Rocket silo

Rocket silo

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Recipe
30 + 1k + 200 + 100 + 200 + 1k → 1
Total raw
80 + 1k + 200 + 100 + 200 + 1k
Map color
Health	5000 6500 8000 9500 12500
Resistances	Fire: 0/60% Impact: 0/60%
Stack size	1
Rocket capacity	Too heavy for a rocket!
Dimensions	9×9
Energy consumption	4.0 MW (electric)
Crafting speed	1 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.5
Mining time	1
Module slots	4 slots
Prototype type	rocket-silo
Internal name	rocket-silo
Required technologies
Produced by

Recipe
30 + 1k + 200 + 100 + 200 + 1k → 1
Total raw
80 + 1k + 200 + 100 + 200 + 1k
Map color
Storage size	20
Health	5000 6500 8000 9500 12500
Resistances	Fire: 0/60% Impact: 0/60%
Stack size	1
Rocket capacity	Too heavy for a rocket!
Dimensions	9×9
Energy consumption	4.0 MW (electric)
Crafting speed	1 1.3 1.6 1.9 2.5
Mining time	1
Module slots	4 slots
Prototype type	rocket-silo
Internal name	rocket-silo
Required technologies
Produced by

The rocket silo is an important production building that serves as the sole win condition and a source of space science packs in the base game. In Space Age, it is instead the only way to launch items and the player off Nauvis to orbiting space platforms to visit the neighboring planets of Vulcanus, Fulgora, Gleba, and Aquilo.

Building a silo requires, among other things, electric engine units, processing units, and concrete, which all must be produced in assembly machines or foundries and cannot be crafted by hand from raw materials. The rocket itself can only be produced in the silo.

Once the silo has been built and placed it can be filled with processing units, low density structure, and rocket fuel, which will create rocket parts within the silo. 100 rocket parts are needed to construct a rocket. The silo accepts productivity modules, and due to the high resource cost of rockets, silos are a prime candidate for their use. Once constructed, the rocket will rise into position and be capable of launch. It is required to place a cargo landing pad somewhere on the planet in order to launch a rocket.

Once a rocket has been constructed, the silo will continue to craft a second rocket within the silo. If both are constructed, once the first rocket has been launched, the second will rise into place without the silo going through its normal animation of closing and reopening its doors. This is particuarly useful in Space Age when crafting speeds are faster and rockets are in increased demand.

Rocket parts had their recipe changed in version 2.0. Maps migrated from a previous version to 2.0 will need their production lines adjusted for silos to receive processing units instead of the now-removed rocket control units.

Base game

The rocket silo is unlocked with its respective technology using all science packs except for military. It requires 10 low density structure, rocket fuel, and processing chips to make 1 rocket part, for a total of 1,000 of each for a single rocket. Due to this high cost, it is highly recommended to use the highest-tier of productivity modules the player has available. Using four productivity module 3s will reduce this cost to 700 of each material.

In order to launch the rocket, the player must both insert a payload and place a cargo landing pad somewhere on the planet. The landing pad can be anywhere on the planet, with no restrictions on distance from the silo, but only one can be placed, so it is recommended to place it in close proximity to the labs.

Launching a rocket with a payload for the first time will win the game and trigger the victory screen, which thanks the player for playing and invites them to keep growing their factory, with the options of exiting the game, viewing the credits, or continuing the game. The first rocket must be launched manually by clicking the “launch” button. After that, the “launch automatically” button will appear. Selecting this will make the rocket launch automatically once it has a payload.

Only two items can be used as a payload. The first is a satellite; launching a rocket with one of these will return a shipment of 1,000 space science packs to the cargo landing pad roughly 29 seconds after the launch is triggered. The second is a...

Spoiler! Click to view.

Raw fish: Grants the "So long and thanks for all the fish!" achievement. Other than this, it also wastes the launch.

Space Age

Space Age expansion exclusive feature.

Basics

In Space Age, the silo is unlocked far earlier in the game, requiring 1,000 of only automation, logistics and chemical science packs. The silo is a critical building for transporting items and the player offplanet to orbiting space platforms. Rockets are built identically to the base game, except that a single rocket part takes only 1 of each material instead of 10 and only 50 rocket parts are required per rocket. This means that a single rocket requires only 50 of each resource. The silo greatly benefits from higher quality productivity modules as well as the rocket part productivity infinite technology, both of which can reduce the cost of rockets even further.

The rocket can be manually launched in one of three ways:

• Deliver cargo: launch with a payload of any size or composition at any orbiting platform
• New platform: if the silo contains exactly one space platform starter pack, clicking this will open the map and invite the player to enter a name for the new platform.
• Travel to platform: the rocket will launch to any orbiting platform with the player as its sole payload. The player can bring any equipped armor, their installed modules, and any weapons, but no ammo for those weapons.

Rocket capacity

Unlike in the base game, a space age rocket can accept nearly every item in the game as a payload. This is expressed by the silo as a weight limit. Every item in the game is given a “rocket capacity” which is the maximum number of items that can fit in a single rocket. An item’s rocket capacity can be read by the circuit network by feeding an item into the selector combinator and choosing the respective mode of operation. As a general rule of thumb, the more complex the item, the fewer can fit within a rocket.

Some items, like the rocket silo itself and the atomic bomb, are too heavy for rockets, and so the raw materials must be shipped to orbit individually and assembled on the destination planet.

Orbital requests

The rocket silo can detect requests from any space platform in orbit around the current planet. These can be satisfied in two ways.

• If "Atomatic requests from space platforms” is NOT selected, the silo acts as a large container. Items can be placed and removed with inserters. If the silo receives a full rocket of a single item that is requested, the rocket will automatically launch to the platform requesting that item, even if the payload is more than what is being requested, and If multiple platforms are requesting the same item, the rocket will prioritize the earliest platform that the player created. This method of transportation is best for items with payload sizes which are created and loaded slowly over time, such as science packs.

• If automatic requests IS selected, the silo acts similar to a requester chest. Logistic robots will fill the silo automatically from the logistic network, and the rocket will launch automatically when full, unless the requesting platform has set a minimum payload to a lower amount than a full load. If there are items in the rocket inventory when this box is selected, those items will be moved to the silo’s trash slots and be removed with logistics robots.

Regardless of option selected, the rocket will only launch automatically when it contains one item.

The silo is able to be connected to the circuit network, with two output functions.

• Output requests: Outputs the sum of requests from all orbiting platforms, if any. A request is considered “satisfied” and will be removed from the output the instant the rocket launch is triggered, not when the delivery to the platform actually happens.
• Output contents. Outputs the contents of the rocket silo. If automatic requests is selected, this option will do nothing.

Maximum throughput

In the base game, a fully moduled silo has +611% crafting speed from beacons and +40% productivity.

Modules accelerate crafting time in the first phase, but have no effect on animations in the other phases.

There are five phases to a rocket launch.

Working

Rocket parts must be assembled in the silo before the rocket can be deployed.

The best possible time to assemble 100 rocket parts, based on the rocket part recipe and the module effects, is 1250 ticks, or ~20.833 seconds.

1250 ticks elapsed.

Preparing rocket for launch

The rocket is brought up out of the silo so a payload can be inserted, if any.

This animation lasts 890 ticks, or ~14.833 seconds.

2140 ticks elapsed.

Waiting to launch rocket

The payload must be inserted.

One fast inserter arm swing to insert a Satellite is 14 ticks, or ~0.233 seconds.

2154 ticks elapsed.

Launching rocket

The rocket is launched with the payload. This phase ends when the result inventory appears inside the silo.

1162 ticks, or ~19.367 seconds.

3316 ticks elapsed.

Reset

The silo door must close before the cycle begins again.

368 ticks, or ~6.133 seconds.

If a second rocket was buffered within the silo, this step is skipped.

Conclusions

Grand Total: 3684 ticks, which gives a total cycle time of ~61.417 seconds, including time spent building rocket parts and inserting the payload.

With a build time of 1250 + 14, the delay from animations is 2420 ticks.[1]

Achievements

The rocket silo, which is used to win the game, is directly connected to the following game-win-based achievements:

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast Launch a rocket to space.

No time for chitchat Launch a rocket to space within 15 hours.

There is no spoon Launch a rocket to space within 8 hours.

Raining bullets Launch a rocket to space without building any laser turrets.

Steam all the way Launch a rocket to space without building any solar panels.

Logistic network embargo Finish research with space science pack for the base game or any planetary science pack for Space Age without building any active provider, buffer, or requester chests.

So long and thanks for all the fish

Trivia

Prior to version 2.0, the rocket could accept any item as cargo; however, most did nothing in particular and simply wasted the launch. Notable exceptions included:

Spoiler! Click to view.

• Vehicles : When a vehicle was inserted into the payload slot, the player could enter the rocket like they would any other vehicle, then launch and ride it.
  • This allowed a fast-moving view of one's base (as the game world is internally 2-dimensional, the rocket actually simply moved north along the map), and then returned the player next to the launching silo once the launch animation had finished.
    • If all space near the rocket silo is occupied, the player is placed at spawn instead.
    • Wasted the launch, as the rocket's sole payload slot is occupied by the vehicle, rather than a satellite. (Having any number of satellites in the car's trunk or the "astronaut"s inventory does not count.)
  • Space science pack: Returned one raw fish for every science pack that was launched, but no more than 100 raw fishes per launch.

Gallery

• 

  The victory screen in 2.0

• 

  The rocket rising and being primed for launch.

• 

  The rocket launching.

• 

  The rocket silo's GUI in 2.0

• 

  The rocket silo's GUI in Space Age

• 

  Circuit connections for rocket silo.

• 

  Circuit connections for rocket silo.

• 

  The rocket rising and being primed for launch pre 2.0.7.

• 

  The rocket launching pre 2.0.7.

History

• 2.0.7:
  • Updated sprite for the rocket. A payload is now required to win the game.
  • Rocket silos continue producing parts for the next rocket while the current rocket is being launched. Completing another rocket soon enough skips closing and reopening the doors.
  • Rocket silo circuit connection can read orbital requests

• 0.17.0:
  • Updated sprite and changed dimensions from 9×10 to 9×9. A satellite is no longer required to win the game.

• 0.13.9:
  • Rocket parts from building rockets in the silo now show in production statistics.

• 0.12.7:
  • Updated icon.

• 0.12.4:
  • Rocket silo now behaves correctly when out of electricity.

• 0.12.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Satellite