CHOOSING YOUR FACTORY LOCATION
Now that we have landed on this strange alien planet, let’s decide where to build our new factory. This is somewhat subjective depending on how difficult you like your play to be. Overall I suggest building in a location large and open with the basics nearby, such as iron, copper, coal and a water source to start. Remember your factor will probably be very large in the end.
RESOURCE GUIDE
Resource nodes come in 3 qualities: Impure, Normal, and Pure. Node Multipliers are Normal being 1, Impure are half of that at .05, while Pure are twice that of Normal at 2.
Solid resource nodes
Manually hand-mining with a chisel: Simply approach it and mine it [E Key]. While holding the E Key, open the inventory [Tab Key] so that you can release the mining key, this will manually mine until the inventory window is closed.
Place a Portable Miner on node: Equip the portable miner, Left to place down. You can place multiple portable miners on a same node. As the internal storage of a potable miner is limited, and lack of a belt output, you need to take out the mined ores manually.
Place a Miner building on node: This is the only way to fully automate the mining process. Only one Miner can be built on each resource node. Miner buildings can be only placed on resource nodes that are clear of resource deposits. However, they work through foundations.
Fluid resource node (Crude Oil):
Build an Oil Extractor on it: The only way to extract the Crude Oil.
Geyser:
Build a Geo Thermal Generator on it: This is the only purpose of Geysers.
MILESTONES AND RESEARCH
Completing milestone research is how you progress and open newer items such as upgraded conveyor belts and mining capabilities. You can set reminders for your current research to know what is resources are needed to complete the next step. You can track multiple things at once if you like.
POWERING YOUR FACTORY
You need power poles to create a grid of power for running your plants machinery. Remember each power pole can only have four items connected to it by power lines. Including the power source leading into it. I suggest leaving one of these spaces free to connect to another power pole, and at the end of your grid always leave one space open for branching off to your next section of machinery. This gets easier as you progress to larger quantities available to your power poles.
OVERCLOCKING
Slugs are found everywhere throughout Satisfactory. They are visibly seen with a colored glow green, yellow and purple, each giving you a different amount of power cells to overclock your machinery for higher output, with purple slugs giving you the most at 5 per slug. You will unlock these through the MAM research unlocking a building to deposit slugs into. The key to using these is to manage the output between your miner, belts, and machinery to be as efficient as possible.
HOTKEYS
Tab = Inventory
Q = Build menu
F = Demolition tool
V = Turn light on or off
C = Resource scanner (hold down to select type of resource)
C (while in vehicle) = Vehicle menu
X = Schematics and messages
Z = Map
Spacebar = Hold to craft continuously
P = Photo mode