After a while Factorio can become slightly annoying. There are some minor quality of life features missing from the game that should’ve been implemented by default. This list will go over 20 of those mods that everyone should have (or at least try out)!
All these mods are also avilable inside the game's "Mods" menu!
20. Calculator UI
Tired of alt tabbing out of the game and accidentally turning off the “Alt Mode” in the game?
Fear not fable mortal, I introduce thee, the mod called calculator UI.
With this mod you no longer need to waste your time on tabbing out of the game, because it adds a (plot twist) calculator :o
- Adds a calculator to the game
- That’s all
Download: Calculator UI
19. Task List
Organising factorio sessions with your friends can be really hard, but what’s harder than that is keeping track of everything and making sure everyone knows what to do.
With the help of “Task List”, you can’t just write up tasks, you can assign it to people and track the status of the tasks.
- Easily usable UI
- Makes multiplayer (and also single player) a lot more organised
- Makes it harder to get sidetracked in the game
Download: Task List
18. Tree Collision
Navigating through the forests in factorio can be an annoying task, to solve the issue you can use “Tree Collision”
This mod changes the hitbox of trees in the game making it easier to roam the planet.
- Both you and the biters can easily walk past the trees.
- Does not affect the hitbox when it comes to cutting them down
- You will not be able to clean the forest as effectively with shotguns as before but grenades and drones will still work
Download: Tree Collision
17. WaterFill
It can be really annoying to either be limited to build your prower production (and anything else that needs water) near a lake or to transport the water and spam pipes everywhere.
With the mod WaterFill, you can create your own water sources both for functional and for aesthetic reasons.
- Works just like landfill but reversed
- Easy access to water everywhere
- Can be used for defence purposes, since biters can’t cross the water
Download: Waterfill
16. Far Reach
It happens a lot of times that your building range is limited, and it can be really annoying in early game, when you don’t have access to your drones.
Though it sometimes feels like a cheat mod, it can still be a nice addition to the game if you don’t abuse it too much.
- You can set and change your reach distance easily
- Gives the ability to build anything anywhere on the map
- It’s basically just like using drones but a lot faster
Download: Far Reach
15. Squeak Through
In factorio it is way too easy to accidentally lock yourself and get stuck between buildings that you now have to take down. And it can be even worse when you manage to do this in the middle of everything because now you would have to take your time to tear down and replace every building one by one.
Squeak Through, as the name suggests, gives you the ability to move between tight buildings and pipes
- Better movement ability
- No more getting stuck in places because your drones locked you in
- No more wasting your time to get yourself free
Download: Squeak Through
14. VehicleSnap
No one knows why the game has to have all possible 360° that a vehicle has to go.
VehicleSnap changes that to only 16 possible directions.
- Works with both car and tank
- You can turn it on and off easily
- Less destruction in your base
Download: VehicleSnap
13. Afraid of The Dark
I am personally the type who is way too lazy to be bothered with making lamps and putting them everywhere. I would rather just build in complete darkness than to mess around with lamps.
With this mod, you can get new equipment into your armour and better/bigger lamps.
- Better and bigger lamps
- New night vision glasses
- You can adjust how sunny you want the game to be
- You can also turn off the sun and make the game always dark to satisfy your edgy needs
Download: Afraid Of The Dark
12. Editor Extensions
If you are the type who wants to make every production line perfectly balanced and like to test out everything before actually building it, Editor Extensions is a great solution.
This mod adds a new creative tab to your crafting menu where you have access to unlimited resources and highly upgraded buildings.
- Great mod to test and plan out larger projects
- Gives you new and strong items to the game
Download: Editor Extensions
11. Helmod
Opening a browser to look up the perfect ratios to automate crafting every item in the game can be tiring.
Helmod adds the perfect ratios into the game and you can easily look up how much you would need from what item to be able to craft whatever you want and how much you want from it.
- You will no longer need to look up crafting recipes online
- Easily understandable UI
- It can save you a lot of time and a lot of calculations
Download: Helmod
10. Factory Planner
Mod Spotlight by Xterminator
This mod has a very similar goal as Helmod but with a few twists.
It gives you the ability to create “Subfactories” to separate every production line
- It has an even easier UI than Helmod
- It gives you more information
- Separate your production lines to make everything more clear
Download: Factory Planner
9. The Blueprint Designer Lab
Mod Spotlight by Trupen
Designing blueprints can be a bit hard sometimes if you are not that familiar with the game yet.
With the Blueprint Designer Lab, you can easily create and edit your blueprints in the game, without even leaving your save file or without making you feel like you're cheating.
- Makes blueprint making super easy
- You can access a new “dimension” where you can live test and modify your blueprints
- Nothing in that dimension has effect on your world
Download: The Blueprint Designer Lab
8. Quality of Life Research
Mod Spotlight by Xterminator
There are many things in the game that would be nice to upgrade, like movement speed, mining speed and reach distance.
Quality of Life Research adds research options to modify your character.
- They are researches, so it feels like you are actually putting effort into getting them, instead of just pressing a button for them
- Faster walking, further reach, bigger inventory and much more
- The game will be much more comfortable in all ways
Download: Quality of Life research
7. Even Distribution
Mod Spotlight by Trupen
Distributing items in factorio can be really hard if you want to do it fast.
With this mod, you can easily split all your items between different structures.
- Very easy to use mod
- Evenly distributes every item between buildings
- Easily adjustable settings
- You can also replace items in structures with better versions of them (for example: wood to coal)
Download: Even Distribution
6. Electric Trains
Mod Spotlight by Xterminator
It can be tiring to run a coal/rocket fuel line to all your trains or have all your trains go into the same refuelling station.
This mod gives you strong electric trains and new wagons.
- 3 new tiers of electric trains with separate researches
- New and bigger tiers of wagons
- Easy to use, you just need to connect the rails to the power with a new structure
Download: Electric Train
5. LTN
Trains can be complicated and frightening for new players, but not frightening enough :)
Logistic Train Network sounds scary at first but once you understand it, it makes the game a whole lot easier
This mod adds new items and new features to make your train networks smarter and more automated.
- Adds new items to the game
- Your train networks will be a lot more efficient once you understand the mod
- After you build up your new railway system, you won’t have to worry about anything with your trains and you can focus on expanding the factory
Download: LTN - Logistic Train Network
4. FasterStart
Going through the very early phases of the game over and over again becomes very repetitive and monotonous after a few restarts.
FasterStart adds new early game items that you can use to speed up this process.
- Progress through the very early parts of the game a lot faster than you would normally do
- You start with a portable roboport, an exoskeleton, night vision goggles and a portable fusion reactor
- It makes the early game a bit broken but it is a nice addition and doesn’t go over the line too much
Download: FasterStart
3. Factorissimo 2
If you are worried about your factory destroying the landscape or you just simply don’t want to take up as much space or you just want to organise your factory better, then this mod was made for you.
Factorissimo adds warehouses that you can place and build your production lines inside these new structures.
- They are smaller on the outside
- Warehouses come in 3 different sizes
- You can stack the buildings in each other
- You can move the whole warehouse with it’s content by just picking it up
- Basically a pocket dimension
Download: Factorissimo2
2. Alien Biomes
Mod Spotlight by Xterminator
You can get used to the terrain in factorio really quickly and everyone knows that most of the biomes are useless in the game.
Alien Biomes adds 29 new biomes that you can explore.
- More colourful terrains
- The game feels a bit more realistic
- Only changes the biomes, doesn’t make the enemies stronger
Download: Alien Biomes
1. Disco Science
Mod Spotlight by Trupen
No explanation need
Download: Disco Science
