Is it just me, or are power demands *really* difficult to meet in mid-game contexts?

[Atrocious]

I'm somewhat new to Satisfactory, though I've been playing this game a lot for the past few days I've owned it. I've already managed to get the Space Elevator set up and have gotten past the first Space Elevator assignment, but now I've run into a problem: my power demands are now incredibly hard to meet. I have a mechanism for automated processing of processing leaves and wood into Biofuel, but it's always a bit of a slog, having to go out all the time to harvest leaves a kilometer away from your Hub.

Right now, I'm in a state where no three of my Biogenerators can be active at once anymore. I've been desperately trying to ration out my Biofuel, but that only makes everything else run out quicker, and so now almost nothing is working anymore. Does anyone in mid-game or higher have any tips for how I could resolve such fuel crises without circumnavigating the entire world for leaves?

[Vimmerion]

I mean... depending what You understand as mid-game but coal power is viable mid-game option IMHO

[cywizz]

Interim step, research solid biofuel as it lasts longer than normal.
Unlock Coal power as soon as you can, as you will never need to run around for leaves and wood anymore!
And fyi...you are in early game at the moment...coal, fuel and nuclear power awaits you!

[phillip_lynx]

And for easy access to biofuel, build a chainsaw and cut down trees.

And, if you can figth good, kill beasts and research the conversion of their carcasses to biomass in the MAM.

But this are only things to get you to coalpower.

[Maehlice]

It's not just you, but power should NOT be an issue.

To me, Oil Processing (Tier 5) is the mid game, and that's when power really balloons.

Biofuel is still early game. I mark Coal (Tier 3) as the end of the early game and Steel (Tier 4) as the beginning of the mid game.

The simplest solution is to get to Coal Power ASAP and simply get off Biofuel.

To make Biofuel work, you need the Chainsaw and Solid Biofuel from Obstacle Clearing (Tier 2) and Biomass from the MAM (Alien Organisms).

Bring some basic building materials and the Chainsaw. Plop down in the middle of the largest forest near you and start clearing. When your inventory is full, dump it all into containers, and hook those containers up to Constructors making Biomass and Solid Biofuel. Rinse/Repeat until the entire forest has been converted to Solid Biofuel, then transport the Biofuel back to base.

[Bozwai]

Went to pick up branches and cut down a few trees/dead trunks to make a clearing or path. Leaves aren't really worth farming. Got more than enough for tier 3 after going out two or three times. Not to mention the other materials found for research while out exploring.

Wonder what it's like starting in the desert. Farm animals? Find a cave and use Mycelia?

[phillip_lynx]

In the desert is enough Biomass to reach coal :)

[Mojo]

@Bozwai desert start (to me anyway) was far more easy than I expected. Lots of wood out there.

[DrNewcenstein]

Definitely skip around the Tier menu options rather than taking them in strict sequence to find Obstacle Clearing, and research Alien Organisms in the M.A.M.

Also it may be best to run isolated production lines off of a single biomass burner rather than a grid. I've been doing that lately on new games, where I run a Miner, Smelter, and single Constructor off one burner. It's slower production of parts, but it saves on biomass materials until you get Solid Biofuel. Once you get that, set up 4 lines side-by-side; one for leaves, one for wood, one for carapace, and one for organs, even if you don't have those two unlocked yet.
You can suspend all other production to build up fuel. One container of Solid Biofuel should last you through Coal Power, depending on how much strain you put on the grid.

The early game is definitely not something you can speed run without a trainer. It's a ton of work to advance to a fully automated power source (Coal). However, the only thing coal power does for you is automated power and a little over double the power output of biomass, so you may find you still need it until you build a massive 24-unit generator field.

To further add insult to injury, Geothermal is unlocked very late, and there is 3200MW of that available, which, if it could be unlocked at Tier 1 without a trainer, would carry you to Fuel Generators by itself, depending on the workload. I did that in my last game, and I had a fairly large setup including a train with 3 Stations, over 2 dozen truck stations, and a manufacturing field for space elevator parts (the engines and control units) before I ran out of power and had to set up fuel generators.

However, finding all of the thermal vents and getting to them AND linking them is a helluva slog.

[25hz]

Originally posted by Atrocity:

I'm somewhat new to Satisfactory, though I've been playing this game a lot for the past few days I've owned it. I've already managed to get the Space Elevator set up and have gotten past the first Space Elevator assignment, but now I've run into a problem: my power demands are now incredibly hard to meet. I have a mechanism for automated processing of processing leaves and wood into Biofuel, but it's always a bit of a slog, having to go out all the time to harvest leaves a kilometer away from your Hub.

Right now, I'm in a state where no three of my Biogenerators can be active at once anymore. I've been desperately trying to ration out my Biofuel, but that only makes everything else run out quicker, and so now almost nothing is working anymore. Does anyone in mid-game or higher have any tips for how I could resolve such fuel crises without circumnavigating the entire world for leaves?

You need to make sure your power grid is sufficient before you start building more machines. That's why you can see the power needs of each machine. I had 8 biofuel reactors running when I started and managed them by myself (before switching to coal) so not sure how you're having a problem with 3. Others managed more than that too. Until you get coal running, which you should make a research priority, it's not hard to keep the biofuel full and slowly MODERATELY expand at the same time. You don't need multiples of everything to start, only one machine of each type to progress up the tech tree. Once you have hands-free power generation, then you can start looking at mass production numbers.

[Liobuster]

once you reach coal
power shouldnt be an issue until you get to manufacturers

[GMC]

Wherever you start, you shouldn't try to build big until you have coal power up. And once you get coal power, you should build something which can consume 100% of the available coal at the site (i.e. wherever you find coal next to water). Once you have the Miner Mk.2, upgrade the coal miners and double the number of coal plants.

You shouldn't need more than ~150 MW (3-4 biomass burners plus the two built into the HUB) when you're still running on biomass.

There's plenty of biomass in the desert. Most of it is in the oases, and that includes a lot of "fallen" wood, so you don't have to rush to get the chainsaw.

[gussmed]

You don’t mention where you started, but I’ve found that there’s plenty of biomass available even with a Dune Desert start.

Biomass is really early game, not “mid game.” There’s a period in the early game where you have to make periodic foraging runs to fuel your generators. It is, however, quite possible to run 8-10 biomass generators (8 stand alone + 2 from the HUB) during this period.

The key factors are (1) run on nothing but solid biomass (2) automate production of solid biomass, so you’re just dumping leaves and wood into containers to be processed (3) use a chainsaw to collect leaves and wood rapidly and (4) make biomass runs with a mostly empty inventory, so you can collect 3000-4000 leaves and 400-500 wood before needing to return to dump it into your processing facility.

The chainsaw isn’t absolutely vital, but the same milestone unlocks solid biomass, and solid biomass cuts down on refueling issues considerably.

I did struggle with the biomass stage in my first game, and so I made a point of focusing on getting to coal in my second. Even so, my power demands were significant during this period. I think you can only get away with 150 MW as GMC suggests if you do a LOT of hand-crafting - which was also something I was deliberately avoiding in my 2nd game.