A Blue Power Slug looking out over the Rocky Desert.
In Satisfactory, power is the single most important resource you can have. It’s made in many different ways, each of which have their own pros and cons, but you can’t really play without using them. As you progress, your power needs will only grow, and a big part of the game is knowing how best to produce it.
In a game where absolute automation is the goal, an understanding of each power source is gonna be your best friend. You’ll need to get to know each power source as soon as you unlock them so you can efficiently power your machines. You need to know what power sources you should be working towards and what to watch out for in building them.
Biomass
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A Biomass Burner outside the HUB deep in the forest.
Unlocked at HUB Upgrade 6
Biomass is the first power you’ll have access to. There’s even a Biomass Burner built into the HUB. It’s very high-maintenance, requiring constant player intervention, but everyone has to deal with it when starting out.
Biomass isn’t a great source of power, and by the later-game burning leaves, wood, and solid biofuel should barely put a dent in your power consumption. The Biomass Burner is really cheap and the materials you can burn are everywhere, but you have to keep filling it manually. Once you get past needing to use it, there’s rarely any reason to ever go back.
Once you hit Tier 2, make sure to convert any biomass you have into solid biofuel. It burns for much longer than anything else and is made out of the materials you would already be using. Plus, you unlock the chainsaw at the same tier, which also takes biofuel for power, and it makes collecting wood to make more fuel much easier.
Biomass Pros:
Absolutely required at the beginning of the game
First way to automate anything
Fuel is abundant and easy to collect
Unlocked really early (HUB Upgrade 6)
Biomass Cons
Needs to be manually refilled almost constantly
No way to automate getting fuel
Low power output (30 MW)
Coal
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A Coal burning plant harvesting from a cliff in the Red Jungle.
Unlocked at Tier 3
One of the most exciting moments of any Satisfactory playthrough is building your first automated power source. In the game’s progression, that would be Coal power. Coal is a versatile power producer that can upgrade alongside you as you play.
Coal provides a great early-game power supply that really makes you start to feel like you’re entering an industrial age. As you get further in Satisfactory’s progression, coal loses its dominance over your power generation, but not its use. It also requires a water input to function, so make sure to find a spot with good water access before constructing Coal Generators.
Coal Generators can accept multiple different kinds of coal-related fuel sources. As you research sulfur in the MAM, you unlock Compacted Coal, which burns for much longer. Once you have oil processing at Tier 5, you unlock Petroleum Coke, which produces much faster than coal.
Coal Pros:
Fully automated
Produces a decent amount of power for the time (75 MW)
Can be upgraded to match your later-game needs
Coal Cons:
You’ll probably need to build several coal burners to match your later power need
No usable byproducts
Requires water infrastructure to work
Fuel
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A Fuel burner and water extractor creating pollution on the coast.
Unlocked at Tier 6
After reaching Tier 5, you may be itching to start your crude oil empire. You already have access to oil’s solid byproducts, rubber and plastic, but you can also create a liquid byproduct: Fuel. When used in a Fuel Generator your available power will increase a good bit.
The basic Fuel isn’t a whole lot better than standard Coal power, but its slight increase in power output gives Fuel a head start on producing more when overclocked. Its infrastructure, like coal, can also be upgraded as you progress, though not as in-depthly. Fuel isn’t anything special when compared to the other power sources, but it’s an important step in Satisfactory progression.
If you have some leftover Biomass lying around, you can convert it into Liquid Biofuel in a refinery by adding water. This burns about the same as regular Fuel, but may clear up some storage space. When you get further into sulfur research in the MAM you can also unlock Turbofuel, which is more space efficient, but also more tedious to deal with.
Fuel Pros:
Slightly better than Coal (100 MW)
You’ll already have the infrastructure from making plastic and rubber
Byproduct of polymer resin
Can deal with backlog of Biomass more efficiently
Fuel Cons:
Upgrades aren’t necessarily worth it and are more complicated
Takes the spot of production that could be plastic or rubber
Made basically obsolete by Nuclear power
Geothermal
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A Geothermal Generator using a geyser just outside the Titanfall Forest.
Unlocked through Caterium Research – “Geothermal Generator”
Geothermal Generators are more complicated than the normal power sources. They run on a fluctuating amount of power from a number of cycles depending on the quality of the geyser they’re placed on, rather than a flat rate like the rest. They aren’t a central part of the Satisfactory progression, being unlocked through MAM research, so they’re considered optional.
Each rotation can produce any amount of power within its designated range:
Impure – 50-150 MW (avg 100)
Normal – 100-300 MW (avg 200)
Pure – 200-600 MW (avg 400)
After enough cycles, the amount of power you get should average out overall, but it won’t stay the same 100% of the time. Without proper planning, this could lead to a power outage.
Geothermal Generators are a bit of a pain to deal with. If you have a well-stocked power battery system as a backup in case of a particularly bad cycle, you’ll be free to use Geothermal power as much as you need. Without a backup, though, Geothermal Generators may be something to stay away from.
Geothermal Pros:
Pure nodes produce significantly more power than fuel on average
Geysers are easy to find
Infrastructure is easy to set up
Geothermal Cons:
Internal system is unusually complicated
Amount of power produced is unreliable
Can more easily cause power outages without backup batteries
Nuclear
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A lonely Uranium miner at the top of the world.
Unlocked at Tier 8
The height of Satisfactory power production is the Nuclear Power Plant, though it’s also the most complicated. They produce way more than any other power supply, but they’re also much more complicated to construct and use, requiring a lot more infrastructure. Nuclear power is also highly dangerous because of how easily it can irradiate you.
To use uranium you’ll need to mine it and turn it into Encased Uranium Cells, which can then be turned into Uranium Fuel Rods. This is a massive production process, requiring sulfuric acid, encased industrial beams, concrete, AI limiters, stators, and more. It’s the culmination of all your progress up to this point, and while it’s significantly more complicated, it’s absolutely worth it.
Nuclear power produces a ton of nuclear waste, which is difficult to get rid of. Once you have a Particle Accelerator you can turn Uranium Waste, which is really radioactive, into Plutonium, which can also be used for power. Plutonium Waste, which is even more radioactive, can’t be disposed of in any way, so you’re stuck with it forever.
Nuclear Pros:
Each Power Plant produces way more power than anything else (2500 MW)
Miners can supply multiple Power Plants
Power Plants and Miners can be overclocked
Nuclear Cons:
Produces waste, which is either difficult to deal with (uranium) or impossible (plutonium)
When Ryder isn't holed up in their room with all the blinds drawn playing Nintendo games like a goblin, they're in a different room with all the blinds drawn playing D&D with their goblin-y friends.
Gamer Since:
2010
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Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
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Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Undertale, The Sims 4
