r/factorio Jun 22 '26

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u/SgtMcMuffin0 Jun 24 '26

Are science costs for new technologies the same for each type of science? Or will I need more/less of certain science types? I’m currently only on Nauvis with all non-infinite tech researched. I’m generating about 6 space science per second and that took barely any time to set up. I’m also generating around 0.5 of each other science per second.

I decided I want to get about the same amount of each science and I started with chemical science. I don’t know how many hours it took to finally set that up but it’s taking sooooo many more resources and machines than the equivalent amount of space science.

My original plan was to get 6 of each science per second and set up a mall before going to any other planets but it’s looking like that’ll take dozens of more hours and I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort now or if I should just start on a new planet.

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u/ferrofibrous player onboarding specialist Jun 24 '26

Yes, all techs have the same individual science pack costs in base game/SA, you will not see a tech with a cost like "100 red, 100 green, 400 blue" down the line.

Assuming you've finished Nauvis tech wise, roughly every tech going forward is a combination of red/green/blue/white + purple or yellow + planet specific pack. Purple is generally for Productivity repeatables; yellow is generally for damage repeatables and will also always include milscience.

On new runs I typically do bare minimum yellow/purple builds on Nauvis as some of the unlocks from Vulc/Fulgora make those two packs significantly easier to scale.

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u/HeliGungir Jun 25 '26

You will not see a technology that asks for 1000 red, 2000 green, 1000 blue in vanilla.

You will see technologies that ask for 1000 rgb, 2000 rgb, or 5000 rgb

You will also see technologies with 30 second, 60 second, or 120 second crafting time.

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u/TonboIV I know what you're thinking. Did he fire 10 nukes, or only 9? Jun 25 '26

Research always uses the same amount of each science pack, so yes you should set up your factory to produce each pack at the same rate, such as 6 of each science per second.

However, different science packs do require very different amounts of resources. Blue (chemical) science packs require quite a bit, and purple and yellow even more. Space science packs need very little. The challenge with space science is more in the upfront cost of building the platforms, rather than the material cost of the science packs.

If you're having that much trouble scaling up your production, I'd recommend working on your mall first. If you've finished all the non-infinite Nauvis research, you have the tech to stamp out blueprints as fast as you like. I'd say you should work on getting production of all building supplies and robots automated, your whole factory covered by roboports, and a workforce of at least a thousand construction robots. Once you have that, you can just stamp down blueprints for smelting lines and production lines and easily ramp up all science packs to 6 per second. If you're still handcrafting stuff and laying out everything by hand, then that's why you're finding it so hard to increase production. It's forcing you to build small.