Beacon

Beacon/infobox

File:Factorio-beacon.png

Basic beacon and 12 Electric furnaces affected by it.

A beacon is a device that transmits module effects to nearby machines, in a 9x9 square. The effects are transmitted with only half efficiency. However, a beacon allows transmitting the effect of a module to multiple machines and the effect of all beacons around is added together (the effect stacks on a single machine). Additionally, beacons can add qualities beyond the normal effective module cap of an item (module slots), such as boosting a Pumpjack's output at peak oil to .25 oil per cycle where, alone, it could only reach .2 yield.

Usage

Beacons are best in these scenarios:

• There are a lot of compatible machines in a dense area

This allows the beacon's effect to reach multiple machines, allowing the player to save materials from crafting modules.

• There is one machine that must have an extreme speed of operation

Mining drills are the best example of this. When an ore patch is small but rich, more speed per drill is necessary to meet demand, since adding more drills isn't possible. So, multiple speed module beacons around a mining drill (with modules in the drill itself) can be used to increase the speed of the singular drill several times, to make up for the low quantity of drills.

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Beacons should not be used in these scenarios:

• The machine(s) being boosted operate infrequently

This leads to power waste as beacons will always consume power, even when the machines they're boosting are halted. This however can be circumvented with some planning, and using a Power switch.

• Attempting to boost non-module-compatible machines

Only machines that have module slots will be affected by a beacon.

Limitations

• Only buildings with module slots can benefit from modules distributed by beacons(i.e. laser turret doesn't benefit), and beacons themselves don't benefit from the modules inserted (or other beacons), so their energy cost can't be reduced.

• Currently, only speed and efficiency modules can be used in the basic beacon, and productivity modules cannot.

• A beacon's effect transmitted is only half of the effect of the modules within. So, two of the same module = one module's worth transmitted. This limitation can be overcome with more beacons with overlapping areas.

• The beacon itself is 3x3 tiles, making it difficult to fit between buildings sometimes. It may be necessary to place the beacon first and design the system around it.

See also

• Crafting network
• Electric network
• Modules