Factorio Forums

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2026 6:22 pm**

Almost everything in Factorio has a logical research order, and you need to research every part needed to craft X before you can research X. This makes sense.

I noticed today that Beacons are the exception (perhaps there are a few more, but not many).

Beacons require blue chips research, but they do not require blue chips to craft. Why then do we need to research blue chips first?

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2026 6:34 pm**

I tried to find an answer but archeology leads towards a change 13 years ago around game version 0.6.0 when a technology for basic-beacon was added, at that point it had dependencies set to {"modules", "advanced-electronics-2"} and later "advanced-electronics-2" was renamed into "processing-unit". So no constructive answers, it was like that virtually forever.

Posted: **Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:33 pm**

Perhaps because blue chips are needed for tier 2 and 3 modules?

Using a beacon for tier 1 modules seems a very expensive proposition for such a small gain.

Factorio Forums

Why does Beacon require Blue circuit research when they are not used to craft it?

Why does Beacon require Blue circuit research when they are not used to craft it?

Re: Why does Beacon require Blue circuit research when they are not used to craft it?

Re: Why does Beacon require Blue circuit research when they are not used to craft it?