Welcome to the Factory Efficiency update, Groundbreaker.
V0.3 is here! This massive update is focused mainly on feedback from you, our players. This update includes Vertical Belts, Stack Filter Inserters, Quick Copy, the Replacer Tool, Storage Limiting, and so much more. It’s time to fine tune your factories and get rolling on the biggest Quality of Life update we’ve had since Early Access Launch.
Before we dig in, check out this sweet, sweet trailer.
Vertical Belts
Spaghetti goes vertical in v0.3. Vertical Belts are now paired with a new Conveyor Belt variations menu, which includes five different settings:
- Regular Conveyor Belts
- Fixed Height Conveyor Belts
- Manual Belt Hubs
- Vertical Belts Up
- Vertical Belts Down
Fixed Height Conveyor Belts are incredibly useful for fine-tuning your factories, as they allow you to suspend Conveyor Belts in the air as far as you can drag.
Manual Belt Hubs are another big upgrade. You can place these down wherever you like (even with curved belts on either side!) manually, giving you much more control over your setup.
Vertical Belts can be placed either going up or going down, with full rotation on either end. If you look at the middle of the Vertical Belt, you can change the direction of it. Looking at the end caps allows you to rotate those in any direction. Inserters can pull items off and put items onto Vertical Belts anywhere along the line, giving you some really sweet setups.
Stack Filter Inserters
Stack Filter Inserters bring a lot more speed and throughput to late-game setups, especially for Threshers. Stack Filter inserters can also be upgraded in combination with the existing Stack Filter upgrades, with speeds of up to 600 items/minute. This was a huge community request, and we’re thrilled to bring it to you!
Quick Copy
Quick Copy functions in three ways - firstly as an eyedropper tool, allowing you to click an item whenever the Quick Copy icon appears and automagically build it. Second, you can copy and paste the recipes from machines and inserters to other machines and inserters. Last, Quick Copy can copy and paste both the machine and the recipe. This tool lets you scale up your factories wicked fast!
Replacer Tool
Unlocking an upgrade in Techtonica is an exciting moment, and the Replacer Tool enables you to implement those upgrades even faster.
Drag a box over the items you’d like to upgrade (or downgrade, you do you), select the item you’d like to change to, and voila! Magically upgraded.
This is also a great feature for when you forget to build with all concrete variants, because we all know all concrete looks better.
Storage Limiting
Storage Limiting is easy to implement on your containers. Simply open the chest you want to limit and drag over the boxes you want to mark as unavailable.
Inserters can still move items out of the closed slots, but they won’t be able to fill them again until you change the settings. You can also manually override the limiting by dragging and dropping items by hand, in case you want to do that.
Korean Language Support
We’ve added Korean to our list of languages supported with subtitles and in-game text. 화이팅!
Two brand new items in game, along with many new recipes
Kindlevine Stems [Washed] and Shiverthorn Buds [Neutralized] have been added to the game, which let you make Kindlevine Extract and Shiverthorn Extract without byproducts in late-game Techtonica.
We’ve also added a ton of new recipes for advanced Groundbreakers, including Plantmatter, Atlantum Power Bricks, Atlantum Mixture Bricks, Kindlevine Powder Bricks, Carbon Powder Bricks, Mass Production recipes, and many more. You can find the full details in the patch notes below, or check your Tech Tree!
Big Bugfixes and Early Game Experience Tweaks
We’re added some more tutorialization from Sparks and the System Message when introducing some of our key mechanics. A good example of this is core debt - Sparks will let you know the first time you slip into core debt, and tell you how to get out of it. We’ve added new contingencies for main quest progression as well.
Before we get into the full patch notes, here are a few of the banner bugfixes in v0.3:
We’ve implemented multiple snapping fixes for Base Building parts, so those should be easier to snap and build with. Same goes for the Wall & Ceiling Plants from 0.2.2.
Core Clustering for Purple Research Cores is now functional! It’s time to crank your factories to the max.
The Storing Energy quest now no longer requires a specific amount of power to complete, and we’ve fixed an issue with the Working with High Voltage Power quest line.
We’ve fixed the bug where skipping the PULSE Room cutscene or the Freight Elevator cutscene could break progression. You can skip those cutscenes now, if you want (but do you really want to?). The Freight Elevator cutscene will also now wait for all players to enter the Freight Elevator to start.
We believe we have fixed the issue where Belt Hubs break upon a reload. If you continue to see this one, please let us know!
You can find the full list of bugfixes below, we squashed a bunch of ‘em!
A few of the smaller, but still important, changes in v0.3 include:
Encumbrance now kicks in at 80 slots instead of the 56 slots, with upgrades stacking on top.
Crank Generators have a new unlock that allows you to upgrade the crank time from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. No more running back to your base every 5 minutes until you get Water Wheels! This upgrade is unlocked at T1 of Victor.
Players will now receive a System Message when they’ve scanned all of the Tech, Narrative, and Upgrade fragments in most facilities.
And now, without further ado, the complete patch notes.
The Complete v0.3 - The Factory Efficiency Update - Patch Notes
Major Changes
The Factory Efficiency Update is here, with 5 featured improvements to life on Calyx:
- Techtonica is vertical! Vertical Belts take you to new heights with the ability to rotate either end, use inserters along the belt, and save space in your factories. The belt system has been overhauled with new features, including manual placement of belt hubs, fixed height belt building, and vertical building.
- Belt Hubs now support rotated outbound belts, no more building a straight belt out of a hub before rotating them.
- Automatic creation of Belt Hubs can now be toggled off in the settings menu.
- Stack Filter Inserters combine the best of Stack and Filter inserters. They work with all of the Stack Inserter stack size upgrades and can go up to speeds of 600 items per minute, all while filtering items. That’s fast and organized.
- Quick Copy allows for quick copy and paste of machines, machines and recipes, and recipes alone. Look at a machine that’s been built, push a button, open a buildable of that machine and/or its recipe, and build it again. All without scrolling through your toolbar or opening your inventory. This makes setting up a large factory much easier!
- Replacer Tool: Instead of deleting a MKI Conveyor Belt and manually replacing it, you can drag a box to upgrade belts and machines to a higher tier. This works on Conveyor Belts, Mining Drills, Smelters, Inserters, and even some Base Building pieces.
- Storage Limiting: Tired of having so many open slots in a chest? With v0.3, you can now block off storage slots in containers!
Mechanics and Feature Changes
- Sick of running back to your Crank Generators every 5 minutes? There’s a brand new unlock at T1 of PT VICTOR that upgrades the crank time to 30 minutes.
- Speaking of cranks, the Crank Generator now requires a scan to unlock. You can find this scannable fragment outside of the Warehouse. Crank you for being a crank!
- Completionists rejoice! Players will now receive a notification from the System Message when they have scanned all Tech, Narrative, and Upgrade Fragments in most facilities.
- Once you’ve collected all of the TAP Wires, you’ll get a PULSE Room HUD signal to help you return to the PULSE Room for the final piece of story content currently implemented. More to come!
- Two new items in game - Kindlevine Stems [Washed] and Shiverthorn Buds [Neutralized] with the dedicated unlocks of Stem Washing and Shiverthorn Neutralization.
- Washed Kindlevine Stems can be threshed directly into Kindlevine Extract without byproducts.
- Neutralized Shiverthorn Buds can be threshed directly into Shiverthorn Extract without byproducts. To make Neutralized Shiverthorn, you need Kindlevine Extract. To make Washed Kindlevine Stems, you need Kindlevine Stems and Shiverthorn Extract. The recipe for 2 Washed Kindlevine Stems is 4 Kindlevine Stems and 12 Shiverthorn Extract.
- To make Neutralized Shiverthorn Buds, you need Shiverthorn Buds and Kindlevine Extract. The recipe for 2 Neutralized Shiverthorn Buds is 4 Shiverthorn Buds and 12 Kindlevine Extract.
- Both of these can also be condensed into Plantmatter Bricks.
- Brand new recipes for Groundbreakers:
- A brand new recipe for Plantmatter has been added. You can now thresh Plantmatter Frames to get Plantmatter Fiber, just in case you’re tired of those frames.
- Atlantum Powder Is a new unlock that gives you Atlantum Powder Bricks and Atlantum Mixture Bricks. Advanced Powder Bricks is a new unlock that gives you Carbon Powder Bricks and Kindlevine Powder Bricks. Why? Atlantum Mixture Brick is made out of Atlantum Powder Brick, Kindlevine Powder Brick, and Shiverthorn Gel. This condensed brick can be directly Blast Smelted into 10 Atlantum Slabs, getting you Atlantum Slabs faster and more efficiently. Advanced Powder bricks can also be threshed back into their respective materials with Advanced Powder Threshing.
- Advanced Powder Threshing is a new unlock that allows you to thresh Kindlevine Powder Bricks and Carbon Powder Bricks into their respective powders.
- One last thing about bricks - Limestone Bricks can now be made from 500 Kindlevine Extract per 1 Limestone Brick in the Blast Smelter.
- A Mass Explosive recipe which makes 100 Mining Charges using Plantmatter Bricks, Shiverthorn Gel, and Kindlevine Powder Bricks. This is a brand new unlock called Mass Production [Mining Charge].
- A new unlock called Mass Production [Basic Frames] provides recipes for Iron Frames and Copper Frames in bulk from slabs.
- A new unlock called Mass Production [Steel Frames] enables you to turn Steel Slabs into Steel Frames in bulk.
- A Fiber Extraction unlock that allows you to get Plantmatter Fibers from Plantmatter. Right now you can get 30 fibers and turn them into 20 Plantmatter. Conversely, you can now turn 20 Plantmatter into 24 fibers.
- A new unlock called Plantmatter Frames [Optimized]. With this recipe, you can make Plantmatter frames directly from Kindlevine Stems.
- The recipe for threshing Shiverthorn Buds has been adjusted - before you’d receive 4 Plantmatter per bud, this has been changed to 3 Plantmatter. Your Threshers should be easier to balance now!
- Basic Powder Bricks was previously in PT XRAY, and has been moved to T1 of PT VICTOR, giving you access to it as early as possible so you can condense Limestone into bricks inside your own inventory.
- Basic brick threshing has also moved to Victor T1 and is dependent on the basic brick unlock, allowing you to thresh the bricks back into Limestone Powder as well.
- The recipe for threshing Atlantum Chunks now has its own unlock that comes at the same tier as the Blast Drill. Before it was under the Gravel Threshing unlock, but as this recipe gives you Clay as a byproduct, we moved it.
- The Electric Motor recipe has changed - in an Assembler you get 4 Electric Motors instead of 2 and you will need less Steel.
- The recipe for ceiling light 1x1 no longer requires Glass.
- A small recipe adjustment for 3x9 Metal Catwalks - you will now get 10 Metal 3x9 Catwalks per recipe instead of 1.
- All mass production recipes now only work in MKII Assembler.
- M.O.L.E. Two tech has been renamed to M.O.L.E. Maximization.
- Core Cluster parameters have changed. Core Boost Mining now gives 0.05% per Core Cluster. Core Boost Smelter is also 0.05%. All Core Utilization tech gives a 0.05% boost.
- Overhead Lights and wall lamps will no longer require scans.
- Mining Drill Speed 2 has been moved 1 tier higher.
- Metal Powders unlock now has no dependencies.
- M.O.L.E. unlock requires 6 cores instead of 3, but the Smelter only requires 2 cores instead of 5.
- The base encumbrance now kicks in at 80 slots instead of 56 slots worth of items, with upgrades still stacking on top of that as usual.
- MKII Drills now require 2400kW of power.
- Sparks will now give Groundbreakers a warning the first time they slip into core debt, telling them to review their Tech Tree and avoid such things in the future.
- New contingencies have been put in place to ensure main quest progression.
- New voiceover lines pertaining to tutorialization and key mechanics.
Settings, UI, and Performance Changes
- Korean language support has been added! 화이팅!
- Base Building icons have been refreshed to position, light and frame models better and make the materials more apparent.
- The Tech Tree now has tier labels on it, and those also appear on the production terminals themselves.
- We’ve added negative feedback shake in the Tech Tree if you try to unlock an item that isn’t available.
- All HUD tips will clear off the screen in 30 seconds, in case you just want to ignore them.
- To speed up the creation of tons of small machines with collisions, all being built on the same frame, colliders now get streamed in over a short amount of time right afterward. The TLDR is that placing a lot of machines shouldn’t cause hitches anymore.
- Several performance upgrades.
- Carousel Menu now shows icons for each menu in the carousel, and each icon can be clicked when using Mouse.
- When playing a new game, the HUD and menus now have subtle effects to draw attention towards key UI buttons throughout Lima.
World Changes
- New tips and guidance from Sparks and the System Message during the introduction of key mechanics.
- Paladin and Sparks have some new voice lines when you return to key areas.
- We’ve added more dirt and sand to Calyx. Who doesn’t love dirt and sand?
- Some of the early game PT upgrade requirements have been reduced to streamline progression.
- The Monorail Depot and Monorail Track textures have been updated.
- The Pickaxe tooltip in the starting area now disappears after the first hit.
Bugfixes
Please note that this list is not exhaustive and does not include all minor bugfixes.
- Fixed an issue where when inspecting a drill near PT Lima, sometimes the UI shown would be that of a different drill.
- All Assembler recipes should now show correct recipe information.
- Base Building parts and Ceiling Plants have improved snapping.
- Fixed an issue where Wall Plants snapping didn’t quite function.
- Inserter arrows in Overlay mode have returned and now also show connections between two machine ports!
- Fixed an issue where Terrain De-tiling in the video settings was not working and was permanently off.
- Fixed an issue where Balloon Lights and Light Sticks would occasionally stop emitting light.
- Fixed a multiplayer issue where Overlay mode and machine glow would not match what the machine was doing for some players.
- Fixed an issue where Core clustering did not work for Purple Cores.
- Fixed an issue where some BB fragments couldn’t be scanned in the small house near the strange monolith.
- Fixed an issue where players couldn’t scroll to Core Tech in Tech Tree.
- Fixed an issue where the button to hide the toolbar disappeared when Omniseeker was in use.
- We believe that the changes made to Belt Hubs have resolved the issue where Belt Hubs break upon a reload. If you continue to see this, please let us know!
- Fixed an issue where the M.O.L.E. consumed two Shiverthorn Coolant per cooldown charge.
- We let Sparks know that Base Building pieces transmit power - not just Power Floors.
- Fixed an issue where some TAP Wire subtitles weren’t correct.
- Fixed collision with some of the large rocks. No more clipping through them.
- Fixed an issue where players couldn’t clear a Hotbar slot with a controller.
- Fixed issues where skipping the PULSE Room scene cutscene or Freight Elevator cutscene could break progression.
- Lots of general localization fixes.
- Fixed collider issues with variations and footprints.
- Several control remapping and controller navigation fixes for controllers.
- Fixed issues with Working with High Voltage Power quest line.
- Multiplayer fix for Freight Elevator cutscene - the cutscene will now wait for all players to be in the elevator to start.
- Storing Energy quest now no longer requires a specific amount of power to complete.
- Fixed an issue where the Schematics, Tech, and Inventory menus scrolled to top every time they are opened. Menus now retain their scroll position when closed/reopened
- We made improvements to the level loading process which should reduce the chance of
- Groundbreakers spawning inside objects or outside the world when using the Respawn option from the pause menu.
- Wall Plant Parashrooms are no longer extremely bright in comparison to other plants.
- Fixed an issue with rotating belts while making long chains where rotating belts only went from straight to clockwise and players had to drag the belt to rotate the belt to face the opposite direction. Players can now rotate belts to be clockwise, counterclockwise, and straight while building belt chains.
Known Issues
- We’re aware of some cases where the Hoverpack behavior is iffy. We’re working on it!
- You may notice some issues with localization, please report them on our feedback website if you see them.
- Multi-place doesn’t work as expected in some areas, this is due to the game incorrectly calculating the number you need. Make sure you have some extra items in your inventory to avoid this!
- There may be some weirdness with Crank Connect when you’re placing or erasing Crank Generators and Water Wheels. If you see issues with these, try hand cranking them and it should fix it!
- Replacing Power Floors with the Replacer Tool can cause power loss. Save and reload the game after replacing the Power Floors and your new floors should be transmitting power again!
- Vertical Belts sometimes don’t like being placed next to Belt Hubs and items may not flow directly from a Belt Hub to a Vertical Belt. As a workaround, try placing at least 1 plain Horizontal Conveyor Belt in between the Belt Hub and the Vertical Belt.
- If a recipe can’t be handcrafted, it will show 0 ingredients available in the player’s Schematics Menu. This doesn’t mean you have zero ingredients, you just need to make it somewhere other than your inventory.
- You can pick up the green cube without dropping into his area. You have to drop down to keep the quest going, it’s fine you don’t take fall damage. Paladin would prefer you did things properly, anyway.
- Monorail tracks spawn from the Far Realm of Eldritch horrors when Monorail Poles are placed less than 4 tiles apart from each other. They will still work, though.
- For folks who are playing on PC Game Pass with the game and region set to a non-English territory, if you are having trouble starting the game there may be an issue with the registry. Try setting your computer settings to English before playing.