After years of development, the first expansion of the massively popular factory building and automation game Factorio was finally released. Wube Software has been working on Space Age since the base game"s full launch in 2019, and the first details about the expansion first landed in 2023. With space-based factory building, new planets to conquer, elevated rails, and many more systems, the Factorio: Space Age expansion is now available.
The expansion picks up where the base game"s final primary objective finishes, with players launching rockets into space. Now, players can travel across the stars using space platforms, which catch asteroids for resources and shuttle cargo between planets. The four additional planets have different aspects of their environment and dangers, offering players new types of challenges to overcome in their mining and crafting escapades.
Here"s the list of major features included in the expansion:
- Added space platforms, which can request items to be delivered by rockets and used to deliver cargo between planets.
- Added new planet Vulcanus, a volcanic planet with new resources, structures, items, recipes and technologies focussed on metallurgy.
- Added new planet Gleba, a swampy planet with new resources, structures, items, recipes and technologies focussed on agriculture.
- Added new planet Fulgora, a stormy desert planet with new resources, structures, items, recipes and technologies focussed on elecromagnetism.
- Added new planet Aquilo, a freezing planet with new resources, structures, items, recipes and technologies focussed on cryogenics.
- Introduced quality, which is additional property of item, entities and equipment. Most entities, equipment, modules and ammo have various kind of bonuses with higher quality.
- Added rail ramps, rail supports and elevated rails to build bridges.
- Added stack inserters (previous stack inserters are called bulk inserters now) which can load transport belts with layered stacks of items.
Alongside the expansion"s launch, the developer has also released a massive update to the base Factorio experience by bumping up the version to 2.0. This touts a massive number of train and rail control options, an in-game Factoriopedia, smarter UI and control schemes, different maps and overlays to quickly inspect the world and make changes to factories, and plenty more additions.
The absolutely massive changelog for version 2.0 and the Space Age expansion can be seen here.
The Factorio: Space Age expansion costs $35 on Steam and GOG, and it is available across Windows, macOS, and Linux.