If you have played even just the tutorial stages in Factorio, chances are you are aware of how grindy the game can become. This is evidenced by checking out the Global Achievements for Factorio on Steam, with only a third of the players having researched with Automation Science Packs, and as low as a fifth of all players researching with Chemical Science Packs, the fourth science pack in the game. So, if the base game takes so long to complete, then what nightmare of a progression system is there with Space Age?
Well, it seems that this sentiment has been shared enough that there is an achievement just for skipping parts of the game’s progression system. This achievement is called Rush to Space.
What is this achievement?
Rush to Space is a Space Age-exclusive achievement that has you research another planet’s technology without having unlocked Production or Utility Science Packs. In Space Age, these two packs are almost optional, allowing you to create a rocket, go to space, and land on a new planet without them. A simple challenge, right?
Skipping these does mean severely slowing down how you progress in the game, but with the right planning, it’s possible to complete it. Technologies such as increased inserter limits, elevated rails, and faster machines are limited. This just needs a lot of time, dedication, and leaving the hair on your scalp for as long as you can. That being said, once you finally unlock this achievement, freedom will have never felt more gratifying.
So, let’s get onto how you can get this achievement in hopefully the least painful way, in my experience.
Step 1: Play Factorio as usual
This is probably the easiest step in the process. Remember, you are skipping just Production and Utility Science Packs. Everything else will be almost exactly as it should be up to Chemical Science. Make sure you have a self-sustaining base, as it will come in handy for more remote operations.
It’s not much, and that’s because it is. We are limited to what we can make right now.
Now, while Military Science is also optional for this achievement, trust me when I say you will need it, and try researching it as much as you can. Even if you play in Peaceful and enemies are not likely to attack first, it’s going to be important for a later step, otherwise you’re going to end up with quite the handicap once you land on another planet.
What’s also important is that you should research everything available before you think about going to space, barring Production and Utility Science. Once you drop yourself on another planet, you’ll be effectively trapped down there unless you are incredibly well-prepared. No, you cannot bring a Rocket Pad with you due to Rocket limitations, but you can bring materials to craft one, as well as resources to make Rocket Silos. As an added bonus, if you can automate Rockets back on Nauvis, you can get started sooner.
Step 2: Let’s go to space
Now, once you have completely researched everything, and I mean as much as you possibly can, it’s time to get to space. You’re going to need a healthy production line of all kinds of products, a Rocket Silo to get into space, lots of Space Platforms to build up your method of travelling planets, a Starter Kit to set up your first Space Platform, and a Landing Platform for delivering cargo. Once that is done, you can start making some Space Science Packs using the materials gathered in space and begin your research to your planet of choice.
Make sure your platform is equipped and prepared for space. Energy production is no problem, but asteroid collisions are.
There are three planets to pick from. First, there is Fulgora, a planet filled with oil, rains of lightning, and scrap for recycling more resources. Next, there is Gleba, an overgrown planet full of agricultural resources. Finally, there is Vulcanus, a volcanic planet full of lava and ores not seen anywhere else. You can pick any one of these three planets to travel to as the achievement will require one of these three at minimum, but for this, we should go for Vulcanus.
Step 2.5: Why Vulcanus?
There are a few reasons. First, there is no pollution effect on this planet. No pollution means no sudden alien attacks, because these are mostly passive and stay contained to their own territory, as seen on a map. Second, it’s the infinite Iron and Copper on this planet. With a couple Foundries, you can get infinite resources for most materials in the game, meaning less hassle with handling depleted resource patches. Finally, energy production is made easy thanks to stronger solar power generation.
This barren rock might seem like nothing special, but it can become home to the most production you’ll ever see. The cliffs might be a problem, however.
Of course, Vulcanus has a few drawbacks, and some do require some planning to resolve. Most of the surface can’t be easily navigated, and this is where skipping Production hurts. You could use elevated rails to go over cliffs and lava, except at this point, you can’t. A very long belt or robots are the next best option. Depending on how prepared you are as well, you may end up struggling with the Demolishers on this planet. There are ways around it, but we’ll get there. Lastly, no crude oil to siphon means oil production takes much more resources, relying on coal liquefaction to produce heavy oil.
Step 3: Getting to Vulcanus
Once we’ve done all the research we can on Nauvis, we can start travelling to Vulcanus. Make sure your platform is well-armed because you might not be able to reliably return to your platform to make repairs to damage caused by asteroids. Using materials gathered from space, you can create perpetual ammo for your Gun Turrets to break down asteroids into chunks.
Once we arrive at our destination, there are a few things we need to do. Make sure we have the following:
- Materials for a Rocket Silo (you can’t take one into space)
- Enough materials for a return trip to space, in case we need more materials from Nauvis
- Cargo Landing Pad for accepting deliveries from space
- An Oil Refinery and Chemical Plants for oil production
- Plenty of materials to make your first few Foundries
- Solar Panels, Accumulators, and Substations for energy production
- Anything else to jumpstart base operations
The materials and machines we should invest in before we think about landing on a planet. You can make as many trips back and forth, but once you’re down, you’re down there for a long time.
These materials will help get to our goal of getting our achievement as fast as we can. Of course, you can get most of these resources on Vulcanus, but it does add an unnecessary amount of time to our goal.
Once we can get some Foundries going and a base established, we can start moving onto the main feature: Research.
Step 4: Tungsten
Before we can start making the science pack for Vulcanus, we have to get the resources to make them. What we need is Tungsten, a steady stream of it, for that fact. Now, we can mine all these volcanic rocks around the place to get a few morsels of Tungsten, but if we need to do some research, we need a lot of it, which means mining from a Tungsten spot.
The main resource of Vulcanus is Tungsten, a durable material that requires bigger drills.
Here’s the thing about Tungsten: you can’t mine it with Burner Drills or Electric Mining Drills. You need a Big Mining Drill to have a chance at gathering these resources, or spend valuable time digging up volcanic rocks. This is when the other problem crops up: Tungsten is best found in Demolisher territories. Being able to build in their territory is one thing, as they will destroy anything there, but even on Peaceful, they will plough through anything. As such, getting resources out of spots patrolled by a Demolisher will require killing them.
Demolishers are the definition of tanky, even as small fries, and with health regen, you’re going to need a lot of fire power. That being, several damage sources are useless against Demolisters, except Physical and Poison. What deals Physical damage? Well, there are non-explosive shells you could make with Uranium, but for the most bruteforce option, and one that’s easy to make with no preparation, we have Gun Turrets. Lots and lots of them. With physical ammo researched as much as possible, about 100 Gun Turrets with a dozen piercing ammo each is enough to wither their health down.
Step 5: Profit
Once we can finally get to a Tungsten patch, we will want to take this and process them into Tungsten Plates and Tungsten Carbide, as well as a stream of Molten Copper in a Foundry. This will finally get us Metallurgic Science Packs. With this, we can begin researching something that uses Metallurgy. One of the best options is Cliff Explosives, allowing for the leveling of rough terrain on this planet.
A slow but more compact solution for factories on Vulcanus is a steady stream of Logistic Robots to deliver materials for production.
After waiting for all the resources for science packs and for research to complete, we should unlock the Rush to Space achievement. You are now free of the science embargo and can go crazy with the rest of your research.
Banding together
This achievement can be a long and arduous journey alone. With the right preparations, life can be made much easier, but we all know skipping progression to get to your goals faster can end up taking just as long as if you didn’t skip it.
One way I can think of speeding up the time it takes to complete this achievement is to play together with friends. By splitting up tasks and having players at different bases, time can be used more efficiently. All you need to get started is to purchase our cheapest plan. Once you are set up, create a Factorio server by following our handy setup guide.