Satisfactorywould be easy if the terrain was flat and open everywhere, but you aren’t so lucky. Various boulders and rocks can get in your way, either because they make it hard to place your machines or because they block the way to new biomes or hidden collectibles.
Some of the boulders inSatisfactoryare destructible, but you’ll need the right tool to make them disappear. Others are permanent parts of the landscape, but there are still ways to get rid of the problem. Of course, it helps to know what you’re looking at when you’re planning on how to get rid of it.
Ore Nodes
Ore nodes are the easiest rocks to remove. They often appear above ore deposits, and you need to remove them if you want to place a miner. To get rid of them, simply walk up to it and hold the interaction button (the E key by default) to collect ore. Eventually, the node will run out of ore and explode into dust.
If you still need oreand don’t have a portable miner handy, you may collect more by interacting with the ore deposit itself. However, a portable miner or full-size miner will gather ore faster.
You can also sometimes find ore rocks on the sides of cliffs or randomly on the ground. They usually aren’t in the way, but you can get rid of them (and gather their valuable ores) the same way as an ore node on a deposit.
Destructible Boulders
Some of the rocks and walls inSatisfactoryare covered in dark cracks. These cracks indicate that you can destroy these obstacles, and doing so often reveals hidden paths, buried collectibles, or simply makes it easier for vehicles to get through a narrow passage.
The only way to get rid of these boulders is with explosives, which are called “nobelisk” (after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of TNT). You can unlock nobeliskin the Sulfur section of the MAM, but it’s a few steps into the tree. What you’ll need to get nobelisk is:
The steel pipe requirementmeans that you shouldn’t expect to unlock nobelisk until after you get access to Tier 3 milestones.
You can find other nobelisk varieties in other MAM research trees, but the basic charge is all you need if you want to destroy boulders. To use nobelisk:
Nobelisk charges explode boulders and walls with dark cracks in them. They also destroy trees and bushes without letting you collect any materials, so watch where you throw them. On the other hand, they’re also good for destroying hostile life forms and the stone pillars that emit poisonous gas.
Indestructible Boulders
Whether it’s large or small, a boulder without any cracks or ore lumps on its surface is indestructible and won’t ever go away.They can get in the way of conveyor beltsand machinery, but there are other ways to handle these obstacles.
The simplest solution is to build a foundation that completely covers the offending boulder. Foundation blocks can overlap with any part of the surrounding landscape, including inconvenient stones and boulders. The four-meter foundation is especially good at rising up above the uneven terrain, and its resource cost is exactly the same as the one-meter foundation.
Foundations also help by forcing machinery and conveyor belts to snap to a grid, which makes it easier to line machines up and guarantee that each one has enough space. So if your starting area isn’t nearly as flat as you’d like,invest in the Base Building milestoneand create your own level playing field.
