Start Like A Pro! - Satisfactory Beginners Quick Start Guide

Starting Satisfactory is a daunting task. This video will get you off to a quick start by guiding you step by step from building the hub to the end of your first four milestones. By the end, you will have fully automated every early game part in organized starter factories, a semi-automated biomass power plant good for 340 MW, and tons of tips and tricks from a Satisfactory pro with over 800 hours in the game!
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00:00 Intro
01:04 1st Milestone Choice
02:42 Slide Jump for SPEED
03:07 Concrete Automation
07:57 Iron Plate Automation
14:28 Milestone 2
15:28 Concrete on Foundations
20:21 Milestone 3
25:43 Iron Rod & Screw Factory
32:37 Iron Rod Manifold
41:54 Finished Iron Rod & Screws
44:12 CHAINSAW
46:18 Biomass Power Plant
56:55 Milestone 4
57:24 Hard Drive Hunting
01:04:44 Choosing an Alternate Recipe
01:07:21 Back to Copper
01:11:19 Completed Factory Overview
#satisfactory

[@idirhouari3878]

Starting the video with "if you have never played, turn off the video and go have some fun", I already like you man thanks for the tips !

[@Joostmhw]

This, games in this genre are the best to be muddled with a save or two before looking towards others ideas

[@pooter1990]

honestly thats how most games should be played, and i like that he included that as a preamble! thumbs up for sure.

[@Ronin11111111]

I have 1200 hours in the game, but for some reason I still like watching begginers guides. Something's just fun about it.

[@DrLootCrate]

😂 i do the same thing. It is soothing in a way

[@Ronin11111111]

@@DrLootCrate It also sparks ideas on how to optimise future playthroughs, that's another good reason.

[@DrLootCrate]

@@Ronin11111111 very true and maybe someone will tell you something you should have known 5 hours in that you can’t believe you didn’t know😉

[@daveisnothere]

I have close to 3000 hours in the game and actually learned something. Holding the loot key to gather everything as you pass over it.

[@DrLootCrate]

@@daveisnothere awesome! I think they added that in update 6, so don’t feel too bad. Maybe you hadn’t needed biomass since then

[@charliebrewis1158]

Would love to see a little series like this, with each video going up in experience. Like begginer, intermediate, advanced, expert etc

[@DrLootCrate]

Thanks Charlie. It was actually my intention to do a series of long lightly edited videos like this for each phase but life got in the way of the follow ups. Perhaps I will get back to it

[@LostCanuck192]

Love the info, tips and the chill music. Great video all around, can't wait to get back at it

[@Cachai_]

KEEP IT GOING!!! Carry me forward... such a great video I want more

[@Altek2k]

Really informative video. Thankyou!

[@RodDavis]

Thanks for thank great video. I learned so much.

[@DrLootCrate]

No prob Rod. Glad it was helpful

[@anesia707]

Milestone unlocks I agree to automate, but you can give yourself a significant boost by crafting MAM unlocks at the bench. Unlocking the caterium MAM research in Rocky early is a lifesaver with zipline and mk2 poles. And of course the inventory upgrades available in other trees.

[@MrDavidMoyer]

1:40 Remember folks, this is subjective advice. Play your way. I don't even build my first foundation until after I send my first load up the Space Elevator. So I leave the "base building" milestone until later, allowing me to unlock some of the "more useful" milestones a bit faster. Then I skip the "Jump Pads" milestone completely because I just never use those things anyway. The thing is, you'll build baby's first factory, then as soon as you unlock Coal Power and Steel production you'll want to tear it all down and redesign things anyway. This game has a LOT of that: build a factory to build a few parts that you need SOON... unlock milestones for better technologies, find hard drives for better alternative production recipes, and unlock MAM research... tear the factory down for a redesign using the new recipes and new tech. My point is: PLAY YOUR WAY. Your first factory doesn't need to sit on a foundation or have any walls at all, but you can build it inside the tallest tower or biggest mega-factory ever if you want to go crazy; you can build your smelters and constructors right next to the resource nodes or you can run belts halfway around the world; and remember there will be redesigning later. If you can dream it, you can build it... but maybe not until a later milestone is unlocked with the right parts. :)

[@deliciouslybrutal]

IMO, I think it makes sense in the early game to make permanent "emergency" factories that don't have any inputs, but have lines set up with constructors, assemblers, etc. and storage. This way, you can make short term materials without committing to a full factory build. Often I find that I want to hold off on a factory build until I get a build piece I really want (e.g. upgraded belts, AWESOME pieces, etc.)

[@goodisnipr]

21:29 When "snapping" to the world grid, not only just hold ctrl, but also rotate a couple times. I've found the first platform I'm trying to set down is often rotated off the grid by 45°, and rotating it with CTRL held gets it fixed reliably. When it's on the world grid, rotating it makes it spin 90°.

[@DrLootCrate]

Huh. Good to know. I can’t say I have noticed that before, but maybe I haven’t been paying attention

[@goodisnipr]

@@DrLootCrate It was caught on camera here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmGcXmaHi86sfqc

[@DonkenAndToivolaRR]

4:14 You can use belts also to get to "unaccessible" places. Depends on your first milestone and personal preferences.

[@abmorse1]

Every discussion of early-game hard drives talks about cast screws, but to me the biggest benefit of early hard drive exploration is so you can get one of the inventory expansions unlocked as soon as possible. They only appear when you have all (but 2) of the available unlocks done, but more pocket space is always a huge help.

[@DrLootCrate]

Great call. That extra space is huge!

[@abmorse1]

@@DrLootCrate Admittedly, it would be tough to do on a first playthrough without looking up locations on a map. You'd have to go way past your starting biome to find enough that you could open that early, but there are a bunch with low power and/or rotors.

[@DrLootCrate]

@@abmorse1 very true. You can normally find 2 or 3 sites nearby but not enough. Whenever I truly restart a save, I will end up unlocking recipes and inventory slots on satisfactory calculator. I have already gone and opened all of the sites once in the game…I feel like I have earned the right!

[@MattWeber]

That is true, but commonly the inventory slot upgrades seem to only reveal themselves once you have already claimed a majority of hard drive research you have accessible, which usually includes already having claimed cast screws. So you need to find about 15 hard drives right from the start to get tot the inventory slots before even accessing teir 3/4 or then you end up needing closer to 25 HD researched. Which is a LOT of exploring early game for a beginner.

[@DrLootCrate]

@@MattWeber yeah, I guess I didn’t do the math before I endorsed that comment, it is pretty unlikely that you will get there that early unless you are an exploring fiend

[@IainB]

Love your videos mate. I have almost 950 hours in Satisfactory but I still started a new save to play through this with you. :)

[@DrLootCrate]

Good man Iain! A little bit more time than me even! I think I am 850 or so. The 1 thing that really bothers me when I start a new save is how slow mk1 belts are. It drives me nuts!

[@IainB]

@@DrLootCrate Yes! I can't wait for part 2 of this video (there is one right?) Bring on the MK2 belts!

[@DrLootCrate]

@@IainB I haven’t done it yet, but I was thinking about another one for the rest of tier 2

[@IainB]

@@DrLootCrate Yes, please do it!

[@RickClark58]

I am new to the game and have played a bit and i am glad to see I wasn't too far this kind of start. This vid was quite helpful and I see where I can improve my start. I didn't know about the world grid so that is a big one I missed. Using foundations from the start is another I missed. Thank you for doing this. Have you done a mid game guide? I didn't see anything but maybe I missed it.

[@adanoliveira3553]

I have another tip for beginners if you need a material always try to automate it because then it gives you the mindset of automating and won't be boring

[@DrLootCrate]

For sure. That is something I tried to emphasize…get started automating right away and it makes each successive step much easier

[@kitsone4222]

Cast Iron Screws and ultimately Steel Screw recipes are exceptionally good. Allows the Bolted Reinforced Plate to be very desirable for it's production rate.

[@DrLootCrate]

Steel screws are sick as it also really saves you on machines, but I normally go for full screw elimination to not even have to mess. All that quickwire is bad enough

[@MattWeber]

@@DrLootCrate Caterium wire and caterium cable alts is the place to be late game and then ALL copper can go to steamed sheets.

[@Sephyricon]

Tree cutting tips. If you actually want to preserve bushes and stuff, and only remove a single tree that is in the way, then remove all the leaves, wood and petals from your inventory. Then split a stack of anything else until all inventory slots are full, then cut the tree in question. This wont give you any materials from the tree cut, but it won't remove anything else either.

[@DrLootCrate]

Great tip! I did know that having your inventory full let you chop down one thing, but never really thought about artificially filling it. I will definitely do that in the future

[@LiLBitsDK]

in the beginning with only mk. 1. miners put in a container too and like 10-20 automated miners, go empty them now and then and dump into the container. then funnel the container to constructors, speeds up production big time even if you have a "poor" source of ore ;-) works wonders and uses zero power for the miners... it is more work but is super easy

[@DrLootCrate]

Great call. I have definitely done that in previous games but I wanted to encourage early automation. I think you stick with banging things out at the craft bench a little longer with that method. I should have mentioned that you can put multiple personal miners on each node

[@LiLBitsDK]

@@DrLootCrate well I set up more constructors now I don't use power for miners :D so not much banging at the bench since I try to avoid that

[@DrLootCrate]

@@LiLBitsDK ahh. Good idea. Never really thought of it that way

[@skullsarecute]

This was fantastic, thank you. Would love to see your take on space elevator crafting and a storage room type setup someday.

[@DrLootCrate]

I do have one little guide on smart plating out there. I am not really a storage room guy, but there have been a lot of requests, so maybe I will get after it one of these days

[@dlear85]

been playing a week or so, just got a coal system setup. Have spent more than half my playtime rebuilding base from scratch

[@DrLootCrate]

Awesome. Sounds like you are having fun. I actually hardly ever rebuild and just build again nearby or somewhere else. I like to leave my mistakes and monuments to my incompetence!

[@SlowBurn90]

This was a great video! Do you plan on continuing this through the next couple tiers?

[@DrLootCrate]

Thanks! I have been taking a little break from making videos, but that was my plan when I get back to it.

[@SlowBurn90]

Perfect! I recently came back to the game, the last time I played was Update 4, alot has changed since then and this video helped me alot to figure out the game again, especially early game. Enjoy the rest of your break and I can't wait to see your content when you get back.

[@icebludger]

MAMs are not independent, so when you start a scan on one, all the MAMs that are in world are doing the scan, so another thing you can do when you're out hunting for hard drives is you can put down a MAM and start the research at the drop pod site then pick up the MAM again and keep hunting for hard drives, then likely by the time you find the next hard drive the research would be done and you can put down another MAM pick your recipe and start the scanning the next hard drive.

[@DrLootCrate]

I am glad you mentioned this. I actually had this in the video but I edited it out. I hope the true noobs watching this read the comments as well because there are always some good nuggets from my viewers

[@JulianSloman]

The "consider verticality" comment is _crucial_ if you start in the northern forrest and do that magical pure node plateau - there's not much space there.

[@DrLootCrate]

Definitely. If you go back and watch my very first video, you can see my giant supercomputer factory built right there

[@Floki3030]

OMG I still been spamming e to pick up biomass, thank you for letting me know

[@DrLootCrate]

No prob dude. Hopefully it saved you a finger cramp.

[@lux5213]

Thank you for repeating yourself I can actually learned something from a super long video for once

[@Ronin11111111]

3:00 what kind of mutant plays with sprint NOT set to toggle?

[@DrLootCrate]

The kind that didn’t know until now. I think I might give the menu a full review later today to see what else I have been missing….

[@playlisttarmac]

Lmao I have been playing for a few hrs now - am I bad for not automating but doing a lot of afk - eg put as many portable miners on a vein that will fit - fill up with iron ore - go walk the dog for 30 min - come home and pile almost done.

[@sebastianpenalva3118]

Great video really helped but the manifold didn't work for me it all just stayed on the first 2 constructors.

[@DrLootCrate]

Glad it helped! Check your belts and make sure you have them hooked up right. It also takes a little bit to fill up with mk1 belts.

[@r3d3y3555]

Shift + Space bar = auto craft. Also, right click and drag on an item and you can split to specific quantaties.

[@DrLootCrate]

You just have to hit space bar. No shift needed! Which I thought I said, but maybe I didn’t I actually didn’t know you could split into specific quantities. I always just right clicked to split in half until I got close enough! Thanks

[@r3d3y3555]

@@DrLootCrate Apologies, i must have missed that. Great vid though - you got a new subscriber!

[@DrLootCrate]

@@r3d3y3555 no worries. Always let me know if you think I missed anything or screwed up. Thanks for the sub!

[@abmorse1]

@@DrLootCrate I split my leaves into a pile of 1 to put on top of the leaf container (same for wood) so I don't put them in the wrong one when I empty my inventory. Signs are better once they're unlocked, but it's a good short-term solution

[@DrLootCrate]

@@abmorse1 now that is a hack!! I never thought of doing that at all

[@trevordow8013]

Fairly new to the game… just wondering if there is a way to prevent catwalk stairs from clipping…..since they are in section lengths they either over hang at the top or clip at the bottom… ???

[@DrLootCrate]

The are designed for catwalks, so they are don't clip when you connect the end of two foundations. It is only when you use them as regular stairs on top of a foundation that they do that little clip. It is almost unnoticeable to my eye, unless you are talking about something else.

[@trevordow8013]

Ok,….thanks for all the great videos!!

[@DrLootCrate]

@@trevordow8013 thanks for watching Trevor. I am glad you are enjoying them

[@VolutedJoker]

But what makes the blue bin for the screws? 😮

[@DrLootCrate]

Now we are asking the real questions

[@VolutedJoker]

@@DrLootCrate lol, first thing I asked myself during my first play through. Great video, will def check out others on your channel.

[@DrLootCrate]

Thanks man. Thinking about getting back to making some videos when version 1.0 comes out soon

[@steveaustin4118]

not played this since update 5

[@DrLootCrate]

I think now is the time to get back into it with the latest update. I am about to do the same myself

[@gameraven13]

Does having multiple biomass burners actually help? The "used per minute" number doesn't change for me. It also doesn't seem more efficient, as two underclocked burners producing 20MW and 2 fuel per minute is the same as one burner producing 40MW and 4 fuel per minute. If I had two burners not underclocked, it appears that both just produce the full 40MW and use 4 of the biofuel per minute even if, say, I'm only using 50MW of power. Also, the whole rod splitting is a bad example of where a manifold is more useful than a load splitter because technically you only need 3 splitters total for that manifold. But with the same splitters you can just do 60 split into 30/30, and then 30 split into 15/15 twice. So definitely one of the easier "load bearing" setups that uses essentially the same resources outside of maybe requiring more plates for belts depending on how it's all set up. It also uses less resources on the output since you just merge two rod constructors into a single splitter than then perfectly does 10/10/10 using all 3 outputs. The other two rod constructors merge to be belted into a storage container. This seems simpler.

[@Ephoros]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN PUT MINERS ON FOUNDATIONS?!

[@DrLootCrate]

Oh yeah! Definitely a great to clean up your builds

[@trevtnk9999]

15:53 I have... I.. I have 500 hours in this game and.. YOU CAN SNAP TO THE WORLD??

[@DrLootCrate]

Haha yessir! I think they added a world grid in like Update 4? I know for sure you couldn’t do it in my first save

[@trevtnk9999]

@@DrLootCrate There is... so much pain in my brain right now. I could have saved like 40 hours of headaches if I knew about it.

[@goodisnipr]

As a pioneer adventuring on ancient hardware, (my GPU is a GT620) I'd like to say these tips to increase framerate. Brutalism builds helps a bunch. Any "buildings" (ie. Manufacturers, Miners, Assemblers...) boxed in opaque walls are not drawn by the GPU, therefore won't drop frames. Glass walls and anything reflective and see-through impact framerate considerably, so chop down forests with the chainsaw asap if your pc is as old as mine. My pc when I close Satisfactory: kzbin.infoswQRnW561BA

[@DrLootCrate]

Decent shout. I don’t have any problems because I built a new PC almost specifically to play Satisfsctory!

[@bobklk51]

Only 6 hrs, slacker. LOL

[@DrLootCrate]

Seriously…why do I think I am qualified to do a guide? Haha

[@IRDazza]

The constant jumping makes watching this video nauseating. Just run and relax for the 2 seconds saved by jumping everywhere. Its one thing I HOPE the developers fix. Besides that it seems like an okay video. Cheers.

[@tombuhr8467]

stop jumping plz.

[@DrLootCrate]

Sorry that is jump and slide is how you move fast, but I get that it can be annoying. Thanks for watching!