Before you can begin constructing a factory, there are some items you'll need to craft using iron and copper:
You'll need these to craft a Build Gun, which is used for building factories. Factory buildings are not obtainable as placeable blocks (except in creative mode), and can only be placed and removed with the Build Gun.
Resource Nodes
Your first factory will begin with a Resource Node - an infinitely renewable ore deposit which Miners can extract from.
To find a Resource Node, you can:
- Find them naturally by exploring the surface of the Overworld
- Craft a Resource Scanner to find any nodes within 1000 blocks (only for chunks already generated)
Extraction & Power
Once you've found a Resource Node, hold your Build Gun to see the required items needed to build a Miner. Then, aim at the ground near the node, and right click to build it. The Miner requires 5 MW of power to work, which means the next step is to produce power.
Press B while holding the Build Gun to open the build menu. Navigate to the Power tab, and select Biomass Burner. This is a basic generator which burns biomass (e.g. leaves, logs) to produce 30 MW of power. Acquire the necessary items, and build it near your Miner.
Finally, you'll need to connect the Biomass Burner to the Miner using a Cable in order for the Miner to receive power. Cables have a maximum number of connections per-building, so you may need Power Poles to create larger power grids.
Now your Miner will produce items, as indicated by the power indicator above it. Right click on the Miner to open its menu and verify that items are being produced. Once that's confirmed, you'll need a way of moving items from the Miner and into other factory buildings to automate production.
Belts
Belts are used to move items between factory buildings, and don't require any power. They can input and output items at the designated ports of each factory building.
The most basic version of a Belt is a Belt Mk. 1, which can move 60 items/minute. Each Belt Mk. 1 requires a single iron plate. From the build menu, select Belt Mk. 1 and place it in front of your Miner's port. Raw iron/copper (depending on which node you're at) will start to flow down the Belt. Now the items just need somewhere to go.
Machines
Machines consume resources to produce new ones, using recipes. By default, a Machine will be set to produce iron ingots - this can be changed in the menu.
To get started, build a Machine and connect your Belt of raw ore to its input port, then connect a cable from it to the rest of your power grid. You should now see your raw ore being turned into ingots. These ingots can be further refined into all of the other available factory items using multiple Machines.
Containers & Consumers
Now you'll need somewhere to store the resources your factory is producing, otherwise the factory will eventually get clogged with hundreds of items. This is where Containers and Consumers come in.
Containers are functionally identical to a vanilla chest, being able to store 27 slots of items and interact with hoppers. They also have one input and one output port, allowing Belts to move items in and out of them. This allows Containers to:
- Store items produced by your factory
- Take manually-inputted items and place them onto Belts (e.g. hooking it up to a Biomass Burner)
- Bridge vanilla/other mods and Satiscraftory (e.g. using a vanilla iron farm to use its ingots in your factory)
In most cases, you'll want a Container at the end of your production line, but Consumers offer a more destructive alternative. They only have one input port, and anything that enters a Consumer will be instantly deleted. Be careful with them, because there is no recovering an item once it's gone.
Logistics
In most cases, single Machines are unable to make full use of a Belt at full throughput. For example, to craft iron rods, a single Machine can only use 15/min iron ingots to produce 15/min iron rods. The Belt Mk. 1 can move 60 items/min, meaning you need 4 Machines to run at full efficiency.
Splitters & Mergers can split or merge Belts into more/less new Belts. Splitters have one input port and three output ports, letting one Belt be evenly distributed into three. Mergers are the opposite; they have three input ports and one output port, merging up to three Belts into one.