Satisfactory introduced new biomes, expanded production capabilities, and increased resource demands, so efficient energy management is more important than ever. Take Tier 9 technology, for example, which introduces advanced machinery and production lines that consume much more power.
Compacted Coal provides a way to meet these growing demands without constantly expanding your coal generator setups.
Here’s how to unlock and craft it.
How To Unlock Compacted Coal
To unlock Compacted Coal in Satisfactory, complete the Sulfur Research Chain in the Molecular Analysis Machine (MAM).
Many players overlook the MAM early on, missing out on valuable research-based unlocks like Blade Runners and Compacted Coal.
It serves as a research station where you can unlock recipes and equipment beyond the regular milestone reward. Compacted Coal is specifically a third-tier unlock within the sulfur research tree.
This resource can be unlocked without the need to complete several milestone tiers. Once you gather ten units of sulfur, you can unlock the first node in the sulfur tree, which grants the ability to scan for sulfur.
The research for Compacted Coal requires the following materials:
- 60 units of sulfur
- 50 modular frames
- 100 rotors
- 25 units of coal
- One hard drive
Scan for sulfur nodes, often found in more remote or mountainous areas. Once located, mine enough sulfur to start research in the MAM. Doing so will unlock various sulfur-based recipes, including those essential for Compacted Coal.
Collecting sulfur might take effort since it is rarer than coal, but once you have enough, you can proceed with the following steps. The key to unlocking compacted coal is using hard drives, which can be found at crash sites scattered across the map.
Most crash sites have defenses, so get ready to battle aggressive creatures. Each crash site contains a drop pod you must unlock by meeting specific conditions. These may include supplying power or delivering certain resources (like rotors or motors) before accessing the hard drive.
Since Satisfactory uses a handcrafted map, these crash sites are fixed in position, so once you know where to find them, they are relatively easy to locate in any biome.
After retrieving the hard drive and examining it in the MAM, you will find three alternate recipes, one of which could be Compacted Coal. If it doesn’t show up on your first attempt, you’ll need to collect more hard drives until the recipe is unlocked.
How To Craft Compacted Coal
To craft Compacted Coal, you'll need both coal and sulfur. The recipe requires five units of coal and sulfur in an assembly to produce five units of compacted coal. Setting up dedicated mining and transport systems for sulfur and coal is recommended to maximize efficiency and ensure a steady supply of compacted coal for your factory.
Sulfur is relatively hard to come by, so finding one early means you should start mining it as soon as possible. It can also be mined similarly once you’ve found its deposits. Several nodes are throughout the starting biomes, but the Northern Forest has the most.
Since sulfur is also used in other recipes, such as explosives and Turbofuel, it’s important to manage your sulfur resources wisely when you have enough.
Once both resources are available, automating the process is straightforward. Plug the output from the mining rigs into a few assemblers and channel their output into a storage container. Each cycle takes approximately 4 seconds to complete. It’s best to automate resource collection using Miners and conveyor belts to make things more efficient.
This setup will continuously feed Coal and Sulfur into the Assembler, ensuring a steady production of Compacted Coal. The advantage of Compacted Coal is its significantly higher energy output than regular coal.
It produces 630 MJ per unit, while regular coal produces 300 MJ, ideal for powering more advanced machinery or larger factories.
Have you found any specific biomes better for locating sulfur nodes? Comment down below!