Factorio Forums

Not sure if this has already been reported, but I tried doing an advanced search for "roboport" and it came back with hundreds of meaningless results, so sorry if this is already reported.

Anyway, I have noticed that when I have freshly placed a roboport that has just been placed in a location without any power coverage, robots can charge at it immediately, even though it's not connected to the power network.

If I connect it to the power network, and then disconnect it, it works as intended and bots can no longer charge at it, because I think it's in it's "battery recharging" state when the power is disconnected, but it doesn't seem to go into this state when initially placed.

Here's a screenshot showing the issue. The robot in the middle of the picture is recharging despite the associated roboport never being on the power grid.

I would share a save, but I am working on some mods (none of which touch roboports at all) and they aren't on the mod portal yet, which could make sharing a save difficult. I will try to reproduce on vanilla sandbox mode and post if it's reproducible there.

Roboports seem to get an initial small amount of energy in their energy buffer when placed. Probably to make them connect to an existing logistics network, since that's often the intention if you place a new roboport. Otherwise you don't immediately see how the network will extend, only after you also placed energy supply. And being part of a logistics network makes robots want to charge at them. Once they deplete the buffer, the roboport goes out of service and removes itself from the network.

Buffer fill state immediately after being placed: It's the same as with your new smartphone and other electronic gadget: you get it with the battery half filled. Not empty.

Tertius wrote: Sun Nov 02, 2025 11:59 am Roboports seem to get an initial small amount of energy in their energy buffer when placed.

More specifically: freshly placed roboports will have their energy buffer filled with 0.25 × recharge_minimum energy.

The base game sets this value to 40 MJ, which is 10MJ of "free" energy.

Good Luck!