I sent the Phase 3 materials shipment up the Space Elevator a few play sessions ago. So, how has my overall approach to this new save (the “New Clear Plan”) gone so far?

In short: A qualified success.

In long: Well, let’s dig into that…

To recap, the goal for this entire save is to see if by front-loading the infrastructure for the Space Elevator shipments (the numbered “phases” from 1 to 4) I could make the endgame slog to get that last shipment sent skyward somewhat less… sloggy. I won’t know how well I accomplished that until I’m actually getting ready for Phase 4 but I suspect that when the time comes I won’t actually have that much work to do because I completed a great deal of it already.

Now let’s be real, I am not exactly playing this “normally.” I’m using online mapping and planning tools, and I’m referencing the spreadsheet I used to figure out the production flow and materials requirements for the last save. (Remember the flowchart?) I am going through this with all of the foreknowledge. I have arachnid creatures turned off and general creature hostility is basically none. This is by no means the intended, default Satisfactory gameplay experience. It’s simply the gameplay experience I wanted in order to best enjoy spending hundreds of in-game hours testing an idea.

As one does.

Let’s break down some of the downsides:

• This method takes a lot of time & material. (Mostly time, but still lots of material.) While I’m not building items at the final production rate for endgame, I’m still building all of the relevant items for Phase 3 at some rate. Every step of the process needs building out in a “ready for Phase 4” state. (Hence building eight Manufacturers each for two of the Space Elevator parts, despite only powering two apiece.) Every part of the logistics needs connecting and sorting. I am, in short, executing a significant percentage of the end-game work… in the mid-game. It’s every bit as fun as that sounds.
• This method takes a lot more power than just hand-loading a few cheap pieces of machinery to get Phase 3 sent up would have done. I have a sizeable coal power plant and several fuel power facilities strewn around the map and I’m still watching my power graphs rather nervously. I am extremely anxious for Turbofuel and for nuclear power to become available.
• This method requires some fussy railway logistics at the Phase 3 stage because drones aren’t yet available so you work with the best equipment you have. Unfortunately, the needs of the Phactory means delivering nearly a dozen different items to one small point on the map, and train logistics always (always always always) takes up more space than I originally expect.

A hot mess? Sure, but it worked. And all of that is stuff I never have to build again. When Phase 4 comes around I just need to make sure I’m supplying a higher rate of materials, make sure I’m supplying the previously-unavailable types of materials (at the correct rate, and those will arrive entirely by drone, thankyouverymuch), build the last set of equipment (Assemblers mostly, with a couple of Particle Accelerators for razzle-dazzle value), and wait out the accumulation. My guess is that I’ve already completed 3/4 (or more!) of the Phactory build, at least the functional bits. There’s decoration to be done but I’ll wait on that for when I’m in “wait out” mode.

Would I recommend this play method for literally anyone but me? Eh, not really. I’ve already realized that the smarter move is to create discrete build sites (much like Spud and Nyx and I did in our co-op save) and then simply transport the results to the Space Elevator. But this gives me a better idea of how best to build out those sites in the future.

You know, once 1.0 releases and upends literally everything we’ve learned about how we should build our factories over the last few years. Early Access!