Satisfactory can feel overwhelming at first, but the beginning is straightforward and well structured. Even with the tutorial, you might sometimes wonder what to do next. To truly get going, you’ll complete your first milestone and unlock the key components for your future factory. The game gradually introduces new concepts so you can expand and improve your production. In this beginner’s walkthrough, we’ll take you through Tier 0 and share essential tips for your first automations.
Choose your Satisfactory spawn: best starting biomes and resources
Before you start, pick your spawn point on the map. It’s a huge world, so you won’t miss out on anything! For first-time players, we recommend either the Grass Fields or the Rocky Desert. Both are great for your early steps and offer plenty of space to experiment and build your first factories. Choose the one that looks best to you. Look for nearby iron and copper nodes—ideally normal or pure deposits for strong early production.
First steps after landing: explore and gather materials
Once the intro ends, get familiar with your surroundings. Look around and walk a bit to find a good spot for your first small base. Along the way, pick up leaves and wood by pressing and holding E. You’ll need them to power your first machines. Tip: Later, convert leaves/wood into biomass at the Craft Bench—it burns more efficiently and lasts longer.
HUB Upgrade 0–1: find iron ore, mine it, and start your first production
Satisfactory is about harnessing planetary resources to keep your employer, FICSIT, happy. Start by finding and manually mining your first ores. Use the Resource Scanner (V) to locate iron ore nearby—you’ll see pings and icons on your compass.
Ore nodes are often marked by a ring of rocks with a boulder in the middle. Remove that boulder with E, then gather around 20 iron ore from various nodes to progress. Prefer pure nodes when possible—they’ll provide the highest throughput later.
Build and upgrade The HUB: craft bench, recipes, and inventory tips
With those 20 iron ore, build your most important early structure: The HUB. Open the Build Menu with Q and place it wherever you like. You’ll now have access to the HUB Terminal, which shows your next milestone steps, and the Craft Bench, which provides early recipes and enables the next upgrades.
For the first HUB Upgrade, collect more iron ore and craft it at the Craft Bench into Iron Ingots, then into Iron Rods. Once you’ve made 10, you can complete the first milestone.
Note: If you run out of inventory space, use the storage box in The HUB to free up room. Later, you can build additional storage options.
HUB Upgrades 1–3: automatic mining with Portable Miners and copper
With the first upgrade, you’ll unlock key components you can immediately use for your next tasks. The game always shows what you need next.
- Equipment Workshop: Build this first to unlock more equipment recipes. It’s primarily for gear, while the Craft Bench in The HUB handles resources.
- Portable Miner: Craft these at the Equipment Workshop to take your first steps into automation. Place 2–3 Portable Miners on your iron nodes to farm faster.
For HUB Upgrade 2, you’ll need more iron, which the miners will gather automatically. Convert it into 20× Iron Rods and 10× Iron Plates. After that, you’ll unlock copper—scan for it with V and produce Wire and Cable.
First automation: power, Smelter, and proper wiring
HUB 2 also unlocks power—the most important component for automation. You’ll need it to complete further upgrades.
- Biomass Burner: Build your first burner and fuel it with the leaves or wood you collected (even better: with biomass) to generate power.
- Power Lines: Use Cable to build lines that connect the burner to your machines.
- Smelter: This is your next critical machine, unlocking more recipes. Connect it to power and automate Iron Ingot and Copper Ingot production.
HUB Upgrade 3 showcases this automation and is fairly easy to complete. You’ll need 20× Iron Plates, 20× Iron Rods, and 20× Cable. Completing it unlocks the next phase.
HUB Upgrades 4–6: find limestone, produce concrete, and use conveyor belts
At Tier 4, you can locate another resource: limestone. Scan for it with V and integrate its extraction and production into your setup. Use limestone to craft concrete, which you’ll need to complete HUB Upgrade 4. You’ll first need some new machines.
- Constructor: Unlocks additional resource transformations, letting you craft limestone into concrete and ingots into plates/rods/wire. Place it in line after a Smelter.
- Power Pole Mk.1: Use poles to connect multiple machines to a single burner. A Power Pole Mk.1 supports up to 4 connections.
Completing HUB Upgrade 4 gives you additional automation tools. While the resource requirements remain similar, the process becomes much simpler and faster.
- Conveyor belts: When you think Satisfactory, you think long rows of belts—now you finally unlock them and can link your machines. Use belts between a Smelter and a Constructor to automate your desired materials.
HUB Upgrade 5 should be straightforward and is the penultimate step of the basic tutorial. This is where the game truly opens up. You’ll also get another Biomass Burner to generate more power.
- Miner Mk.1: Improves and automates ore extraction. Now connects to your other machines via conveyor belts. Crafting it requires a Portable Miner as an ingredient.
- Storage Container: Serves as temporary storage for finished products.
For HUB Upgrade 6, we recommend pre-producing these materials in Storage Containers: Iron Rods, Iron Plates, Cable, and Concrete. You’ll need 100 of each, and only 50 of Concrete.
Conclusion: finish Tier 0 and kick off Satisfactory
Congratulations! You’ve officially cleared your first hurdles in Satisfactory and can dive into the main game. Tier 0 gives you all the tools you need to work with the fundamentals. There’s no time pressure—optimize your lines, expand power grids, and set up clean production chains at your own pace.
For even more fun: play co-op! You can rent a Satisfactory server to play with friends: Rent a Satisfactory game server.
