Recommended Mods

Required Dependencies
All dependencies listed in the mod's page are required to start SE. You do not need to install them yourself, they will be installed when you install the main Space Exploration mod.

Therefore, only optional suggestions will be listed below.

Officially recommended
These mods are all made by Earendel, and are official recommendations:
 * Combat Mechanics Overhaul: Helps with defenses when off-planet, by letting walls block projectiles. It does buff enemies slightly to compensate, but that can be disabled with a mod option. It is cheaper to repair walls than turrets.
 * AAI Containers: A set of containers in the Factorio style with multiple options for inventory sizes.
 * Text Plates: Allows you to put text on the ground, useful for marking planet names, station names, spaceship docking zones, etc.
 * Equipment Gantry: Allows machines to put equipment into a spidertron while you're somewhere else in the galaxy, so that spidertron can be deployed by a rocket to start a new colony.
 * Bullet Trails: So you can see where your bullets are going, or what gun turrets are shooting at. (Also looks better.)
 * Grappling Gun: Allows you to jump over buildings, across lakes, and out of combat if you get slowed. Useful during the early game, before jetpacks.

Not made by Earendel, but still recommended by him:
 * Module Inserter: Allows you to put modules in machines using construction bots. Being able to do more things remotely is especially useful in SE.
 * Even Distribution: Helps early game when you manually insert items into multiple buildings.
 * Inserter Fuel Leech: Another early game helper, for the burner phase.

Community recommended
This is a list of mods recommended for everyone. No major gameplay changers will be included below, as those can change the SE experience and would not be to everyone's tastes.

For information on K2, check out its dedicated page: Krastorio 2

Information
Mods that do not change the game mechanics. You can remove or add them anytime without having an effect on the save.
 * Solar Calculator: Can calculate proper solar panel/accumulator ratio for any planet. Although this is not an Earendel mod, it was made specifically with SE in mind.
 * A recipe browser such as Recipe Book, FNEI, or What is it really used for: Will help you figure out the use of all the various new items and recipes in SE.
 * A factory planner such as Factory Planner or Helmod: To calculate and plan the complicated processing chains of SE.
 * Rate Calculator: Click on your factories and get a detailed production overview. The opposite of a factory planner.
 * Bottleneck Lite: Quickly see what parts of your factory are blocked.
 * Milestones: If you want to track your progress and get pings for each milestone reached. Comes with a preset for SE and SE+K2.

Quality Of Life (QoL)
These can reduce gameplay annoyances but only change gameplay in minor ways.
 * A personal logistic requests manager such as Auto Trash or Logistic Request Manager: You will be swapping between ground and space often, each of them requiring a different inventory. It is very useful to be able to switch between sets of requests with one click.

Incompatibilities


Any mod listed as a "conflict" in the mod's page cannot be used with SE. If you see a "You do not have Space Exploration installed. DO NOT SAVE THE GAME." message at the start of the game, you most likely have an incompatible mod that has disabled SE.

You can confirm that by looking at Space Exploration in your mod list. If the name is in red like the picture on the right then you have a mod incompatibility. Compare your mod list with the "conflict" mod list linked above and disable any that are incompatible. You will need to "Apply changes" to restart Factorio before you can see if the name still appears in red.

Most notably these popular mods are incompatible: Resource Spawner Overhaul, Clockwork, Bob's and Angel

Note: Rampant is technically compatible, but has been known to have a high cost on UPS in the later game.

More generally, incompatible mods are:
 * Other big overhaul mods (With one exception: Krastorio 2 works)
 * Mods that touch resource generation
 * Mods that touch the day/night cycle
 * Mods that let you teleport
 * Mods that do things when you die and didn't account for SE's respawning system