Build one dependable production line before spreading machines across the map. The most useful number is items per minute: how much each machine consumes, how much it makes and how much each belt can carry. Join the shared world through our Satisfactory page, then agree on a small starting project with the crew.
Read the recipe before placing the row
Open the machine and select the intended recipe. Read its input and output rates at the clock speed you plan to use. Use those numbers to calculate the machine count. Alternate recipes and changes to clock speed alter the calculation, so do not mix figures from different setups.
A straightforward example uses the standard iron-ingot recipe at 100% clock speed: each Smelter takes 30 iron ore per minute and produces 30 iron ingots per minute. The official wiki’s iron-ingot recipe gives those rates. A steady supply of 60 ore per minute can therefore support two such Smelters.
Build and check the simple example
- Confirm the Miner’s displayed output. Treat 60 ore per minute as the supply target for this example, not as the guaranteed output of every resource node.
- Carry the ore to a splitter and feed two Smelters, each using the standard iron-ingot recipe at 100%. Connect their power and check that each receives the correct material.
- Route the outputs into the next production stage or temporary storage. An output with nowhere to go will eventually fill and stop the machine.
- Let the line run long enough to fill its initial buffers, then check whether both machines receive enough ore consistently.
Check the narrowest belt
A Mk.1 belt carries up to 60 items per minute; Mk.2 carries 120. That means one Mk.1 belt can carry the example’s combined 60 ingots per minute, but it cannot carry a later 120-per-minute expansion. The official belt reference lists every tier’s capacity.
A short older segment can restrict an otherwise upgraded route. Inspect the full path, including lifts and the sections immediately beside splitters or mergers. Adding another machine does not fix a belt that cannot deliver enough input. Likewise, a merger combines streams but does not increase the capacity of its outgoing belt.
Diagnose an idle machine
- No input: follow the belt upstream and check supply, direction and connection.
- Input present but no production: check the selected recipe, required materials, power and standby state.
- Output full: follow the next stage downstream. Storage may be full or the next machine may use less than you are producing.
- Repeated starts and stops: compare actual delivery with the recipe’s per-minute requirement before expanding.
Overclocking also changes power demand; the Smelter reference shows that trade-off. Write down your chosen recipe and target output next to the project plan so another player can extend the line without having to reverse-engineer it.
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