Official Factorio Wiki - User contributions [en]

Thruster

2026-07-20T13:54:26Z

Eugenekay: Add History

{{Languages}}
{{:Infobox:Thruster}}
{{About/Space age}}
'''Thrusters''' are components of [[space platform]]s that propel the platforms through space, and to other planets. Thrusters require both [[thruster fuel]] and [[thruster oxidizer]] to function. Thrusters can only be built on the south edge of a space platform, with nothing directly south in the path of their exhaust. This placement means space platforms always travel north toward the top of the screen.

Thrusters are operated via the [[space platform hub]]. When a destination is set and the switch set to "Automatic," thrusters turn on and move the platform toward its destination. They turn off by themselves when the destination is reached. Moving the switch back to "Paused thrust" will turn all thrusters off immediately.

Speed and acceleration are affected by the number of thrusters, their efficiency, and the mass of the platform. Thrusters are at their least efficient when they have full reserves of both fuel and oxidizer, but produce higher speed and acceleration. Partly empty reserves cause them to work more efficiently, as noted in the table below, at the expense of speed/acceleration.

Depending on speed, damaging [[asteroids]] are encountered in greater numbers. This means that defenses should be built before turning on the thrusters, and high thrust requires stronger defense.

== General principles ==
The equations behind thruster performance are a bit complex (see [[#Formulas|below]]), so here are some guidelines for platform design:

* Platform width is far more important than mass in determining top speed (and therefore travel time).
** Adding more thrusters is not worthwhile if wider platform is required.
* Thrust has diminishing returns in either thrusters or fuel, unless both of them are added.
* Minimum total fuel volume is achieved at low speeds.

=== Shape design ===
Platform drag, which limits the top speed achievable with a given thrust, is strongly dependent on the width of the platform (in tiles) and much less dependent on the total mass of the platform.

<gallery mode=nolines class=center widths=400px heights=350px>
File:Speed-vs-width.png|Top speed drops off precipitously as width of the platform increases.|alt=Graph of maximum speed (percent of value at width 10) versus platform width from 10 to 100 tiles, showing a steep drop: speed falls to about half by width 40 and below one-third by width 100.
File:Speed-vs-mass.png|Top speed reduces by only 30 percent with a hundredfold increase in mass.|alt=Graph of maximum speed (percent of value at mass 100) versus platform mass from 100 to 10,000 tons, showing a gentle decline: speed stays near 100% at low mass and is still around 70% at 10,000 tons.
</gallery>

Travel time is also slightly affected by mass (a few percent) due to the longer time taken to get up to maximum speed, but most of the journey is done at top speed and so travel time is dominated by width. This encourages long, narrow rocket-like platform designs for interplanetary travel.

When considering how many thrusters to install on a platform of a certain width, the optimal number of thrusters is as many as will fit without making the platform wider. This is because the additional drag from the extra width cancels out the additional thrust from the extra thrusters. For a fixed fuelling rate, making the platform wider to add more thrusters actually makes it slower.

[[File:Speed-vs-thrusters-and-width.png|500px|center|alt=Graph of maximum speed versus number of thrusters, normalized to 100% at one thruster, for a platform that widens when more than 8 thrusters are added. One curve (fixed total fuel) rises to a peak at eight thrusters and then falls, while the other (full fuel per thruster) rises quickly and then flattens after 8 thrusters, showing that once width must increase, extra thrusters give diminishing or negative returns.|Once adding thrusters forces the platform to become wider, extra engines give diminishing returns, and with fixed fuel can even reduce top speed.]]

For example, for a platform with a width of 32 tiles, the maximum speed is attained with 8 thrusters since each thruster is 4 tiles wide. Note that this does not apply if more thrusters can be added without increasing the width of the platform by stacking multiple thrusters vertically.

=== Marginal diminishing effect of thrust ===
Because thrusters increase efficiency with lower fuel, thrust can be increased by adding either fuel or thrusters alone, but with diminishing returns. To get linear gains, both of them need to be increased proportionally.

<gallery mode=nolines class=center widths=400px heights=350px>
File:Thrust-vs-thrusters.png|alt=Graph showing total thrust and maximum speed versus number of thrusters, both scaled to 100% at one thruster. Both curves rise quickly at first and then flatten, showing diminishing gains as more thrusters are added.|Adding thrusters at a fixed fuel rate increases both thrust and speed, but with strong diminishing returns.
File:Thrust-vs-fuel.png|thumb|alt=graph showing total thrust and maximum speed versus fuel rate (in percent), both scaled to 100% at full fuel. Both curves rise steeply at low fuel and gradually level off toward full fuel.|Increasing fuel to a fixed number of thrusters raises thrust and speed, but each extra percent of fuel gives a smaller gain than the last.
File:Thrust-vs-fully-fueled-thrusters.png|thumb|alt=Graph showing total thrust and maximum speed versus number of thrusters, both scaled to 100% at one thruster. Thrust rises as a straight line, while speed rises more slowly and curves downward, indicating slowly diminishing returns.|With full fuel per thruster, thrust scales linearly with thruster count, while speed increases with some diminishing returns due to drag.
</gallery>

=== Fuel saving ===
If no fuel is replenished or manufactured during the flight, but instead the whole journey is completed relying on pre-stored fuel on board, it is necessary to minimize the total fuel volume consumption for a given trip. In general the slower the flight speed, the less the total fuel consumption, as the greater efficiency of the thrusters more than cancels out the longer travel time.

<gallery mode=nolines class=center widths=400px heights=350px>
File:Fuel-volume-vs-speed.png|thumb|alt=Graph showing normalised travel time and normalised fuel used versus total fuel flow. Travel time drops rapidly as fuel flow increases, while fuel used rises steadily, indicating that minimum fuel consumption occurs at the lowest fuel setting.|For a typical platform, total fuel used increases steadily with fuel flow, so the least fuel is consumed at the lowest throttle, even though travel time is longest.
File:Fuel-volume-vs-speed-wide.png|thumb|alt=Graph of normalised travel time and fuel used versus fuel flow for a wide, single-thruster platform. Travel time falls with increasing fuel, while total fuel used has a minimum at 20% throttle.|On a wide, low-thrust platform, the slowest speed is so slow that it takes less fuel overall to go slightly faster.
File:Fuel-volume-vs-speed-heavy.png|thumb|alt=Graph of normalised travel time and fuel used versus fuel flow for a very heavy platform. Travel time falls with increasing fuel, while total fuel used shows a slight dip at 15% throttle before rising, indicating an optimum near minimum throttle.|On an extremely heavy platform, total fuel used also has a shallow minimum at low, but not minimum throttle.
</gallery>

The exceptions are for platforms with few thrusters and a lot of drag, or very heavy platforms, where the slowest speed is so slow that it takes less fuel overall to go slightly faster. The optimal fuelling rate in these cases is still generally 15-25% though.

== Details ==

=== Datasheet ===
The "Relative thrust" and "Relative fluid consumption" is the percentage for the range of a thruster of that [[quality]]. 50% relative thrust is halfway between the minimum thrust and the maximum thrust. For a base quality thruster, 50% is 55.95 MN, while for a legendary thruster, it is 139.45 MN, a 150% increase.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Filled fluid reserve !! Efficiency !! Relative thrust !! Relative fluid consumption !! colspan="5" | Fluid consumption (units/s)
|-
! colspan="4"| !! [[File:quality_normal.png|15px]] Normal !! [[File:quality_uncommon.png|15px]] Uncommon !! [[File:quality_rare.png|15px]] Rare !! [[File:quality_epic.png|15px]] Epic !! [[File:quality_legendary.png|15px]] Legendary
|-
| 0% || 100% || 10% || 10% || 6.00 || 7.80 || 9.60 || 11.40 || 15.00
|-
| 5% || 100% || 10% || 10% || 6.00 || 7.80 || 9.60 || 11.40 || 15.00
|-
| 10% || 100% || 10% || 10% || 6.00 || 7.80 || 9.60 || 11.40 || 15.00
|-
| 15% || 97% || 22% || 24% || 14.14 || 18.39 || 22.63 || 26.87 || 36.00
|-
| 20% || 93% || 34% || 37% || 22.29 || 28.97 || 35.66 || 42.34 || 55.50
|-
| 25% || 90% || 44% || 51% || 30.43 || 39.56 || 48.69 || 57.81 || 76.50
|-
| 30% || 86% || 54% || 64% || 38.57 || 50.14 || 61.71 || 73.29 || 96.00
|-
| 35% || 83% || 63% || 78% || 46.71 || 60.73 || 74.74 || 88.76 || 117.00
|-
| 40% || 79% || 71% || 91% || 54.86 || 71.31 || 87.77 || 104.23 || 136.50
|-
| 45% || 76% || 78% || 105% || 63.00 || 81.90 || 100.80 || 119.70 || 157.50
|-
| 50% || 72% || 84% || 119% || 71.14 || 92.49 || 113.83 || 135.17 || 178.50
|-
| 55% || 69% || 89% || 132% || 79.29 || 103.07 || 126.86 || 150.64 || 198.00
|-
| 60% || 65% || 93% || 146% || 87.43 || 113.66 || 139.89 || 166.11 || 219.00
|-
| 65% || 62% || 96% || 159% || 95.57 || 124.24 || 152.91 || 181.59 || 238.50
|-
| 70% || 58% || 98% || 173% || 103.71 || 134.83 || 165.94 || 197.06 || 259.50
|-
| 75% || 55% || 100% || 186% || 111.86 || 145.41 || 178.97 || 212.53 || 279.00
|-
| 80% || 51% || 100% || 200% || 120.00 || 156.00 || 192.00 || 228.00 || 300.00
|-
| 85% || 51% || 100% || 200% || 120.00 || 156.00 || 192.00 || 228.00 || 300.00
|-
| 90% || 51% || 100% || 200% || 120.00 || 156.00 || 192.00 || 228.00 || 300.00
|-
| 95% || 51% || 100% || 200% || 120.00 || 156.00 || 192.00 || 228.00 || 300.00
|-
| 100% || 51% || 100% || 200% || 120.00 || 156.00 || 192.00 || 228.00 || 300.00
|}

=== Formulas ===

<math>F_{net} = F_{thrust} + F_{drag}</math>

<math>a_{net} = \frac{F_{net}}{m}</math> - acceleration. Change of speed per tick.

<math>F_{drag}\ =-\frac{wv\left(v+60\right)}{4800}-\frac{\left(F_{thrust}m\right)}{m+10000}\ -10</math>

where:
* ''w'' - width of a platform, in tiles
* ''m'' - mass of a platform, in tons
* ''v'' - speed parameter, in km/s, can't be below zero. Actual current speed of a platform is v-10 in first half and v+10 in the second half of a trip.
* <math>F_{thrust}</math> - thrust, in MN.

As formulas above, the drag increases quadratically with velocity, like in real world when moving through low density gas. When drag becomes equal to thrust force, acceleration stops, a platform hits its top speed.
Another important detail is that drag hence top speed depends not on the mass of a platform, but its width. Mass is still a factor of how fast the top speed can be reached though.
The second term of drag is negligible for ordinary platforms and exist to punish extra massive platforms by effectively cutting a piece of thrust force. For a platform of 1000 tons 10% of thrust force is lost.

That formulas combined give
<math>v_{max}=10\sqrt{\frac{\frac{480000F_{thrust}}{m+10000}-480}{w}+9}-30</math>

plus/minus 10 for actual maximum speed.

The amount of thrust force in MN created by a single thruster is described well in in-game wiki. Multiple sources of thrust stack additively.

== Trivia ==
* The color of the thruster trail changes depending on the amount of fuel and oxidizer in the thruster, becoming blue when fuel is low or red when oxidizer is low.
* The thruster exhaust trail is 82 tiles long. Structures cannot be placed in the exhaust trail. This means that the total dimensions where the thruster blocks placement of other structures is 4×90 tiles. However, structures can be placed directly behind the end of the trail.

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths=400px heights=200px>
File:Thruster Flame Color.png|Thruster trail turns red when fuel amount is higher than oxidizer (left) and blue when oxidizer is higher (right)
File:Thrusters in Map View.png|Thruster trails are visible on the zoomed-out map view
</gallery>

== History ==
{{History|2.1.7|
* Tooltip Thrust display values multiplied by 60 [https://forums.factorio.com/120393]
}}

{{SpaceNav}}

Infobox:Thruster

2026-07-20T13:51:36Z

Eugenekay: Updated Thrust values to match 2.1 Data: https://forums.factorio.com/120393

{{Infobox
|mining-time = 0.1
|map-color = 006090
|health = {{Quality|300|390|480|570|750}}
|fluid-consumption = {{Quality|6-120|7.8-156|9.6-192|11.4-228|15-300}} {{Translation|units/s each of thruster fuel and oxidizer}}
|power-output = {{Quality|0.599-6.1|0.779-7.9|0.959-9.7|1.1-11.6|1.4-15.3}} {{Translation|GN thrust}}
|internal-name = thruster
|category = Space
|space-age = yes
|image = thruster_entity_anim.gif
|stack-size = 10
|rocket-capacity = 5
|dimensions = 4×8
|recipe = Time, 10 + Electric engine unit, 5 + Processing unit, 10 + Steel plate, 10
|producers = Assembling machine + Player
|required-technologies = Space platform thruster
|prototype-type = thruster
}}<noinclude>[[Category:Infobox page]]</noinclude>

Radar

2026-07-18T15:23:45Z

Eugenekay: Typofix

{{Languages}}
{{:Infobox:Radar}}
The '''radar''' reveals the map for the force it belongs to. They continuously reveal a small area around them, and slowly scan a much larger area. They also transmit signals to other radars on the same surface.

A radar can be continuously powered by eight [[solar panel]]s and six [[accumulator]]s. Seven solar panels and five accumulators is the most efficient; it gives the radar full power for all but a short time in the morning, and never dips below the 20% power threshold for nearby scanning.

Despite being categorized as a military building, radars will not be attacked by [[enemies]] unless they block their path to another target, which means that radars can be safely placed in biter-infested areas without needing to be defended. The radar will show enemy lifeforms and structures, as well as [[Railway#Trains|trains]], [[Car|cars]], and other [[player]]s in the scanned area.

== Continuous coverage ==

The radar continuously reveals an area of 7×7 [[Map_structure#Chunk|chunks]] (224×224 [[Map_structure#Tile|tiles]]), centered on the chunk the radar occupies. This range can be seen on the minimap when placing the radar. This nearby area is updated as a single pulse, approximately every second if the radar is fully powered. At reduced power levels, this pulse will happen less frequently, which can lead to 'blinking' on the player's map similar to the long range scan. This is particularly noticeable at dawn and dusk on solar powered radar stations without accumulators.

A radar can keep an area constantly revealed if supplied with as little as 25 kW, though the area will appear periodically dimming when zoomed out on the map. A single [[solar panel]] can supply two radars, and one isolating [[accumulator]] can supply around 10.

[[Player]]s, [[roboport]]s, and [[spidertron]]s similarly chart an area of 5x5 chunks (160x160 tiles) around them, so radars are not necessary in the areas with roboport coverage.

=== Vehicles and remote control ===

[[Car]]s and [[tank]]s remain visible in the fog of war as white triangles with red border. Their position will be up-to-date.

Tanks in visible chunks can be remotely entered and controlled. They cannot be entered when out of radar range, but can still be controlled if driven into that area, though lack of detail may make navigation difficult. If a tank is exited while outside radar range, it will become impossible to remotely enter until coverage is provided.

[[Train]]s are always visible and can be entered and remotely controlled even when outside of radar range.

Since [[spidertron]]s provide their own radar coverage, they can always be entered.

== Exploration coverage ==

Radars also periodically scan chunks in a much bigger range of 29x29. The radar charts one distant chunk every time the sector scanning progress bar fills. This takes 33.333 seconds if the radar is receiving full power. The bar can be seen in the mouse-over panel. Once a chunk is scanned, it is revealed for '''10 seconds'''. The last known state of the chunk will be visible on the player's map as a dim image that cannot be zoomed into. This allows the radars to slowly reveal the terrain, resources, and [[enemies]] in a large area.

The radars will scan the unexplored (black) chunks first. They will prioritize the top-left chunk, then follow clockwise. If all chunks are revealed, they will re-scan the longest-ago revealed chunk. The actual chunk is picked when the scan is complete, so multiple radars can work in tandem to scan the area faster. Since the radar draws 300 kW of power and a scan takes 33.333 seconds, it takes 300 kW * 33.333 seconds = 10 MJ of energy to scan one chunk. Supplying less power will slow exploration down accordingly. With a total number of 792 chunks (29×29 − 7×7), it takes one radar '''7 hours 20 minutes''' to complete one full scan cycle without interference.

Keep in mind that only the last known state of the chunk is shown on the map. For example, if expansions are enabled, it is possible for the enemies to create a new nest in a previously scanned chunk; it won't be visible until the chunk is revealed again (by a radar re-scan or otherwise). This is true regardless of how the chunk was revealed, but is most noticeable with radars.

Firing [[artillery]] also reveals chunks along the projectile's path, which can be used as a faster but costlier method of charting.

[[File:radar_revealing_sectors.gif|thumb|220px|none|Animation of chunks in the upper-right area being revealed by radars.]]

== Circuit network ==

Every radar has a [[circuit network]] connection to every other radar on that surface. Any circuit signal sent into a radar is output from every other radar on the surface. When the radar loses power, it loses its circuit connection. The output signal can only be seen in connected objects like electric poles, because the radar does not have a GUI.

== Quality ==

[[Quality]]{{SA}} radars both reveal a bigger area continuously and can explore a bigger area.

{| class="wikitable"
! !! Common !! Uncommon !! Rare !! Epic !! Legendary
|-
| Continuous range || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 8
|-
| Continuous chunk area || 7x7 || 9x9 || 11x11 || 13x13 || 17x17
|-
| Exploration range || 14 || 15 || 16 || 17 || 19
|-
| Exploration chunk area || 29x29 || 31x31 || 33x33 || 35x35 || 39x39
|-
| Total exploration chunks || 792 || 880 || 968 || 1056 || 1232
|-
| Full scan time || 7 hours 20 minutes || ~8 hours 9 minutes || ~9 hours || ~9 hours 46 minutes || ~11 hours 24 minutes
|}

== Gallery ==

[[File:Radar_coverage.png|thumb|500px|none|The coverage area of a radar and the player.]]

== History ==
{{history|2.0.7|
* All radars on a surface are now connected to a single circuit network.
* Enemies no longer actively target radars.}}

{{history|0.17.0|
* When holding radar in cursor, area covered by existing radars is also highlighted on minimap.}}

{{history|0.15.0|
* Radar now allows remote view via map.}}

{{history|0.12.17|
* Updated icons.}}

{{history|0.11.11|
* Radar ignores chunks outside the map radius.}}

{{history|0.10.0|
* New graphics.}}

{{history|0.9.0|
* Halved radar electricity consumption.}}

{{history|0.7.3|
* Radar continues refreshing chunks after all chunks in range have been discovered.}}

{{history|0.5.1|
* New Graphics}}

{{history|0.1.0|
* Introduced}}

== See also ==
* [[Enemies]]
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3362 Long-term radar behavior]

{{CombatNav}}
{{C|Defense}}

File:Quickbar-400slots.png

2026-06-30T16:58:33Z

Eugenekay:

Screenshot of the Factorio Quickbar

Settings

2026-06-30T15:54:18Z

Eugenekay: Add quick-bar-width

{{Languages}}
{{Stub}}

Factorio has a number of '''settings''' in different places, this page covers the ones accessible through the Main menu and Game (pause) menu. These settings are also saved to and can be changed from the "config.ini" file in the Factorio [[user data directory]]. The [[#See also]] section covers other places that allow configuring the game.

== Controls ==
{{Main|Controls}}

== Mod settings ==
{{Main|Tutorial:Mod settings}}
Settings added by mods are placed here. There are 3 sections: Startup, Map and Per player. Each section contains a list of settings, grouped per mod that added them.

Startup settings require the game to be restarted. This means closing and opening the game, not resetting progress in a save file. Map settings can be changed while the game is running. Per player settings can be changed while the game is running and allow each player to have different values in the settings.

== Hidden settings ==

Factorio supports a number of hidden configuration options that are not normally shown in the GUI. They can be accessed by holding CTRL + ALT when clicking the "Settings" button in the pause menu, which will cause a new button labeled "The rest" to appear.

These settings may be experimental and may not be validated for safety, so change them at your own risk.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Notable hidden settings
|-
! Name !! Default !! Description
|-
| autosave-slots || 3 || How many autosaves to keep on a rolling basis
|-
| non-blocking-saving || false || Only works on Mac and Linux. When set to true, saves do not cause the game to pause. [https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=57464]
|-
| technology-gui-pauses-game || true || By setting to false, the game will no longer pause in single player when opening the technology tree.
|-
| cache-prototype-data || false || When enabled, significantly speeds up the "Building prototypes..." step when starting the game at the cost of increased storage space, if prototypes haven't changed since last startup. The cache needs to be built first, so the loading time will increase when rebuilding it, such as when the setting is enabled for the first time.
|-
| cache-sprite-atlas || false || When enabled, significantly speeds up the "Loading sprites..." step when starting the game at the cost of increased storage space, if sprites haven't changed since last startup. The cache needs to be built first, so the loading time will increase when rebuilding it, such as when the setting is enabled for the first time.
|-
| main-menu-simulation-selector || false || Shows a dropdown on the main menu allowing to select a simulation to play in the background. Can be useful for modders when creating custom simulations.
|-
| quick-bar-width || 10 || Adjust the number of horizontal slots in each row of the [[quickbar]]. Valid range of 10 - 100 [https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?p=695757#p695757]
|}

== See also ==

* [[Debug mode|Debug options]]
* [[Command line parameters]]
* [[Map generator]]