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Progress through the various tiers inSatisfactoryis fairly straightforward. Collect new resources, build machines, rinse and repeat. But once you get to the middle to late game tiers you’ll find that you’ll have to start taking a few extra steps to make certain materials. Aluminum falls into this category.
You can’t find it out in the wild, it requires quite a bit of extra work to obtain, and you need it for a lot of late-game machinery. So if you’re standing in your factory scratching your head, then don’t worry. Here’s a helpful guide on how to farm Aluminum in Satisfactory.
How To Farm Aluminum
First up, Aluminum production isn’t something you’ll need to worry about untilTier Seven. But once you unlock it, you’re going to need quitea lot of extra itemsin order to make the machinery you need.
Making Aluminum requires alengthy production process, so it’s recommended that you either clear out a section of your current setup orstart expanding out furtherfrom your base of operations. Things are going to get complicated and the last thing you want to be doing is fighting with Conveyor Belts and Piping in a cramped spot.
The Resources Required For Aluminum Farming
The upside of Aluminum Production is that itsbase resources are surprisingly minimal. The first and most important thing you should put on your radar is the location of the closestBauxite Node. It’s theorange-to-red-looking rocksthat are often confused with the plentiful copper deposits aroundthe massive mapfrom a distance.
Next, you’ll needa supply of water and coal. The coal you can siphon off from anyCoal Power plants. But the water is crucial as itmixes with the Bauxiteto start the whole process of further refinement into Aluminum. This can be pumped in from anynearby water source or storage tanksif you have them.
Prepare the necessary materials tobuild a Refinery and Foundryahead of time. These are the two primary machines you’ll be using to farm Aluminum in Satisfactory.
The Coal is used to mix with other items and power machines. So it’s good to have a nice healthy supply. Ideally, if you can, havetwo nodes with high-tier beltsbringing in the Bauxite and Coal as it can keep the supply feed up if you decide to startinserting Overclockersinto your machines.
How To Make Aluminum
Now that you’ve got yourraw materials and the space to build, it’s time to start the process of setting up your Aluminum farm.
There arethree stages of productionthe materials have to cover, so we’ll take you through it step-by-step. This will ensure you have a solid grasp of where all yourConveyors and Pipesneed to go before you connect anything to your power grid.
Step One: Breaking Down Bauxite
For your first step, you’ll want tobuild one or at least two Refineries. These will bemaking Alumina Solution, which is the first step of the Aluminum production process. You can stack them side by side for efficiency or lay it out separately.
For the inputs, you’ll besending in Bauxite and Water. The outputs will beLiquid Alumina Solution and Silica. So it’s a Pipe and Conveyor going out as well.
The Alumina you’llneed for the next stepas it will be rendered into something useful. The Silica you canshove it into storagefor the moment, or loop it around to the Foundry in the third step.
Step Two: Refining The Alumina Solution
For step two we’ll be using anotherrefinery to create Aluminum Scrap. On the inputs for the Refinery, you’ll be pumping in yourAlumina Solutionfrom the previous step and Coal. This will be broken down in the machine intotwo byproductsonce more.
In this step, it’sAluminum Scrap and Water. So we’ll be using a Conveyor and Pipe to pump those out. The water can berecycled back into your factoryfor something else, shifted to storage or cycled back around to make more Alumina Solution.
But we’ll behanging onto the Aluminum Scrapas that’s going to be smelted down for the final step.
Step Three: Smelting The Scrap
The last step to get your hands on all that tasty Aluminum involvesbuilding a Foundryand using the Silica from the first step. Here you justwire in a Conveyor with the Aluminum Scrapand another with Silica directly to the foundry.
After a few high-temperature smacks inside the Foundry, you’ll have Aluminum Ingots pouring out the other side. The tick rate isa batch of four per crafting sequenceand that averages out to around60 per minute with a four-second build time. So it’s very fast to churn out.
From there you can then turn yourAluminum Ingotsinto whatever item you need in an Assembler or shift them off to another part of your factory to be used in another crafting recipe.
There are alsoalternate recipesfor Aluminum production that can befound in hard drivesscattered around the world.
