Starter Blueprints and Builds

What to build first, the loose main bus, and why you should teach yourself the ratios before importing other people's blueprint strings.

At a glance


First milestone	Red and green science automated and feeding labs.
Core layout	A loose main bus: a few belts of iron, copper, green circuit, and steel running in one clear direction.
Blueprints	Capture a design once you understand it, then stamp it down. Strings go stale across versions, so learn the ratio first.

You do not need a strict bus to win. You need a clear direction of flow so you can branch off it instead of weaving spaghetti.

Belt	Carries
2 belts	Iron plate
2 belts	Copper plate
1 belt	Green circuit (electronic circuit)
1 belt	Steel

Run these parallel in one direction. Pull off side belts for each new build, leaving gaps you can splice into later.

Hand-craft a few red science packs to bootstrap the first automation research.
Automate red science: copper plate plus iron gear wheel into an assembler, into a lab.
Automate green science alongside it (transport belt plus inserter). Red and green together is the first real milestone.
Lay the main bus with room to spare, then branch off it for each product.
Add military science only when biters pressure you.
Reach blue (chemical) science and set up oil immediately.

Build a design by hand the first time so you understand what feeds it.
Once it works, select it as a blueprint and stamp copies instead of hand-placing the same smelter column over and over.
Blueprint books organize a whole base’s worth of designs.
Import strings shared by the community go stale across versions and recipe changes, so treat them as references, not drop-in answers.

Building cramped. Your first factory grows like a tumor, so double the footprint you think you need.
Spaghetti with no flow direction. A loose bus prevents most of it.
Importing a blueprint you do not understand and then being unable to fix it when it jams.