· build · 2 min read
Why is my Satisfactory production line slow?
A Satisfactory line at 67% is either starving or backed up, and the two want opposite fixes. How to tell which one from the machine's buffers.
A machine in Satisfactory says 67% and nothing else. That number tells you how much the line made. It does not tell you why it made less, and the two usual reasons want opposite fixes.
Two ways to run at 67%
A starving machine has nothing to work on. Its input buffer is empty or nearly empty, so it waits for parts. The fix is upstream: more of the part it is short of, or a belt that actually reaches it.
A backed-up machine has nowhere to put what it made. Its output buffer is full, so it stops. The fix is downstream: a line that uses the product, a container, or an AWESOME Sink.
Uptime alone cannot tell them apart. Build more smelters for a line that is backed up and you only make the pile bigger.
The buffers say which
Every machine in your save carries its input and output buffers, with counts. Factory Board reads both for every line that runs below 95% and checks the output first. The order matters. A machine that cannot put anything down stops taking what it is fed, so its input fills up and looks healthy. Check the input first and you would call it fine.
It counts in runs, not items. A Rotor takes 25 screws a run and a Cable takes 2 wire, so 25 screws and 2 wire are the same amount: one run. That is how it names the one ingredient holding a line up. Two runs' worth of product waiting in the output means backed up. Two runs' worth of an ingredient or less in the input means starving.
What it looks like
The demo base that ships with the board has both cases:
- Cable is starving. Two wire in its input, and 900 more in a container the belt never reaches.
- Iron Rod is backed up. Full input, full output, and 2,400 rods already in storage.
The first wants a belt moved. The second wants something to use the rods. Neither wants another smelter.
When a line is powered, fed and not backed up, and still slow, the board says exactly that and stops there. It does not make up a reason.
Try it on your base
Drop your newest save on the page. It is read in your browser and never uploaded. The top of the page lists up to three problems by cause, each with what to try first.
- Satisfactory
- Tools
