Module
Modules are items used to enhance existing buildings' capabilities. They are expensive, require appropriate research and are produced slowly, but can eventually greatly improve the efficiency of a factory.
Quick usage summary:
- For more products per second a speed module should be used.
- For more products per input resource a productivity module should be used.
- For more products per watt of energy an efficiency module should be used.
Types of modules
There are three types of modules in factorio, each with 3 tiers of effect. Crafting higher tiers requires lower tiers to be made.
Speed Module
Increases the speed and energy consumption of a machine.
| Module | Speed bonus | Energy consumption |
|---|---|---|
 |
+20% | +50% |
| |
+30% | +60% |
| |
+50% | +70% |
Advantages & Disadvantages:
- Increases speed of machine.
- Increases energy use per cycle.
- Increases pollution generated due to energy consumption being higher.
Productivity Module
Productivity modules add a second purple "production bar" at item producing buildings and labs. It fills by the productivity bonus per craft. When it reaches 100%, an extra item (or items, in recipes that result in more than one) is produced.
Productivity modules can only be used to make intermediate products. These are items that are used in other recipes and cannot directly be placed.
| Module | Productivity bonus |
Energy consumption |
Speed | Pollution multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| |
+4% | +40% | -15% | +5% |
| |
+6% | +60% | -15% | +7.5% |
| |
+10% | +80% | -15% | +10% |
Advantages & Disadvantages:
- Creates an additional free item occasionally.
- Increases energy use per cycle.
- Increases pollution generated.
- Slows the machine.
Efficiency Module
The efficiency module reduces the cost of electricity to run the machine. The minimum energy usage is 20% of the base energy usage.
| Module | Energy consumption |
|---|---|
| |
-30% |
| |
-40% |
| |
-50% |
Advantages & Disadvantages:
- Reduces energy cost per cycle.
- Decreases pollution generated due to energy consumption being lower.
- No downsides
Usage tips
More modules of the same type in one device will give diminishing returns, as the negative attributes, such as bonus power consumption, will pile up and nullify the good effect. Because of that, it is generally more effective to add efficiency modules with speed and/or productivity modules to get more bonuses over the crafting cascade (assembly lines), especially when assembling machines are part of logistics network. This applies to situations where resources are plentiful but finite. This is has been calculated in this discussion.
Filling the device with speed modules is useful when a resource is infinite but the amount of resource pools is low. The best example would be oil deposits. Another good place to use speed modules would be for assembly machines which make products that take a long time to make, for example engine units. Using speed modules allows more compact of setups, because one machine can provide materials to more consumers than normal.
Filling devices with productivity modules is recommended when resources are scarce. An example is be alien artifact processing. It will take longer and more energy, but the overall produced products will be higher.
Filling devices with efficiency modules is recommended for electric furnaces as these use a lot of power. Efficiency modules also completely lack downsides, so filling all unnecessary module slots with Efficiency modules if possible is recommended.
Modules are also able to control Pollution, as pollution depends also on Energy usage. So reducing a machines energy usage by 40% with a efficiency module 2 will also reduce its pollution by 40%. Beware as this also works vice versa!
Examples of usage
Electric furnaces are huge power hogs at 180 kW per furnace. 1 basic efficiency module reduces it by 54 kW (-30%) - almost a Solar panel worth of power.
Electric mining drills create 9 units of Pollution with no efficiency modules and 1.8 with 3 basic ones.
Same Electric mining drill with 3 Productivity modules 3 would create 76.5 units of Pollution.