In this guide, we show you one example of how to set up a semi-automated solid biofuel factory to keep your biomass burners up and running during the earlier game stages. It’s only semi-automated, because you will still have to gather the base organic materials yourself. In this case, you will ideally have already unlocked the chainsaw. You can find the blueprint for the chainsaw in Milestone 2, called “Obstacle Clearing” in your HUB Terminal.
The chainsaw runs on solid biofuel and enables you to cut down trees to get wood and leaves quicker and in bigger quantities. You will feed those into two storages that build the starting point of our grid.
This is what our end goal should look like. The exact layout can be changed to your liking, of course:
But let’s start by zero and build it up from scratch, step-by-step.
If you prefer additional visual clues, you can check out our YouTube video "Master Your Biomass Burner Setup", link below!
- Build two storages, one for leaves, the other for wood.
- Use conveyor belts to connect each storage with one Constructor.
- Set Constructor 1 to craft biomass from leaves, and Constructor 2 to craft it from wood.
- Build conveyor belts exiting each Constructor and leading into a merger. This lets you funnel the products of both into one more storage number 3 that collects the biomass.
- All machines in this layout so far should be connected to one biomass burner. This ensures that this production line never comes to a halt, not even during power outages. If you want to, you can connect this unit to the biomass storage built in step 4 (not shown in the screenshot). That way, you won’t have to refill biomass or biofuel by hand. You will have to use a splitter for this!
- Next, build a conveyor build exiting from the biomass storage and split it into 3 by using a splitter. Each belt will deliver biomass to one Constructor. These will craft Solid biofuel from biomass (don’t forget to choose the recipe at each constructor!). Connect these with the single biomass burner as well.
- All three constructors should deliver solid biofuel into one end-storage, using a merger to combine the three conveyor belts.
- Going from this last storage, you can start building your biomass burners. If you prefer, you could also omit the end-storage and directly connect biomass burners to the constructors. This has the disadvantage of not storing any excess for times when you run out of base materials or biomass. And additionally, you may have to craft any solid biofuel needed yourself. You will constantly need some for the chainsaw and other machines and vehicles later on.
Your end-product should look something like this. From here, you can scale up easily if you’re in need of even higher voltage in your energy grid before you unlock higher-tier power plants.
We hope this guide helped you kick-start your energy management in the early game.
Watch our YouTube Video for more visual clarity (Timestamp: 4:50)