Factorio Forums

Hey all!

The goal: get to solar power with as little pollution as possible, and specifically, without a boiler. I can mine and make almost everything by hand, including science packs, but excluding iron and copper plates of course. I'm thinking of using just 3 mining machines (coal, iron, copper) and 2 furnaces to minimise pollution. I haven't worked out the full material requirements and time yet, just looking for tips.

For context: obviously many people play Factorio by building large well-defended bases. I increase biter evolution stats (to make it harder) and then attempt to leave them alone, building the base and remote bases while attempting to completely avoid triggering them. I have never needed laser turrets in this style of play for example, though I do use gun turrets without upgrades and the simplest ammo. Then I build a couple of oil refineries and launch the rocket eventually. It takes longer but it's not like the game has a timer and I enjoy this, but I want to ideally not build a boiler at all during my game.

Are there forum threads that relate to this? I can't seem to find any (tried searching for solar threads and "no steam" / "without steam" but nada). Where my eco players at?

Or if you've done it yourself, what tradeoffs (a little pollution for a large speedup) did you make?

edit: tips like this for example
edit 2: ah damn, I forgot something fairly basic - the research labs require electricity, so you'll need a boiler for the solar research. I guess the objective then becomes just minimising the use of steam, not eliminating it completely.

If you want to avoid all boilers, give yourself a single solar panel at the start to run your labs.

You can give yourself an item at the start of a Freeplay session then? Thanks!

You can use a cheat to do it:

It might help if you go for a more natural way of genering electricity, like harnessing the near infinite amount of Biter Power.

Stringweasel wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:09 pm It might help if you go for a more natural way of genering electricity, like harnessing the near infinite amount of Biter Power.

That could be indeed a nice start...

Adding some traps and such to get a base electricity from biters to start....

I like this idea

There's also The Ruins Mod which will add, among other things, findable solar panels and accumulators. I like playing on map settings with resources really spread out (via RSO) and less enemies as a result, so I can wander around some from the starting area and find some of these goodies. I had one map where after exploring some area, I had a car, parts to make 2 more cars, starter boilers and steam engines, as well as almost two dozen solar panels and accumulators (and much, much more).

Stringweasel wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:09 pm It might help if you go for a more natural way of genering electricity, like harnessing the near infinite amount of Biter Power.

Wow, that's creative. Thanks for pointing it out! And cheers to everyone else too for the input.