As previously noted, this new save sees me starting out where most brand new players start (yet I never have): The southwestern grassy starting field. It has upsides and drawbacks, all of which I took into account before making my fateful, game-changing decision.

(Okay, there’s one upside I didn’t think entirely through beforehand. I’ll get to that.)

Along the west coast of the game map (Satisfactory uses a fixed game map, it’s the same for everyone for every play through) one finds the second best concentration of crude oil in the game. I know there’s an official, agreed-upon term for the site but I’ve always called it The Oilands.

Islands, with oil, get it? Of course you do, and you wish you’d thought of it first.

It’s the crude oil source with the easiest access to the highest overall quality of output in the game. The other, arguably-better site is the Spire Coast up north but that is much more hostile of terrain on several levels.

Starting in the grassy field means I just have to head northwest for a quick jaunt, and once I hit water I’m halfway to my destination. And this time, I have a secret weapon: Power Towers. And to make that secret weapon less dangerous for me, I have another secret weapon: The new “permanent” Parachute. Both of these are additions in last year’s Update 8 release. Combine those with the Zipline hand equipment and you have the means to expand quickly to anywhere on the map you can afford to reach.

Power Towers are basically what you think they are: Long-distance electricity transmission towers, much like what you see lined up through the countryside in what I’ve heard referred to as “reality.” They are an absolute godsend when it comes to expanding your territory in any given direction. The workflow goes something like this:

1. Start with enough available power to build at your new site and the required materials (Concrete, Steel Beam, Wire, plus Cables to connect them together) to build a string of Power Towers.
2. Place your first Power Tower, paying attention to the facing so you aren’t trying to zipline through the top of the tower. Note that all Towers you build should be the “Platform” variant, both for zipline-friendly transit and to make your transmission line extension process much easier.
3. Climb to the top of this first Tower, select the Power Line buildable in your hotbar, attach it to the top part of the Tower, then aim somewhere 300 meters further along toward where you want to go.
4. Once you find a good spot where the game will allow you to place the next Tower and it’s rotated the way you want, place it.
5. Zipline over to the new tower from the current tower, and repeat steps 3 through 5 until you’ve reached your planned destination.
6. Climb/parachute/fall down to ground level and use the Power Line buildable attached to the lower part of the Tower to get yourself a regular Power Pole with which to electrify your new build site.

I am particularly fussy about towers standing partly on “empty space” so I actually created a blueprint for “Power Tower with 2×2 foundation base” so I can go back (some day) and make the towers look like they’re standing on properly-built bases instead of hanging precariously over empty space. You can’t use steps 3 through 5 above to place blueprints, however, so my workflow included “delete the new tower, place the blueprinted version where it was, climb up the new tower, and reconnect to the previous tower, then resume at step 3.”

Can’t help but make extra work for myself, can I?

I guess now’s the time to talk about that faulty “upside.” See, the grassy field is fairly close to the Oilands… as the crow Mothra flies. And you can walk or drive there with relative ease. Building giant metal structures between those two locations is… trickier. On account of all the very tall rock formations blocking the way.

Whoops.

And here’s where the Parachute comes in: When you’re building on top of very tall rock formations, a poorly aimed dismount from the zipline can result in a long hike from the Hub to wherever your previous body fell to its demise. Parachuting has its downsides (the “head bob” animation at the start and end of the trip is somewhat nausea-inducing) but I wouldn’t want to do this kind of build project without it. At least, not until Jetpacks and Hoverpacks show up.

The results are remarkable, though. In the span of an hour I went from no Towers between my Hub zone and my selected crude oil node to having a Power Pole placed on the sands, ready for the factory construction to commence. And it only takes a couple of minutes to traverse the line from end to end. Watch:

Not bad, eh? Before the Update 8 release, this would’ve taken a long, tedious string of Power Poles along ground level (because you can’t do a 300 meter line between those) plus placing a bunch of foundations across the water to the islands themselves. Now? Just a few quick hops and there you are.

Now I just need to unlock the Jetpack… and, even more importantly, Fuel Generators.