Awesome Sink optimal strategy

[zOldBulldog]

The obvious goal with the Awesome Sink is to get as many points as possible as early as possible. I have been reviewing the advice of the experts and this is what I concluded. Can anybody see a flaw in my thinking? (other than "just play and have fun, don't worry about optimizing")

- As soon as we unlock the Awesome Sink, build a full Concrete line, use a splitter to feed your storage container and Sink. Later you will use a Priority Splitter to send only Overflow to the Sink.
- Once you have priority splitters look at the point value of items in your line (https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/AWESOME_Sink) to decide how to merge overflows on the way to the Sink to ensure that you send all or as many as possible of your high value items to be sunk.
- Once you have coal power you might increase the number of Sinks. Perhaps 3? And keep sending the highest point value items.

For an early game rule of thumb it seems to me that a natural progression sequence/order of the top item being prioritized for the sink is:
- Concrete
- If you find it, Raw Quartz, Caterium, or better yet their processed Quartz Crystal or Quickwire products.
- Excess Copper Sheet
- Rotors and Reinforced Iron Plate

Also, if you have power and are not ready to process Quartz or Caterium... you can sink at the mine site. You can collect all of the points from the Awesome Sink at your base.

Did I miss something?

[kLuns]

Before coal get your biomass from plants so you can sink the alien remains as data capsules.
Soon as you get the combination of coal power, mk3 belts and mk 2 miners belts you can start producing coupon factories on a big scale. When you start with exploiting quartz nodes you can make 450 silica per node. Most quartz node are in a pair of 2 so there is a good chance of 900 silica per minute.
When you make a blueprint for ai limiters, cable and smart plating you can exploit other nodes the same way.
This results in coupons building up faster than the phase 2 space elevator parts.

[The Big Brzezinski]

I've never bothered worrying about sink points. I just sink the extra end products after my catchment boxes are full. That's always been enough for whatever I want from the shop, plus quite a bit more that I pick for the heck of it.

[zOldBulldog]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

I've never bothered worrying about sink points. I just sink the extra end products after my catchment boxes are full. That's always been enough for whatever I want from the shop, plus quite a bit more that I pick for the heck of it.

You are lucky. I need several store items that are critical to what I am trying to do, and I can't seem to get enough coupons yet.

[Aven]

The sink has utility as well, as it keeps lines from backing up by allowing an outlet for overflow. You are also not limited to a single sink. I personally put them on every factory.

[PsYcHo_O]

For early quick coupons you can use animal parts turned into DNA Capsules. This should be enough to get most useful things from the shop.

[Lawn-Mower]

Yeah, I second DNA Capsules early game if you're hell bent on coupons, and using sinks to hoover up excess production where possible (regardless of value), assuming power allows. I place sinks frequently to ensure all lines are always flowing, as I'm always making more of a product than I need (I also tend to favour mid-sized modular factories rather than mega bases) - every mine is always maximally overdriven except where a belt can't support the throughput.

My approach is to build out the bare minimum, just raw bones factories - no walls/roofs/concern for aesthetics, until tier 8, unlock all alt recipes, then start bare bones final factories with alt recipes. By then enough points should've accumulated to unlock everything in the shop to then go back over the old factories to make them pretty.

If I were more concerned with points in the early stages, I'd set up the basic bare bones factories with overflow to sinks, then venture out to grab the HDDs while killing everything I could during the process and setting up biopowered mini sites every so often for crafting and sinking DNA Capsules while researching the HDDs, that're torn down before progressing to the next HDD. On return to base with all alt recipes unlocked you should have enough points to unlock most things in the shop.

[Vectorspace]

Also for early quick coupons you can use your first coupons to buy AI Limiters from the shop, and sink those for more coupons than you spent to buy them. Repeat until it's no longer worth it (as the points value of a sunk item decreases the more points you've earned)

[Lawn-Mower]

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

Also for early quick coupons you can use your first coupons to buy AI Limiters from the shop, and sink those for more coupons than you spent to buy them. Repeat until it's no longer worth it (as the points value of a sunk item decreases the more points you've earned)

I didn't know that, what a lame in-built cheat.

The points received for an item doesn't decrease. With every coupon unlocked the next coupon requires more points - which results in the same outcome if buying things with coupons to sink for the purpose of acquiring more coupons.

[tdb]

I typically get my first coupons by sinking advanced items I find from crash sites. Computers and heavy modular frames in particular are common, give a ton of points and are not used for a long time.

[Flash✪Gordon]

Yes, you miss two important things. All what you wrote you can basically forget because you will have more coupons than you ever need with only two very simple steps:

1. Just sink Uranium Ore. This gives you more points with less work.
   
   
2. Convert Animal Remains to Alien Protein, and Alien Protein to Alien DNA. Sink the Alien DNA. As you know costs per coupons increase almost exponential, but Alien DNA has it's own exponential curve. Sink it as long you get coupons for not much Alien DNA.

But of course you are free to choose the more complicate way you have written in your OP

[Spocks Toupee]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

• Just sink Uranium Ore. This gives you more points with less work.

He said EARLY GAME. You have to be in Tier 7-8 to sink Uranium Ore.

[Spocks Toupee]

Originally posted by zOldBulldog:

Did I miss something?

I built my base near the cliff in the Forest, where I have 2 pure Quartz nodes
I made sure to hand mine a bunch of quartz so I could unlock the tree in the MAM, and once I unlocked Quartz Crystal I set up one pure node to just feed the SINK, while I went about doing all the other stuff for early game.

[Flash✪Gordon]

Originally posted by Spocks Toupee:

He said EARLY GAME. You have to be in Tier 7-8 to sink Uranium Ore.

No Spock, you confuse many things.

You can sink Uranium Ore as soon you have the Awesome Sink. That is the sheer beauty of it.

[zOldBulldog]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Originally posted by Spocks Toupee:

He said EARLY GAME. You have to be in Tier 7-8 to sink Uranium Ore.

No Spock, you confuse many things.

You can sink Uranium Ore as soon you have the Awesome Sink. That is the sheer beauty of it.

Umm... how do I approach Uranium ore without getting hurt? When I got close in the past... it was not good.

[Flash✪Gordon]

Originally posted by zOldBulldog:

Umm... how do I approach Uranium ore without getting hurt? When I got close in the past... it was not good.

The building tool has a good reach. You don't need to stand right there, build from 30m away and you are save

Soon you will swim in coupons like a Scrooge McDuck / Dagobert Duck!