Ratios Cheat Sheet

About this page

The Factorio Cheat Sheet is a wonderful community-made webpage that summarizes all kinds of cool info such as ratios. Unfortunately it heavily uses icons, like the game itself. Therefore on this page we are converting this short visual guide into a short text guide. The translation is not 100% identical because we take some liberties with ordering the sections and adding extra notes.

Common Crafting ratios

List of common ratios between machines to produce various products optimally (without stalling). For example: To make "rails", the right ratio is 1 "iron stick" assembler feeding 2 "rail" assemblers. If there is no machine mixing (assemblers/chemical plants/furnaces) then ratios stay the same between assembly tiers.

Machine speeds

• The player crafts 1 per second
• Assembler 1 crafts 0.5 per second
• Assembler 2 crafts 0.75 per second
• Assembler 3 crafts 1.25 per second
• Chemical plant crafts 1 per second
• Oil refinery crafts 1 per second

Science packs

• Note: assuming assembler 3 is used.

• Science pack assembler ratio: 5 automation, 6 logistic, 5 military, 12 chemical, 7 production, 7 utility, 0.5 space. This gives 75 science per minute.

• Science pack assembler ratio doubled: 10 automation, 12 logistic, 10 military, 24 chemical, 14 production, 14 utility, 1 space. This gives 150 science per minute.

• For reference, it is completely feasible to win the game with as little as 10 science per minute because you need only a few thousand science packs in total. Between 30 and 100 science per minute is a good casual goal.

• 10 automation science requires 1 gear

• 12 logistic science pack requires 1 inserters, 0.5 belts, 1.5 gears

• 10 military science pack requires 3 AP bullets, 8 grenades, 1 wall

• 24 chemical science pack requires 0.7 sulfur plants, 18 advanced circuits, 20 engines

• 14 production science pack requires 5 rails, 3.33 electric furnaces, 10 productivity modules

• 14 utility science pack requires 13.33 processors, 13.33 flying robot frames, 40 low density structures

• 1 space science rocket silo requires 60 rocket control unit, 44 low density structures, 63 rocket fuel, 2 solar panels, 2 accumulators, 2 processors

Basic items

• 1 belt requires 1 gear
• 1 inserter requires 1 basic circuit and 1 gear
• 1 gear assembler at tier 1 requires 6.5 stone furnaces making iron plates
• 1 wall assembler at tier 1 requires 16 stone furnaces making stone bricks
• 16 electric motors require 3 lubricant plants

Circuits and modules

• 2 basic circuits require 3 copper wire
• 6 advanced circuits require 1 copper wire, 1 basic circuit, and 1.25 plastic plants
• 5 processors require 6 advanced circuits, 5 basic circuits
• 2 tier 1 modules require 4 advanced circuits and 1 basic circuit
• 2 tier 3 modules require 5 tier 2 modules and 10 tier 1 modules
• 2 tier 3 modules require 10 processors, 38 advanced circuits, 18 basic circuits, 8 plastic plants

List of abbreviations

• basic circuit = electronic circuit
• advanced circuit = advanced electronic circuit
• processor = processing unit
• belt = regular transport belt
• gear = iron gear wheel
• wire = copper cable / copper wire

Belts

• Basic transport belt carries 15 items per second (total of both lanes) and has 4 maximum underground distance.
• Fast transport belt carries 30 items per second (total of both lanes) and has 6 maximum underground distance.
• Express transport belt carries 45 items per second (total of both lanes) and has 8 maximum underground distance.
• It's common to group belts to form a Main Bus.
• Belts and underground belt entrances/exits can be sideloaded.
• Splitters can distribute or filter items.
• Different belt tiers can be woven underground.

Material Processing (Furnaces)

• For iron ore and copper ore, 1 basic transport belt can support 48 stone furnaces both in terms of ore input and plate output.
• Stone is processed twice as quickly as ores, so 1 basic transport can supply 24 stone furnaces.
• Steel is processed five times as slowly as ores, so 1 basic transport can supply 9.6 stone furnaces and collect from 240 stone furnaces.
• 1 furnace making steel is exactly as fast as the same furnace type making the five iron plates needed to make the steel.
• Fast transport belts have double the throughput as basic belts.
• Steel furnaces or electric furnaces have double the speed as stone furnaces.
• One basic belt carrying coal can refuel 666 stone furnaces.
• 5 electric mining drills are fast enough for 8 stone furnaces making iron or copper plates, and 4 stone furnaces making stone bricks.

Mining

• 1 basic belt can collect from 30 electric mining drills.
• Burner mining drills are twice as slow as electric mining drills.
• Fast transport belts are twice as fast as regular transport belts.

Basic Power

Steam power

• 1 boiler supplies 2 steam engines, producing 1.8 megawatts.
• 1 offshore pump and 18 electric mining drills supply 20 boilers and 40 steam engines, producing 36 megawatts.
• Wood provides half as much energy as coal.
• Solid fuel provides 3 times as much energy as coal.
• Rocket fuel provides 25 times as much energy as coal.

Solar power

• If you generate excess solar power during the day, you can fill accumulators, and then the accumulators can discharge during the night.
• 25 solar panels and 21 accumulators guarantee a constant supply of about 1 megawatt.
• Averaging over the day and night cycle, one solar panel supplies 42 kilowatts on average.
• Based on the above numbers and ignoring modules, you can run 5 electric mining drills almost nonstop using 10 solar panels and 8 accumulators.
• If you fill your mining drills with efficiency 1 modules, then you can run 23 mining drills nonstop using the same 10 solar panels and 8 accumulators.

Nuclear power

• 1 nuclear reactor by itself produces 40 megawatts. It needs 4 heat exchangers and 7 steam turbines, although it is easier to just connect 2 turbines to each exchanger, and thus use 8 turbines in total.
• 2 nuclear reactors placed wall to wall will activate the neighbor bonus to give 80 megawatts each, and so 160 megawatts in total. This requires 2 offshore pumps, 16 heat exchangers, and 28 steam turbines, although again you can just connect 2 turbines to each exchanger, and thus use 32 turbines in total.
• 3 nuclear reactors in a row will produce 280 megawatts in total, requiring 3 offshore pumps, 28 heat exchangers, and 49 steam turbines, or 56 steam turbines using the simple design.
• 4 nuclear reactors in a row will produce 400 megawatts in total, requiring 4 offshore pumps, 40 heat exchangers, and 69 steam turbines, or 80 steam turbines using the simple design.
• 4 nuclear reactors in a 2 by 2 square will share more walls and maximize the neighbor bonus to yield 480 megawatts in total, requiring 4 offshore pumps, 48 heat exchangers, and 83 steam turbines, or 96 steam turbines using the simple design.

More sections coming later.

Return to Homepage