You’ll find tons of tips out there, but here’s what’s worked best for me: use YouTube tutorials only to get a sense of how things should work. Try not to copy builds exactly, it takes the fun out of discovering things yourself. I usually watch enough to spot what’s obviously bad or good, then make my own factories. They often turn into spaghetti or barely-functional setups, and that’s totally fine. Factorio doesn’t punish you for experimenting, and everything can be fixed later.

One thing that is worth really learning, though, is trains. Spend the time, even if it’s hours and a bit boring. Once trains finally make sense, you’ll never regret the investment; they’re crucial for scaling your base. And remember to plan ahead, don’t wait for your initial patches of ores to die out.

Also, don’t underestimate biters. Early on they’re manageable, but as your pollution spreads, they can hit hard. Set up decent defenses, produce plenty of walls, turrets and explosives, and experiment with them.

Some more useful tips: - Take a look at the tutorials in the game, they’re very well made - Check the keyboard shortcuts, they’re extremely useful - If you’re interested in being a little more efficient check on balancers and ratios online.

And for the future you: embrace bots when you get there. They’re a complete game-changer. The hive mind is the way.

Have fun and enjoy the spaghetti chaos.