Tutorials

This page lists tutorials that can be found here on the wiki. They range from guides for the very first steps in the game to in-depth modding tutorials.

The first steps and the first base

These tutorials aim to guide the player through the first steps of the game and provide an idea of how a base could look like.

• Quick start guide - Guides through the first steps of the game, from mining the first piece of ore to automating the first science pack.
• Main bus - A type of base organization that is well suited for beginners.
• Keyboard shortcuts - A collection of useful keyboard shortcuts.

Power production

These tutorials take an in-depth look at individual topics related to power production.

• Applied power math
• Nuclear power
• Producing power from oil

Circuit network

These tutorials take a closer look at the circuit network and present usage examples.

• Circuit network cookbook - Example-heavy tutorial; for beginners who want to get to know and use the benefits of the circuit network.
• Combinator tutorial - Mainly textual and detailed tutorial for advanced circuit network uses.

Miscellaneous

• Train signals
• A comparison of the different means of transport
• Diagnosing performance issues

Modding tutorials

These tutorials range from teaching the first steps of modding to in-depth explanations of individual mechanics:

• Modding tutorial/Gangsir — A simple modding tutorial that suits beginners well.
• Mod structure — More details on how mods need to be structured in order to be loaded by the game.
• Scripting — A small tutorial that focuses on run-time scripting and provides some info on how to use the story script.
• Mod settings — A comprehensive tutorial about how to create and use mod settings.
• Localisation — A tutorial about how to format and use localisation, which is how mods are translated.
• Inspecting a live mod — An annotated tour of a mod that is live on the mod portal right now.
• Mod changelog format — The formatting requirements for the mod changelog.txt file.
• Script interfaces — A small tutorial about script interfaces (LuaRemote) and custom keyboard shortcuts.
• Noise Expressions — A tutorial about generating terrain, complete with example mod.
• Untitled GUI Guide — A tutorial about building custom interfaces that also expands into more advanced parts of GUI modding.
• Controller modding guide / FAQ — A guide about building your mod to support controllers (game pads).

Additional info

• Modding API docs - Overview page of the modding API documentation website
  • Prototype documentation
  • Documentation of the runtime API
• Scenario system — Save-based mods ("soft mods") and their limitations
• Migrations guide — All information about mod migrations
• Factorio data github repository — Tracks changes of the lua prototype definitions in Factorio in between releases
• Modding FAQ

Third-Party Tools

There is a wide variety of tools contributed by community members to help in mod development, such as plugins for IDEs to provide auto-completion, debuggers, as well as scripts to automate common tasks regarding translations or packaging.

• Factorio sub-forum for mod development tools