The best Satisfactory tips for beginners come down to five things: start in Grass Fields or Rocky Desert, finish the six HUB upgrades before you build anything big, turn leaves and wood into Biomass before you burn them, put Miners on Pure nodes first, and ship the 50 Smart Plating for Space Elevator Phase 1 as early as you can, because that delivery unlocks Tiers 3 and 4. Every number below comes from Coffee Stain Studios’ own Steam notes or the Satisfactory Wiki and was checked against version 1.2.4.1 (the latest patch, October 12, 2026) on November 3, 2026.
Table of Contents
Quick answer: Satisfactory tips for beginners
- Start area: Grass Fields (“ideal for first-time pioneers”) or Rocky Desert. Leave Dune Desert for a later save.
- Early power: turn leaves and wood into Biomass in a Constructor. Leaves hold 6x more energy that way and wood 9x more.
- Mining: a Pure node doubles a Miner’s output and an Impure node halves it. A Mk.1 Miner gives 30, 60 or 120 ore/min.
- First goal: 50 Smart Plating for Space Elevator Phase 1. One Assembler makes 2 a minute, so that’s about 25 minutes of production.
- First real power plant: Coal (Tier 3). One generator gives 75 MW from 15 coal and 45 m³ of water a minute.
- Explore early: 118 crash sites hold Hard Drives for alternate recipes, and Power Slugs become the Power Shards you need for overclocking.
- New in 1.2: Game Modes let you cut costs without losing achievements, and Esc now really pauses single-player.
Satisfactory is a first-person factory builder from Coffee Stain Studios. It’s on Steam ($39.99, 1.0 released September 10, 2024) and Epic, and the official site also sells it for PS5 and Xbox. The 1.2 update (June 2, 2026) launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on the same day, so these tips apply on every platform.
Only one Miner fits on a node. A Mk.1 on a Pure node makes 120 ore a minute, two full Mk.1 belts' worth, so split it early. Image: Coffee Stain Studios
Before you start: pick a starting area and game mode
A new game offers four starting areas on the same map, and you can reach all of them later. The Satisfactory Wiki quotes the in-game descriptions:
| Start area | In-game rating | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Grass Fields | Ideal for first-time pioneers | Open, flat fields, but resources are far apart, so you’ll build outposts later |
| Rocky Desert | Suitable for first-time pioneers | Balanced resources, space and distances, close to the sea (easy water) |
| Northern Forest | Good for more experienced pioneers | Rich resources, but steep terrain and few open spaces |
| Dune Desert | Recommended for advanced pioneers | Big open spaces and plenty of nodes, but little foliage or water, so early power is hard |
Game Modes (new in 1.2): when you create a save you can set cost multipliers and randomize the world. Space Elevator costs go from 0.25x to 100x, recipe part costs from 0.25x to 2x and power use from 0.25x to 5x. Resource nodes can be randomized and their purity changed (from “All Pure” to “All Impure”). Coffee Stain’s notes say Game Modes don’t disable achievements, but you can’t change them after the save starts. Creative Mode (the old Advanced Game Settings) still disables achievements. Our advice: for a first run, either stay on the defaults or lower only the Space Elevator multiplier, so recipes and ratios still match guides and calculators.
If you skip Onboarding, the game builds the HUB for you and unlocks Tier 1 right away. You also get a starter kit that includes 4 Portable Miners, 129 Iron Plates and 58 Concrete. Our advice: play the tutorial on a first save.
Tier 0: get through the HUB upgrades fast
All six HUB upgrades unlock in order and finish instantly once you hand in the parts. Everything is made from iron at first, then copper and limestone. Per the Milestones page:
| Upgrade | Cost | Key unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| HUB Upgrade 1 | 10 Iron Rod | Equipment Workshop, Portable Miner, +1 inventory slot |
| HUB Upgrade 2 | 20 Iron Rod, 10 Iron Plate | Smelter, Power Line, Copper Ingot, Wire, Cable, first HUB Biomass Burner |
| HUB Upgrade 3 | 20 Iron Plate, 20 Iron Rod, 20 Wire | Constructor, Power Pole, Concrete, Screw, Reinforced Iron Plate |
| HUB Upgrade 4 | 75 Iron Plate, 20 Cable, 10 Concrete | Conveyor Belts and Poles, +3 slots |
| HUB Upgrade 5 | 75 Iron Rod, 50 Cable, 20 Concrete | Miner Mk.1, Storage Container, second HUB burner, +3 slots |
| HUB Upgrade 6 | 100 Iron Rod, 100 Iron Plate, 100 Wire, 50 Concrete | Space Elevator, Biomass Burner, Biomass recipe, +3 slots |
Put Portable Miners on iron as soon as you unlock them (they mine 20, 40 or 80 ore a minute on Impure, Normal or Pure nodes, need no power, and hold 100 ore before they stop). Each of the two burners built into the HUB gives only 20 MW, against 30 MW for a standalone Biomass Burner.
Tier 1 and 2: what to unlock first
After the HUB, Tiers 1 and 2 open together. Our suggested order, based on what each milestone unlocks:
- Logistics (Tier 1): Splitters, Mergers and Conveyor Lifts, so one Miner can feed several machines.
- Field Research (Tier 1): the MAM, the Object Scanner and the map.
- Part Assembly (Tier 2): the Assembler, Rotors, Modular Frames and Smart Plating, which you need for Phase 1.
- Base Building (Tier 1): foundations, ramps and walls for a tidy first factory floor.
- Obstacle Clearing (Tier 2): the Chainsaw and Solid Biofuel.
- Logistics Mk.2 (Tier 2): 120-per-minute belts.
- Resource Sink Bonus Program (Tier 2): the AWESOME Sink and Shop. Sinking spare parts earns coupons to spend in the AWESOME Shop.
Power tips: biomass first, then coal
Early power runs on fuel you gather by hand, so get the most out of every armful: don’t burn raw leaves. The Biomass Burner page lists the energy gain from processing:
| Constructor recipe | Energy in | Energy out | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Leaves to 5 Biomass | 150 MJ | 900 MJ | 6x |
| 4 Wood to 20 Biomass | 400 MJ | 3,600 MJ | 9x |
| 8 Biomass to 4 Solid Biofuel | 1,440 MJ | 1,800 MJ | 1.25x |
Biomass Burners burn less fuel when your factory draws less power, so building a few extra means you refuel them less often. They can’t charge Power Storage, though.
Coal power needs water too: 45 m³ a minute per generator, and a Mk.1 pipeline carries at most 300 m³ a minute. Image: Coffee Stain Studios
Coal is your first automated power (Coal Power milestone, Tier 3). Per the wiki, one Coal-Powered Generator makes 75 MW from 15 coal a minute plus 45 m³ of water a minute. Three Water Extractors feed eight generators. Keep each Mk.1 pipeline under its 300 m³/min limit by splitting the water lines. The Water Extractors use about 10% of what you generate, so plan for that.
| Coal source | Coal/min | Generators | Gross power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 Miner, Impure node | 30 | 2 | 150 MW |
| Mk.1 Miner, Normal node | 60 | 4 | 300 MW |
| Mk.1 Miner, Pure node | 120 | 8 | 600 MW |
| Mk.2 Miner, Pure node | 240 | 16 | 1,200 MW |
Miners and belts: the numbers that matter
A Miner’s output depends on its mark, the node’s purity and its clock speed. The Miner page gives the formula: base rate (Mk.1 60, Mk.2 120, Mk.3 240 per minute) times the purity modifier (Impure 0.5, Normal 1, Pure 2). Only one Miner fits on a node.
| Miner (100% clock) | Impure | Normal | Pure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | 30/min | 60/min | 120/min |
| Mk.2 | 60/min | 120/min | 240/min |
| Mk.3 | 120/min | 240/min | 480/min |
Now match the belts. A Mk.1 belt carries 60 items a minute, so a Mk.1 Miner on a Pure node already fills two of them. Belt tiers:
| Belt | Items/min | Unlocked at |
|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | 60 | Tier 0, HUB Upgrade 4 |
| Mk.2 | 120 | Tier 2, Logistics Mk.2 |
| Mk.3 | 270 | Tier 4, Logistics Mk.3 |
| Mk.4 | 480 | Tier 5, Logistics Mk.4 |
| Mk.5 | 780 | Tier 7, Logistics Mk.5 |
| Mk.6 | 1,200 | Tier 9, Peak Efficiency |
You can upgrade Miners and belts in place by aiming the higher-mark hologram at the old one, and the connections stay attached. Two catches from the wiki: any Conveyor Lift attached directly to a Miner disconnects and has to be rebuilt, and upgrading a belt refunds any Throughput Monitors on it.
Space Elevator Phase 1 and Phase 2 tips
The Space Elevator is how you progress. You deliver parts and pull the lever twice (Load, Seal, Send), and each of the first three deliveries unlocks two more tiers. These are the default costs:
| Phase | Delivery | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Distribution Platform | 50 Smart Plating | Tiers 3 and 4 |
| 2: Construction Dock | 1,000 Smart Plating, 1,000 Versatile Framework, 100 Automated Wiring | Tiers 5 and 6 |
| 3: Main Body | 2,500 Versatile Framework, 500 Modular Engine, 100 Adaptive Control Unit | Tiers 7 and 8 |
Smart Plating takes 1 Reinforced Iron Plate and 1 Rotor in an Assembler and comes out at 2 a minute (30 seconds each). Our math: one Assembler covers Phase 1 in about 25 minutes, but at that speed Phase 2’s 1,000 plates would take more than 8 hours. So build a dedicated Smart Plating line with several Assemblers right after Phase 1. Steel (Basic Steel Production, Tier 3) gives you Versatile Framework, and Advanced Steel Production (Tier 4) gives you Automated Wiring and the Miner Mk.2.
Two more wiki tips: later project parts use earlier ones as ingredients, so extras aren’t wasted, and you can dismantle and move the Space Elevator without losing progress.
Stacking floors of identical machines is one way to scale a line, such as the several Assemblers that Phase 2's 1,000 Smart Plating needs. Image: Coffee Stain Studios
Exploration tips: Hard Drives, Power Slugs and Somersloops
- Hard Drives: there are 118 crash sites, each with one Hard Drive. Find them with the Object Scanner after researching Radio Signal Scanning (Quartz tree) in the MAM. Each scan takes 10 minutes and offers a choice of two alternate recipes. Per the wiki, alternates are trade-offs, not straight upgrades.
- Power Slugs: blue (596 in the world) give 1 Power Shard, yellow (389) give 2 and purple (257) give 5, per the Power Slug page. Each shard raises a building’s clock limit by 50%, up to 3 shards for 250%.
- Somersloops: 106 are hidden in the world. Once production amplification is researched in the MAM, they can double a machine’s output at no extra input cost, but power use rises up to 4x.
- Multiple MAMs: all MAMs share one research queue, so building a spare MAM near a crash site lets you start a Hard Drive scan on the spot.
Overclocking and underclocking: when it’s worth it
Clock speed runs from 1% to 250%, and power use doesn’t scale in a straight line. Per the clock speed page, a machine at 200% uses 250% of its normal power and one at 50% uses 40%. Underclocking needs no shards. Use it to match ratios: type a target such as 120/140*100 into the clock field to get exactly 120 Screws a minute. Overclocking itself is unlocked by the Overclock Production research in the MAM’s Power Slugs tree. Miners are the exception to the power rule, according to the wiki: a Mk.1 overclocked to 200% matches a Mk.2 at 100% while drawing less power (12.5 MW against 15 MW). Our advice: spend your first shards on Miners on Pure nodes.
Quality-of-life features beginners miss
- Real pause (1.2): in single-player, Esc now pauses the game, so creatures won’t attack while you’re away. It’s on by default.
- Weather presets (1.2): rain is back, and the new World settings tab has presets that include “Dry”, “Clear” and “Extreme”.
- Vehicle paths and Fluid Trucks (1.2): vehicle routes are now placed with the build gun like railways. Fluid Stations and Trucks (3,200 m³ each) unlock in Tier 5.
- Blueprints: Blueprint Designer Mk.1 (FICSIT Blueprints, Tier 4) is a build area: arrange machines inside it, save the layout as a blueprint, then place copies from the build menu.
- Planning tools: community sites such as Satisfactory Calculator (interactive map) and Satisfactory Tools (production planner) are fan-made, not official, but popular for working out ratios.
Coming later: Coffee Stain has announced Core Values, the game’s first paid DLC, with an underground factory network and new resources, flora and fauna. It has no release date yet (“To be announced” on Steam). If you like production chains, our Anno 117 production chains and layouts guide uses the same ratio thinking. Our Farming Simulator 25 beginner tips and Frostpunk 2 factions tier list cover two more management sims. For Coffee Stain-published survival, see Valheim console commands.
FAQ
What should I do first in Satisfactory?
Finish the six HUB upgrades (Tier 0), put Portable Miners and then Mk.1 Miners on iron, unlock Logistics and Part Assembly, and build Smart Plating for Space Elevator Phase 1. That delivery unlocks Tiers 3 and 4, including coal power and steel.
Do Game Modes disable achievements in Satisfactory?
No. Coffee Stain’s 1.2 notes say Game Modes (cost multipliers and world randomization) keep achievements enabled, but you can’t turn them off later for that save. Creative Mode does disable achievements.
How many Smart Plating do you need for Phase 2?
Phase 2 (Construction Dock) needs 1,000 Smart Plating, 1,000 Versatile Framework and 100 Automated Wiring at default costs. One Assembler makes 2 Smart Plating a minute.
Is Satisfactory on PS5 and Xbox?
Yes. The official site sells it on PS5 and Xbox, and the 1.2 update launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on the same day (June 2, 2026). The latest patch is 1.2.4.1 (October 12, 2026).
Sources: Coffee Stain Studios on Steam (Satisfactory 1.2 Update out now, June 2, 2026; 1.2 Update Fixes v1.2.4.1, October 12, 2026; Core Values announcement, September 29, 2026); Steam store page; satisfactorygame.com; Satisfactory Wiki pages on Milestones, Miners, Conveyor Belts, Coal-Powered Generator, Biomass Burner, Space Elevator, Hard Drives, Power Slugs, Clock speed and New game (all checked November 3, 2026).
Live: Follow today’s gaming news as it happens
Featured image: AI-generated illustration
