There are dozens of different resources inSatisfactory, all waiting for you to start digging them up. By exploiting the natural beauty of the alien planet, you can instead convert it into a utopia of efficiency, with machines, conveyor belts, trains, and much more covering the surface of the planet.
One type of important resource you’ll unlock early on is fluids. These differ greatly from normal solid objects you’ve dealt with thus far, and efficiently producing and handling fluids can be a bit confusing at first. Below, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about fluids in general in Satisfactory.
The Basics Of Fluids
Fluids represent a category of resources in Satisfactory that function differently from solid objects. One of the biggest differences between fluids and solids is their method of transportation. While solid objects use conveyor belts, fluids must be transported through pipes, which have a different set of rules that we will take a look at below.
You can’t put fluids into your inventory unless you package them first.
Because of gravity, fluids can’t travel very far vertically on their own. The Water Extractor, for example, has a head lift of 10 meters, which means that it can pump water up to 10 meters in the air before it can’t travel anymore. If you need water to go higher than that, you’ll need to use aPipeline Pump.
Nitrogen Gas does not need head lift to flow upward, because it is a gas.
When powered, the Pipeline Pump can provide anadditional 20 meters of head lift, allowing the fluid in the pipe to travel up to 20 more meters vertically. Pipeline Pumps can be combined to lift fluid higher than that, but the second Pump should beplaced near the end of the 20-meter head lift of the first Pumpto maximize the vertical distance traveled.
Pipeline Pumps do not affect flow rate, so theycan’t be used to increase the speed of a fluidtraveling through the pipe.
Flow Rate
The flow rate of a fluid isdetermined by how much fluid is currently in the pipe. As a pipe is filled, the pressure inside will increase, and thus the fluid’s flow rate will increase as it is pushed into the next segment of the pipe. Flow rate will increase or decrease as machines along the pipeline use the fluid, or as it travels further down the line.
Fluid will always try tolevel out at its original starting point. This means that fluid flowing through a U-shaped pipe from the top left will make it to the top right without the need for a Pipeline Pump.
This same concept applies when using aPipeline Junctionto split the flow of a fluid. A Pipeline Junction is essentially both a conveyor belt splitter and merger, but for fluids. Fluids that pass through the Pipeline Junction will besplit evenly among all connected sides, equalizing where possible.
Because of this, you don’t have to worry about balancing how much fluid is traveling through each pipe, as it willalways try to spread across all pipes equally. This means that you really only need to focus on providing the right amount of fluid for the machines you’re using.
Say you have eight Coal-Powered Generators that each require 45 cubic meters of water per minute to function. In total, you would need to provide 360 cubic meters of water per minute to provide enough for every generator. Since Water Extractors produce 120 cubic meters of water per minute, you need exactly three to provide enough.
However, since the flow rate of a Mk.1 Pipe is only 300, youcan’t have all this water going into the same pipe, or else you’ll be losing some. To remedy this, you’ll need to place one Water Extractor at the other end of the pipe. This makes it so that all 360 cubic meters of water are within the pipes, but it is not all flowing in the same place (the “entrance” to the pipeline).
Valves allow you tolimit the flow rate of a pipeline. Using our earlier example, this can be useful if you have Mk.2 Pipes instead, which have a flow rate of 600 cubic meters, but you only need 360 from it. you’re able to use a Valve at the start of the pipeline to limit how much water can flow into the next segment, allowing you to use the remaining water elsewhere.
Ultimately, youdon’t really need to focus on optimizing a pipe’s flow rate. As long as there is enough fluid within the pipeline to provide enough for each connected machine, the rate at which it flows is inconsequential.
