Surprising observation about first-time players
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2026 8:20 pm
Hi, I'm a long-time player that recently became obsessed watching Factorio first-time playthroughs on YouTube (They're fun! Every new player's factory looks and works completely differently!) and I made an interesting observation:
As we all know, desert-start vs forest-start Factorio games are completely different gameplay experiences - Desert start bases usually get their first attack before green science, whereas forest start bases can sometimes beat the whole game without a single attack (Remember that first time players tend to have very small factories)
I assumed this would mean that desert start players give up more easily, but it actually turns out to the be opposite! Forest-start players tend to build their starter bases with no biter-friction, but get bored of the game at around blue science. Desert-start players get attacked by the biters earlier, but that actually does many things for them:
As we all know, desert-start vs forest-start Factorio games are completely different gameplay experiences - Desert start bases usually get their first attack before green science, whereas forest start bases can sometimes beat the whole game without a single attack (Remember that first time players tend to have very small factories)
I assumed this would mean that desert start players give up more easily, but it actually turns out to the be opposite! Forest-start players tend to build their starter bases with no biter-friction, but get bored of the game at around blue science. Desert-start players get attacked by the biters earlier, but that actually does many things for them:
- The biters destroying their base forces them to rebuild knowing all the things they learned in the first two hours, which means the base will be better
- Players who got their base destroyed early will be eager to bring the fight back to the biters, so they'll start clearing nests with grenades and shotguns
- Players who have cleared biter nests will be much more likely to expand their base in terms of physical size. Forest players meanwhile tend to develop some kind of vague fear of expanding their base, which gets coupled with the physical friction of chopping down all those trees, and the result is that forest-start players build their base way too small and compact.
- Another factor in this might be that if your main experience of the world is driving in a car through the desert, the world will feel more spacious then if your main experience of the world is moving around trees to get from your base to your starter iron mine.
- Players who had their base destroyed early will be motivated to get the blue-science weapons upgrades so they can fight biter nests more efficiently. That gives them a motivation they actually feel, rather than the vague and distant goal of winning the game.