How should I be scanning my hard drives?

[Boge]

I've collected 20ish and have been scanning them, but I haven't chosen any recipes yet. Is that the way to do it until I find the recipes I want? Should I just scan all of them and then choose the good ones for now, or should I just be choosing the recipes as I scan?

And are all of the recipes available from the get go, or do I have to unlock other things to get some recipes to become available?

[Boge]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Okay, if you want a specific recipe then don't unlock other stuff till you have that recipe.

the pool of recipes is very small and limited in the beginning and then HUB upgrades and MAM researchs add recipes to the pool.

I'm at Phase 3 tier 6 right now. Are there specific recipes I should unlock at this point? Is there a guide to these recipes and the most efficient ones to unlock as you progress?

[Kage Goomba]

You scan the drive - you get one re-roll - if you don't like it you can reload a save and scan again.

Save must before you start scanning - the recipes are already decided when scanning starts supposedly.

Recipes will be gated depending on progress - so if you run out - need to unlock more tiers/phases before they reveal themselves.

They tend to be within reach of whatever you have going on even if its not quite unlocked.

Plenty of HD's in the game so you need not be worried.
They also eventually can be bought from the Awesome Shop.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Boge:

I'm at Phase 3 tier 6 right now. Are there specific recipes I should unlock at this point? Is there a guide to these recipes and the most efficient ones to unlock as you progress?

Check the wiki:
https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Hard_Drive#Alternate_recipes

There are over 100 alt recipes, but not all are terribly useful, though that depends on your playstyle, I guess.

For instance, there are few useful alt recipes that let you remove screws from your production.

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Boge:

And are all of the recipes available from the get go, or do I have to unlock other things to get some recipes to become available?

The pool of possible outcomes is limited by what you can use at that time. The only exception I know of are the "pure" ingot recipe, which are available before unlocking the Refinery.

If research becomes a chore and un-fun, there is always the option of loading your save into the SCIM and gifting yourself the preferred recipes. (To keep it "fair", you can delete a HDD each time you do it.)

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Boge:

Are there specific recipes I should unlock at this point? Is there a guide to these recipes and the most efficient ones to unlock as you progress?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/526870/discussions/0/4690027719980166797/

[Twelvefield]

I don't follow this at all. I can't say I understand your point. Either it stops here, or you explain it in much, much greater detail.

[Fenix]

The right answer is "There is no right answer"
I just pick the recipe I feel is best from the 1st 2, if I don't like either, I re-roll then pick the best from them.
Unless you are looking for a certain recipe (like Sloppy Aluminium+Pure Aluminium Ingots in my case) before setting up the production line, I wouldn't worry about it to much.

[Miles Away]

I collect as many as I can to unlock recipes until there's no more for the phase.

[Bobucles]

Hard drive scans pick from a deck of cards, representing all the various alt recipes and unlocks. Unlocking new tech adds more cards to the deck.

If you see a good recipe, take it. If you get 2 bad recipes, leave them on the table. Picking from 2 bad options will put one bad option back into the deck, and that's bad. You don't want to waste hard drive results on getting a bad tech option twice.

Each hard drive result can be rerolled once. The reroll can be save scummed to get any result you want.

[cswiger]

There are enough HDDs to unlock everything. Waiting to use them offers no benefit.

Likewise, save scumming is simply a waste of the player's time. If you can obtain another hard drive in less than 10 minutes, doing that is always going to be better.

[SantaSam]

You can also make a save before reroll the recipe. the reroll will also change every time you load that save again. so you can reroll within seconds skipping through the recipes if you want.