Factorio: Space Age added new achievements, so I no longer had 100% done. So, some time ago, I started “finish SA under 40 hours” challenge to get back to fully finished game state.
Gathering of hints
Before starting, I decided to check how people approached this achievement. One of solutions was the ‘Express Delivery: a brief guide for the best achievement in the game. Ask me anything!’ post by “Intrepid_Teacher1597” on Reddit. With clean split to parts:
- Nauvis
- Vulkanus
- Fulgora
- Gleba
- Nauvis (to redesign using technologies from other planets)
- Aquillo
- Solar’s Edge
I went through my old blueprints, refreshed my ‘Microfactories for Space Age’ set from some old savegame and started playing.
I opted for rich resource settings and made islands on Fulgora large enough to not have issues with space. Later, it turned out that I did not looked closely at how Aquillo would look…
Nauvis
I do not like the first hours in Factorio. No bots means everything needs to be built by hand. The awful part. So, I used ‘Brian’s bootstrap‘ by Brian White, as in some of my previous games, to make it as compact and quick as possible.
Once I had bots I designed Nauvis base using blueprints from my previous game. Which turned out to be a bad idea as it quickly showed that there would be serious lockdowns later.
So I moved back a bit and redesigned using Nilaus cityblocks 2.0 blueprints. Quick, simple and organised. Probably should have started with them.
Space platform and ships
To get to space you need space science. A simple ‘75 SPM space platform‘ by Brandon Lam was enough for a start. I did some edits to it later as some inserters required adding conditions to keep the platform operational.
For inner planets transport I wanted something small. The ‘Early Game Ship‘ by Ian Coleman was enough for most of the time. At some point, I enlarged storage space a bit and built a second one. One was used for transporting science packs and the other for deliveries.
Vulkanus
Landed, built a small base and went hunting.
Small demolishers are easy to kill when you have 50 gun turrets and a few thousand red ammo. Set a 5x10 block of turrets on your territory next to the border, fill them with ammo, use some decoys to make the demolisher angry and walk away. At some point, you get notification and a new territory. Repeat a few times and there will be more than needed space for expansion.
Got tungsten ore, setup a bus, a set of my microfactories making things, 300+ megawatts of power from sulfuric acid and was ready to go to the next planet.
Lava is a beautiful resource — infinite amounts of molten iron/copper make things so much easier.
Fulgora
The recycling planet. The usual process: land, walk around, find a large island, put few hundred accumulators for power and start building.
Again I used my microfactories set and something like six thousand accumulators for power.
Several recycler blocks to get basic components (like plates) and Fulgora is a place where you can build so many things…
Fulgora and Vulkanus were my main sources for several components for the other planets.
Gleba
I am not a fan of Gleba. It is too biological for me. Spoilage everywhere, nutrients everywhere…
In the beginning, I planned to use my microfactories. But kick-starting it took a bit too much time so I went back and used the Gleba starter factory instead. One complex block, built by bots, delivers everything I needed. This blueprint is expected to be replaced by the main base but it was enough for my challenge.
Nauvis again
While bots were building factory on Gleba I started redesigning base on Nauvis. Drilling machines from Vulkanus instead of electric miners gave me much more resources. And they stack items on belts once you research Gleba technologies.
Melting iron/copper ore solved another problem as liquids transfer faster than belts. Furthermore foundries from Vulkanus allow to produce several things without any intermediate steps (direct steel, pipes, wheels or copper wire).
Add EM plants from Fulgora and you get electronic chips (green, red, blue ones) in much bigger amounts than before. For example: my cityblock was making two red belts of electronic chips (that’s 60/s). After the redesign, it was 280/s on two green belts (required stack inserters to pass 75/s limit of one green belt).
Modules, LDS, and so on are also much faster. The old hub/mall “making everything”, can get upgrades, such foundries making wheels and pipes directly from molten iron instead of using iron plates.
Long distance space ship
At that stage I also finished building space ship for next stage. I used ‘Easy normal quality Edge ship‘ by Wobbleland as a base for it.
After some trial flights, I edited it to have a bit more cargo space. I cut ship in half, added some extra storage, and it became my only long distance ship.
Aquillo
The frozen hell. Planet where all you have is an ammoniacal ocean with some small islands here and there. Things freeze if you do not heat them, bots discharge five times quicker than usual etc.
This is a place where you need to be properly prepared. Mech armor is mandatory, along with 4 portable fission reactors and MK2 or MK3 batteries with MK2 roboports. Anything below that, and your bots are useless and for most of the time you run without any power in the armour.
Careful design is a must. I landed, tried to set up base and started adding what I had forgotten to take with me into my notes. Restarted and landed again. And again. And…
Then I took some time and designed whole base with the main bus idea. To not have to rely on bots for the most of the base.
First, I built some small starter to get water from ice (from ammoniacal solution) so I could have power. And two nuclear reactors to provide heat among heating towers powered by rocket fuel (which I took with me from Fulgora).
Then, I built the main bus piece by piece up to cryogenic science packs and the space port. It took some time to squeeze everything close to each other. Then cut it into pieces and restarted game from landing point. I have to admit — it looks nice at night:
Once production of science packs started I delivered them to Nauvis and started researching the final technologies:
- quantum computing
- fusion power
- promethium science
- railgun
Brought all components required for quantum processors and built enough of them to make two railguns for my space ship.
Solar’s Edge
With about two hours left before the 40 hours limit my ship was ready to fly to Solar’s Edge (which is the requirement to finish the game). Loaded with yellow magazines, yellow rockets and railgun ammo it went from Vulkanus to Aquillo, mounted the missing railguns and went away, to Solar’s Edge.
It was a one-way trip as all I needed was to get there, without having to go back. The railgun ammo ended just before the end, there were fewer than a hundred rockets left as well.
But it was enough to finish the game. Now I have 100% of achievements again:
That “finish under 40 hours” game started three months ago and took over 4.6 GB of storage for save files.
What’s next?
I should put Factorio away for a year or so. Because for me, Factorio is a drug.
Otherwise, I will start adding mods and try to get this base expanded, redone “in a proper way” and so on.