In the game Satisfactory, there are four starting locations from which you can embark on your adventure. These are grass fields, rocky desert, northern forest and dune desert.
- Grass fields. It is ideal for new players, as it has basic access to all resources, such as water, coal, copper, iron, and limestone.
- Rocky desert. Also a good place for novice players, it has plenty of space, a wide variety of resources, and an abundance of water.
- Northern forest. It has a great wealth of resources; however, it's difficult to build in this area due to the lack of space and the large difference in heights.
- Dune desert. This is an immense space to build, with a large number of mines. However, there is a lack of water and vegetation.
Starting Locations
If you're new to the game, it's a good idea to start in the Grass Fields because there are lots of resources. But as you get better at the game, you might find there's not enough space for all your factories there.
If you're already an experienced player, you can explore other starting locations, like the Dune Desert. There'll be fewer starter resources available, but you'll have a vast amount of space and advanced resources for building.
But where can you find these places? The following map shows all the starting locations marked. As you can see on the map, these locations are quite far apart from each other. Despite that, at any point in the game, you can move to another biome or area of the map.
It's normal to feel unsure of what to do when starting a game for the first time. Keep in mind that the goal of the game is to mine as many resources as possible and craft advanced components.
Note that to craft certain components, you'll need resources that you'll obtain from other resources... and so on. It's good to create a good starter factory layout at the beginning of the game, which will allow you to progress quickly.
Build your first Iron Factory:
The first thing you should do is build the most basic factories in the game. These are the iron factory, the copper factory, and the limestone factory. From iron, you can obtain bars and plates. In turn, from the bars, you can obtain nails. From copper, you can obtain copper wire and cable, while from limestone, you can obtain cement.
Smelter
You will have to use these materials to level up the hub and unlock the structures, components, and parts that will allow you to build factories. However, when you start a new world, you don't have these elements yet for building factories.
The Hub:
The first thing you should do is place the hub, then build an equipment workbench, and create a portable miner. By placing this portable miner in a mining area, you will obtain some raw resources that you can use to create the components in the hub that will allow you to level it up and unlock the factory elements.
Early game factory layout:
Once you have unlocked the necessary parts for building factories, let's start extracting iron. To do this, you must place a Miner Mk1 in the extraction area and connect it using conveyor belts to a smelter. The smelter will produce molten iron. Next, connect the smelter to a constructor, and choose whether you want to produce bars or plates. Finally, connect the output of the constructor to a storage container to store all the produced material.
Constructor
Copper and limestone factories:
The process for creating copper and limestone factories is similar. You should follow the structure Miner Mk1, smelter, constructor. However, sometimes the amount produced by the miner per minute is greater than the smelter's burn rate. In this case, you should place a conveyor splitter, which will divide the material so that it enters two smelters.
One of the most important things when starting the game is to be organized. If you place your factories randomly and disorganized, all you will achieve is creating a tangle of conveyor belts that will go back and forth, and you won't have a clear understanding of how your factories work.
Foundation
Keep in mind that as you progress in the game, components will become more complex and consist of more parts, so you will need to connect a lot of basic resource factories in order to produce them. This is why order is crucial.
Ramp
That is why the use of foundations is highly recommended. This will allow you to build your smelters, constructors, conveyor belts, and other pieces of the factory at the same height.
How to power your base and factories
It is also important to properly organize energy. Always try to produce more than you consume to avoid short circuits. A starter base factory should have biomass generators that you can feed with leaves to produce energy. You can easily collect leaves using a chainsaw.
