Factorio Forums

I've got most achievements so I'm trying to get the last few. Specifically the 15/8 hour challenge.

I've figured out that you need about 4600 red and green science packs and 2300 of the others (sorry, have the exact numbers at home). So at first I thought: Hey, I need twice as much red/green as the rest. Lets build them twice as big. But you get red/green science right from the start and need a bunch of it to even be able to build the other. So they do get a headstart.

So what is your strategy here? Do you produce all science packs at the same speed (5:6:5:12:7:7 ratio), adding science pack assemblies as you research the tech for them? Or do you even go the other way, overproduce red/green at the start, buffer it in chests and then later switch over to the other science packs?

What order do you build science packs? Red/green to start obviously. But do you then go for the black military science packs next or spearhead oil processing and blue science packs?

On a related note: Looking at what actually is required to build a rocket I noticed that a bunch of useful stuff isn't required. Like blue and yellow assemblers, fast (red) belts and even underground belts and fast inserter. I think underground belts are essential. No sane way around them. That also gives you fast inserters, which is nice. I think blue assembler are also a no-brainer. Fast (red) belts I'm not sure about. They are not that expensive to research but need a lot of iron to build. Building 2 yellow belts is cheaper. Are they a waste? I'm unsure. The yellow assembler though I think I will skip. To expensive to research and build. Or am I wrong there?

There are normally two science phases.

1. Research Oil processing and Military 2.
2. Build mines/pumpjacks/turrets on all the resources you need.
3. Research everything else.

You don't need much red/green science for the first phase. Build a bigger red/green factory as you scale up the rest of your research.

Logistics 1 and Lab research speed 2 are the only optional techs you need to take. Logistics 2 and Inserter capacity bonus 2 are helpful for some designs, but if you can find an efficient design that doesn't need them it's better to skip them.