While putting together your factory, Alternate Recipes can be a huge boost to production, providing a better alternative for many of the in-game elements. When you get the opportunity to unlock new alternate recipes in Satisfactory, a random choice of two will be available, so knowing which is the best and worst choice is essential. This ranking system should help you choose the right one every time.
How to unlock Alternate Recipes in Satisfactory
To get your hands on the better versions of recipes in Satisfactory, a little exploration is required. The Alternate Recipes can befound on hard drivesaround the world in crashed drop pods. These must be collected and researched at the M.A.M. This process will take ten minutes. You canuse a dedicated serverto give yourself the time and space you need to search for the various drop pods.
Once these hard drives have been researched, you will have the option toresearch one of two recipes or gain additional inventory space. Some Alternate Recipes are much more beneficial to productivity and output in Satisfactory, so make sure you check our tier list to ensure you make the right choice.
However,if you’re lucky enough to come across extra inventory space, I would recommend taking this option. It is incredibly useful, especially in the early game, and would come to the top of the tier list. It’s a pretty rare find, but one that will make playing Satisfactory much easier.
Alternate Recipes tier list
These items areranked on their productivity changes. The better the Alternate Recipes are for power consumption and output, the higher they rank in the Satisfactory tier list. Of course, you may disagree with some of their placements, but for me, this is where they all sit.
In these tables, minus numbers are a positive thing. Power is a reduction in power use, Items are a reduction in items needed to move around the map, buildings are a reduction of buildings required for a production chain, and resources are a reduction in necessary raw resources in production. These numbers are based on parameters across a whole production chain.
Use CTRL+F to find the various recipes.
S Tier Alternate Recipes
These Alternate Recipes are ones you should always keep an eye out for in Satisfactory. They have thehighest bonuses for output, productivity, and resources.
A Tier Alternate Recipes
These will certainlyhelp your build in Satisfactory. Pick them over the alternatives most of the time. These are all recommended Alternate Recipes.
B Tier Alternate Recipes
These are the most common Alternate Recipes in Satisfactory. They will certainly help you with productivity and output of your Satisfactory build, butthey aren’t the final solution for a perfect build.
C Tier Alternate Recipes
These Alternate Recipes are nothing to write home about but are oftenbetter than their regular counterpartsin Satisfactory.
D Tier Alternate Recipes
You got unlucky if you’re pulling one of these from a hard drive in Satisfactory.Almost all of these will be worse than their alternatives.
F Tier Alternate Recipes
These ones are more of a detriment than anything else. If you’re unlucky enough to find one of these Alternate Recipes in Satisfactory,I would recommend picking anything else.
How much difference do Alternate Recipes make?
If you’re wondering whether the time and effort of collecting and researching the Alternate Recipes in Satisfactory are worth it,the answer is yes. With your builds using a lot of the top-ranking Alternate Recipes, not only will your factory use a lot less power, but it will also move items much faster, build significantly faster, and mine resources much quicker.
It is worth going out into the world and looking for those crashed drop pods. Of course, you won’t always be lucky enough to get your hands on an S Tier parts, butchances of getting a better recipe than an original are high. Once you have figured out thebest place for your factoryand your dream layout, these new parts will make all the difference.
Leo Gillick
Leo is a Freelance Writer for PC Invasion. He has a degree in English Literature and Film Studies and more hours buried into videogames than he cares to admit. He has worked extensively in the Videogame and Travel writing industry but, as they say, get a job doing something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. He uses his writing as a means to support indefinite global travel with the current five year plan seeing him through Latin America.
