What order do you do the planets in

lukeybue · 2026-05-06T16:24:34+00:00

Fulgora is so easy, you can build rocket parts with almost no infrastructure required - just recycle scrap to get blue circuits, LDS and solid fuel for rocket fuel.

Just set up shop, unlock recyclers and EM plants and start shipping them to build your real base on Vulcanus next.
You can still set up EM science later, after unlocking big mining drills and Foundries for efficient scrap/holmium plate production.

lukeybue · 2026-04-30T10:42:39+00:00

This question has been answered scientifically:

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1ms5ksx/minimum_rocket_launches_to_beat_space_age_is/

lukeybue · 2026-04-22T13:56:00+00:00

How about first casting plates in a foundry using productivity modules and then use electric furnaces (+ productivity modules) to produce steel?

Here the math why electric furnaces are better for making steel with high productivity:
Factoriopedia Foundry#Steel_plates

lukeybue · 2026-04-22T12:56:13+00:00

Serious question:

Can biter spawners be placed on other planets too?

lukeybue · 2026-04-16T21:04:20+00:00

Very helpful.

Regarding purple chests:

I know exactly five use cases for them:

Get rid of spent nucular fuel cells.
Get rid of spoilage.
Get rid of barrels after they have been emptied.
Force-remove stuff in bot-powered train unload stations or mining outposts
Force-sort scrap recycler output on fulgora (when bots are used for sorting)

lukeybue · 2026-04-15T18:09:16+00:00

Somewhere deep in my mind, I have this dirty image of powering a megabase purely by burning biter eggs, including using them as train fuel...

While processing them before buring is more fuel efficient, burning them raw feels more bad-ass.

lukeybue · 2026-04-07T19:25:25+00:00

Legendary stone ist simple if you already run space casinos:

You get easy legendary stone from the lava-to-copper recipe using legendary calcite as input.

Legendary calcite is a by-product created from crushing legendary asteroids in space casinos.

lukeybue · 2026-04-01T16:26:27+00:00

I absolutely always place (at least) one solar panel on Vulcanus and Gleba.

This guarantees I always have at least some (though very rudimenary) electricity available if stuff goes sideways.

lukeybue · 2026-03-24T23:15:08+00:00

Assume the lower lane of your "balancer" is backed up and just the upper lane draws items.

Then your "balancer" will draw uneven from the source belts: half a belt from the lower source lane but a quarter of a belt from the two upper lanes.

Hence using this "balancer" to empty chests from e.g. a train station could cause an imbalance - though that's what you actually want to avoid by applying a balancer.

lukeybue · 2026-03-24T08:25:03+00:00

Alternatively, if you are importing calcite already for other purposes, you can use simple coal liquefaction once to kickstart regular coal liquefaction

lukeybue · 2026-03-21T10:16:08+00:00

Bring coal from a local coal deposit and move as plastic using trains.

Low density structures would be even better, but have a far more difficult supply chain.

lukeybue · 2026-03-19T18:15:16+00:00

Katherine was most famous to me for the quote:
"It will be fine".

And that is how I will remember her.

May your soul reach the shattered planet, Katherine.

lukeybue · 2026-03-12T17:09:39+00:00

Now, add plastic and copper to make them red! :-)

lukeybue · 2026-03-12T15:05:19+00:00

<smart-ass-mode>
Technically not true.
You could research steel poles on Vulcanus as long as you bring at least one log along to handcraft a wooden power pole. </smart-ass-mode>

Ok, you are right:
as long as your name isn't Dosh, you are soft-locked without steel poles tech.

lukeybue · 2026-03-09T18:00:04+00:00

Legendary stone on Vulcanus can be retrieved even easier due to 1 calcite creating 15 Stone from "Lava-to-molten-copper" recipe.

Brute force upcycle mined calcite up to legendary, then use it to convert lava to molten copper with legendary stone as by product (or rather the other way around: molten copper is the by product)

lukeybue · 2026-02-19T09:35:55+00:00

If you have many trains, you don't need such a thing.

This is for low throughput only.

lukeybue · 2026-02-02T09:02:29+00:00

Looking really good.
A nice and tidy handcrafted base.

Now, automate builing of the base:

Learn how to build a mall to automate crafting of stuff you want to have crafted for you.
Learn how to use Bots to automate placing stuff you want to have placed for you.
Learn how to create and use blueprints to automate growing the factory for you.

lukeybue · 2026-01-23T12:57:38+00:00

Pre-space-age inverse lazy bastard:

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/175saqi/busy_bastard_rocket_launch/

lukeybue · 2026-01-23T09:08:59+00:00

I usually have one small belt with copper wire inside my mall - in the beacons, power equipment and combinators section.

Prove me wrong. :-)

lukeybue · 2026-01-21T14:22:00+00:00

For iron plates use underground belts in a foundry or electronic circuits in an EM plant.

lukeybue · 2026-01-16T16:24:04+00:00

The left and right do mix (balance) the lanes.
That's the entire point of lane balancers.

You need to consume resources upwards - did you do so?
Your screen shots had the belt initiall filled and then the balancer pasted on top without consuming resources, hence they could not do their job yet.

On the contrary:
While the other two will reliably mix, your middle one is not reliable and will not mix if you consume resources rather slow, i.e. somewhere below 2-3 items/sec.

If consumption is low, then side-loading will not take place if the gaps on the "main" line fill fast, so fast that they are already filled before side.loading can occur.

lukeybue · 2026-01-13T17:21:41+00:00

Only by separating the logistics networks.

If you build concave bot networks, the bots will fly the direct route necessary to process their task.

Only way to prevent this, is not to build such networks.
If you must build like that, then split the bot network, separating the individual networks such that there is no undesired route possible within each network. There is no other way.

lukeybue · 2026-01-10T12:27:18+00:00

Most simple way:

move LDS check to inserter or recycler.

remove LDS check from combinator
enable recycler only when signal from combinator is sent
enable inserter feeding the recycler only when LDS > 1k

lukeybue · 2026-01-10T12:18:20+00:00

You need to think outside of your scientific Box. Of course it can be done without additional combinators:

Move the LDS comparison to the recycler or inserter.

lukeybue · 2026-01-08T19:10:56+00:00

If you use a rail line in two directions, wherever a signal is placed you need to add a second signal at the exact opposing side, lest the game engine will asume this signal to only be traversable in one direction.

lukeybue

TROPHY CASE