Satisfactory Tier 1 Guide: Expand Your Factory, Power & Logistics

In Satisfactory, it takes a bit of time to unlock many of the key parts and machines for your factory. The Milestones gradually give you new components so you can keep building and unlock new resources. After the Tier 0 introduction, Tier 1 brings new options and upgrades for your first production lines. If you still need to finish Tier 0 and learn some basics, check out our guide (Satisfactory Beginner’s Guide: Tier 0, The HUB & Automation) . Let’s look at what you should focus on now!

Satisfactory Tier 1 Power: Biomass Burners and Energy Management

Before expanding your machines, make sure you have enough power available. The two Biomass Burners at the HUB won’t carry you much further now. Together they can only produce a maximum of 40 MW and are generally slower. It’s time to set up a dedicated power production!

After finishing Tier 0 you’ve unlocked standalone Biomass Burners that you can build away from the HUB. They run faster and each produces 30 MW. We recommend building two of them to bring your total capacity up to 100 MW.

At the same time, switch your burners to Biomass, which you also unlocked in Tier 0. Handcraft both Leaves and Wood into Biomass to generate power longer and more efficiently. You can automate this later, but you’ll still have to gather the organic resources yourself at first. Watch for overload: if consumption exceeds capacity, the grid will trip and you’ll need to restart the generators.

Use Miner Mk.1 efficiently: node purity and extraction rates

There’s also a key upgrade for the drills that extract ore for further processing. Swap all your extraction points to Miner Mk.1 to increase resource flow. Now the purity of the resource node matters. You can see it by hovering your cursor over the node.

• Impure: Produces 30 ore per minute
• Normal: Produces 60 ore per minute
• Pure: Produces 120 ore per minute

Scale production: build out concrete, iron, and copper chains

You won’t need entirely new materials for the following Tier 1 upgrades, but you will need a lot more of what you already know. With more power and better miners, you can ramp up production. Don’t overdo it, though—always ensure you generate enough power to keep all machines on the grid at full capacity.

Prioritize automation: parts you should automate early

Some Milestones cost hundreds of resources. If you’ve prepared well, that shouldn’t be a problem. Keep focusing on the three core ores that let you craft almost everything. You can copy and paste machine recipes with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Collect end products in Containers at the end of your lines.

Limestone

• Concrete: Limestone (Miner Mk.1) → Concrete (Constructor)

Iron:

• Iron Plates: Iron Ore (Miner Mk.1) → Iron Ingots (Smelter) → Iron Plates (Constructor)
• Iron Rods: Iron Ore (Miner Mk.1) → Iron Ingots (Smelter) → Iron Rods (Constructor)
• Screws: Iron Ore (Miner Mk.1) → Iron Ingots (Smelter) → Iron Rods (Constructor) → Screws (Constructor)

Copper:

• Wire: Copper Ore (Miner Mk.1) → Copper Ingots (Smelter) → Wire (Constructor)
• Cable: Copper Ore (Miner Mk.1) → Copper Ingots (Smelter) → Wire (Constructor) → Cable (Constructor)

Satisfactory Tier 1 Milestones: rewards and a smart order

With Tier 0 done, all Tier 1 and some Tier 2 upgrades are now available. You can complete them in any order, carving out your own path. With the production lines above, this should be straightforward!

Once you’ve picked a Milestone, bring all resources to the HUB and launch them into space. Unlike Tier 0, where you could do everything back-to-back, there’s now a cooldown of a few minutes. In-game, the materials are sent to your employer FICSIT, which naturally takes time.

Below are the most important upgrades waiting in Tier 1 that you can immediately integrate into your factory.

Base building in Satisfactory: foundations and a clean layout

Costs:

• 200x Concrete
• 100x Iron Plates
• 100x Iron Rods

This Milestone unlocks Foundations and various other building pieces. They’re extremely useful for keeping your factory organized and building on a single level. Start using Foundations right away and re-arrange your existing machines! If you want to build a small base, go for it—many more options are available now.

Optimize logistics: Conveyor Splitters and Mergers

Costs:

• 150x Iron Plates
• 150x Iron Rods
• 300x Wire

Arguably the most important Tier 1 unlock is logistics. Here you get Conveyor Splitters and Conveyor Mergers, which let you split and recombine production lines. This really pays off now, since you’re likely extracting more ore than a single line can consume. For example, you can only smelt 30 ore per minute into ingots, but even on a normal node you’re mining 60 per minute. That’s obviously inefficient!

Now you can split one iron node into two production lines—and with a pure node, even more. You can also insert a Splitter into an existing conveyor to branch it. For instance, you could store Iron Rods on one branch and convert the other into Screws.

Unlock research: make smart use of MAM and the map

Costs:

• 300x Wire
• 300x Screws
• 100x Iron Plates

The third Tier 1 path focuses on research and exploration. It unlocks both the MAM and the map.

With the MAM (Molecular Analysis Machine) you can unlock more progress and recipes by researching various resources found on the planet. You’re on an alien world and FICSIT wants all the data! We recommend unlocking everything you can right now.

You can also open the map to explore more effectively. See where you are and what’s nearby. You can place markers to remember important spots. Exploration runs will definitely matter later.

Conclusion: master Tier 1 efficiently

Tier 1 is where Satisfactory really opens up, giving you plenty of ways to lean further into automation. You can now split lines to produce a variety of materials. With these fundamentals, you’ll feel much more confident.

Play together with friends and rent a Satisfactory server! Work on Milestones together and try to build an efficient factory.