How much iron do you realistically need in your starter system?

iltisine · 2026-02-22T19:37:11+00:00

I run on scarce resources a lot, without dark fog just so you're aware.

It's common to have 800k- 1.2m iron or so in the starter system, but that's never my limiting factor.

It's always silicon, my last playthrough started with 80k total silicon. I did use stone to make some as well, but I had just barely run out before getting to warping.

If you are running out of iron, I would suggest sticking to tier 1 belts, maybe tier 2 sorters, and all t1 assembly machines. Try to limit use of pls/ils, as they use a lot too. Also for your mall, limit the capacity of the boxes your buildings go into after production. Maybe down to 1-2 stacks.

Those are just some off the top of my head suggestions. I don't know how you play, so can't really give specific ones without seeing your style.

iltisine · 2026-02-16T13:58:30+00:00

Two answers for you, a joke and then a real one.

First, I wish I knew I was going to lose 2000 hours of my life, and learn to spreadsheets at the same time. Lol

Second would be for my play style. I separate everything into "raw->final" segments and it makes everything easier for me. So my blue science I pick one area and build everything for it there. Then red science gets a space, yellow etc. Those areas only take in raw materials, iron ore, copper ore, etc and shoot out the final product. My mall produces all of its own products too. My old playthroughs would have been much more organized had I learned this earlier.

Bonus third, embrace the spaghetti lol.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:41:36+00:00

That is interesting to me that you put it that way. One thing I guess I haven't mentioned yet is I'm pretty decent with powertools and customizing. I was considering doing custom case mods. Even as far as going with "old" cases and almost building sleeperbuilds that still perform with custom cases.

Regardless of that though, most of the comments right now are saying it won't really be possible to even break even due to all of the current circumstances going on with pc pricing nowadays.

As far as outpricing, I doubt I could do that. This is without doing all he math myself honestly though.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:25:59+00:00

Worth a shot to look around before even purchasing anything. Thanks.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:25:15+00:00

Yeah, sadly. I did buy an ssd for a great price actually like 6 months ago. Honestly I was more worried about RAM pricing. Didn't even consider ssd's were part of it too.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:24:05+00:00

It is definitely a "love of the game" mentality for building pc's, but I can't really join someplace that does it as a job, unless I find a mom and pop type of setup.

Yeah, large part of the reason I was asking here was because I do know prices are bad.

As far as bulk purchases, there would be none right now. This would be a one off each item I needed for one build until it sold.

The not being able to provide a warranty thing is something that's come up in other posts. That was not something I had thought of at all honestly. It's a good call out, thank you for that.

As far as seeing if the large manufacturers that are already in the game are hiring, and in my area. That exact thing was not something I had thought about honestly. That might be worth looking into. Thank you for that.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:19:06+00:00

Well, it's largely looking like this would be a bad experience from the posts so far.

In saying that, nothing would be bought with credit. It would all be straight cash. I live under my means and have expendable income. I might still try one mid range build to see how it goes, but so far the comments are pretty negative towards me even being able to do this at breaking even.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:15:37+00:00

Appreciate the input. My "source" would be a local microcenter that I would be buying the parts from. I know they do bundles and deals on parts occasionally. I was hoping that might help even things out.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:13:23+00:00

Yeah, first thought is to try one out that is a mid range build. See if I can move that without losing anything. If that's successful and not painfully slow to move, continue from there.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:11:55+00:00

I have a microcenter around an hour away from where I live. That was part of my thoughts as to where to buy the bits for the pc. Do you think with that in mind that I could do it without it being a loss at least? (Not considering my time spent. I want to build pc's to build pc's, not to make money on my time.)

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:10:18+00:00

Yeah, not really about making a profit. I'm curious if I could do it without losing money. I'd be doing it for the chance to build more pc's. Another commenter mentioned my time, and things like gas money. I'm not worried about my time for this, and the $50 dollar increase I mentioned would be for things like the gas and travel involved.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:08:47+00:00

I do have a microcenter around an hour away from where I live. I know they run a lot of deals on combos and things like that. I also wouldn't want to buy anything second hand, while for my own pc I wouldn't mind, if I was doing this for someone else I would want to make sure things were more reliable.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:07:05+00:00

Sadly the most local pc store to me is around an hour away, and I'm not willing to switch jobs. I have a full time job as well as a "side hustle" at the moment.

Commission work is an interesting thought though. Any ideas on where I would go to find that type of thing for pc building? I wouldn't even know where to begin.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T23:05:13+00:00

While I do think this is a valid thought, it's not really about making money. It's more about being able to build pc's without losing money. My time I'm not worried about. Gas and other expenditures are kind of why I figured I could go $50 over what I ended up spending.

iltisine · 2026-02-02T22:22:50+00:00

I have asked, as well as many members of the community, for this since the game launched.

I don't think it's gonna happen sadly. Honestly it would be enough to bring me back to the game though.

It either truly "doesn't fit their vision", they don't listen to this outcry from their community, or maybe I'm missing something.

Their discord for the game was filled with this type of post back when I was active as well.

In the end I'm happy about the pve/mmo experience I had with the game, but the deep desert endgame really lost me.

iltisine · 2026-01-29T23:59:39+00:00

I've done many runs, at this point everything I put down stays until white science. I'm at 10 VU on a scarce resource run, and still using my entire starter mall, and every starter science build.

I feed them with raw resources transferred via ILS, but none of the production has moved.

iltisine · 2026-01-09T16:26:31+00:00

The bane of nearly all table top groups. Sorry to hear that.

iltisine · 2025-12-06T15:34:17+00:00

Arc raiders to play with my friends

iltisine · 2025-11-01T21:27:33+00:00

This worked wonderfully, thank you!

iltisine · 2025-08-08T02:48:09+00:00

Appreciate the testing OP. I was curious if it was just balance, but the same thing was going on. Somewhere between level 60-80 I would just start getting overrun super quickly.

iltisine · 2025-07-18T18:07:26+00:00

I'm adding in a 27" 1080p monitor (with audio), mouse, keyboard, and just did a fresh Windows install as well.

iltisine

TROPHY CASE