Best Factory Layouts: optimal setups for every tier

Why layout matters

Converters only run when they can pull inputs from machines they're connected to. A steel press placed next to its supplier runs continuously; the same press stranded across the floor sits idle and earns nothing. Because every machine has a footprint — from a single tile up to 3x3 — floor space is the real constraint long before cash is. A tidy layout gets more producing tiles into the same section and keeps every converter fed.

Three rules apply at every tier:

• Keep suppliers adjacent to the converter that consumes them.
• Build in rows that flow one direction, so output sides always face the next stage.
• Leave power sources spread through the floor, not clustered in one corner.

Tier 1 — Workshop: the supplier pair

Early on you have a small grid, a hand-crank generator and a couple of cheap producers. Don't spread out. Build one tight two-by-two block: power in the corner, producer beside it, converter directly downstream. Every new machine you buy extends the same row rather than starting a second cluster somewhere else.

This shape is deliberately boring: it means your first converter never starves, and when you unlock more floor you can copy-paste the same row downward instead of untangling a mess.

Tier 2 — Industrial: parallel production lines

Once you can afford several converters, stop building one long chain. Long chains are fragile — a single starved machine stalls everything behind it. Build two or three shorter parallel lines instead, each with its own supplier and its own power neighbour. Throughput scales linearly and one bottleneck no longer takes the whole floor offline.

A useful check: if a machine's connector line runs more than two tiles, you can usually shorten it by rotating the machine so its output side already faces the consumer.

Tier 3 — Quantum: big footprints and the Hub

Late-tier buildings take 2x2 and 3x3 tiles, and the Hub itself occupies a 2x2 block you can relocate. Reserve one edge of each unlocked section for the large buildings and keep the interior for the small producers feeding them — large machines placed in the middle fragment the floor into unusable single tiles.

Unlock sections in the direction your lines already flow, so an expansion extends existing rows instead of creating an isolated pocket you then have to supply separately.

Reward generators need power adjacency

Reward generators only run when they sit next to an energy-producing machine, and larger generators take more space than the first one. Plan for them: keep a power tile free on the edge of each block rather than filling the grid with producers and discovering there's nowhere valid left to place a generator.

Common layout mistakes

• Converters with no supplier. The most common cause of "my cash per second dropped" — check for machines with no connector line.
• One power cluster. Spreading generators keeps future reward generators and power-hungry buildings placeable everywhere.
• Buying before there's space. Unlock the next section first; a machine you can't place earns nothing.
• Ignoring rotation. Rotating a machine is free and often removes the need to rebuild a whole row.

Next steps

New to the game? Start with How to Play, then read the full Game Guide for machines, resources and Factory Cores.