Map Generation Settings

These are the settings you can choose when generating a new savegame. Some settings affect only the starting planet Nauvis, while others might affect all surfaces.

Preset

Pick this before any other change

We strongly recommend starting from the Space Exploration Defaults preset when starting new game, for a more balanced experience. (See picture on the right)

This preset does 3 things:

1. Lower biter evolution speed, to compensate for damage upgrades being pushed further into the tech tree. (Override this at your own risk!)
2. Adjust Nauvis terrain settings to be more vanilla-like and Earth-like, making other planets feel more alien by comparison.
3. Decrease pollution absorption by biter nests to compensate for stronger efficiency modules, and to encourage their use.

After selecting this preset, you can change settings according to your preferences.

Settings

Nauvis is always your starting planet.

Resources

Resource settings only apply to Nauvis. Iron, Copper, Stone, Coal, Uranium ore and Crude Oil can be adjusted to player preference. It only affects resources on Nauvis.

Settings for Water Ice, Methane ice, Cryonite, Vulcanite, Vitamelange, Beryllium, Holmium, Iridium and Naquium will have no effect as they cannot spawn on Nauvis.

Terrain

Terrain settings only apply to Nauvis.

The Planet Size: Scale slider controls the size of Nauvis. The default value is still huge (5692 tile radius). If you are not sure, leave it to the default. A smaller planet will come with fewer resources, but also fewer biters and cheaper rocket launches. The "coverage" slider has no effect.

The temperature, moisture and terrain type settings affect Alien Biomes settings for Nauvis, and will make your Nauvis look different. See the Alien Biomes mod page for description of the settings.

Enemy

Enemy bases and starting area settings only affects Nauvis.

Enemy expansion and evolution settings, as well as peaceful mode, are all global settings and affect every surface.

Tip: If you don't want to deal with biters on Nauvis but want them on other planets, uncheck the "Enemy bases" setting. If you don't want to deal with biters anywhere, uncheck "Enemy bases" and enable "peaceful mode" as well (There will still be biters on other planets but they will be peaceful).

Tip: If you uncheck "Enemy bases", Factorio will grey-out and disable the "Peaceful" checkbox. But if you check "Peaceful" before unchecking "Enemy bases", peaceful mode will still be enabled even though it is greyed out. This way you can have no biters on Nauvis, and peaceful biters on other planets.

Tip: Biters on all planets share the same evolution factor. Once you first view a planet via satellite view, the biters in scanned areas come alive and start to multiply. You can always delete a surface to reset biter bases to their original positions.

Advanced

Pollution and cost multiplier settings are global.

Tip: Space Exploration comes with complex processing chains, but is generally not a scale challenge. You will not need a high SPM or a large factory in order to beat the game. Oftentimes you will spend 10 hours setting up a new science chain, and then research all its technologies in 30 minutes. If you do enjoy a scale challenge, consider using a ~2x-4x technology price modifier.