Alchemy Factory Automation & Factory Layout Guide

Alchemy Factory is designed around automated production. Conveyors carry solid materials, pipes handle fluid networks, magical devices add specialist automation, and Version 1.0 adds rail-based wagons for larger-scale logistics. The goal is not merely to fit machines into a room; it is to create a factory whose flow remains understandable when the business becomes much larger.

Design backwards from the finished product

Choose the output first, then identify every raw input, processing stage and intermediate material needed to make it. Official game information describes complete chains using grinding, extraction, distillation, smelting and other processing. Drawing the chain mentally before placing equipment prevents transport from becoming the design rather than supporting it.

Create production modules

Keep strongly connected stages close together and give each module an understandable input and output. A module might process one raw material, create an intermediate used across several recipes or produce a finished shop good. Clear boundaries make later expansion and troubleshooting far easier.

Use conveyors for continuous local flow

Conveyors are the backbone of the factory and are intended to move materials continuously between devices. Keep routes direct where practical. Every unnecessary crossing, detour and merge adds another place where a future shortage can become harder to understand.

Use pipes as a network, not decoration

Alchemy Factory supports arcane pipe networks for moving magical liquids. Plan fluid-producing and fluid-consuming stages with the same care as solid materials. Keeping pipe routes legible makes it easier to distinguish a production shortage from a distribution problem.

Build vertically when it solves a layout problem

Factories can extend upward and downward, with production chains operating at different heights. Vertical construction can separate functional zones or create compact modules, but stacking floors without a clear transport plan merely converts horizontal spaghetti into architectural spaghetti.

Leave expansion faces

Important modules should have at least one sensible direction in which capacity can grow. Avoid enclosing critical machines with unrelated production, walls or transport routes if you expect demand to increase later.

Use buffers to reveal imbalance

A buffer between stages separates their timing and provides useful information. Repeatedly empty storage indicates upstream production or transport cannot meet demand. Constantly growing storage means the next stage is consuming too slowly. Fix the imbalance rather than celebrating your magnificent warehouse.

Protect shared intermediates

If several products depend on the same processed material, total demand matters. Centralised production can make shared supply easy to expand, while dedicated lines can protect a high-priority product from competing consumers. Choose based on how easy the system is to monitor and scale.

Reserve wagons for larger logistics

Version 1.0's rail-based Wagon System offers greater capacity than conveyors at the cost of more complex construction. Use it when distance, volume or factory zoning justifies a transport layer. Track Sorters allow branching routes, and the player can even transform into a wagon to travel the network for inspection.

Design the shop as another destination

Finished production does not end at the final machine. Goods need to reach storage, commissions or shop shelves. Version 1.0 allows customers to reach upper floors and supports multiple shop gates, so shop layout can be integrated into a multi-level factory rather than forced into one entrance on one floor.

Use blueprints after understanding the design

Steam Workshop supports Alchemy Factory blueprints. They are excellent for repeatable modules and inspiration, but a blueprint still assumes particular inputs, outputs and available space. Understand those assumptions before dropping a community design into the middle of a live factory.

Troubleshooting order

When a line underperforms, check raw supply first, then processing capacity, shared intermediates, transport, output storage and final consumption. Changing several stages simultaneously makes it harder to identify the actual constraint.

What a scalable factory looks like

A scalable design has readable flows, accessible connection points, room to increase capacity and a clear distinction between local production transport and long-distance logistics. It does not need to be perfectly compact. Space deliberately left unused is often more valuable than one extra machine squeezed into a future junction.

Version 1.1.5024 update: cargo lifts and tracks

Version 1.1.5023 added the Cargo Lift, which carries up to 16 packages at once, and new Merge Track and Track Sorter variants. When planning multi-floor production, compare cargo lifts with existing routes and check capacity against your actual throughput. The update also adds connected-track selection in Delete and Clone modes. Hotfix 1.1.5024 fixed an issue that prevented selection of the new track variants.

Calculate the bottleneck before you rebuild

At the base Logistics Efficiency setting, the community v1.1.5023 dataset lists a conveyor capacity of 60 solid items per minute. Factory Efficiency can change machine output and Logistics Efficiency can change belt speed, so check both upgrades before comparing ratios.

Worked layout: three saws feeding a plank bus

Three unupgraded Table Saws provide a theoretical 90 Planks per minute, since each makes 30/min. A base conveyor moves 60 items/min, so do not combine all three saws onto one final belt. Instead, run two output lanes to a clearly labelled buffer or production junction, and ensure that no shared segment silently reduces the total capacity to 60/min. Keep one side of the module free for expansion.

When to use conveyors, pipes, wagons and the Cargo Lift

• Conveyors: predictable local flows of solid items between adjacent production devices.
• Pipes: fluid ingredients and outputs, with their own routing and capacity concerns.
• Wagons: longer-distance transport between large factory zones when local belts become unwieldy.
• Cargo Lift: packages moving vertically; introduced in v1.1.5023 and reported to carry up to 16 packages per trip.

The Cargo Lift's 16-package load is not a packages-per-minute figure. Its actual throughput depends on travel cycle time and loading and unloading, so measure it in your layout rather than equating its load size to conveyor speed. The October 2026 update also introduced additional track variants and connected-track selection for Delete and Clone modes.

Five-minute factory health check

1. Pick one finished product and note its real output over several minutes.
2. Check incoming materials and mark any buffer that drains.
3. Inspect the slowest device's recipe and current upgrade settings.
4. Follow every output merge, sorter, belt, pipe or station to its destination.
5. Change only one constraint, then measure again; otherwise you may conceal the original cause.

Sources: Alchemy Factory production planner for base belt and machine assumptions (v1.1.5023); official v1.1.5023 patch notes mirrored by SteamDB for Cargo Lift and track changes. The diagnostic sequence is Risen Ancients' own suggested workflow, not an in-game tutorial.

Know when an upgrade changes the layout

At the base logistics setting, conveyors move 60 solid items a minute. The v1.1.5023 community upgrade reference reports +15 items/min for each of the first twelve Logistics Efficiency levels, then +3/min for repeatable levels. For the first twelve levels, use the simple estimate belt items per minute = 60 + (15 × Logistics levels). Actual upgraded performance should be checked against the in-game value.

This comparison assumes saws stay at their original 30 Planks/min speed. If Factory Efficiency is increased at the same time, recalculate saw output too. In particular, 25% more device speed and more belt speed can change the bottleneck to incoming Logs or the next processing stage. Upgrade reference.

A functional layout needs five zones

1. Source: raw material buying, storage or farming, with a stable replenishment route.
2. Transformation: saws, grinders, processors, heated devices and other production modules grouped by actual dependencies.
3. Support: fuel, fertilizer, heat transmission and access for maintenance or expansion.
4. Distribution: output buffers, splitters, conveyors, pipes, wagons or lifts that send each result to its intended destination.
5. Sale and delivery: shelves, commissions and finished-stock handling separated from machinery congestion.

The zones need not be five literal rooms. They are five responsibilities that should remain traceable as the factory expands vertically.

Floor-to-floor transfer checklist

Before installing a lift or multi-storey rail line, note the source floor, destination floor, what goods are actually supported, payload per cycle and full transit duration. The v1.1.5023 Cargo Lift carries up to 16 packages per load, but that gives neither a cycle time nor a per-minute throughput. Measure both ends of the route under load and leave an accessible buffer so a station failure does not shut down unrelated production. Official 1.1.5023 feature announcement.