you research new technologies, you will gain access to better power poles and additional methods of power generation. For now, you do not need to worry too much about advanced power systems. Just make sure your factory has enough electricity to keep your machines running.

Belts and inserters

Once you start automating your factory, two things become extremely important:

Transport Belts and Inserters.

Belts are used to transport items around the factory.

Inserters move items between different locations. For example, an inserter can take an iron plate from a belt and place it inside an Assembling Machine.

A simple production line might look like this:

Mining Drill → Furnace → Belt → Inserter → Assembling Machine

Instead of manually moving resources between machines, you can create systems that move everything automatically. This is one of the first major steps toward building a proper automated factory.

Here we have example of a factory using belts to move items from left to right.

Research

Research is one of the main ways you progress in the game. To research technologies, you need to produce the required science packs and then supply them to a Lab. You can open the technology tree by pressing T.

At first, the technology tree can look complicated, but you do not need to understand everything at once. Start with technologies that improve your basic factory and unlock useful machines and recipes.

One of the first important technologies is Automation, which unlocks Assembling Machines.

You will also encounter technologies such as Logistics and Steel Processing, which provide access to better transportation and new materials.

As your factory becomes more advanced, you will need more types of science packs and increasingly complicated production chains.

For now, you only need to understand the basic idea:

Science allows your factory to become more advanced.

Pollution and Enemies

There is one more important thing to keep in mind:

Your factory is not completely safe.

Almost all machines produce some pollution, especially machines that burn fuel. Pollution spreads through the environment and can eventually attract nearby enemies called Biters.

As your factory grows, you will therefore have to think about both production and defense. You can defend yourself using weapons, walls, turrets, and other military technologies. You do not need to build a huge defensive system immediately, but it is important to keep an eye on your surroundings and pollution.

If your starting area has a lot of trees, you may have approximately an hour and a half before the first Biters attack. Otherwise, you may only have about 30–60 minutes.

At first, there may be only two or three enemies, but the attacks will gradually become stronger and more frequent.

Your first goal

Your first factory does not need to be perfect.

In fact, it almost certainly will not be.

Factorio is largely about building something, discovering its problems, and then improving it.