Beginner’s Guide#
The difficulty of Satisfactory isn’t controls — it’s “where does the first machine go.” This page covers only what truly matters at the start: landing, hand gathering, lighting up the HUB, the biomass-to-coal power transition, and which MAM research line to push first. All figures come from verified sources; anything not catalogued is explicitly flagged, and we don’t speculate.
Step One: After Landing#
You touch down with only the most basic tools. The first task is not building a factory but walking the ground to find ore nodes — hand-gathering your first batch of resources.
| Opening action | Notes |
|---|---|
| Find ore nodes | iron ore is usually the first resource you meet; hand-gather your starting materials |
| Hand crafting | use your initial crafting ability to make the first basic parts |
| Place a Portable Miner | it sits directly on a resource node and mines automatically (the “Rock and stone!” achievement) |
| Build the HUB | the HUB is the core building for milestone submissions and tech progression |
For melee defense the game has basic weapons like the Xeno-Zapper, later joined by the Xeno-Basher, Rebar Gun, and more; how each piece of equipment unlocks is not catalogued on this site — defer to the actual game.
Resource Nodes and Miners#
Putting a Miner on a node is the start of full automation. Miner output is decided by node purity; the same miner tier yields as follows across the three purities:
| Miner tier | Impure node | Normal node | Pure node |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | 30 per minute | 60 per minute | 120 per minute |
| Mk.2 | 60 per minute | 120 per minute | 240 per minute |
| Mk.3 | 120 per minute | 240 per minute | 480 per minute |
Beginner points:
- Attach a conveyor to the miner’s output and let belts carry ore into production buildings — stop hand-carrying.
- Conveyor Mk.1 throughput is 60 per minute and Mk.2 is 120 — as lines expand, don’t let conveyors become the bottleneck.
- Prioritize pure nodes for miners; the same machine count doubles output.
HUB Milestones: The Backbone of Progression#
HUB milestones are the main tech tree: submit specified resources to unlock new buildings and recipes and climb the Tier ladder. At the start you don’t need to memorize material lists — just submit along the milestone list; the specific submission quantities per Tier are not catalogued on this site, so defer to the actual in-game requirements.
Two verified nodes worth remembering in the opening phase:
| Milestone node | Verified unlock |
|---|---|
| Tier 4 | the Blueprint Designer (introduced in Update 7), which mass-copies production lines |
| Tier 3 | Pipeline Mk.1 (300 m³/min), the start of the fluid system |
The unlock tiers of other buildings and belts are not individually verified — the in-game milestone list is authoritative.
The Power Transition: Biomass → Coal#
The standard early power route is “biomass holds the line for a while, coal takes over”:
| Generation | Output per unit | Key parameters | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biomass Burner | 30 MW | consumes 120/min of leaves and other organics | starting power; needs constant refueling |
| Coal Generator | 75 MW | 15 coal/min + 45 m³/min water | the first fully automated power; the mid-game mainstay |
Biomass burners are hand-fed and only carry you through the start; as soon as conditions allow, lay down “coal + water” coal power and free yourself from leaf gathering. Coal power drinks a lot of water — include the water source in your site planning.
For later power routes (Fuel-Powered Generator 250 MW, Nuclear Power Plant 2500 MW, Geothermal Generator 50–600 MW fluctuating), see the Power Systems guide.
MAM Research: Which Line First#
The MAM is the game’s branching research system, complementing HUB milestones. Verified branches include:
| Research tree | Verified unlocks/effect |
|---|---|
| Caterium | the Geothermal Generator (50–600 MW) unlocks via MAM Caterium research |
| Sulfur | a combat and explosives research line (branch name verified) |
| Quartz | an optics-parts research line (branch name verified) |
| Alien Technology | the Somersloop unlocks output amplification via MAM alien-tech research; the Mercer Sphere is used for MAM alien-tech research upgrades |
Early on, prioritize research lines directly tied to logistics and power; the full tree inside each branch is not catalogued — defer to the actual game.
Two more collection lines unrelated to the MAM: Hard Drives in crash sites unlock alternate recipes, and Power Slugs picked up in the wild convert into Power Shards for overclocking machines up to 250%.
Choosing a Starting Area#
The game has four starting regions with different environmental flavors. Only the region names are verified; quantitative comparisons of resource distribution are not catalogued — scout the in-game map yourself:
| Starting region |
|---|
| Grass Fields |
| Rocky Desert |
| Northern Forest |
| Dune Desert |
Universal advice: wherever you land, the area should ideally have both ore and water — coal power drinks, and fluid lines need Pipeline Mk.1 (unlocked at Tier 3).
Common Beginner Mistakes#
| Mistake | Consequence | Correct approach |
|---|---|---|
| Biomass burners as a long-term mainstay | tedious hand feeding; one dry spell blacks out the whole factory | treat them as transition power; move to coal as early as possible |
| No storage buffers | lines clog and everything stops | storage containers at line ends |
| Belt tier below production | ore piles up at miner exits | match belt tier to output (Mk.1 60 to Mk.6 1200 per minute) |
| Building miners only on normal nodes | half the output for the same machines | prioritize pure nodes; Mk.1 pure is 120 per minute |
| Factory crammed into one spot | no expansion room later | zone your layout: smelting, parts, and assembly with spacing |
| Expanding with zero power headroom | every new machine trips the grid | compute grid headroom before expanding, or pre-build the next power tier |
| Ignoring map exploration | missing Hard Drives, Power Slugs, and alien-tech collectibles | see Map Exploration |
Next Steps#
- To understand every generation method: Power Systems
- To lay out production lines: Production Line Planning and Logistics
- To decide what to unlock first: Tech Unlocks
- To collect all Somersloops (106 on the map) and Mercer Spheres (298 on the map): Map Exploration
- To build with friends: Multiplayer (officially supports 4 players, no hard cap)