Getting started
Speed bonuses add up
Craft time = base time ÷ (building speed × (1 + skills + gem + lubricant)). Most machines have a base speed of 0.8, so an unboosted assembler takes 25 % longer than the recipe time.
“×3” lubricant means +300 %
It is added in full to the other bonuses: a refinery with no other bonus becomes 4 times faster, not 3. One lubricant at a time, and it only wears while the machine is producing.
One gem per group is enough
The overclock building has 4 slots: furnaces, electric furnaces, refineries, assemblers (mega furnaces follow their group). The gem boosts every building of the group on every island. Stacking several gems in one slot does nothing.
Advanced machines save inputs
Advanced versions (assembler, refinery, furnaces) output 1.5 to 2 times more items per ingredient. Example: the advanced assembler makes 2 electronic parts from 1 plasteel + 1 gold nugget, versus 1 for the basic assembler.
Energy is all or nothing
A machine short of energy does not slow down: it stops (its progress is kept). Boosts do not change consumption: the faster a machine runs, the less energy each item costs.
Do not oversize fuel generators
They burn fuel continuously, even when half used. The Extra Fuel / Extra Nuclear / Extra Smoke skills make each fuel item last 25 % longer.
Barns: always 3 creatures
A barn runs at ×1, ×1.5 then ×2 with 1, 2 and 3 creatures. Gems do not apply to barns.
Fertilizer: up to ×16
Poop ×3, super fertilizer ×4, ultra fertilizer ×16 on growth speed. Fertilizer wears in real time, only while the plant is watered.
The Agriculture skill doubles seeds
Seed extractors output twice as much. The “chance” shown on some bonuses is never actually used by the game.
Driller: plan the output
A driller outputs about 500 items/min but only stores 400: without something taking items out (one magnetoid is enough), it stops in under a minute.