Factorio Forums

I could not find a discussion on this topic so let's start one. On a given run of Factorio Space Age what is the first planet you usually visit and why ?

My I am firm believer of Fulgora first. The EM plants are amazing and it takes practically no time to set up making and transporting them, since Fulgora has such and easy access to rocket parts. Their benefit on my Nauvis factory is very immediate. Unlike Vulcanis where things take much longer to setup and do not have such an immediate effect. I am currently practising for an all achievements run so I am playing by the rules of keep hands clean, rush to space and logistics embargo. While I have all other achievements currently unlocked, I am no where near express delivery timings. So a strong argument can be made for Vulcanis to clear the achievements blocking from logistics and purple science. I don't do the Fulgora science on my first visit focusing only on the EM plants. I still think Vulcanis is overrated, it is great but not as great as people think it is. I used to do all sciences on Vulcanis, but it takes way too long to set it up. And once you unlock the foundries and mining drills and secure the transport of calcites. you can do the exact same thing on Nauvis. I should also probably mention I am playing the 2.1 rule set, platforms can freely transfer in-between, so I don't care, my thrusting platform is low power over Fulgora. It has enough fuel for a round trip and enough ammo to linger maybe an hour and still make it back.

I usually go Vulcanus first:
-cliff explosives make expanding on every other planet easier
-artillery to clean up Nauvis and possibly defend Gleba if you plan to build big there
- turbo belts to maximize throughput, and minimize spoilage
-the easy set-up and practically free resources workout having to care for enemies are a plus, I offset a lot of my production from Nauvis towards Vulcanus.

Fulgora is also a strong candidate as a first planet for the reasons you mention

In any case, my second planet is Gleba. I do only the bare minimum: science, carbon, rocket turrets, rocket fuel. I don't bother with bacteria for iron or copper production, so all the rest is imported. That keeps the spores cloud so ridiculously small that a handful of lasers around both farms are enough to defend them, I think they even did not fire once in my latest run.
By the time you finish the third planet, enough agricultural science will have trickled out of Gleba to research all the necessary prerequisites for Aquillo

Normally Fulgora for recyclers.

I wonder how much of a difference playing with enemies makes. I assume Vulcanus is more popular for those who play with enemies on - and also for those who enable cliffs.

First Vulcanus for cliff explosives, foundry and artillery.
Then Gleba for various important research.
Then Fulgora, because it's the last inner planet.
Then Aquilo, because it's next.

I do some back and forth most of the time, starting with Fulgora usually because you can set it up in like 5 minutes if you bring enough to craft and feed a silo, you just leave a bunch of robots miners and accu protected againt storm and you can do everything remotely then. You can almost do the same in Vulcanus , you only need to rush a worm to liberate some tungsten, then i go to gleba with my character and stay more there while doing stuff in remote view on the other planets. I'll go back to Nauvis when i have artillery, to Vulcanus once i have tesla, and to Fulgora when i have cliff explosive or need more throughput than currently tapped island can provide as scrap.

I vary depending on what I want to do, but my leanings are for Gleba first:

• I like having the stack inserter when I start using foundries and electromagnetic plants
• I like switching early to the better fuel recipes for my platforms
• I like mining calcite from space when using foundries outside of Vulcanus
• Taking advantage of better labs requires very little tearing up of the old Nauvis base (in comparison to using Foundries or Electromagnetic plants)
• I can get an early start on mass production of productivity module 3
• The infinite tech thresholds I care most about are explosive damage to reduce the number of rockets to pop asteroids, and Gleba first lets me get spend idle research cycles on that while working on the other planets

I go for Fulgora first:

• Mech armor, so I don't have to run around cliffs or lakes and I don't have to dodge trains.
• Personal roboport MK2 so I can get more construction bots building.
• By the time I get to Fulgora, I could really use a break from routing belts, so I go almost 100% logistic bots/chests. You don't get any belt-related items on Fulgora anyway.

After that it's a toss-up, but if I do Vulcanus next, big mining drills are helpful in making stone patches stretch further on Gleba.

Fulgora first, but only for EM plants! I normally set up a quick robot-powered setup for recyclers + EM plants, then bring the EM plants to Vulcanus and set up a large manufacturing hub there, including Metallurgic science research. Then I'll bring cliff explosives, big mining drills and foundries back to Fulgora to properly set up Electromagnetic Science before tackling Gleba.

Vulcanus first, because it makes for a fantastic industrial center and the tools it provides, particularly turbo belts, are great for Gleba. Asteroid reprocessing is also nice for platforms.

Gleba is second, because advanced asteroid processing and stack inserters are quite nice to have. It’s also the planet I have the most fun with.

Fulgora is last because it has nothing I really want and is far and away the planet I find least interesting.

I usually go Fulgora first as well, mostly because the payoff is so immediate. Getting a few EM plants running early and then bringing them back to Nauvis feels much more useful to me than spending a long time building up Vulcanus before seeing the benefits.

I do like Vulcanus, especially once foundries and big drills are online, but I tend to prefer getting the quick Fulgora unlocks first and then coming back for the heavier industrial setup later.

Foundries reduce iron/copper requirements threefolds. EM only by one third. For space platforms Vulcanus is almost must have but Fulgora is nearly useless. The choice is obvious - Vulcanus.
Sometimes Gleba is a good alternative because it doubles science production with minimal changes to infrastructure. But still Vulcanus is better in most cases.

On my last few runs, I've settled into Gleba first with all bots and importing everything I can from Nauvis. I get agri science and bioflux going back to Nauvis for biolabs and prod 3 modules, as well as getting advanced asteroid processing going. Stack inserter research is also a nice to have, since that also increases belt capacity for Big Mining Drills and Recyclers.

I very rarely stick around on Gleba for long, though. If I plan to expand enough to make the pentapods mad, I'll come back after Fulgora with tesla turrets.

Vulcanus. Unlimited iron and copper. Both for use on Vulcanus and for exporting off-world.

Do I really need any other reasons?

Gleba first or Vulcanus first in 2.0.x. On 2.1.x, Vulcanus first for sure, might check on Gleba this weekend.

Adv. Asteroid Processing is probably the best research in the game. Foundries make steel cheap. Spidertrons or Artillery secure planets.