Player

Factorio is played from the top down perspective of your player character, who is always in the centre of your view. You have five primary ways of interacting with the world:

1. Crafting items and entities personally from resources using your craft menu (Default: e)
2. Placing entities by selecting them from your inventory or toolbar and placing them on a tile (Default: LMB)
   1. Opening contextual menus for entities like Assembly Machines or Chests
   2. Removing the entity from the world, returning it to your inventory (Default: Hold RMB)
3. Harvesting resources from a tile (Default: Hold RMB)
4. Firing weapons at enemies (Default: Press or hold Spacebar depending on weapon)
5. Picking up non-placed Items from the ground and placing them in your inventory (Default: Hold f)

For more key-bindings, please see Keyboard bindings

In the process of building and expanding your factory, different pieces of equipment will be necessary from the first moments of gameplay, starting with your first Iron axe:

Tools

Removing or harvesting placeable entities, Trees, Iron Ore, Copper Ore,Raw fish, Stone or Coal from the world requires effort and this is implemented by way of a progress bar that needs to fill uninterrupted in order to complete. Starting without a pickaxe (blank hand icon in the top left square in the display at the bottom right of the screen), it will take around two seconds to cut down a single tree. Since this is the sort of action required thousands of times over the course of a game, it is heavily recommended to craft an iron axe as your first action in the game.

Main article: Iron axe

	Player has been archived.
	The information on this page pertains to a previous version of the game. It may be incorrect, or concern a removed/changed feature.

Player

Edit

Recipe

0.5 + 3 + 2 → 1

Total raw

1 + 4

Stack size	20
Shooting speed	2 /s (melee)
Damage	5 physical
Durability	4000
Prototype type	mining-tool
Internal name	iron-axe
Required technologies
None required
Produced by

The Iron axe is a tool used for the manual mining of resources, for cutting trees, and for collecting items deployed on the ground (so they can be placed elsewhere). They can also be used for melee fighting when the player is out of ammo.

They are mostly used in the beginning of the game where the player has no resources to set up drills to automatically mine, and when the better Steel axe cannot yet be made. It is possible to stack multiple Iron axes in the tool slot.

Durability

Durability of the Iron axe is consumed based on the "mining hardness" of what is being mined, at a rate of

Durability loss = Mining hardness × 60 × Duration (s)

For example, mining one coal that has a hardness of 0.9 and takes 2.08 seconds to mine consumes

Durability loss = 0.9 × 60 × 2.08 = 112.5 durability

History

• 0.17.0:
  • Removed pickaxes and replaced them with research effects.

• 0.10.3:
  • Update icon

• 0.2.6:
  • Can be used as melee weapon.

• 0.1.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Steel axe

Main article: Steel axe

	Player has been archived.
	The information on this page pertains to a previous version of the game. It may be incorrect, or concern a removed/changed feature.

Player

Edit

Recipe

0.5 + 2 + 5 → 1

Total raw

1 + 1 + 5

Stack size	20
Shooting speed	2 /s (melee)
Damage	8 physical
Durability	5000
Prototype type	mining-tool
Internal name	steel-axe
Required technologies
Produced by

Steel axes are tools used for the manual mining of resources, for cutting trees, and for collecting items deployed on the ground (so they be placed elsewhere). They are an upgrade from iron axes, in that they mine resources and collect placed-down items faster. They can also be used for melee fighting when the player is out of ammo.

They are used throughout the game after Steel processing (research) becomes available, primarily to move deployed items, since automatic mining of resources with drills is far easier and trees tend to be cleared in the early part of the game.

It is possible to stack multiple Steel axes in the tool slot.

Durability

Durability of the Steel axe is consumed based on the "mining hardness" of what is being mined, at a rate of

Durability loss = Mining hardness × 60 × Duration (s)

For example, mining one coal that has a hardness of 0.9 and takes 1.08 seconds to mine consumes

Durability loss = 0.9 × 60 × 1.08 ≈ 58 durability

History

• 0.17.0:
  • Removed pickaxes and replaced them with research effects.

• 0.10.3:
  • Update icon

• 0.2.6:
  • Can be used as melee weapon.

• 0.2.1:
  • Introduced

See also

• Iron axe

Main article: Repair pack

Player

Edit

Recipe

0.5 + 2 + 2 → 1

Total raw

4 + 3 + 6

Recipe

0.5 + 2 + 2 → 1

Total raw

6.5 + 8 + 12

Repair packs heal building damage for 300 health.
Stack size	100
Prototype type	repair-tool
Internal name	repair-pack
Required technologies
None required
Produced by

Repair packs are used to repair items. They can be used by the player character with Left click or by construction robots. Each repair pack repairs 300 health to a building. Repair packs can only be used on buildings already placed, and can't repair something in the player's inventory.

History

• 0.15.0:
  • Durability increased from 200 to 300.
  • Speed increased from 1 to 2.

• 0.13.0:
  • Durability increased from 100 to 200.
  • Stack size increased from 50 to 100.

• 0.10.6:
  • Updated icon

• 0.8.0:
  • Introduced

Trivia

• Repairing walls and stone furnaces makes a rock-hammering sound, while repairing anything else makes a drill sound.

See also

• Logistic network

Main article: Raw fish

Player

Edit

Health	20
Restores	80 health
Stack size	100
Mining time	0.4
Prototype type	capsule
Internal name	raw-fish
Required technologies
None required
Produced by
Consumed by

Raw fish can be harvested from water. They can be used to refill a small amount of health instantly. In order to catch raw fish, mine one of the dark spots that can be found moving around in water bodies. Each dark spot yields 5 fish when mined. Fish can be also collected via construction robots, by marking a water area that contains fish with a deconstruction planner.

Raw fish is used to heal by clicking on the character or anywhere else in the world with the fish in the cursor. They heal 80 HP each and have a short cooldown for reuse, limiting the amount of incoming DPS that fish healing can absorb. Using a fish produces a munching sound.

Using landfill on water where a fish is swimming will "destroy" the fish. Fish can be shot and killed via pistol or submachine gun, and also by explosions, but are immune to any kind of shotgun fire. Shooting fish does not grant any fish items.

Fish are created in water when the world is generated and do not despawn or respawn.

Fish can also be obtained by launching a rocket from a rocket silo equipped with a space science pack. One science pack is converted to one fish, however one rocket can at most return one stack of raw fish. This means that launching more than 100 space science packs will return only 100 fish and waste all extra science packs.

Achievements

So long and thanks for all the fish Spoiler! Click to view. Send a raw fish into space via rocket.

Gallery

• 

  Inserters can catch fish.

Trivia

• The fish item icon is meant to represent a European perch, a freshwater fish widespread in Europe and elsewhere. This was chosen because a perch is the favorite plushie of the artist's daughter, see the Reddit comment by V453000

History

• 1.0.0:
  • Launching a rocket with space science packs inside now returns fish (Undocumented)

• 0.17.77:
  • Inserters can now catch fish (Undocumented)

• 0.15.0:
  • Fish can be collected by robots
  • Amount of fish collected at once increased from 1 to 5
  • Amount of health restored by fish increased from 20 to 80

• 0.6.0:
  • New fish graphics

• 0.1.0:
  • Introduced

Weapons

Eventually, whether in a peaceful game or not, you will need the capability to destroy the various Enemies that live on this world. This capability mostly comes in the form of Turrets for your base's defence, but personally in two broad categories for the player, more traditional weapons and capsules discussed below. To fire the main equip-able weapons, the weapon must be in your equipment bar in the bottom right corner of the screen somewhere on the top row (the first column is for pickaxes and armors), for the weapon to be selected with a red highlight (Default q to move the selection) and for appropriate ammunition for the weapon to be placed in the slot below it.

If all the preparation is done, fire the weapon with your target enemy key (Default: Spacebar) or your target cursor key (Default: c). Target enemy is a somewhat safe auto-aim that will snap to any enemy in range and begin firing at it for as long as the key is held down. Target cursor will fire your weapon in the direction of your cursor, which is mainly used to clear obstacles such as Trees and rocks that block placing things.

Each player starts with a Pistol and ten magazines of Regular Magazine, which will fend off the first few biter attacks, but will quickly be insufficient against the growing alien forces.

Note regarding friendly fire: Pistols and Submachine guns are perfect for in-factory combat, as they have no area effects, however all other weapons use some form of spread or explosion which will likely lead to you causing far more collateral damage than the actual alien attack could hope to. Play with your rockets outside.

Main article: Pistol

Player

Edit

Recipe

5 + 5 + 5 → 1

Total raw

5 + 5 + 5

Stack size	5
Range	15
Shooting speed	4/s
Ammunition
Prototype type	gun
Internal name	pistol
Required technologies
None required
Produced by

The Pistol is the most basic weapon in Factorio. In Freeplay mode, the player starts with a pistol and 10 firearm magazines.

The Pistol can only handle the smallest of enemy threats and the player will frequently take damage when trying to use it for self-defense. It is recommended to upgrade to the Submachine gun as soon as possible.

Main article: Submachine gun

Player

Edit

Recipe

10 + 5 + 10 + 10 → 1

Total raw

15 + 5 + 30

Recipe

10 + 20 + 15 + 30 → 1

Total raw

17.5 + 20 + 90

Stack size	5
Range	18
Shooting speed	10/s
Ammunition
Prototype type	gun
Internal name	submachine-gun
Required technologies
Produced by

The submachine gun is an upgrade from the pistol. It fires the same ammunition types and deals the same damage as the pistol, but has a much higher rate of fire. This same type of weapon is installed in the car and tank; the car and tank's version of the submachine gun fires +5 rounds per second and has +2 range compared to the handheld one. This weapon can easily handle moderate waves of small biters, even with regular ammunition, but destroying nests efficiently requires damage upgrades or the more expensive piercing round.

See also

• Pistol
• Shotgun
• Car
• Tank

Main article: Shotgun

Player

Edit

Recipe

10 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 → 1

Total raw

12.5 + 10 + 25 + 5

Recipe

10 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 → 1

Total raw

12.5 + 10 + 35 + 5

Stack size	5
Range	15
Shooting speed	1/s
Ammunition
Prototype type	gun
Internal name	shotgun
Required technologies
Produced by

The shotgun is a basic but powerful weapon with good range, damage, and ammunition efficiency, but a low rate of fire. It fires in a spread pattern. The shotgun will fire without hostile targets nearby, can damage walls (it won't shoot over them) and other friendly structures, thus requiring significantly more caution when used, compared to most other weapons.

For early Biter nests assaults, shotgun ammo represents a massive boost on resource efficiency, with 2 copper plates and 2 iron plates giving a stack of shotgun shells, dealing a total of 600 damage. Contrast this against the pistol's firearm magazine, which costs 4 iron plates and deals a total of 50 damage.

The shotgun is less effective in clearing out the biters themselves, because pellet spread will cause a nontrivial fraction of pellets to miss against small targets. Players can switch between the shotgun and submachine gun to balance power and resource-efficiency, or support themselves with covering fire from Turrets and combat bots.

History

• 0.7.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Combat shotgun
• Damage
• Enemies

Main article: Combat shotgun

Player

Edit

Recipe

10 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 10 → 1

Total raw

12.5 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 10

Recipe

10 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 10 → 1

Total raw

12.5 + 10 + 20 + 15 + 10

Stack size	5
Range	15
Shooting speed	2/s
Damage bonus	20%
Ammunition
Prototype type	gun
Internal name	combat-shotgun
Required technologies
3
Produced by

An advanced shotgun with good range, damage and higher rate of fire than that of the standard shotgun. The damage bonus of the combat shotgun stacks multiplicatively with physical projectile damage (research).

History

• 0.7.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Damage
• Shotgun
• Enemies

Main article: Rocket launcher

Player

Edit

Recipe

10 + 5 + 5 + 5 → 1

Total raw

18.75 + 7.5 + 20

Recipe

10 + 5 + 5 + 5 → 1

Total raw

25 + 20 + 35

Stack size	5
Range	36
Shooting speed	1/s
Ammunition
Prototype type	gun
Internal name	rocket-launcher
Required technologies
Produced by
Consumed by

The rocket launcher is a strong weapon against enemy bases. It has long range and high damage, but as the ammo is very expensive it is recommended to avoid using it against enemy creatures. The weapon is also used to create the versatile, lategame spidertron.

History

• 0.17.0:
  • Rocket launcher range increased from 22 to 36.

• 0.8.0:
  • Increased the range of the rocket from 20 to 22.

• 0.1.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Enemies
• Damage

There is also a unique weapon, usable only in the Tank

Main article: Tank#Cannon This article is about the armored combat vehicle. For the liquid storage container, see Storage tank.

Player

Edit

Recipe

5 + 10 + 32 + 15 + 50 → 1

Total raw

107.5 + 50 + 32 + 50 + 20 + 50

Recipe

8 + 20 + 64 + 30 + 100 → 1

Total raw

283 + 240 + 64 + 200 + 80 + 100

Map icon
Storage size	80
Health	2000
Resistances	Acid: 0/70% Explosion: 15/70% Fire: 15/60% Impact: 50/80% Physical: 15/60%
Stack size	1
Range	Tank cannon: 30 Vehicle machine gun: 20 Vehicle flamethrower: 9
Shooting speed	Tank cannon: 0.67/s Vehicle machine gun: 15/s Vehicle flamethrower: 67.5/s
Ammunition
Energy consumption	600 kW (burner)
Mining time	0.5
Weight	20000
Prototype type	car
Internal name	tank
Required technologies
Produced by
Valid fuel

Tanks, like cars, match the color of the player driving them.

The tank is a heavy armored fighting vehicle. It is a mid-game vehicle with three weapons; an integrated submachine gun, a short range flamethrower and a powerful cannon that uses cannon shells. It, along with the car and spidertron, are the three non-rail vehicles in Factorio. In multiplayer, it is possible for a player to enter a tank alongside another player. The passenger can take control of the weapons of the tank using a switch in the GUI of the tank, but cannot steer the tank.

Since engine units can only be built in assembling machines, tanks (like cars) cannot be built from scratch by hand from their raw materials. If the tank is destroyed, its inventory is destroyed with it, though the player gets ejected and not killed. Tanks will change color based on the color of the player who drove it last.

Achievements

Steamrolled Destroy 10 spawners by impact.

Run Forrest, run Destroy 100 trees by impact.

Combat

The tank is a strong fighting vehicle due to its large health pool and the very high damage of its main weapon, the cannon. Additionally, due to the ability to employ drones from within the vehicle, it can be used as a form of drone or capsule transport vehicle, with the player simply using capsules to fight their battles. The tank particularly shines in battle against Worms, as their high damage projectiles are much less of a problem for an entity with a high health pool.

The tank lags behind in speed, however, compared to the player and the car. As a result, it may not perform as well in combat against melee enemies or enemies with shorter range than the player, as it has more difficulty dodging enemies. This may result in the tank being destroyed quickly, leaving the player in a tight spot.

It is possible to use throwable items such as grenades, poisons, and follower robots while riding in the tank. This makes it possible to perform drive-by attacks on large bases with a reasonable area of effect. Since grenades and tank are available fairly early in the game this enables an effective means of early game expansion before the better known turret creep strategy becomes viable.

Movement

The tank is very robust, and unlike the car can move through and destroy trees without taking damage. Even when not moving, simply driving into an entity is enough to damage it. This can also be employed as a weapon against enemies, although certain enemies and structures (nests in particular) will deal high damage to the tank in the process, requiring repair after skirmishes.

The tank is slower than the car and can be rotated in place while standing still, unlike the car.

The speed and, in particular, responsiveness of the tank can be improved somewhat by burning better fuel: The tank, like all other vehicles, gains top speed and acceleration bonuses when running on solid fuel, rocket fuel and nuclear fuel, as opposed to wood or coal. The bonuses are +5% / +15% / +15% top speed and +20% / +80% / +150% acceleration for solid fuel, rocket fuel and nuclear fuel, respectively; wood and coal both yield the base level of top speed and acceleration.

Speeds

Tank top speed (km/h)

Top speed with various fuels on different tiles

	Wood	Coal	Solid fuel	Rocket fuel	Nuclear fuel
Sand	50.1	50.1	54.8	67.1	79.1
Grass	50.9	50.9	55.8	68.3	80.5
Red desert	50.9	50.9	55.8	68.3	80.5
Dirt	51.4	51.4	56.8	69.6	82.0
Stone path	53.4	53.4	58.5	71.6	84.4
Shallow water	53.9	53.9	59.1	72.3	85.3
Concrete*	55.0	55.0	60.3	73.8	87.0
Refined concrete*	55.0	55.0	60.3	73.8	87.0

* The same stats apply to the hazard version of these surfaces.

Speed in reverse

The top speed of the car in reverse is ~70.6% of the forward top speed.

Capsules and Bots integration

Capsules can be used while inside the tank, including combat robots. Construction robots, including those from a personal roboport within range of the tank, will repair damage if repair packs are available. Also, logistic robots can still refill the player's inventory.

History

• 0.18.0:
  • Updated sound effects.

• 0.17.0:
  • Decreased tank machine gun damage to match the player held submachine gun.

• 0.16.0:
  • In multiplayer players can now ride as passengers in cars/tanks.
  • Tanks no longer take minuscule amounts of damage from hitting trees.

• 0.15.0:
  • Added tank flamethrower.
  • Buffed tank:
    • Increased health from 1,000 to 2,000.
    • Added a +100% damage bonus and a +5 tiles range increase to the tank machine gun.

• 0.14.0:
  • Added support for equipment grids in tanks.

• 0.13.18:
  • Increased tank machine gun range to 20 tiles.

• 0.13.0:
  • New icon for tank.

• 0.12.26:
  • Running biters over in a tank in peaceful mode will now anger them.

• 0.12.21:
  • When attacking a player in a tank, the tank will be attacked instead of the player directly.

• 0.12.2:
  • Tanks can now turn in place.
  • Tank inventory can now be filtered.

• 0.12.0:
  • Updated sounds
  • Added muzzle flash for tanks
  • Tank ammo inventory is refilled from the trunk and player inventory when exhausted.

• 0.11.6:
  • Added a small scorch mark when heavy weaponry like the tank cannon fires.

• 0.11.0:
  • Introduced

Development data

Weekly blogs concerning the Tank:

• https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-56
• https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-51
• https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-48
• https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-44

See also

• Car
• Enemies
• Resistances