Production Chain Simplified with Pictures

An easy to understand explanation of the production chain for each item in the game with NO confusing lines crossing over. Other guides want to put all the production modules together and there are dozens of overlapping lines. I want to play a video game not study for a job as an engineer at NASA. So here is an easy guide that breaks everything down into smaller pieces. Maybe you don't want to have everything all in one place in a mega wharf. Maybe you want to control some smaller stations. In either case, there is a lot to be learned about how to make production more efficient in X4 if we take a look in more detail at each production chain without always combining everything.

Energy Cell Production

This is the easiest thing.Put these on EVERYTHING.

Refined Metals

This requires ore to be stored in solid storage. Ore plus energy cells equals refined metals. This is the same process for Taladium but you need a different blueprint.

Silicon Wafers

Silicon can be turned into wafers.

Antimatter Cells

Hydrogen can be turned into antimatter cells.

Superfluid Coolant

Helium can be turned into superfluid coolant.

Graphene

Methane can be turned into graphene.

Hull Parts

A hull parts factory should really be one of your first major goals to work towards in the game. Once you can make hull parts you can build station modules for cheaper and you can supply your favorite wharf or shipyard so they can build ships for you faster.

Advanced Composites

Hey look, Advanced Composites has the same recipe as Hull Parts. You could build an identical station and just swap out hull parts for advanced composites and it will work.

Microchips and Smartchips

Both Microchips and Smart chips have the same recipe. Smartchips are more of an end of the line product while microchips are used to make more advanced products.

Plasma Conductors

Plasma Conductors start life as two different gases. So to make this station work you only need liquid storage for the helium and methane. Make coolant and graphene and then turn those into Plasma conductors.

Quantum Tubes

To make quantum tubes we again need helium and methane. In fact, a quantum tube station is the same as a plasma conductor station with the only the end product swapped out.

Claytronics

Now we come to one of our first really complicated stations.

Claytronics is an end product but it is one you will want to be able to make as early as possible. It only has ONE use, station modules but both you and the other factions will be building stations all the time everywhere so you want to get this up and running.

Claytronics requires all the raw resources except ice and ore. The three things you actually need are quantum tubes, microchips, and antimatter cells but it could also be a good idea to set up the prior stages of production so that you are only importing raw materials and exporting claytronics.

Scanning Arrays

This could be a simple station to build. It requires ore and silicon to make refined metals and silicon wafers. Both ore and silicon go in solid storage so you don't have to worry about liquid storage. A very safe-ish place along the highway is Argon Prime which just so happens to have both ore and silicon. It might be a good idea to set up a scanning array factory there in the early game with medium miners if you don't have enough money for large miners yet.

Engine Parts

Engine parts requires ore and hydrogen to make refined metals and antimatter cells. This means you need all three kinds of storage if you plan to make these from raw materials.

The Circle

All of the next level tier items are made not from raw materials or the lowest tier items. They are made from second tier and up. The pattern is that there are five tier two items and they can be combined to make six tier three items. The combinations are set up so that the system goes in a circle.

Hull parts + plasma conductors = weapon components

Plasma conductors + quantum tubes = field coils & shield components

Quantum tubes + microchips = advanced electronics

Microchips + advanced composites = antimatter converters

Advanced composites + hull parts = missile components

Missile components

Let's imagine that you want to be efficient and build a hull parts and advanced composites factory together since they have the same recipe. Well, you can then slap a missile components factory on it and you are ready to go.

Field Coils & Shield Components

Quantum tubes and plasma conductors have the same recipe. If you put them together you can make BOTH Field Coils and Shield Components. The great thing about this is that there are only two inputs and they are both gases.

Advanced Electronics

Quantum tubes and microchips make advanced electronics.

Honestly, you will be making a LOT of microchips. They are needed for some mission critical things and when I build one huge factory it was always the microships I was short on because everything wanted to use them. So in order to solve my problem building more microship or advanced electronics production on my wharf wasn't the answer. I had to spin out advanced electronics to its own factory site to solve the issue. Maybe your game won't go the same way but keep an eye on microchips. You will need a lot of them.

Advanced Electronics and Claytronics have very similar recipes. Maybe it is a good idea to make these at separate stations because they will both be fighting with each other to use your microchips.

Antimatter Converters

This factory has microchips and advanced composites as inputs.

Weapon Components

All of the station plans above, even claytronics, sees you combining materials and no one material is being used to make more than one product unless you intentionally go for efficiency and make things that have the exact same recipe on the same site. With Weapon Components we now have a situation where graphene is needed for both sides of production. We need it for hull parts but we also need it for plasma conductors. That might be a sign to double up on methane and graphene production from the beginning and make sure you always have enough.

Turret Components

Turret components have not ONE, not TWO, and NOT three raw resources. You need FOUR! You're either going to break this up into two or more stations or you're starting to get a taste for building a mega wharf.

Drone Components

Drone Components require four raw resources with the only exceptions being ice and helium. If you build a station that takes in raw resources and goes all the way to drone components then you will start to really develop the skills you need to be able to manage a mega wharf. Notice that Refined metals is needed for almost everything except microchips. There was no way in a 2d picture to show refined metals being split into three productions factories without lines crossing over so I did something else that I hope everyone will understand. This factory would just have to be complicated regardless.

Food Rations

Moving over to ice, what do you do with it. You make human food. You could also make alien food or narcotics but we're not doing that. We're just making food. By now you should be able to follow my way of representing everything so please take a look. Ice makes water. Water is put in clean CONTAINER storage, not dirty liquid storage. Water is used as the only input for meat, wheat, and spices. All three of those together with some more water and energy cells and you have food rations so your people can eat.

Medical Supplies

Finally we come to medical supplies. This has almost the same set up as food except that you toss out the meat part.

Terran Intro

For all the Terran stuff, everything has been streamlined.

All Terran station modules are made out of four things.
Energy cells
Metallic Microlattice
Computronic Substrate
Silicon Carbide

That’s it. Just four four things. That’s four station modules to build and then you can build station modules for free, but it no longer matter because you have already built all the station modules you need to build. But you can build additional clones of your station for free and more importantly, you can build ships for free.

The thing you have to keep in mind about Terran production is that you always need to mix a solid and a liquid together so your stations ALWAYS need ALL three storage units.

Solid storage

Liquid Storage

Container Storage

Metallic Microlattice

Metallic Microlattice needs Ore and Helium.

Computronic Substrate

Ore, Silicon, and Hydrogen can be used to create Computronic Substrate.

Silicon Carbide

Metallic Microlattice combined with Silicon and Methane can be used to make Silicon Carbide.




As you can see, that is all you need to make everything you need to build stations, shields, turrets, ships, engines, weapons, and everything else Terran.

Terran MRE

Terran Food is just as streamlined as above with the one addition that the Terrans ABSOLUTELY require you to have solid, liquid, and container storage on your station. So make that happen they added methane to food production.

Ice + Methane + Energy Cells = Protein Paste

Protein Paste itself can be turned into MRE without any additional input. (plus energy cells of course)

Terran Medical Supplies

These are similarly streamlined but do require Ice to be used for both protein paste and the final meds product.

Ice + Methane + Energy cells = Protein Paste

Ice (again) + Protein Paste + Energy cells = Terran Medical Supplies

[Dracula420]

oh thats fine i was just going to use paint.net . nice simple image editor. thanks btw. i dont like copying what others do without asking first. 07

[Master David]

@dracula420, If you want to make a similar guide for the Star Wars mod that's fine. My original files are ODG files but I have to post as an image for Steam. I don't know how I could even pass on the original editable files.

[Dracula420]

thank you for all the work you did to create this. this is my favorite guide and most frequent reference point when building stations in vanilla X4. however i am playing the star wars interworlds mod at the moment and a lot of the production is altered. would you be OK with me attempting to copy this guide but for SWI instead?

[DrGosu]

That clarity tho. Thank you so much 🙏

[Bastard of Muppets]

This is the single greatest thing to happen to humanity since the invention of women.

[Ɗ℮₣℮₵TĮ℣Ҿ]

This guide has been translated into my language too. I want to say thank you for your time

[Master David]

I don't use any mods.

[32anChips]

Master David, do you use any mods ? If so what do you suggest for just vanilla +

[Master David]

There is a lot more in this game then fighting Xenon. Factions are at war with each other and you can manipulate the situation to cause more or less war. If you want to fight Xenon, just fly to the edge of a sector and go off of the map and keep going. You'll eventually find some.

[32anChips]

Master David great guide 👍. So a fresh start - without boron dlc turned on - get the emp ingredients or budget start with emp bomb an hacking items. Then go an steel me some blueprints 😎 then finish Boso Ta mission to get PHQ. Make a recycling centre addon to PHQ an then turn on Boron dlc an away I go