Nintendo Switch version
The Nintendo Switch version of Factorio was released on October 28, 2022. It is mostly identical to the PC version, the only large difference is the missing mod support.
Save files are compatible between platforms. Cross-platform multiplayer is possible as long as the game versions match. When using Steam on PC, the "console" beta branch can be selected to match game version.
Both the Nintendo Switch version of the game and the PC version support using a controller to play the game.
Controller support
Free Cursor
When using keyboard and mouse to control the game, the cursor is, obviously, controlled by the mouse. When using a controller, like on the Switch, there are two different cursor modes: "free cursor" and "auto cursor". To toggle between them, press the right stick.
With free cursor, there is a mouse-like cursor (either a cross hair or an item selected from the character inventory), controlled by the right stick. It behaves much like a mouse cursor - its position is relative to the physical screen, and pretty much does not ever change, even when the character moves, the player changes views, the view is zoomed in or out, etc. Using the console touch-screen will immediately move the cursor to the touched spot.
With auto cursor, there is NOT a visible cursor on the screen and the system will automatically select some object near the character as the active structure, or the selected item from the character inventory will appear near the character. Auto cursor mode is similar to conventional console games, where operations are centered on the character itself. The right joy stick can be used to change placement of an item or influence which structure is selected, but it isn't possible to reliably select a specific structure without moving right next to it. In an area with lots of structures, the selected structure will be the one in the direction the character is looking - this is where using the right joystick to look around can be helpful.
There are two things players should remember when using free cursor. First, it is often not necessary to move the character to perform actions. The second is the action range limit - all actions on external structures have a distance limit, how far away from the character the cursor can be, when performing the action. Some actions, such as chopping down a tree, have a very short range. If the structure's selection frame is yellow then it is in range, red is out of range. In auto cursor mode, a structure that is out of range will never be selected.
In combat, free cursor can be used to target a specific enemy, or enemies in a specific area, and is especially useful for selecting targets for long ranged weapons (such as the tank gun or a rocket launcher).
Auto cursor will fire at the enemy closest to the character, which may be more useful in some combat situations.
Quick panel
There are some elements from the keyboard and mouse GUI that have been moved into a single popup panel for controller support.
The quick panel is displayed when the L (left bumper) is held down and disappears when it is released.
Limitations
- There is no mod support.[1]
- Nintendo Switch Online is required for online play, but not required for LAN games.[2]
- Games hosted on a dedicated server are not shown in the browse multiplayer game GUIs.
- There is no save transfer feature, but saves can be transferred using multiplayer.[3]
- There is no blueprint transfer feature, but blueprints can be transferred using multiplayer.[4]
- Maps over 100MB or with a very large number of entities (typically downloaded from the PC version) can not be loaded.[5]
Tips
There is a mode which, on keyboards, is toggled by pressing ALT, so naturally it is called "Alt mode". In this mode, the view will show additional information about certain structures including the current recipe for any assembling machine or chemical plant and the contents of any containers.
On controllers, alt mode is toggled using Up.
When using an machine with fluid inputs and/or outputs, the "Alt mode" will show an icon on each input or output to show what product is used as an input or produced as an output on each connection. These may be hard to see on the Switch built-in console display when zoomed out. For most recipes, there is either only one connection, or both connections take the same input. The connection layout of the oil refinery is shown in the image on the right.
While most commands are mapped on controllers by default, some of the less common commands are not mapped by default. The player may want to map the Blueprint commands instead of using the quick panel to access them.
Related Factorio blog posts
- Factorio for Nintendo Switch is now available!
- FFF #370 - The journey to Nintendo Switch
- Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch™
Store page
Changelog
The Nintendo Switch version of the game has its own changelog in addition to the changes from the PC version.
Version: 1.1.94
Minor Features:
- Added a notification when a technology is researched.
- Added /enable-research-queue console command to enable the research queue without disabling achievements.
Changes:
- The research queue is enabled by default for new games.
Bugfixes:
- The on-screen keyboard can now input new lines in multi-line text boxes.
- Fixed another rare crash when using very long belts(over 900 tiles).
- Fixed vibrations not working after changing controller configuration while the console is asleep.
- Fixed that selection tool with "cancel-deconstruct", "cancel-upgrade" or "downgrade" mode would not render selection of entities.
- Fixed it was possible to create maps with width or height larger than 2000000.
- Fixed recipe tooltip in assembling machine was doing intermediate crafting logic when showing items missing for crafting.
- Fixed inserter could take items from wrong side of a belt when the belt shape was changed.
- Fixed that heat buffer temperatures would not migrate correctly when changing the prototype maximum temperature.
- Fixed that the research queue would not be enabled by default for the Marathon and Death world marathon presets.
- Fixed fast replacing train stops would not preserve trains limit.
- Fixed that crafting machines did not handle item-with-tags type items correctly.
- Fixed server not showing in LAN server browser if the game is also public and with a different external port because of NAT.
- Fixed controller vibrations playing in keyboard and mouse mode.
- Fixed that pumpjacks would not show the correct status when they were stopped due to full fluid output.
Version: 1.1.91
Minor Features:
- Added vibrations to vehicle collisions.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed that notch slider tooltips would not show in some cases.
- Fixed that any error with an audio stream would crash the game, improved audio stream error handling in general.
- Fixed a hang in audio streams.
- Fixed blueprint setup GUI cutting off at the bottom.
- Fixed cursor sometimes teleporting to nearby entities when selecting entities to be built from the Quick panel, in multiplayer.
- Fixed multiplayer desync with other platforms.
- Fixed a player could not obtain achievements if it was in game for longer than 9942h.
- Fixed that Build control was allowing binding to controller buttons that would not work.
Version: 1.1.87
Features:
- Added keyboard and mouse support. Change input method in Settings->Controls to play using keyboard and mouse.
Minor Features:
- Added stick sensitivity setting.
- Added ability to quickly swap A and B buttons.
Version: 1.1.82
Bugfixes:
- Reduced the number of crashes for players with very large saves running low on memory.
- Improved the latency of selecting entities in multiplayer.
- General bugfixes and improvements
Version: 1.1.80
Bugfixes:
- General bugfixes and improvements
Version: 1.1.76
Minor Features:
- Added vibration intensity setting to the control settings screen.
- Added absolute vehicle control mode as a setting in the control settings screen.
- Added option to enable predictive text for the on-screen keyboard. Enabling this also allows entering Chinese and Korean text and Japanese kanji characters.
Changes:
- When in free cursor mode with a GUI open, Left Stick will also move the cursor.
- When in free cursor mode with Quick panel open, Left Stick will navigate the Quick panel normally.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the cursor in the world map moving twice as fast in free cursor mode.
- Fixed GUI navigation getting stuck on AND/OR buttons in the locomotive GUI.
- Fixed GUI navigation navigating to empty technology slots in research queue.
- Fixed GUI navigation sometimes getting stuck when navigating large technology trees.
Version: 1.1.74
Minor Features:
- Added option in Settings->Other to set an email and password to the account, so it can be used on other platforms or consoles.
- Added Danish localization
Bugfixes:
- Fixed crash when creating extremely long belts.
- Fixed crash when a textbox disappears while the on screen keyboard is still open.
- Fixed crash when exiting the game while a new map is being created.
- Fixed crash sometimes when transferring all items from character corpse.
- Fixed another crash when trying to save with a long save file name
Version: 1.1.72
Bugfixes:
- Fixed crash when exiting the level while Quick Panel is open.
- Fixed crash when dying while Quick Panel is open.
- Fixed crash when trying to save with a long save file name
- Fixed that you could not map controller sticks in the control settings gui.
- Fixed memory leak related to OpenGL textures, affecting mostly main menu background simulations.