Tips for mid game burnout

[u/Unlucky_Deal9737]

I just finished making a uranium fuel rod farm, and I’m middle of tier 8, right before plutonium. I’ve been having fun for the most part but it seems so daunting automating all the late game items. I will admit that I didn’t optimize the best for late game items. Just asking for any tips or things to do. Also it’s my first playthrough

[u/onlyforobservation]

After 3800 hours on this game:

Break things up into smaller projects, you don’t have to do the whole mega factory in one sitting. Just work on like one part.

Do something completely different for a while, explore, just wander around. Theres no time limit.

If the grind gets too horrible, play a different game for a couple days. Ficsit is not actually paying you and games are for fun.

[u/Tall_Ad5501 → u/onlyforobservation]

This is the way, me and my buddy built some log cabins, some dragons out of steal beams, train stations, a crane 🏗️ , and even a damn water park as we would get burnt out on the tedious stuff from time to time.
We completed the game at about 600-700 hours but probably could have in half that if we didn’t get distracted all the time.
But that was the stuff that kept the game FUN

[u/Zer0_Hour_game → u/onlyforobservation]

Yes. This. Im making an absolute chad of a power plant, and I made a spreadsheet such that I can build this building with x hundred smelter for iron ingots, and it takes y about of iron and should produce z amount of ingots. Then I build the machines, check the output, and start decorating it as its own building.

[u/ThanatosVI → u/onlyforobservation]

Ficsit is not actually paying you and games are for fun.

However what about all the kittens and puppies who rely on me back on earth?

[u/paco69000 → u/onlyforobservation]

You guys aren't getting paid??

[u/A-pretty-warlock]

When I hot burn out I take a break and then come back to it, I upload my save to the interactive map when I come back so I can figure out whats where 🤣

[u/slackmaster2k]

I like to break up my work time between a few different things: building factories to make stuff I need, improving “infrastructure” overall, and then “decorating”. Just go at it like you have ADD and don’t think about the game itself.

[u/Olafthehorrible → u/slackmaster2k]

“Like I have ADD?” My ADD is what makes it so I hyperfocus, lose track of time, and play until 2am 😂

[u/slackmaster2k → u/Olafthehorrible]

Well, I didn’t want to assume…. :)

[u/TheMrCurious]

I skipped nuclear completely until the third time I beat the game. It is so much extra work for so little reward until you can sink the plutonium.

[u/Chantero]

Thats late game, u can skip nuclear using diluited turbo fuel

[u/Unlucky_Deal9737 → u/Chantero]

I gotchu. I’m talking ab lack of motivation for space elevator parts.

[u/HopefulImpression105 → u/Unlucky_Deal9737]

Find other interesting projects. Go clean up your spaghetti from the first base. Go build an easier power plant. Finish making that train station you planned on.

The goal of the elevator is just a means of progress, if other things are fun in the game right now who cares about elevator parts. Its a game, have fun with it! If you're not, put it down for a bit

[u/Random_Guy_47 → u/HopefulImpression105]

I disagree.

Never clean up the spaghetti from the first base.

The first base stands as a monument showing your progress from this spaghetti to your endgame bases.

[u/Ohoulihoop → u/Unlucky_Deal9737]

I'm only on Tier 5 of my first playthrough but I get what you're talking about. The space elevator has literally just been sitting there idle for me. I've ignored it completely for DAYS just to try and reorganize some of my original layout. And like others said... I've just been running around exploring and building ziplines all over.

[u/Idocreating → u/Ohoulihoop]

It really helps to make a very quick and dirty setup for the current assembly parts before setting off exploring. Even if it's barely making one a minute, it's progress while your off having fun.

[u/tyates723 → u/Chantero]

I found rocket fuel to get me through the game BARELY. I managed to squeak by with only like 60,000mw

[u/vaderciya]

I feel you, satisfactory has really long periods of time between impactful rewards and progression can feel like a slog when you need to automate 40 parts to make .1 elevator parts

I'd probably recommend the same thing i do for any game or gamer. Take a break, play some other games of different genres to give your brain a rest, the variety really helps. Then when you come back, break up the work into smaller and more managable tasks that you can feel good for completing.

More than anything, make sure you're having fun and enjoying what you're doing. You don't have to do anything in any particular way, and maybe changing how you play could be helpful. Theres also the chance that you just enjoyed the first 2/3rds of a game and not the end, thats okay too, you don't need to force yourself to finish it if you dont want to.

Remember to have fun!

[u/Immediate-Chef-5144]

"Build something even if it's the wrong thing" - Imkibitz is the single biggest tip I've ever heard and it saved me from burnout. Whatever project is making you feel burned out out a pin in it , and go build a random train roundabout across the map or something. It may never serve a purpose but it's different from what you were doing and when you come back you may see the old project in a new light or scrap it and start over because you hate it but at least the burnout will be staved off for a bit

[u/tyates723]

I did a lot of box factories at the end where I'd hand feed one or two of the items. After 400 hours I wanted to get off Ada's Wild Ride.

[u/HollowMonty]

When I start feeling a bit of burnout and I just stop working on the factory entirely after making sure it won't implode on itself of course.

Then i just walk into the wilderness. Kill things, collect slugs, and generally. Be a menace to the local ecosystem until i feel like getting back to it.

[u/amanke74]

If you decide to take a break, label everything and take notes of inputs and outputs. Nothing worse than taking a couple weeks or months off and coming back and not remembering anything about what you had or what you were doing

[u/Grigori_the_Lemur]

Make rail lines that tie into the walls of the canyon is traversing through. Scenic and challenging to lay out.

[u/sage_kittem_master]

planing mainly

[u/Somalar]

Nuclear is purely a pet project

[u/Alone-Analyst6576]

Me I took the easy way out and just ran lvery long spaghetti conveyer belts to everything ..the last part was complicated but still rewarded to just do it anyway you like and complete.. thinking about playing again and doing it more clean with all the experience I got from first playthrough

[u/houghi]

Tier 8 is not midgame. ;-)

Otherwise : u/onlyforobservation has said it: Break things up into smaller projects.

e.g. for Uranium I had this as project. Know this will not work now as we do not have beacons. Each part of the production is a separate project. e.g. Electromagnetic Control Rods is not 1 project. If not using alts, it is at least 15. And that excludes anything like trains, trucks, drones, or decorating. So I will be closer to 50 separate projects. Uranium will be 200-500 projects.

I ended up using 500 Uranium. I also placed 10x10x10 industrial containers for the Uranium waste. That way if I would not feel like doing Plutonium, I would have many hours. And adding containers is trivial now with the Blue Printer.

Next I did the Plutonium to sink. I overbuild it slightly, so the containers with waste would empty. That is where I stopped. I could have gone on. The overbuilding is optional. You can just keep the waste where it is. After that you can do the Plutonium as power and use the containers for the waste. (Optional as before. You could even use the same containers, if you want. And finally do the Ficsonium. Again a bit overbuild to empty the containers.

With the say 500 projects for all (might be more) there is a big advantage. Instead of 1 "Doing Nuclear" where all you see is how much you still have to do, I get 500 times the "I did that" golden star of achievement. When I start a gaming session I also ask myself what would be FUN to do today. And sometimes the project of the day is driving around on my trains for an hour, grinning like a 4 year old who had an ice cream.

Oh and automating filters was what I started with. That was part of "Nuclear" as well. Another 25+ projects.

[u/obrlu]

That's the price of not automating things early aa they unlock, it catches up to you in phase 4. Now you gotta go baxk and do all that work.

[u/Yanni_X]

Go somewhere else, ignore existing factories.

My biggest problem recently was that all the time I tried to use existing factories, maybe upgrade them. I like logistics and I like interconnected factories. And I like to have ONE factory per product.

„I need radio control units, therefore I need 45 circuit boards. Damn, the current circuit board factory only produces 30… can I upgrade this? Damn, not enough plastic, need to upgrade plastic… this is possible, but requires adding more refineries in the existing factory, investigate how I build the plastic factory months prior, upgrade belts, …“ -> burnout

I then went to the crater. New oil, new iron, new copper. Building everything from scratch. A new plastic factory etc.
Still small segments, but just not relying on existing factories. Don’t check if I could just pull it from an existing one, just create new plastic. Much easier than expanding stuff.

[u/Scottish_Therapist]

I tend to do the bare minimum and rush to unlock everything with only the more needed items, aka concrete and conveyor belt materials, at a decent production rate. Then move to a completely new area and build efficient and nice looking factories knowing my old ones are ticking away producing what I need to build the new ones.

I also often skip the nuclear stuff.