Beginner Tips and Tricks + Coal Power + Fuel Power

The following is a list of general tips that can help both the beginner and veteran in their factory development.
Additionaly, you will find useful information for setting up various power generation systems in the game.
Please use the Table of Contents to get around, as this guide is extensive.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Satisfactory Resources Websites, Tools, and Guides

Here is a list of common resources for Satisfactory

SCIM
Sattisfactory calculator and Interactive Map
Satisfactory Calculator Main Page[satisfactory-calculator.com]
Satisfactory Interactive Map[satisfactory-calculator.com]
You can find an interactive map in which you can upload your save file. It will show you where your buildings are and you can even move, modify, edit, delete, add, or change your structures through this editor. It also shows exact positions of all resource nodes.

Satisfactory Tools
Satisfactory Tools[www.satisfactorytools.com]
This is a calculator used to create production plans. It will tell you exactly what is required for a given product.

Satisfactory WIKI
Satisfactory Wiki[satisfactory.wiki.gg]
Here, you can search for just about anything related to the game. Many articles exist about buildings, items, even some production chain ideas.

Pipeline Manual
Pipeline Manual[satisfactory.wiki.gg]
This is a direct link to one of the most useful documents in the wiki. Its a detailed guide of how pipes, and fluids work in the game.

Tips and Tricks List

1. Take your time. Do not rush progress. Learn how the different production processes work. Late game production can be quite complex. Do not be afraid to dismantle and try again!

2. Build up! Take advantage that you can build vertically. You can build up to 2 Km into the sky. In the Awesome Shop are double ramps and walkways. These are the best to get too higher floors. From sea level, you can build approximately 244 meters below, into the void for example.

3. The void is the common name for the endless pit you see on the edges of the map, and a few areas in the middle.

4. Practically, your common bottlenecks in the game are belts and pipes. Fundamentally, the bottleneck is resource extraction. Belts and pipes can be removed as a bottleneck through careful planning and factory layouts, but resource limits can never be avoided.

5. Belts are rated by items moved per minute, the tiers are 60 / 120 / 270 / 480 / 780 items per minute.

6. Pipes have two tiers, similar to belts. MK1 pipes have a maximum flow-rate of 300m3, and MK2 have a maximum flow-rate of 600m3.

7. Head lift is the ability to move liquids against the force of gravity. Starting from some source of head-lift (e.g. a pump or building). Liquids can only ever reach that far up relative to said source of head-lift. You can go down and then back up, but a T1 pump at 37 meters elevation will only ever be able to move liquids up to 59 meters elevation. Head-lift doesn't directly stack:
you can't have four pumps at 37 meters and pump fluids up to 125 meters; you have to have pumps at 37, 59, 81 and 103 meters elevation.

8. Most fluid-related buildings (e.g. water extractors) provide 10 meters head-lift. T1 pumps provide 22 meters of head-lift, and T2 pumps provide 55 meters of head-lift.

9. This relatively simplified fluid dynamics can lead to interesting results when merging multiple pipelines: This can even be exploited by building a water tower for example.

10. Pumps also act as one-way valves.

11. In the game, there is another pipe related part called a "valve". This valve provides no head-lift. It can be used to control the flow direction of a pipe, and how much fluid is allowed through. For example, you may only need 150m3 of water. You can use a valve to limit the flow to that 150m3 goal. Keep in mind that valves are not perfect. There can be some fluctuation.

12. If you route your pipes downhill, you can get around head-lift altogether up to where the pipe begins to go downhill.

13. The simplest way to construct chains of machines is by use of the manifold system.
Please reference this Wiki article for more information on manifolds: https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Manifold

14. A manifold is a set of machines in a single, straight line. With the use of splitters, mergers, or pipe junctions, simply take one belt or pipe and branch it off in series. The only downside is that it can take a while for the system to become 100% efficient. This is because each machine in the line needs to fill its internal storage. This system is also commonly known as overflow. This allows easy expansion.

15. Overflow spiter mode, found in smart and programmable splitters can be used to siphon off excess resources to another production chain, or an AWESOME Sink. This is very important in any processes that have byproducts. For example, oil processing. The same effect can be accomplished with normal splitters, there is just no filtering mode with a normal splitter.

16. You can also balance your factories using a more traditional balancer. A balancer is similar to what is commonly used in games like Factorio. They are a set of splitters and mergers designed to create different outcomes. For example, you may have 4 belts that you need to merge into two belts, but those two belts need a different item per minute total. Here is a wiki article on some different balancer ideas.:
https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Balancer

17. Exploration is quite important. You will want to find crash sites and power slugs.

18. Crash sites give you a hard drive. In your M.A.M, you can research that hard drive an discover an alternate recipe. You get 3 random choices per hard drove and you may select one at once. There are currently more hard drives on the map than alternate recipes. An example of a useful, early game alternate recipe is "Stitched Iron Plate". This is an alternate for Reinforced Iron Plates, and is far more efficient than the normal recipe. Some alternates are straight-up improvements, while others replace a common resource with a rare one. Some are a trade-off.

19. Power slugs can be processed into power shards, which allow you to overclock your buildings.

21. How do i get out of being stuck in between 2 things? ( asked by @red) It depends on what your stuck on. Machine you built? Dismantle it. A tree or foliage? chainsaw. If all else fails, press C to crouch, should dislodge you.

Coal Plant Water Setups

Water is probably the most complicated part of coal power, here I will show you some examples of how to setup your water.

PLEASE NOTE: This note is for endgame builds. Now that Mark 2 pipes have been added to the game, they can be used for coal power setups as shown here. This guide will not show Mk2 pipe setups yet. I may add that in later. For now, if you wish to use a Mk2 pipe in your coal power plant, use the charts shown below as a baseline and simply double their size. Instead of 6 coal generators for a 300m3 supply of water, double it to 12 for example.

The Basics

This is all based off 100% clock speed.

• 45m3 per minute water is needed for each coal generator
  
• each water extractor will pump 120m3 water
  
• each pipe can have a flow rate of 300m3 fluid maximum

Different Water Setups

One Water Extractor

This setup will produce 120m3 water at 100% clock speed, and can support 2.66 coal generators on its own. For simplicity sake, this will be reduced to two coal generators.


Three Water Extractors

This setup has all 3 water extractors under-clocked to 75% each. This will produce a total of 270m3 water a minute, enough for 6 coal generators.


Three Water Extractors to 8 Coal Generators

This method is the most efficient, but the most complicated. With 3 water extractors at 100%, you will make 360m3 water a minute. But, a pipe can only move 300m3 fluid per minute max, how does this work? As shown below, the third water extractor is added late into the pipe, thus providing its 120m3 water after previous coal generators have consumed some, thus balancing out the system.


another example:

Another one, created by kwjcool321#7200 (Discord username):

Provided by Jeslis #6830 (Discord)
This design is a expansion on the 3:8 method shown above. Best approach is to build the top half, then add in the bottom half. This type of approach is infinitely expandable.
'
Another coal Generator Setup Chart

Coal Power: Burn Rates and What You Can Burn

To understand coal power, we first must break down the numbers.

Coal Generator Basics

physical connections

• 1 pipe input
  
• 1 belt input

Requirements

• 15 coal a minute
  
• 45m3 water a minute
  
• produces 75 MW of power at 100%

Coal is not the only item you can burn in a coal generator. In total there are three resources that can be used in a coal generator:

• Coal
  
• Compacted Coal
  
• Petroleum Coke

These resources have different burn times, how much is consumed per minute.

Resource	Burn Rate
Coal	15
Compacted Coal	7.14
Petroleum Coke	25

Coal

Coal is easily found through resource nodes on the map. Depending on the node quality and miner tier, you will get different rates per minute.

Compacted Coal

Compacted coal is a alternate recipe you can unlock randomly by researching hard drives at the M.A.M.

Sulfur is a raw resource required to make Compacted Coal. Sufur is a very rare resource on the map and is required for other items such as nuclear fuel rods, batteries, and black powder. Compacted Coal is the most efficient resource to use in a Coal Generator, but the trade-off is not kind. You are using a rare resource that will become very scarce in the later stages of the game.

The recipe takes per minute

• 25 sulfur IN
  
• 25 coal IN
  
• 25 compacted coal OUT

Petroleum Coke

Petroleum Coke is a byproduct from oil processing. You get it from converting your heavy oil residue into petroleum coke in a refinery.

Petroleum Coke is a reasonably efficient option.

The recipe for petroleum coke is

• 40m3 heavy oil residue IN
  
• 120 petroleum coke OUT

Coal Power Tables

Fuel Consumption Charts

Mk1 Belt, 60 a minute

Fuel Source	Coal Gens Supported	Total Power Capacity	Total Water Required	Total Water Pipes Required
Coal	4	300 MW	180m3	1
Compacted Coal	8.4	630 MW	378m3	2
Petroleum Coke	2.4	180 MW	108m3	1

Mk2 Belt, 120 a minute

Fuel Source	Coal Gens Supported	Total Power Capacity	Total Water Required	Total Water Pipes Required
Coal	8	600 MW	360m3	2
Compacted Coal	16.8	1260 MW	756m3	3
Petroleum Coke	4.8	360 MW	216m3	1

Mk3 Belt, 270 a minute

Fuel Source	Coal Gens Supported	Total Power Capacity	Total Water Required	Total Water Pipes Required
Coal	18	1350 MW	810m3	3
Compacted Coal	37.81	2835.75 MW	1702m3	6
Petroleum Coke	10.8	810 MW	486m3	2

Mk4 Belt, 480 a minute

Fuel Source	Coal Gens Supported	Total Power Capacity	Total Water Required	Total Water Pipes Required
Coal	32	2400 MW	1440m3	5
Compacted Coal	67.22	5041.5 MW	3025m3	11
Petroleum Coke	19.2	1440 MW	864m3	3

Mk5 Belt, 780 a minute

Fuel Source	Coal Gens Supported	Total Power Capacity	Total Water Required	Total Water Pipes Required
Coal	52	3900 MW	2340m3	8
Compacted Coal	109.24	8193 MW	4915.8m3	17
Petroleum Coke	31.2	2340 MW	1404m3	5

Power Production Disclaimer

All forms of Automated power plants now will consume 100% of the imputted resources.
this includes

• Coal Generator
  
• Fuel Generator
  
• Nuclear Power Plant

You must supply these power facilities with the required materials, or they will stop working.

Geothermal Plants
Geothermal Power now works of a curve. Each gyser node now has a rarity like other resource nodes in the game. Depending on rarity, you will get a different level of power output.

Bio- Fuel Generators
These are still the first power generator type you unlock. They still are the only non-renewable form of energy in the game.

Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear power produces waste. Before update 4, you could do nothhing with waste. It had to be stored. Now, it can be refined in the Plutonium Fuel Rod production process. Plutonium rods can then be sunk in an AWESOME Sink, or used in more nuclear power plants. If you choose to use them in more power plants, they will produce more waste, but at a considerably less quantanty than Uranium based waste.

Fuel Generators

WIP This section is in progress

Fuel Generators Introduction

Fuel Generators are the next step above coal generators.

Inputs

• 1 Fluid Input

Requirements

• liquid fuel
  
• pipe attached
  
• produces 150MW of power at 100%

What different material can be burned?

• Fuel
  
• TurboFuel

Burn Rates for the various Fuel types

Fuel Source	Burn Rate Per Minute
Fuell	12m3
TurboFuell	4.5m3

Because Fuel Generators have to be supplied by a fluid, pipe limitations come into play. A pipe can only move 300m3 worth of fluids a minute.

Mark 2 pipes have a maximum of 600m3 of fluids a minute.

Maximum amount of Fuel Generators a single pipe can support

Fuel Source	Burn Rate Per Minute	Max Supported Fuel Gens
Fuell	15m3	20
TurboFuell	4.5m3	66.66

Making Fuel

The hardest part for using Fuel Generators is actually making the fuel. Unlike Coal generators, a refining process has to happen before the fuel is even ready to send into a Fuel Generator.

Alternate Recipes can change this process, but for this section we will start with the basic methods and work our way up to more advanced processes.

What you will need

• Oil node
  
• Oil Pump
  
• Refinery
  
• AWESOME Sink
  
• Smart or Programmable Splitters (OPTIONAL)

Oil Node Rarity quality

Oil Node Rarity	Max ]Oil Per Minute
Impure	150m3
Normal	300m3
Pure	600m3*

This is a basic process.

This process assumes a full Mk1 pipe of oil. If you wish to use less or more than 300m3 oil you will need to calculate down.

If you wish to use mk2 pipes, you will need to double this process.

This method will produce 200m3 fuel and 150 Polymer Resin a minute.

End Product	What You Do with It
Fuel	Send to Fuel Generators
Polymer Resin	Send to AWESOME SINK

Why not use the Resin in Residual Rubber or Residual Plastic recipes? You can do this, but it is advisable to not mix plastic/rubber making with power generation. Your fuel generators will not run at 100% for a long time anyway, thus you will not be producing the max amount of Resin as well. Its better to sink it in a AWESOME sink just to keep one potential failure point from being a issue.

______________________________________________________________________________

Residual Fuel Method

Residual fuel is a standard recipe that turns Heavy Oil Residue into fuel.

This method takes the Heavy Oil Residue byproduct made from

• Plastic
  
• Rubber
  
• Heavy Oil Residue ALT *

* This is an alternate recipe that turns Crude Oil directly into Heavy Oil Residue and Polymer Resin.

Here are two examples of how you can use the Residual Fuel recipe to make fuel for power generation.

1. Using Rubber to make the Heavy Oil Residue.

2. Using Plastic to make the Heavy Oil Residue.

3. Using the Heavy Oil Residue alternate recipe.*2

Why does Rubber produce more than Plastic? This is because the standard Rubber recipe produces twice the amount of Heavy Oil Residue.

*2 This method, using the Heavy Oil Residue ALT is also part of a much larger, more complex chain that is considered the most efficient use of oil in the game.

The key to making these methods work is to make sure nothing ever stops moving. You cannot allow the plastic to back up, or the fuel will stop. You also cannot let the heavy oil residue backup, or the plastic will stop. You need to find a way of using AWESOME Sinks and maybe a Petroleum Coke refinery at the end of the Residual Fuel refineries just to make sure nothing backs up.

Advanced Fuel Production

In the previous section, Making Fuel, basic methods of creating fuel was discussed. Here, we will be exploring the more advanced methods.

Because these methods are advanced, I will be using higher liquid amounts, suitable for Mk2 pipes.

Please see the disclaimer below for why the fluid totals do not go over 400m3 per pipe.

Diluted Packaged Fuel

This first advanced method requires a few Alternate recipes to be effective.

• Heavy Oil Residue Alt
  
• Diluted Packaged Fuel

This shart shows thefull process:


As you can see, the complexity of this process has climbed sagnificantly in comparison to more basic fuel production setups. The main advantage here is that your oil usage is much more efficient. As you can see, you will only need 150m3 oil to produce 400m3 fuel.

Lets break this down into managable steps.

1. Setting up the Heavy Oil Residue refineries

This should be the first step you do.


This step will produce two end products. The heavy oil residue, and polymer resin.

The polymer resin can be used in some different ways. If you have the Polymer Fabric Alternate, you can use that recipe to make fabric for filters. You can also use it in either the Residual Plastic, or Residual Rubber recipes. If you choose to do nothing with the Resin, you will still have to get rid of it somehow. Your final option will be to place an Awesome Sink down to remove the resin. No matter what, you must do something with it.

2. Setting Up The Diluted Packaged Fuel Loop

Diluted Packaged Fuel as its name implies creates packaged fuel. To start this process, you will need Packaged water. Packaged Water requires Empty Canisters, and liquid water.

In order to get the canisters required, it is best to build them and place them into an industrial storage container on site. You will need a few thausand empty containers. Once the entire Diluted Packaged Fuel process is working, you will want to loop these canisters. So, they will enter the Packaged Water Packager > Enter the Diluted Packaged Fuel refinery >
Enter the Unpackage Fuel packager, and the empty canister will then loop back to the Water Packagers. It is best to place a storage buffer when the empty canisters are returning to the Packaged Water machines.

3. Pipe The Liquid Fuel

Once the Fuel is produced and in a liquid form, you can then pipe it to fuel generators.

Edits

Edit 1 - just a simple reorganization, no content change.
Edit 2 - added future plans section
Edit 3 - began to add coal power information
Edit 4 - Coal power sections complete
Edit 5 - added a question posted by a user in the comments section
Edit 6 - added extra water charts, one from a Discord community member that helps write the official wiki
Edit 7 - began work on the Fuel Generators section
Edit 8 - cleaned some things up, and modified some mentions for mk2 pipes.
Edit 9 - Edited content based on Update 4 changes
Edit 10 - Edited links in the guide
Edit 11 - added a resources section

[israelmoldes]

Hi, I'm using compacted coal on almost all of my coal generators and the diluted packaged fuel, then convert it to turbofuel to run my fuel generators.

[NeonTheSeaHorse]

Okay!

[Verios44]

@NeonTheSeaHorse just start off simple. Take the coal to your water source, easiest way.

[NeonTheSeaHorse]

okay, do you have a good set up for the closest coal nodes for the northern forest spawn?

[Verios44]

"Is This a GOOD coal power set up?"

I am showcasing a few standard layouts for coal power. You can honestly set it up however you like. The diagrams shown are just examples based on popular layouts.

[NeonTheSeaHorse]

Okay.
Is This a GOOD coal power set up?

[Verios44]

@Eoun yea im aware. Im waiting on 1.0 to properly go over this and update anything out of date due to the many changes planned.

[Eoun]

As of the current game build, compacted coal isn't random to unlock. It can be researched by spending a hard drive and 25 coal(?) on the sulfur research section of the M.A.M.

[Feed1stBlood]

For the 3 water + 8 coal plant single line setup, the 3rd water pipe doesn't have to go that far to the 8th coal. You see 2 water provides 240m3, after 2 plant it will be 150m3, we can directly connect to the joint in front of 3rd plant and it become 270m3 and will provide the water for the rest of 6 plants.

[Verios44]

@trevorsoo

Welcome! I may have to do a ton of adjustments with 1.0 tho, we will see.