What to Expect from Factorio's Space Age Expansion

Remember when automating a few machines in Minecraft felt groundbreaking? Factorio took that concept and ran with it - straight into orbit. As the undisputed champion of the automation genre, Factorio has come a long way since its early access days. After four years of meticulous development, the game hit version 1.0 in 2020, but Wube Software wasn’t content to rest on their laurels. While they’ve been steadily squashing bugs and tweaking systems, something big has been brewing in the background: Factorio 2.0 and the highly anticipated Space Age Expansion.

Now, you may be thinking - “Factorio 2.0? Tell me more!” And while that’s certainly exciting, we’re here to talk about the expansion that’s got the community buzzing. So strap in, fellow engineers - it’s time to see what the Space Age has in store for us!

Much More Than an Empty Void

Through Factorio Friday Facts (FFF) we’ve received a steady trickle of teasers for what’s to come. This wiki page covers everything we know so far (including what’s been confirmed for Factorio 2.0 if you really must know). From what we know, the Space Age expansion will be broken down into 3 ‘mods’ that can be enabled/disabled at will: Space Age, Quality, and Elevated Rails. The rails are fairly self-explanatory, you’ll be able to go over buildings and other rails without colliding, but Quality is going to need some explaining before we get into Space Age itself. (Check out FFF #378 if you want to know more about the rails)

Quality

The scope of this mechanic is a bit much for this post so we won’t be getting into the nitty-gritty, but FFF #375 has you covered if you want all the details. On a higher level, quality gives you another way to play Factorio’s endgame. Currently, once you unlock all the final buildings your only option to increase production is to expand the size of your factory.

But quality will allow you to improve the efficiency of your factory, without needing more space (really useful on space platforms). Every single item in the game will have one of the following quality levels:

1. Normal (base quality)

2. Uncommon

3. Rare

4. Epic

5. Legendary

Quality gives a pretty hefty boost to assemblers, inserters, mining drills, and many other buildings. It can also provide impressive bonuses to vehicles and player equipment. But what about all the other components? How do they benefit from quality?

That’s a great question! In short, the lowest quality ingredient used in a recipe is the minimum quality of the crafted output, while higher quality ingredients give a chance for the crafted item’s quality to be higher. Now, you might be wondering: “But how do I improve quality to begin with?” Luckily, there’s an easy answer - Quality Modules. These modules increase the odds of getting a higher-quality output, at the cost of crafting speed.

In summary, quality allows you to alleviate bottlenecks and increase production without needing to make your factory bigger. And don’t worry, if quality sounds like too much of a hassle, you can ignore it (or disable it) without it impacting your playthrough. Speaking of playthroughs, how is the rest of the Space Age expansion going to affect your Factorio Experience?

The Dawn of a New Age

To be perfectly honest, this expansion is a lot. Wube could’ve called it Factorio 2 and nobody would have batted an eye. Space Age is meant to take you beyond Nauvis (your starting planet) and out into the starry sky, introducing unique challenges, engaging logistical puzzles, and a vastly expanded endgame. With 12 buildings, 4 planets, and 4 new science packs, Space Age more than doubles the content available in the game. All that to say, we’re not going to cover every bit of the expansion in depth, but you’ll still get a good idea of what’s coming. Ready? Let’s begin!

Space Platforms | Factories in the Sky

These player-made structures serve as your first foothold into space. Acting as both a production facility for space science and transport between planets. When on a space platform, asteroids will slowly appear around you offering a sustainable supply of ice, carbon, and iron. All of which are needed to make space science at an efficient rate, since launching satellites will only yield 10 space science packs per launch.

When traversing the stars, larger more dangerous asteroids will appear, and you’ll have to shoot them down or risk your space platform being destroyed. But you’ll still be able to collect the broken bits to fuel your ship and make science packs.

Planets | A Whole New Solar System

The new worlds are without a doubt the biggest part of this update. Each one has its own challenges, resources, and mechanics you can utilize in your pursuit of production. Let’s break down what we know about each so far:

Vulcanus

This planet is a fiery wasteland, covered in volcanoes, sulfuric vents, and ashen plains. Obviously, building around the rivers of lava will pose a challenge but doing so will get you a lot. For one, you’ll be able to get sulfuric acid directly out of the ground instead of having to refine it. Additionally, it’s now the only place where coal liquefaction is obtainable. But where Vulcanus really shines is in metallurgy. Using the new material calcite, you can refine lava into molten iron & copper. Tungsten is also scattered across the lava basins, and you’ll need it to make the new metallurgic science pack.

Fulgora

Covered in vast seas of oilsands interspersed with stable plateaus, and ravaged by lightning storms every night, this wasteland was once inhabited by a long gone civilization. The exploitable resources consist of heavy oil and scrap. You know what to do with heavy oil, but the scrap left behind by the precursors of this world is a new challenge. Using the new recyclers, this scrap can be turned into 12 different resources and intermediates. One of them being Holmium Ore that’s required to make the electromagnetic science packs. Speaking of electricity, you’ll need to build some lightning rods if you want to keep your base from being destroyed by the nightly storms.

Gelba

In contrast to the two barren worlds we’ve covered, Gelba is absolutely teeming with life. You can exploit this robust ecosystem for a new material called Nutrients. But be careful, as many of the items you gather and craft here will spoil. Including the new Agricultural Science pack. Luckily, if anything does spoil, you can use it as fuel or utilize a longer process to extract the remaining Nutrients.

Aquilo

We don’t actually know much about this planet, even the name ‘Aquilo’ is speculation. But, if the name holds true we can make some guesses about what it’ll be like, primarily that it will be a sort of water world. Likely reminiscent of the Sea Block mod-pack if you’ve played it. And it will probably have its own science pack.

Most of the new buildings are planet specific so we’ll leave those for you to discover on your own. But we do have some other details you’re surely itching for.

Factorio Space Age | Release Date & Price

It all started back in February 2021, when Wube first announced they were planning on doing the expansion, just under 6 months after they released 1.0. And a bit over 3 years later it’s finally wrapping up development. FFF #417 gives a full post-mortem of the development process, (super interesting read btw) and FFF #418 finally gave us the 2 pieces of information we’ve all been yearning for:

• The release date will be October 21st, 2024.

• And the price will be $35, the same as the base game.

For the record, this expansion more than doubles the amount of content in the game. And throughout its development, they continued pushing bug fixes and modding improvements. So the price tag feels justified.

Conclusion

Factorio’s Space Age expansion is shaping up to be a game-changer, promising to launch our factories into the cosmos with new mechanics, planets, and challenges. Whether you’re fine-tuning quality or colonizing alien worlds, there’s a universe of possibilities waiting to be automated.

Can’t wait to get started? Why not grab a Factorio server from AleForge today? It’s the perfect way for you and your friends to hone your skills and prepare for the interstellar industrial revolution. After all, the factory must grow - even among the stars!