Conveyor Belts in Satisfactory are key components for building any sort of automation and setting up a production line. Without the ability to autonomously transport materials and items from one location to another, players would have to rely on manual transportation to do the task.
Conveyor Belts are not available at the very start of the game, during the tutorial. They need to be unlocked by completing certain milestones in the HUB. This is to prevent new players and beginners from being completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of things to do in Satisfactory. Here is how it works.
How To Make Conveyor Belts Mk.1
Conveyor Belt Mk.1 can be unlocked by completing the HUB Upgrade 4 Milestone in Tier 0. After the Milestone is completed, players will be able to craft Conveyor Belt Mk.1 through the build menu under the Logistics Tab. Conveyor Belt Mk.1 requires the following materials to craft:
|
Materials |
Amount |
|---|---|
|
Iron Plate |
1 (Increases with length) |
Iron Plates can be crafted by mining Iron Ore, processing it into Iron Ingots, and refining them into Iron Plates at a Crafting Bench or a Constructor.
How To Use Conveyor Belts
- Open the build menu and select ‘Conveyor Belt Mk.1’.
- Aim your character at an open port, either output or input, and press the LMB. This will create a starting point for the Conveyor Belt.
- Now, find the location to which you want to connect the other end. The Conveyor Belt’s hologram will snap into place with a blue outline.
- Click LMB again to complete construction.
Conveyor Belts cannot be used by
Portable Miners
. Players will need to place a Miner Mk.1 or above to automate this process
A Conveyor Belt needs to be connected to an output and an input in Satisfactory. It’s easy to identify whether a port is an output or an input by looking at any structure’s hologram in the build menu. The orange port is the input, and the green port is the output.
If the hologram does not snap into place, it means that the two ends of the Conveyor Belts are connected to invalid targets (like two outputs) or that the turn rate for the Conveyor Belt is not physically possible.
If the hologram is yellow instead of blue, it means there is a clipping error, where the pathing you’re using is running through other objects like trees or other buildings. This can be safely ignored, and pressing the LMB will create a functional belt.
How to Unlock Better Conveyor Belts
Progressive tiers of Conveyor Belts are called Mk.2, Mk.3, Mk.4, and Mk.5. Each progressive tier of Conveyor Belt can be unlocked by completing the relevant Milestone in the HUB. These will unlock naturally as the game progresses and players complete FICSIT’s objectives. Here are the details:
|
Conveyor Belt Tier |
Transport Rate |
How to Unlock |
Crafting Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Mk.1 |
60 |
Tier 0 – HUB Upgrade 4 |
1x Iron Plate |
|
Mk.2 |
120 |
Tier 2 – Logistics Mk.2 |
1x Reinforced Iron Plate |
|
Mk.3 |
270 |
Tier 4 – Logistics Mk.3 |
1x Steel Beam |
|
Mk.4 |
480 |
Tier 5 – Logistics Mk.4 |
1x Encased Industrial Beam |
|
Mk.5 |
780 |
Tier 7 – Logistics Mk.5 |
1x Alclad Aluminum Sheet |
The only difference between Conveyor Belts of different tiers is the speed at which they transport materials. Conveyor Belt Mk.2, for example, is twice as fast as Mk.1, the Mk.3 is 4.5x faster than Mk.1, and so on. However, simply upgrading all Conveyor Belts in a production chain without any forethought will not yield proportional results. This is because the bottleneck in many production lines is not the speed at which the materials are being transported but the processing speed for refining those materials.
Pressing N and typing in “Conveyor” will quickly bring up all craftable structures with that name. This is a much faster way of selecting which items to build instead of navigating the build menu.
Tips On Using Conveyor Belts Correctly
- Like all buildings and structures in Satisfactory, Conveyor Belts can be dismantled at any time, and the player will be able to recoup the entire cost. If the Conveyor Belt is in operation and there are items actively being transported, everything will be deposited inside your inventory. If there is no space in your inventory, excess materials will be deposited on the ground in the form of a small storage container.
- If you’re in a hurry, you can manually pick materials off of any Conveyor Belt by walking up to it and picking it up. This can come in handy when you need a material urgently and can’t wait for the automation to finish. Since manual crafting is always faster than automated crafting, this can speed up the completion of milestones, especially in the early game.
- Existing Conveyor Belts can be upgraded to the next tier by selecting the next tier from the build menu and interacting with the belt.
- Always keep a surplus of Iron Plates in a storage container in case of an emergency in the early game. Even after graduating to the next tiers, having the ability to always construct Mk.1 belts goes a long way in connecting far-off resources to the main base.
