Beginner’s Guide to Abiotic Factor (Spoiler Free!)

The past couple years have been filled with incredible indie games, and Abiotic Factor is the most recent addition to that pile. It’s a story driven survival game with lite horror elements that feels a bit like Half-life with SCP themes.

You could make a number of comparisons to other games, but Abiotic Factor certainly has its own take on the genre. Some of the mechanics can throw even survival game veterans for a loop. But we’ll walk you through the basics so you can focus on unraveling the mysteries of the Gate facility instead of fiddling with the crafting menu. Let’s dig in!

Unique Mechanics

Abiotic Factor has all the standard survival game elements, so you’ll need to manage your hunger, thirst, fatigue, and… bathroom needs. We’ll come back to that last one after we talk about Abiotic’s take on crafting and electricity.

Crafting: Ideas vs Recipes

Like most games in the genre, Abiotic Factor allows you to unlock new recipes as you play and discover new materials. The process is similar to Minecraft’s or Valheim’s but with a twist: Instead of automatically learning the recipe when you pick up a new item, sometimes you’ll get an “Idea.”

Ideas are almost recipes. You’ll see a silhouette of the item in your crafting menu, but when you select it you’ll be met with the Ideation interface instead of ingredients. You’ll see 2-4 empty boxes with varying borders and a row of ingredients that have borders matching the empty boxes. Essentially you have to guess what the recipe is before you can craft it. It’s fairly intuitive, but don’t worry if you get it wrong a few times, you can try as many times as you’d like.

Electricity

No generator? No problem! Just plug into one of the outlets scattered around the Gate Facility and mooch off its power. Well, as long as you don’t need it at night. Every night at 9:00 pm sharp, power to the entire facility gets shut off and the security bots start their patrols. Tip: the desk lamps don’t need a power connection to run, so they’ll keep your base lit up overnight.

Oh! Also, if you find somewhere you’d like to put your base but can’t find an outlet nearby. You can run a power cable to the location. Grab some tech scrap, select an outlet, and look at the floor/wall. You should be able to build some make-shift outlets that you can chain together. Probably a fire hazard, but it should be fine.

Bathroom Needs

The mechanic isn’t unique to Abiotic Factor but it’s still rather rare. As you eat/drink your lavatory need will slowly rise, and unlike hunger/thirst, you can’t meet it preemptively. So you’ll have to wait until you actually need to go to relieve yourself. But you’ll have to do more than take a seat on a toilet to go.

Yep, using the bathroom comes with a mini-game. Now, you don’t have to play it, but you’ll be on the toilet for a while if you don’t. The game is pretty simple, when the blue sliding poop icon is under one of the green bars, press E to “ease passage.”

Or you can let your restroom needs fill up and go on the floor, and you’ll be rewarded with a Bag of Feces. It’s a surprisingly useful item, so believe it or not, pooping yourself is a good idea. You can also get it by relieving yourself on a makeshift toilet. Either way, you’ll want to grab some for later use.

Honestly, picking up everything is in your best interest if you want to thrive in the early game. Speaking of, now that you have a good understanding of the basics, we can talk about how to get a good foothold in the Gate Facility.

Surviving the Early Game

Scavenging

One of the main differentiating parts of Abiotic Factor is the setting. Instead of being stranded in untamed wilderness, you’re stuck in a massive underground laboratory. So instead of punching trees or picking up stones, you’ll be smashing desks and grabbing roles of duct tape. Basically every item is used in multiple recipes so go crazy. Pick up, scrap, and store everything.

The best thing to look for is the water coolers. They hold a ton of water and retain that water when picked up, making them the easiest way to ensure you have water at your base. Those dollar bills are worth grabbing too. You start with $15 and while it isn’t used in any crafting recipes, the money can be used at vending machines to buy invaluable food.

With your pockets full of useful supplies, it’s time to find the perfect spot to set up your base and unload.

Base Building

The Gate Facility may be an expansive place, but it’s not exactly a forever home. Though, given the circumstances you’re probably going to be here a while, so you might as well get comfortable. Thanks to the man-made nature of the location walls and ceilings are covered. So all you need is a place to sleep and store your goodies.

Filing cabinets make great early game storage, and you can sleep on any of the couches you find lying around (you will need to craft a bed to set a new respawn point). Get a crafting bench hooked up and you’re ready to explore the facility unencumbered. But make some equipment before you set out, the facility is crawling with hostile pests for you to contend with.

Combat

Whatever caused the facility to become abandoned also filled it with a never-ending stream of otherworldly beasts. Luckily, they aren’t terribly difficult to subdue if you know what you’re doing. Hopefully you grabbed a ton of cloth scrap while you were scavenging, as you’ll need it to make nets.

The little guys are easily taken care of with a throw net and your foot (E to stomp a netted creature) but the dog-things are a bit tougher. Throw nets are still your best friend since they temporarily muzzle the big guys, but you’ll have to use that opportunity to get a few hits in. Kitchen knives and desk legs are the first weapons you can find but there are plenty craftable options for you to discover as well. (Sadly frying pans aren’t weapons)

With that, you’re just about ready to take on the mystery of Abiotic Factor and the Gate Facility, but there are a few useful tips that the game doesn’t tell you or are easily missed you should know about.

Other Tips

We’ll go over these pretty quickly since they aren’t essential but will certainly make your life a bit easier.

1. Anything with a durability can be repaired with duct tape.
2. Items in your hot-bar weigh 25% less, great for carrying water coolers/furniture.
3. You won’t get Exp for your strength skill if you’re completely over-encumbered, so if you want to level it, carry just enough to slow you down.

Alright, enough rambling. Let’s wrap this up so you can get started.

Conclusion

Abiotic Factor is a truly unique survival experience. The gameplay loop is very enjoyable and the story is incredibly engaging. With everything you’ve learned in mind, you’ll surely be one of Gate’s top scientists and have no trouble getting to the bottom of what’s going on in the facility.

One last tip before you set off: play with friends. Many of the Steam reviews say that Abiotic Factor is enjoyable solo but the multiplayer experience is top-tier. With the built in proximity chat like Lethal Company and diverse classes with meaningful specializations it’s a stand-out multiplayer game.

And the best way to play with friends is on a dedicated server. Everyone can play when they have time and you don’t have to wait for the person with the world to host so you can play. So what are you waiting for? Check out our Abiotic Factor server plans and get ready to unravel the mysteries of the Gate Facility. For science!