Just gambled for my first legendary mech armor. I reprocessed over 70k of holmium plates with legendary quality 3 modules. I think this is crazy. OFC the legendary items are way better (when they are usable like the armor).
What do you think about the ratio from regular items to quality items?
Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
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schorsch_76
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computeraddict
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Were you reprocessing plates directly or crafting them into something then breaking it down? Last time I ran the numbers (which was a while ago) doing a craft/breakdown loop on the desired end product itself was the most efficient use of resources. Especially since you get like a 1% chance to just up and get a legendary out of the rare crafting step, and forcefully preparing the legendary prerequisites avoids that cost saving circuit breaker.
Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
It sounds like you got Lucky! With 4x Quality Module 3 (+24.8%) and using only Recycling you need approximately 2700 Normal Input items to get one Legendary Output items. The Mech Armor recipe calls for 200 Holmium plates (plus an extra 25 for the Superconductors, and 100 for the Supercapacitors); or approximately 540,000 Inputs. You managed to do it with only 13% of this value, so congratulations!
Was this supposed to be a complaint?
This (Editor Mode) setup which utilizes Quality Modules in the Assembling Machines (not just the Recyclers) managed the feat in about under an In-Game Hour (but only minute of wall-clock time at x64 Speed). It still took over 140,000 intermediate-quality Plates to distill down to only 200 Legendary outputs - so you got pretty lucky!
Edit: Oops, accidentally wasted a bunch of Legendary items by forgetting a Filter. Updated setup / numbers / screenshots.
Was this supposed to be a complaint?
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Edit: Oops, accidentally wasted a bunch of Legendary items by forgetting a Filter. Updated setup / numbers / screenshots.
Last edited by eugenekay on Fri Oct 31, 2025 9:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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schorsch_76
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Then my main luck moment was as i got the legendary Armor Mk 2. 
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schorsch_76
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
These are my 2 Upcyclers to legendary. They use raw materials and upcycle everything until they reach legendary. OFC the quality modules gets replaced with better ones when available.
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- Upcycler1.png (1.15 MiB) Viewed 516 times
Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Ouch. It pains me to see people upcycle things by recycling them into themselves rather than craft-recycle loops.
But doing it to something rare like holmium plates hurts so much more.
But doing it to something rare like holmium plates hurts so much more.
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angramania
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Guys, why do you use AM3 instead of foundry for holmium plates?
Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Direct-recycling of Holmium Plates is mechanically simple: 1 Ingredient yields the exact same Ingredient, at a higher quality. No backpressure or intermediate shortage forms anywhere in the mechanism, which tends to happen with Copper/Plastic on the Superconductor recipe.Hurkyl wrote: Fri Oct 31, 2025 10:15 pmOuch. It pains me to see people upcycle things by recycling them into themselves rather than craft-recycle loops.
Because:angramania wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 12:33 amGuys, why do you use AM3 instead of foundry for holmium plates?
- It is a quick demo in the Map Editor to validate the Math
- I went to Fulgora before Vulcanus/Gleba
- Assemblers are more compact; Fulgora is known for its lack of usable land.
- I like being inefficient and wasteful
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schorsch_76
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
The wiki tells me, foundry can't assemble holmium plates... Or can it?angramania wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 12:33 am Guys, why do you use AM3 instead of foundry for holmium plates?
https://wiki.factorio.com/Foundry
Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Yes the wiki is missing holmium in the foundry entry. If you check holmium plate in the wiki, or in the ingame Factoriopedia, you can see that yes the foundry will cast holmium plates.schorsch_76 wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 5:30 am The wiki tells me, foundry can't assemble holmium plates... Or can it?
https://wiki.factorio.com/Foundry
My own personal Factorio super-power - running out of power.
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schorsch_76
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Now i changed the line to foundriesAmarula wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 12:37 pmYes the wiki is missing holmium in the foundry entry. If you check holmium plate in the wiki, or in the ingame Factoriopedia, you can see that yes the foundry will cast holmium plates.schorsch_76 wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 5:30 am The wiki tells me, foundry can't assemble holmium plates... Or can it?
https://wiki.factorio.com/Foundry
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angramania
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Re: Over 70k holmium plates for 1 legendary Mech Armour
Wiki doesn't list it in among exclusive recipes, because it is not exclusive, but still mention it:schorsch_76 wrote: Sat Nov 01, 2025 5:30 am The wiki tells me, foundry can't assemble holmium plates... Or can it?
https://wiki.factorio.com/Foundry
Additionally, the foundry can also make other foundries (but only on Vulcanus), all belt types, and holmium plates; the recipes are the same as used in assembling machines.