When it comes to optimizing your factory in Satisfactory, alternate recipes are the real game changers. But which ones are truly the best?
In this updated Alternate Recipe Tier List, I’ll break down how these recipes stack up in terms of power, buildings, resources, and items required and help you decide which ones deserve a spot in your factory.
Let’s go over a little bit over the criteria this tier list is based on.
- Total Items moving around the map
- Total Buildings needed in the whole production chain
- Power Use from all buildings in the production chain
- Raw Resources needed
Why Alternate Recipes Matter
One thing that you may wonder about alternate recipes is whether or not they are worth it, so here is an example.
Building High-End Items Without Alternates
If you wanted to produce the following items using only original recipes:
- 20 Thermal Propulsion Rockets
- 20 Nuclear Pasta
- 80 Assembly Director Systems
- 80 Magnetic Field Generators
Here’s what it would cost:
- 321,480 MW power
- 895,058 items moved per minute
- 23,780 buildings
- 335,158 resources
Building High-End Items With Alternates
Using alternate recipes for the same production:
- 207,603 MW power (-35.4%)
- 426,001 items moved per minute (-52.4%)
- 7,145 buildings (-70%)
- 154,850 resources (-53.8%)
As seen with the example above, Alternate Recipes provide players with most often cheaper options than their counterparts.
And if this still sounds a bit too complicated for you, you can always take a look at Common Sense Gamer’s recommended Satisfactory alternatives you can play.
Tier List of all Satisfactory Alternate Recipes
Here I will go over the complete Alternate Recipe tier list, from the best standing in S-Tier, down to the worst in F-Tier.
An efficiency score will be displayed in parentheses before each of the Alternate Recipes.
| Tiers | Alternate Recipes |
| S (Super Highly Recommended) | (97.7) Heavy Encased Frame, (92.3) Copper Alloy Ingot, (92) Pure Aluminum Ingot, (87.6) Oil-Based Diamonds, (87.3) Dark Matter Trap, (86.7) Heavy Flexible Frame, (86.1) Sloppy Alumina, (83) Insulated Crystal Oscillator, (80.4) Silicon Circuit Board, (79.1) Crystal Computer, (78.8) Heat-Fused Frame, (78.3) Uranium Fuel Unit, (77.2) Caterium Circuit Board |
| A (Highly Recommended) | (73.3) Super-State Computer, (72) Turbo Diamonds, (71.3) Caterium Computer, (71) Electrode Aluminum Scrap, (69.6) Diluted Fuel, (67.9) Turbo Pressure Motor, (67.4) Rubber Concrete, (66.7) Plastic AI Limiter, (65.5) Steel Screw, (64.4) Rigor Motor, (64.2) Steel Rod, (63.5) Fine Concrete, (63.1) Steeled Frame, (62.6) Aluminum Beam, (61) Aluminum Rod, (60.8) Turbo Electric Motor, (60) Electric Motor, (59.2) Wet Concrete, (59.2) Automated Speed Wiring, (59) Coke Steel Ingot, (58.9) Infused Uranium Cell |
| B (Recommended) | (57.1) Silicon High-Speed Connector, (57.1) Radio Control System, (56.4) Solid Steel Ingot, (56.1) Heat Exchanger,(56) Recycled Plastic, (55.8) Coated Iron Plate, (55.7) Adhered Iron Plate, (53.7) Stitched Iron Plate, (53.7) Insulated Cable, (53.3) Coated Cable, (53.2) Fused Wire, (53.2) Plastic Smart Plating, (53.2) Copper Rotor, (53.1) Steel Cast Plate, (53) Nitro Rocket Fuel, (52.9) Steamed Copper Sheet, (52.8) OC Supercomputer, (52.5) Steel Rotor, (52.2) Tempered Caterium Ingot, (51.9) Cooling Device, (51.9) Pure Quartz Crystal, (51.8) Electromagnetic Connection Rod, (51.7) Quickwire Cable, (51.7) Caterium Wire, (51.6) Quickwire Stator, (51.5) Bolted Frame, (51.4) Bolted Iron Plate, (51.1) Fine Black Powder, (51) Heavy Oil Residue, (50.8) Flexible Framework, (50.7) Turbo Heavy Fuel, (50.7) Cast Screw, (50.3) Iron Alloy Ingot, (50.1) Polymer Resin |
| C (Somewhat Recommended) | (50) Automated Miner (Use for depot), (49.7) Pure Iron Ingot, (49.7) Leached Iron Ingot, (49.5) Iron Wire, (49.4) Coated Iron Canister, (49.3) Classic Battery, (49.1) Steel Canister, (49) Fused Quickwire, (49) Cheap Silica, (48.5) Molded Beam, (48.5) Alclad Casing, (48.3) Basic Iron Ingot, (48.2) Distilled Silica, (48.1) Fused Quartz Crystal, (46.5) Molded Steel Pipe, (46.4) Leached Caterium Ingot, (46.1) Turbo Blend Fuel, (45.3) Electrode Circuit Board, (44.1) Pure Caterium Ingot, (42.6) Encased Industrial Pipe*, (42.1) Recycled Rubber |
| D (Could Be Better) | (38) Compacted Steel Ingot, (37.2) Quartz Purification, (36.4) Plutonium Fuel Unit, (35.8) Pink Diamonds, (34.9) Instant Plutonium Cell, (33) Iron Pipe. |
| F (Not Recommended) | (23.1) Instant Scrap, (19.5) Pure Copper Ingot, (13) Fertile Uranium, (9.1) Radio Connection Unit, (5.2) Cloudy Diamonds, (4.2) Dark-Ion Fuel, (3.2) Dark Matter Crystallization, (2.9) Petroleum Diamonds, (2) Leached Copper Ingot, (0.2) Tempered Copper Ingot, (0) Biocoal, (0) Charcoal. |
This is the complete Alternate Recipe tier list, for Satisfactory.
S-Tier Alternate Recipes Breakdown
Now that you know how the alternate precipices compare to the originals, let’s break down the S-Tier on the criteria that made the tier list in the first place.
| Recipe | Power | Items | Buildings | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (97.7) Heavy Encased Frame | -1.83% | -6.53% | -7.65% | -2.77% |
| (92.3) Copper Alloy Ingot | 0.55% | 0.07% | -23.37% | 0.10% |
| (92) Pure Aluminum Ingot | -0.66% | -1.67% | -2.16% | -2.16% |
| (87.6) Oil-Based Diamonds | -2.54% | -4.89% | -0.82% | -10.88% |
| (87.3) Dark Matter Trap | -0.52% | -1.53% | 0.05% | -2.26% |
| (86.7) Heavy Flexible Frame | -1.02% | -3.62% | -3.84% | -2.19% |
| (86.1) Sloppy Alumina | -0.90% | -2.46% | 1.20% | -4.81% |
| (83) Insulated Crystal Oscillator | -1.34% | -1.62% | -3.05% | -1.38% |
| (80.4) Silicon Circuit Board | -1.92% | -0.71% | -3.19% | -0.66% |
| (79.1) Crystal Computer | -1.23% | -2.01% | -2.15% | -1.42% |
| (78.8) Heat-Fused Frame | -0.35% | -2.77% | -2.57% | -1.00% |
| (78.3) Uranium Fuel Unit | -1.64% | -1.63% | -1.55% | -1.94% |
| (77.2) Caterium Circuit Board | -1.96% | -0.69% | -2.72% | -1.78% |
As you can see the S-tier Alternate Recipes, cut down a lot of the requirements, making them more than a simple upgrade to the original.
To make this whole tier list possible I had a lot of help from the game’s subreddit and wrigh516 – the data is used with their permission. I do recommend reading the original post too for all the data on each alternate recipe.
Final Thoughts
Despite the objectivity put into the tiers, each player will plan their way through the game’s many challenges.
Forge your own path using the information you want to maximize time and efficiency.
If you want to try out a different kind of game, and cultivate special relationships, check out our guide on all the romanceable characters, in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.
Knowing what you know now thanks to the Alternate Recipe tier list, in Satisfactory do your plans change?
Let us know in the comments down below, what you were surprised to learn, and if you have any tips for players starting out using the tier list as a base.
With thousands of hours played on Nintendo systems since the original Gameboy, Nikiforos is happy to share his endless passion for Nintendo franchises and everything he can get his hands on.
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You copy pasted this word for word from someone else’s hard work on Reddit -.- https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/xutbq3/phase_4_alternate_recipes_ranking_w_spreadsheet/
I wanted you to know, that I got permission to use this information from the creator of the post. He has an extensive understanding of the game, and he is kind enough to let me use it.
This is a list that could only be made by someone who either hasn’t ever played the game or played for such a short amount of time that they’ve never had to use some of the best recipes in the game and would list them as an “F” class. Because anyone who says that Pure Iron Ingot, Pure Copper Ingot, Pure Caterium Ingot, Residual Rubber, Residual Plastic, or Iron Wire is “F” tier has never got close to finishing the game. Those recipes are all “S” tier recipes (Iron wire might be an “A” tier but it’s still extremely useful). Same thing for this author placing Steel Screw as the same tier as coated cable down in “D” tier. Steel Screw is among the best recipes in the game. Until you need 100,000 MW of power or tens of thousands of screws per minute to make items you should refrain from making these kinds of lists. Or at the very least … don’t take your information off of Reddit.
“Until you need 100,000 MW of power or tens of thousands of screws per minute to make items you should refrain from making these kinds of lists.”
You are talking early game. Steel screw is made completely obsolete when you have removed screws from your lines entirely.
This list seems to be based on bang for buck. Point system issued to savings in time, power, and building. Recipes like pure copper is great when strapped in a location and don’t want to bring more in. Otherwise you are literally doubling build time and dealing with massive lines of refineries and eating up power.
So it makes more of something that isn’t limiting, sacrificing time, effort, space, and power. Pretty horrible when attempting to save on those things.
There is a time and a place. Like building a steel factory, got pipes and beams going. Figure why not make rotors, stators and motors while your there. 1 copper node comes short, so pure will save you the train route.
Anyway, just point out why its low tiered while being useful.
Rando on the internet with 2k hours.
I just started a new playthrough after a long time away and this was very useful. Thank you.