You officially unlock sulfur with Tier 7, but you can seek it out and mine it earlier. And it’s worth doing, because the research is the longest tree in the entire game, so you should start early and reap the best rewards. You’ll unlock not only new ammo, weapons, and fuels, but also extra space for your inventory. Sulfur is indispensable, and even if it becomes crucial later on, you should familiarise yourself with it early. We’ll show you where to find sulfur quickly and which parts of the research offer the best value.
Satisfactory: finding sulfur — locations, resources, and mining tips
Sulfur isn’t that easy to find: across almost the entire map there are mostly single deposits, and pure nodes are rare. That alone makes efficient mining tricky. There are two primary ways to secure sulfur effectively: the northern edge of the Spiky Desert, and the area west of the Blue Crater. The latter is the best choice, as you’ll find an impure, normal, and pure node clustered together.
It’s also worth setting up a factory at that crater, as there are many other valuable resources nearby — especially helpful for sulfur research. After Caterium research you can not only generate power from a geyser (Satisfactory Caterium research: Zipline, power grid, geothermal) , but also extract Nitrogen, letting you produce several fuels on-site.
Satisfactory sulfur research in the MAM: recipes, fuels, and weapons
We recommend getting into sulfur before Tier 7, as this MAM tree contains many excellent features that become extremely important later on. These include not only all kinds of explosives, but also many alternative and significantly better fuel variants. Tier 7 focuses more on Batteries and Sulfuric Acid, which isn’t the focus here (Satisfactory Tier 7 Guide: Aluminium, Hoverpack, Sulphur) . You’ll also want to have a few Hard Drives ready for this research.
Fuels in Satisfactory: Compacted Coal, Turbofuel, and Rocket/Ionized Fuel
Let’s start with the right-hand branch of the tree, which is all about the different fuels you can unlock thanks to sulfur. We already have a complete guide on which fuel is best (Satisfactory fuel guide: Biomass, Coal, Oil and Nuclear Power) .
You must first unlock this branch with 10x Sulfur, then again with 25x Sulfur, 50x Modular Frames, and 100x Rotors. Only then will you gain access to the following recipes — but that’s all doable by around Tier 2.
- Compacted Coal: Use a Hard Drive to unlock this improved coal from Sulfur and Coal. It’s especially useful for alternative recipes, less so as a direct fuel.
- Turbofuel: Next comes Turbofuel, yielding 2000 MJ. You’ll need to wait until Tier 5 and Oil to start this branch. Production relies heavily on alternate recipes you also obtain from Hard Drives.
- Rocket Fuel: At 3600 MJ, Rocket Fuel is a step above, but harder to unlock. For time investment versus output, it’s arguably the best fuel you can get.
- Ionized Fuel: Ionized Fuel delivers 5000 MJ, but its production chain is notably more involved. You’ll also need Power Shards, so invest in Power Slug research.
Black Powder in Satisfactory: Nobelisks and an extra hand slot
Fuel is important, but it’ll take time to fully unlock and scale it. So also focus on the left branch, which leads to explosive items. The foundation for everything here is Black Powder, crafted from Coal and Sulfur. With that, you can do all sorts of useful things. You can then unlock the next three in any order; they don’t depend on each other.
- Black Powder: The basis for later grenades and the stepping stone to Smokeless Powder when combined with Heavy Oil Residue.
- Smokeless Powder: An improved powder with even greater explosive power, crucial for the third branch.
- Nobelisk: With Black Powder, Steel Pipes, and Cables you unlock Nobelisks, essentially remote-detonated grenades. Available from Tier 3, which we recommend doing as soon as possible. Nobelisks are part of your core weapons kit for exploration.
- Hand Slot: More space in your hands is always welcome. Use Black Powder and Encased Industrial Beams for this research.
Explosive weapons in Satisfactory: Rifle, ammo, and Nobelisks
After you’ve unlocked Smokeless Powder, the final major branch of sulfur research in the MAM opens up. It’s all about explosive weapons, which are well worth it sooner or later. If you want to defend yourself against creatures, put sulfur to work.
- Cluster Nobelisk: A cluster charge that detonates centrally, then splits into five smaller explosions.
- Nuke Nobelisk: Another Nobelisk variant, unlocked with Tier 8 and nuclear materials. It has the highest damage output in the entire game.
- Explosive Rebar: Explosive ammunition for your Rebar Gun — definitely worth it, with far more damage than standard rebar.
- Rifle: Unlock this weapon with Tier 5 and Rubber production to replace your Rebar Gun. It also supports multiple ammo types.
- Turbo Rifle Ammo: Among them is Turbo Rifle Ammo, crafted from the corresponding fuel from Section 1. It’s the best ammo for the Rifle, but requires Tier 7 to unlock.
- Inventory slots: Also available with Tier 7 and Computers. You get 6 new slots immediately, which is absolutely worth it.
Conclusion: sulfur research for explosive items and efficient fuels
The sulfur research tree is, alongside the MAM’s alien tech, one of the largest you’ll complete during your playthrough. It primarily revolves around explosives, as sulfur is easily processed into Black Powder. But you’ll also find several important fuel sources here that become crucial in the late game. Sulfur is therefore essential not just for combat, but also for advanced factories.
Play together with your friends on one of our Satisfactory servers and explore the sulfur research in the MAM as a team. You can get started as early as Tier 2 and work your way up step by step until you eventually unlock nuclear explosives.
