Satisfactory transport guide: conveyor belts, vehicles, trains and hypertubes

As your factory grows, so too do the distances between its different sections. That’s partly because resources aren’t available everywhere, so you’ll need to decide how best to bring them to a central location. Your personal mobility and the movement of the materials you extract and produce are central themes in Satisfactory. The game offers many ways to integrate both into your builds. Over time, you can expand, adapt or even completely change your options. The more milestones you unlock, the better tools you get to do it.

Satisfactory conveyor belts: optimise resource transport and production lines

Conveyor belts will be familiar to every Satisfactory player. You unlock them almost at the very start, and they’ll remain one of your most reliable building elements all the way through. They let you move resources from one place to another along paths you define in advance. This allows you to chain machines together and create automated production lines. In principle, you can run belts straight from the source—often ore—right through to the output of a finished material.

As you progress, you’ll unlock improved versions of conveyor belts. They can transport more items and are also handy for getting around. You can run on the belts to travel faster from A to B, making them doubly useful.

There are also plenty of add-ons for belts to make your factory even more efficient:

• Lifts: Move materials between different elevations.
• Poles: Stack multiple belts above each other.
• Wall mounts: Attach conveyor belts to foundations.
• Ceiling mounts: Run belts along the ceiling.

Conveyor belts are recommended if you want to specialise in one thing and perfect it. They offer pretty much every key function you need for transport. They also scale well and can be expanded with various features, which is extremely practical.

You might avoid belts if, for example, your PC struggles to render all the items. Or you might simply find it boring to use belts for everything. After all, Satisfactory gives you a few more ways to move materials—and yourself.

Satisfactory vehicles: programme routes and automate transport

Your second option is vehicles, which you can drive yourself while transporting resources at the same time. Satisfactory offers a range of interesting cars and trucks, each with its own use cases. By Tier 3, once you unlock trucks, you should take a closer look—because the whole process can be automated (Satisfactory Tier 3 Guide: Coal Power, Truck Transport and Steel Production) .

When using vehicles for transport, always weigh up their efficiency. Almost all of them require fuel, which you’ll need to supply. However, it doesn’t matter which fuel you use. Early on that can be biofuel; later it can be radioactive fuel rods.

In general, trucks and tractors are best for moving materials, while the Cyber Wagon, Explorer and Factory Cart are more suited to personal travel. With Truck Stations, you can assign most vehicles to set routes and have them run automatically. At the stations they can load and unload and refuel at the same time.

Drones are a special case—an advanced way to move resources over long distances. They also need their own station for take-off and landing.

Satisfactory trains: rail transport, freight stations and signals

You unlock trains and rail systems at Tier 6. From then on, you can cover the map with your own rail network and handle very long distances quickly and efficiently. Trains are highly configurable and scale well. At the core are a station and an electric locomotive, to which you can attach freight wagons. The maximum speed is 120 km/h.

Each wagon can carry up to 32 slots of items or 1,600 m³ of fluid, and you can of course add multiple wagons. Most players recommend three to four wagons per loco. The more you haul, the slower the locomotive will go. Power consumption also depends on speed and load, ranging from 25 MW at minimal usage up to around 440 MW with, for example, four wagons.

Using the map and freight stations, you can set routes and have trains run automatically. This typically becomes necessary much later in the game. You can also use signals and block sections to make routes even more complex.

Satisfactory player movement: hypertubes, jetpack and more

Finally, let’s look at how you can get around the map faster yourself. You can of course use the systems above, but some mechanics are designed specifically for the player.

• Zipline: Glide along power lines.
• Blade Runners: Run faster, jump higher and take reduced fall damage.
• Jetpack: Greater freedom of movement in the air; requires fuel.
• Hover Pack: A better jetpack of sorts, drawing power from nearby power poles.
• Hypertubes: Tube networks you can slide through; can also be used as launch cannons.
• Jump Pads: Propel yourself to different elevations.
• Lift: Best for vertical factories to reach different floors.

Conclusion on Satisfactory transport: move resources—and yourself—efficiently

In Satisfactory, it’s crucial to integrate transport solutions effectively into your factory. From classic conveyor belts, through various vehicles, to trains, you’re free to get creative. And there are plenty of ways to make your own movement much more comfortable, too.

Rent your own Satisfactory server from us and try out some of these options together with your friends. Everyone can focus on the transport method they enjoy most. In the end, you can connect them and build the perfect factory!