TIL all the keyboard shortcuts

[u/FactorioBlueprints]

Factorio's controls can be tricky. I've seen dozens of posts like "TIL this keyboard shortcut. I've been playing hundreds of hours and I just figured it out."

And they get comments like this one.

omfg do i feel stupid now .... almost 500 hrs clocked on steam and i didnt know that :(

For me it was using 'r' to rotate items that are already placed. It's true that 'r' is clearly listed as rotate in the controls menu, but I thought it was just for items held in the cursor.

I've gathered the posts I've found most helpful. Many controls are well covered in menus and in-game tips. These are just the ones causing us to smack our heads.

Rotate entities after placing them with 'r'.

Everyone knows you can rotate the item held in the cursor with 'r'. You can also rotate entities after they are placed by hovering and pressing 'r'.

This is important for rotating assembling machines to change the position of the pipe connection after choosing a recipe that requires a liquid. Before I figured this out, I was always building blue circuits with sulfuric acid going in the top.

• Handy for changing the direction of underground belts. Rotating either end rotates them both, 180 degrees. TIL
• Works on pumps, inserters, belts, buildings.
• Works on locomotive (while driving too). TIL

0.15 update Shift + r rotates in the opposite direction.

Shift click when placing blueprint to force, ignoring obstructions

• If rocks and trees are in the way, this will add deconstruction orders. TIL
• If water or existing buildings are in the way, some stuff won't get built, but the rest will go through. TIL

You can hold shift while using the rail planner and it will suggest additional paths through trees and rocks, and issue the relevant deconstruction orders. TIL

Shift click to place ghost building

No blueprint or anything, just a single item. If you have a personal roboport equipped, your construction robots can quickly place the item for you. I find this useful for placing items outside the 6 tile reach. TIL

This is listed in the in-game controls as "Build ghost." I think a more intuitive name would be "place construction order."

Keypad '+' and '-' change the size of the square cursor of landfill or concrete.

For placing concrete, you'll want to increase the size of the brush to the maximum 10x10. TIL

You can remove concrete under buildings by right clicking over concrete while holding concrete. It's also helpful to use a large brush size. TIL

For landfill, it's more efficient to use the smallest brush size. This seems like a bug, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's removed in a future version. TIL

Holding down the mouse button while running to place items at max allowed distance from each other.

• The in-game tip covers power poles.
• Works with underground belts.
• Since 0.13, it also works with underground pipes.
• I hope a future version will make this work with roboports.

0.15 update the behavior was tweaked slightly so that no entities are left unpowered. This means that sometimes the power poles are placed closer together than the max allowed distance. It takes some getting used to because it looks like you pass the maximum distance and then the pole appears behind you.

Z to drop items you are holding

Good way to get exactly N items onto a belt. This is useful in some circuit network recipes, for example a clock which ticks every time a single item goes around a belt loop.

You could drop items you consider complete garbage, like wood. But you could also just fill a chest with wood and shoot it.

Drive trains manually with WASD

You can enter locomotives or cargo wagons using enter and drive the train manually using the movement keys. TIL TIL 2

You can rotate a locomotive that you are driving using 'r' without changing its momentum. A train that hits the end of the track instantly stops without damaging anything.

Edit a blueprint without completely redoing it

After selecting items to create a blueprint, you can right click unwanted entities in the preview image to remove them before you create it. If you accidentally remove too much, you can left click the ghost entities in the preview to bring them back. TIL

You can right click a finished blueprint to edit it, and then remove unwanted pieces and re-save. TIL

This is especially useful when a straight rail and curved rail overlap. TIL

To add items to an existing blueprint, you need to build it, add items on the ground, and resave. But you don't even need to fully build the blueprint to save it. The blueprint captures ghost objects as well. TIL

Build upgraded entities on top of existing entities without deconstructing the old ones.

• In game tip mentions furnaces and belts.
• Also works with splitters, assemblers, inserters, chests, etc. Anything that can be upgraded. TIL

Middle Mouse Button sets a filter on the toolbar.

Partially covered by in-game tips. But it also works in train and car cargo slots.

You can middle click a cargo train slot while holding an item in the cursor to set a filter for that item. TIL TIL comment

You can also right-click an empty cargo train slot to select an item type if you don't have the corresponding item on hand. TIL

Limit the number of items in a chest with the red X

That X in the bottom corner of the GUI for chests lets you limit how many slots may get filled. This is useful throughout the game, but especially early on before circuit networks.

Copy/Paste

Shift + Right Mouse Button copies. Shift + Left Mouse Button pastes.

You can use this to copy the configuration of an entity to another identical item.

• Copy recipes from one assembling machine, refinery, chemical plant, to another.
• Copy a train station's name.
• Copy a train locomotive's color and station schedule.
• Copy a cargo wagon's filters.
• Copy a filter from a single slot to another within a cargo wagon. TIL
• Copy a chest's maximum number of items filter.
• Copy the configuration of filter inserters, requestor chests, combinators, and anything with circuit network conditions, like lights and power switches.
• And most importantly you can copy the recipe from an assembling machine, refinery, chemical plant, etc. to a requestor chest. It will set the logistic request to the ingredients for that recipe. For most recipes the requested amount is 2x the count of required ingredients. For expensive items like satellites, 2x is great. For cheaper items, I would love a mod that could increase the request to 10x or more. Still, this is a huge time saver. TIL TIL 2

The one is partially covered with a in-game tips.

0.15 update you can now hold down Shift + Left Mouse Button and move the cursor over multiple entities, pasting into all of them. Ctrl + Mouse Button works similarly for inserting items / removing items from buildings.

Multiple train stops can share the same name

Implied by the fact that you can copy and paste train station names. TIL

Trains will pick an empty station to go to when leaving a station and won't necessarily reroute if it becomes occupied. A good pattern is to create a 'Queue' station just before the fork to the stations to choose between.

You can use an item in the cursor instead of selecting an entity in menus

When selecting player logistic requests and auto-trash filters the filter is automatically set to the item in the cursor if any. TIL

Also works for circuit network menus, etc. TIL

You can manually connect and disconnect electric wire

You can remove all wires from an electric pole by shift clicking it. You can add wires back individually using a copper wire and clicking both poles. This is useful for partitioning electric networks behind switches. TIL

Building electric poles with shift pressed builds it without any connections.

You can disconnect individual wires using a copper wire. "Connecting" two poles that are already connected will remove the wire. TIL

There's a limit on electric pole connections.

Personal Roboport Range

Adding personal roboports not only adds robot capacity, but also range. TIL

You can braid underground belts of different speeds along the same line

You can use this to create some compact designs. TIL

Fish

• Right click a fish in the water to mine it.
• Place an inserter near the water to mine fish. forum
• Use the deconstruction planner to "deconstruct" fish with construction bots.
• You can use fish to heal yourself. TIL

Shameless plug

I wrote a website for sharing blueprints factorioprints.com. You can import blueprints or blueprint book designs into empty blueprints in-game. You need to use one of the blueprint mods: Blueprint String, Foreman, or Killkrog's Blueprint Manager.

It's listed in the sidebar but it's not widely known yet.

You can log in to keep track of your favorites and to upload your own blueprints. (More info) (Even more info)

Ideas

I hope the developers turn some of these into in-game tips. You can't appreciate all the tips until you've played the game quite a bit, so maybe after 40 hours or launching your first rocket, the game could prompt you to look at advanced tips.

Another possibility would be to turn some of these into researchable technologies. Imagine if after researching trains, you had to do additional research to filter cargo trains. If done well, the technology tree would be an obvious place to read more, at the right moment.

[u/Rseding91]

Keypad '+' and '-' change the size of the square cursor of landfill or concrete.

• http://imgur.com/xdAaLqN

Z to drop items you are holding

• http://imgur.com/GOvHsjx

Edit a blueprint without completely redoing it

• Also clear it without having to open it: http://imgur.com/kGbA354

Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Left Mouse Button sets a filter on the toolbar.

• No modifiers and just the middle mouse button: http://imgur.com/uhB4TQG

Copy/Paste

• http://imgur.com/HbKShNE

Building electric poles with shift pressed builds it without any connections.

• No it doesn't: http://imgur.com/4Xt9EaI

Place an inserter near the water to mine fish.

• No it doesn't :P

TIL (not really, I've known it for a long time): nobody reads the controls section of any game they play.

Also a minor fun fact: virtually every one of those features you describe can be found in the changelog since the inception of the changelog back since 0.1.0 - the first public release.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/Rseding91]

Factorio is my favorite game of all time, so first let me say thank you for being a part of it, and that any criticism comes from a place of love.

Factorio is a challenging game, and learning how to climb the tech tree and progress through the game is lots of fun. Learning the controls was less fun for me. The controls are unusual (Q to put an item away instead of escape) and error prone (Q also flips between guns?!?) To learn the controls I have read the in-game Controls settings. Some of the controls have confusing names like build ghost that I didn't understand until way later. I've read the 19 tips, the many TILs here, lots of stuff on the wiki, and the release notes. I learned a lot by reading the text in the tech tree, and I guess I should be reading the hover text for items like blueprints. I enjoy reading this reddit, and I read the release notes eagerly awaiting 0.15 like everyone else here. But you shouldn't expect the majority of players to read Reddit, and definitely not changelogs.

I don't want to just give you a problem, so I tried to offer a solution (putting more learning into the tech tree, so you learn just in time). Maybe we'll get more helpful suggestions in comments. I've seen you post on a lot of these TILs that nobody reads the controls section. You're telling that to players on Reddit... the players who probably read the most. You've already done a lot to make the game learnable, I'm humbly suggesting you can do even more, when it comes to controls. Of course you don't have to do anything. These TILS are extremely helpful and go a long way.

[u/koriar]

"Ho ho, silly noobs and their not knowing about the game. Clearly I'll know all of these things!"

Keypad '+' and '-' change the size of the square cursor of landfill or concrete.

What?

Edit a blueprint without completely redoing it

WHAT?

Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Left Mouse Button sets a filter on the toolbar.

WHAAAAAT!?

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/koriar]

Love it

[u/JustHarmony]

I was picking up two trains and rotating them everytime it got to the end, adding 6 stacks of coal back in everytime. I feel stupid now. Thanks for the tip OP.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/JustHarmony]

Ha! That's what I like to hear.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/FactorioBlueprints]

Seriously though... After the first time, make your train double ended or build a loop.

[u/Iggy_2539 → u/JustHarmony]

You could just have double-headed trains. Just put an engine on the back of the train, facing the reverse direction, and it will automatically reverse out of the station. (assuming the train signals allow it.)

[u/JustHarmony → u/Iggy_2539]

Yeah but I was using it purely for self transport and double trains facing forwards is ultra fast compared to double-headed.

[u/agweber → u/Iggy_2539]

You don't even have to put it on the other end, just put two facing different directions anywhere on the train.. of trains..

[u/Lacksi → u/JustHarmony]

You can only rotate it if there is one single loconotive

[u/JustHarmony → u/Lacksi]

Yeah, I know I tried before and it didn't work so I thought it'd never work. I have to disconnect then first but it's still faster than picking them up.

[u/Xorondras]

Holding down the mouse button while running to place items at max allowed distance from each other.

There is a slight difference between power poles and ug belts/pipes though that especially matters when building through woods for example. When dragging power poles through forests or other obstructions, the algorithm will automatically place the pole at the last viable position if the max range spot is blocked.
Pipes and belts do not show this behaviour sadly. When the max range spot is blocked it will just place them on the net tile, leaving them in a disconnected state.

[u/shinarit]

If rocks and trees are in the way, this will add deconstruction orders. TIL

If water is in the way, some stuff won't get built, but the rest will go through. TIL

You missed one of the most important interactions here: what does the shift+click does when blueprints collide with something that is not tree and not water (eg. your buildings). Not obvious, but they act like water.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/shinarit]

Thanks, I'll edit and clarify.

[u/Yoyobuae → u/shinarit]

Blueprints with wires also have interesting properties when placing over existing buildings and/or ghosts.

If the buildings (or ghosts) already in place match the ones in blueprint then the wires are copied over, for free. Unluckily circuit behavior is not copied (it probably should).

[u/Chelmet → u/Yoyobuae]

For me what's really useful is that red/green(/and copper) wires in blueprints get placed for free, even if there are none in your inventory.

[u/georgehank2nd → u/Yoyobuae]

TIL of another bug. :D

[u/StewieGriffin26]

Great list of shortcuts. Their definitely helpful to new players.

I checked out the Factorio Prints website. Is there a way to search through the blueprints to find certain ones, such as 2-way rail setups? I like the website.

Somewhat related, is the FactorioBlueprints website still active? I thought that was going under or maybe it was a mod website that was going under, I don't remember exactly. I'm assuming the website you build is another competitor to that one. Anyways, the more the better. I started learning trains by just copying blueprints that I found online and then I'd just modify them and see what worked and what didn't.

Also, when playing multiplayer with others who are less experienced it's easy to just give them blueprints to expand the existing rail system and then it works 100% of the time.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/StewieGriffin26]

Thanks! I've been trying to get the site searchable through Google, with search terms like "site:factorioprints.com 2-way rail setups". If you try it you'll see it doesn't work. I'm thinking I'll have to change direction and start building my own search.

I'm not affiliated with FactorioBlueprints. I used to love it when images were working.

[u/Kotruper]

Place an inserter near the water to mine fish.

Literally the only thing in this post that matters.^{ActuallythisisveryusefuthanksOP.}

[u/Ironwolf200 → u/Kotruper]

Uh, can someone get a picture demonstrating this? I just tried it, inserters didn't care.

[u/Heziva]

Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Left Mouse Button sets a filter on the toolbar.

• that works with 3rd button click as well (wheel click)

• Ctrl + left click on an empty space of your inventory refills your toolbar

Should I post a TIL about it? :D

[u/[deleted] → u/Heziva]

Ctrl+left click in an empty spot when having opened a chest moves as much as possible to the opposite side.

So you can shift click on an item to get the whole stack moved over, ctrl click on an item to get all stacks of the same type, and lastly ctrl click in an empty spot to get all items.

[u/Heziva → u/[deleted]]

Yea, once you know it, it make sense! But do you know how many HOURS I spent looking for stuff in my inventory, highlighting the recipes!

[u/AppiusClaudius → u/[deleted]]

Also right click to pick up/drop half of something.

For example, shift right click to move half a stack, ctrl right click to move half of all similar items, etc.

[u/dave14920]

Build upgraded entities on top of existing entities without deconstructing the old ones.

doesnt work on power poles.
dear devs: please let us place medium electric poles on top of small power poles

[u/Stevetrov]

Pressing 'q' puts the item in your hand back on your toolbar / in your backpack.

[u/Dr_Jackson]

You can disconnect individual wires using a copper wire. "Connecting" two poles that are already connected will remove the wire.

Well shit, I thought I knew everything. Whenever I needed to disconnect green/red wire from combinators, I would pick it up and re-place it. So this is good to know, thank you.

Place an inserter near the water to mine fish.

http://i.imgur.com/OevUMKR.gif

[u/Blaintino]

Am I the only one missing "pressing ALT shows what is build in your factories?", is asked waaaaay to often in this sub ;)

[u/FallingSkies17]

When the comments contain a bunch of people learning things for the first after playing a game for hundreds of hours Am the only one who actually researches things in-depth as I play them? Within the first 10 hours of playing factorio, I had already read guides, watched videos, and read through all the in-game menus (Yes even the controls). This took out all the TIL moments for me. If only I could automate my information gathering...

[u/madpavel → u/FallingSkies17]

You are not the only one but we are in minority I think... First thing I do when I launch a new game I go to options (audio, video, gameplay, controls, etc...) and read everything and change as I like it.

[u/Saucyminator]

Holding down the mouse button while running to place items at max allowed distance from each other

I don't understand this one. Pressing the button and running just places the items in the next available spot.

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/Saucyminator]

I hope it's clear in the original post but the only items where this works are power poles, underground belts, and underground pipes.

[u/nawtrobar]

Is there anything in game that explains even half of this stuff? or an official manual that was released with the game? I was clueless until I found this post. Thanks!

[u/FactorioBlueprints → u/nawtrobar]

I think you can learn lots of these through the tutorial and the in game menus

[u/CapSierra]

Also works with ... inserters ... etc.

It does not work with long-handed inserters. Either the game realizes they do not have the same pickup/dropoff locations and denies the upgrade, or long-handeds are just tagged differently (someone with bob's inserters should be able to test this).

[u/AlexanderGlasco]

The concrete brush size. OH MY GOD.

[u/aheadwarp9]

Launch it in a rocket instead of a satellite to get the achievement so long and thanks for all the fish.

I always keep exactly 42 fish in my hotbar at all times.