Automation and Base Layout Spoilers

Overview

This guide provides spoilers in base automation, and machine layouts. What makes this guide a spoiler, despite having “no correct way” to design your base with infinite design possibilities, is the approach follows a set of laws to eliminate the complexity of “infinite” variations. All power transmission is done in a “basement” below the production floor. This eliminates the clutter of lasers crossing the paths of conveyors in a production area, and having to devise routes using over/underpasses to get power or resources where they need to go.

Three Levels of Items

There are three types of items a player can make. Consumer, Intermediate, and Industrial. Each of these categories has a pattern to how they’re built.

Consumer Item
A Consumer Item is a finished product, which can only be placed down into the world, such as Logistic FALCOR, or Motorized Conveyor, and therefore consuming it. To produce these items, there is a long and complex production chain. For example, a Motorized Conveyor takes 8 different inputs to make a final product, where an ingot of metal takes only 1. It would make sense that you want your Consumer Items made closest to where you will consider the “center” of your base. Or, the place where you want to restock your inventory. Consumer Items can not undergo further processing to alter their appearance or function, unlike Gears, or Alloyed Blocks.

Intermediate Item
An Intermediate Item is used in the production of another item in a production chain. For example, bars are stamped into plates, plates into foil. These three items are Intermediate which are needed to make Consumer Goods.There is potentially what you would consider some overlap. A Storage Hopper, which fits the definition of Consumer Item, is also an input into a Basic Minecart. Despite the Storage Hopper from fitting a definition of a Consumer Item, it is an exception. You sort any confusion by comparing “final” products against each other to see if they feel alike. For example, if you imagine a Standard Belt in your left hand, and a Motorized Conveyor in the right hand, which best represents the ideal of a Consumer Item? Under examination, you find the Standard Belt or a Storage Hopper isn’t a Consumer Item, it becomes an Industrial Item.

Plan on this area being a medium distance away from the center of your base. But also keep in mind, that you will need easy access to hundreds of wire, or hundreds of plates, to complete your Consumer Items. So, don’t bury those output hoppers deep in machinery, or twisted corridors, that are hard to access.

Industrial Items
Industrial Items are similar to Intermediate, but they have long production chains and need to be churned out in bulk quantities. This is represented by Hard/Alloy/Advanced Blocks, and later the Frozen Factory blocks. Also included here are items which don’t fit the other two categories, like Belts and Hoppers (bulk items) to be used as Intermediate Item inputs. The layout of Industrial Items will have just two inputs, such as Iron and Nickel to produce Steel, and fit nicely on an Induction Charger in a row of five.

Early game the machinery is fed by belts and priority splitters. Later in the game when minecarts become available, the Industrial Items are best serviced with minecart stations because belts are too slow to keep the row of machinery running.

Belts & General Auto Crafters

(Click for larger image)

This layout is the most important one you should make every game. It starts out with basic/standard conveyors. As the game progresses, you can continue to extend the production output of your tin+copper bar manufacturing. Once basic manufacturing is unlocked, this layout makes much more than belts. In fact, it makes 15 different items with just copper and tin bars.

• Anti-Grav
• Basic Conveyors
• Basic Laser
• Coiler
• Extrusion
• H.E.I.S.T.
• Lift
• Logistic Hopper
• Minihopper
• PCB Maker
• Signs
• Stamper
• Standard Conveyors
• Super H.E.I.S.T.
• Waypoint Machine

Boosters MK1->MK5

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Storage Hopper
• Directional Hopper
• MK1 -> MK5 Booster
• Manufacturing Plant (and/or Macerators)

Being demonstrated here is using the Zipper Merge (labeled 1:1) to combine a counting system using Wood Planks. There is an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result result is a proper ratio of items in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size when you can’t compactly group related items together. It’s a trade-off.

Bug Processing

Occasionally the FALCOR units will pick up items from the floor which are not bug parts. These should end up in the hopper for non bug parts. The other basic filters attached to the main input hopper, are set to ORGANIC ITEMS.

The next stage of this machine uses a step-down series of belts to feed a hopper, which splits a saturated line and thins it out. This gives the mass storage drones time to sort a level 1 stack height. Keeping the stack height low increases the speed of the sorting drones.

Component Crafter for all Ores

This is a demonstration of how to build component manufacturing that can be added onto incrementally in a way that doesn’t force you to rip up and redesign your base as more capacity to manufacture components becomes necessary. If you build upwards, in a tower, you can devise a number of different ways to push bars up the tower, yet maintain a slim ground footprint. We will deconstruct how it was made, and you can adapt this concept into your own builds.

Each component crafting setup is going to be slightly different for each bar. For example, the only thing useful about Titanium is the Bars, and the Housings. But with Copper it’s Bars, Wires, Pipes, like 5 different things. There are some general similarities between all these crafters, and as you build these yourself, you can make adjustments as necessary. Game settings and mutators might have implications to machine layouts.

First lay down a stack of 5 turntables.

In the middle of the stack, lay a placeholder block down and delete that middle turntable. Reposition it against the placeholder block.

Remove two more turntables and replace them with LogiHoppers

Cover up the inner working with belts. If build cost is a factor, It’s not a problem to use basic belts here, as wire/stampers/coilers/pcb makers all operate at basic belt speeds. Standard belts won’t help you much when you step down the line saturation.

This is an upside down UpSloped Conveyor. It’s pushing bars down to a lower level. Once the lower level is full, a turntable will try to distribute bars upwards.

The Storage Hopper usually takes input from the floor below. But it’s also possible to receive bars from a matter mover. What is the top of the hopper is left open for matter mover input, and it allows you to see the green/red indication of it being full or empty.

Cover up the inner workings. Bars will evenly distribute themselves around a 3×5 stack.

Not every machine needs wire/coil/pcb makers, but do so for this guide, to demonstrate how long the group of machines will need to be. If there are no crafters to put on the line, I would substitute with belts to maintain the length of the machine. I’ve never needed it to be longer than this. Ideally, the idea is to keep this component crafter within the footprint of an Induction Pad.

There’s a priority splitter at the bottom which I use to siphon off bars before they go into the component maker. And notice that I’ve turned one of the blocks on the input hopper downwards, so that I can better saturate the bar line. Turing these belts is a nice way to adjust the flow of components as needed.

Component Crafter for Tin

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Copper

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Iron

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Lithium

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Gold

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Titanium

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

Component Crafter for Nickel

These are screenshots of the final machine. For build instructions, please see the section titled “Component Crafter for all Ores”

FALCOR Beacon | Pyrothermic Generator

There are two different items being made in this screenshot. The lower one is the Pyrothermic Generator, the upper one is the FALCOR Beacon. I’ve placed these two items together, based on the similarity of their inputs. If you’re using a bus system, matter movers, or a freight network, it will make sense to build the generators first, and place the beacons as the technology opens up.

In this production chain, you will create

• FALCOR Beacon
• Pyrothermic Generator

Being demonstrated here is using the Zipper Merge (labeled 1:1) to combine a counting system using Wood Planks. There is an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result result is a proper ratio of items in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size when you can’t compactly group related items together. It’s a trade-off.

Also demonstrated here is the use of basic and standard conveyor belts. The reason is to highlight an issue of timing in your production. Most players would simply use standard belts, because they consider basic belts not worth the time to construct. But the thing is, not everything needs to run as fast as possible. If you’re a player who likes to keep expenses to a minimum when base building, then it will help to know your flow rates. It would make sense to use more expensive machinery, if you get a return for the investment. You will find that Gears need to flow into the system quickly because you use a lot of them, but Servos aren’t used as much. Therefore, using Standard Belts for everything increases the cost of your production line, but the speed the belts provide doesn’t help your production go faster, due to the quantity of Gears that are required. The better reason to not use basic belts, is simply because you prefer not to clutter up the inventory/toolbar with items.

Forced Induction

I know what you’re thinking; Why bother automating this? It’s not the case that Induction Coils aren’t worth automating. It’s that the odd ratios of MK1, and the cluttered inputs of the MK2 stage means you need all six sides of the manufacturing plant. It’s a mess, and that’s the reason nobody automates these products. It’s very difficult to figure out, and people give up trying to make sense of it. If you’re going to unlock the frozen factory with a single Arc Smelter, I think you can get away with not automating the Induction Coils. But what if you want 5 Arc Smelters? It’s no fun hand crafting this difficult recipe either. Besides, you’re supposed to tackle the difficult challenges of automation in this game, because that’s the only reason to play it. Hand crafting is for minecraft players.

The Induction Coil presents one of the most interesting, and difficult, automation puzzles to solve in the game. The special logistical challenge is; what to do with the ‘old’ coils, and how do you upgrade them to new versions? We will build a machine to solve that dilemma. When most people upgrade the induction coils, they throw them into a crate/hopper and forget about them until the end of the game. Instead, an interesting use of the mass storage system is to turn it into an inventory control system. Finally, we will distribute our coils where they need to go through matter movers, and FALCOR units (makes sure to automate those when you can).

Here is an overview of what we are going to build. This screenshot also will help you plan out how much room to leave in your base for the complete system. Obviously, it’s too far to see how it works from this distance. But what is being demonstrated, is how we will break up each of the 5 stages. It’s roughly 60×20, so it’s a rather large system, with a lot of pieces. Fortunately, you can build the stages as you progress through the game. For the purpose of instruction in this guide, I used extra empty space and color coding for clarity. So this layout could be more compact if you want to tackle that challenge too.

MK1 Induction Coil
From the left path, this is a filter which sorts induction coils by type. The player manually inputs their coils into the hopper shown at the bottom. MK coils go right, MK2+ goes through to the next stage. Left path enters a mass storage system. The input port is set to no limit. Because you want your manual inputs to enter the system and take precedence.

From the right side of the screenshot, intermediate inputs get manufactured into Induction Coils, then input into the mass storage system. The input hopper is limited to 10. The idea is, this mass storage is being used as an inventory control system. As many old induction coils as you want will go into the storage from the left path, but new ones will only be made on the right, if there are fewer than 10. The mass storage output port dumps into a logistic hopper, which has a matter mover to send coils to the next stage, and on top it has a FALCOR beacon. The FALCORs will pick up extra coils and deliver them to a more convenient location of the players choosing.

MK2 Induction Coil
This is the complicated hair-pulling stage. But after this stage, you’re over the hill, and the machine gets much easier to build. We need this complicated timing mechanism on the right in order to consolidate two resource lines into one hopper. That way, we can use 4 faces of the Manufacturing plant instead of five. Once again, after manufacturing of the induction coil, the input port is set to a limit of 10, and the manual input side has no limit.

MK3 Induction Coil
Here is another curve-ball thrown at us. The addition of alloy blocks presents a problem in transporting them by belt, because your production of alloy blocks isn’t going to be anywhere near where you built this Induction Coil setup. Therefore, the belt will probably be long, and at the same time, you only need a couple alloy blocks to make a coil. So it’s ‘wasteful’ to have such a long conveyor carry just three items you need at this location. I suggest FALCOR delivery.

I suggest you retrofit the Alloy Block maker (See Section: Industrial Blocks | MK3 Laser + MK3 Battery | Fuel + Plastic) with a couple tubes and turntable which distributes the blocks into a couple more logistic hoppers. This way, you’ll be able to assign more FALCORS for faster pickup.

MK4 Induction Coil
Similarly, it needs Alloy Blocks like the previous stage.

MK5 Induction Coil
Demonstrated here, is the FALCORs delivering the Induction Coils to a pickup location. It doesn’t have to look like mine, or even be at this location. It could be anywhere you need it to be. And finally, the left sides manual input line terminates here.

Logistic FALCOR | Turntable | MK1 Laser

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Turntable
• Auto Upgrader
• MK1 Laser Energy Transmitter
• MK1 FALCOR (by handcraft, HerbiCOR)
• Logistic FALCOR

This is a great example of a Consumer item, because it has a very long production chain, and within this chain you receive a few other items, such as MK1 FALCORS, and MK1 Laser Energy Transmitters. Once you have MK1 FALCORS automated, you can craft HerbiCOREs by hand.

Induction Charger | MK1+MK2 Power Storage Block

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• MK1 Power Storage Block
• MK2 Power Storage Block
• Induction Charger

Demonstrated here is the use of a logistic grommet, which is an elegant way to get two lines to pass through each other, and eliminate the awkward transitions of bridges or underpasses.

There is a counting mechanism using Wood Planks as a placeholder, with an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result is a proper ratio of items in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size. It’s a trade-off. If you are having trouble deciphering the counting mechanism, see the topic called “Manufacturing Plant (and/or Macerator)” as it has a simple example to get you started.

Industrial Blocks | MK3 Laser + MK3 Battery | Fuel + Plastic

This is the most complex production chain in the game. There is absolutely a huge amount of production in a very compact area.

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Advanced Machine Block
• Alloy Block
• Cutting Head
• Fuel
• Hard Block
• Imbued Block
• Jet Housing
• Jet Turbine
• MK3 Battery
• MK3 Laser
• Plastic

Lets break down each step in more detail.

(Click for larger image)

This system uses only one vat for fuel and plastics, just to get your crafting going. Empty cans are hand fed into the single Fuel Storage Hopper. It’s a dead end. The idea being you just want to get fuels and plastics up and running to automate the Jet Turbine parts. In the lower right corner, you can see that Plastic will merge with Gold foil. When it comes to powering the OET charge, there should be a high capacity production fuel vat. with 20 dedicated vats, which makes fuel just for the charging.

(Click for larger image)

This is a small imbuer setup, just to allow the crafting of bulk minecarts and cyroplasm lancers. The real bulk Imbued block setup will be built in the the Frozen Factory caverns.

The next section of Steel, Alloy Blocks, and Hard Blocks are all built in a similar pattern. This is the bare-bones format so you can see what is going on below all the belts.

As you can see, priority splitters keep the hopper full, then push remaining items down the line. Belts end up forming belt towers if the chain is long, but it’s a much more efficient method to distribute the inputs, instead of using turntables, which get clogged if you don’t set them up properly. And unfortunately, setting turntables up properly to distribute at max speed looks ugly. The priority splitter ends up being an elegant, compact, solution.

From the front view, the inputs for Steel, Iron and Nickel, are on the left.

(Click for larger image)

It is recommended you have 2 sources of Nickel, 2 for Titanium, and 2 for Gold, because the Block manufacturing will consume your entire output, and there will be nothing available to the manufacturing part of the base, With only one source of T3 bars, your entire Industrial Manufacturing setup will run at half speed.

Here I’ve attempted to clarify how Steel will exit and be divided to other manufacturing inputs.

(Click for larger image)

As you can see, this Advanced Machine Block line just ends here. The line can lead to an item bus, freight system, and it’s really up to the player to decide if it’s worth automating Mass Storage Ports with these blocks.

The Hard Blocks follow the same ‘block pattern’ as the other two block crafting setups. A machine, flanked by Logistic Hoppers on either side, in a row of 5, which covers the Induction Charger. The output is split two ways, so that if the line feeding the MK3 level items is full, then any overflow will continue making alloy blocks from an alternate direction. Alloy Blocks are used in lots of different places. You will need a few hundred of them to make the Arc Smelter.

(Click for larger image)

And finally, all the individual parts once again:

(Click for larger image)

Manufacturing Plant (and/or Macerator)

In this production chain you will create

• Manufacturing Plant
• (Alternatively, these same inputs make Macerators)

Being demonstrated here is using the Zipper Merge (labeled 1:1) to combine a counting system using Wood Planks. There is an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result result is a proper ratio of items in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size when you can’t compactly group related items together. It’s a trade-off.

Matter Movers

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create
MK1 Matter Mover (Range=64m)
MK2 Matter Mover (Range=32m)

Minecart Depot | Loading + Unloading Stations

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Minecart Depot
• Minecart Loading
• Minecart Unloading

Minecart Gates | Track: Turbo + Buffer

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Track: Turbo
• Track: Buffer
• Track: Empty Gate
• Track: Full Gate

Minecart (Basic+Large+Bulk) | Loading + Unloading Station

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Basic Minecart
• Large Minecart
• Bulk Minecart
• Depot
• Loading Station
• Unloading Station

Demonstrated here is using two FALCOR units to fetch Alloyed Blocks and Imbued Blocks, and inserting them into the Basic + Large Minecart production line. The reason is to reduce belt clutter around the base. Additionally, having belts backed up with Alloy Blocks doesn’t help the carts get made faster, due to the number of other components you need.

Missile

This missile chain features 12 missile imbuers. It takes a total of 6 turbines to keep it running. However, if running at max capacity, it will continuously feed 24 missile launchers.

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Copper Pipe
• Empty Missile
• Fueled Missile
• Imbued Missile

You might not need that many missile imbuers, but again, I built this a little larger than necessary for the purpose of this guide. In the above screenshot, it’s a little difficult to see what these towers are built for. Lets break them down.

This one in the foreground is the missile fueler. As you can see, priority splitters keep the hopper full, then push remaining items down the line. Belts end up forming belt towers if the chain is long, but it’s a much more efficient method to distribute the inputs, instead of using turntables, which get clogged if you don’t set them up properly. And unfortunately, setting turntables up properly to distribute at max speed looks ugly. The priority splitter ends up being an elegant, compact, solution.

Here is how the hoppers are set up around the crafting machines for this production line
This basic pattern of hoppers on either side of the craft, applies to Empty Missile Crafter also. Then on top of the missile crafter, place a Directional Hopper so that the outputted missiles do not spill onto the input lines. The output of each stage in the missile crafter gets pushed as an input line in the next stage. Here you can see the back-side of the final missile stage

The imbuers only have one input. This is the stage of production that takes the most time and energy. Therefore, we have 3x as many imbuers as Empty Missile Crafters

Motorized Conveyor | Adv. Conveyor | Basic Filter

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Basic Conveyors
• Advanced Conveyors
• Motorized Conveyors

Pyrothermic Generator | FALCOR Beacon

There are two different items being made in this screenshot. The lower one is the Pyrothermic Generator, the upper one is the FALCOR Beacon. I’ve placed these two items together, based on the similarity of their inputs. If you’re using a bus system, matter movers, or a freight network, it will make sense to build the generators first, and place the beacons as the technology opens up.

Being demonstrated here is using the Zipper Merge (labeled 1:1) to combine a counting system using Wood Planks, to merge with Gears, and then merging the Gear/Wood line with Copper Wires. There is an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result result is a proper ratio of gears/wire in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size when you can’t compactly group related items together. It’s a trade-off.

Standard + Directional Storage Hopper | MK1 -> MK5 Booster

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• Storage Hopper
• Directional Hopper
• MK1 -> MK5 Booster
• Manufacturing Plant (and/or Macerators)

Being demonstrated here is using the Zipper Merge (labeled 1:1) to combine a counting system using Wood Planks. There is an Advanced Filter to return the planks to the beginning of the loop. The result result is a proper ratio of items in a single hopper. While it’s easier to just use 1 hopper for each input, this can add to your bases overall size when you can’t compactly group related items together. It’s a trade-off.

Solar Power

(Click for larger image)

In this production chain, you will create

• MK1 Solar Panel
• MK2 Solar Panel
• MK2 Organic Solar Panel