As a factory management sandbox game that’s all about logistics, production, conveyor belts, and bug attacks, Factorio stands out as one of the most successful games in the genre. The game released in 2016 was a deep and expansive simulation and is still going from strength to strength, proving to be ripe for the modding community to modify and expand. With not too many challenges or scenarios for the most rabid players and expert factory managers, the game’s Free Build mode can quickly become stale, and that’s where the huge library of mods for Factorio can come into play to spice things up.
Even though you are free to try these or any other mods in whatever order you might find suits you best, we have ordered our list by order in which we feel it would be most simple and logical for you to try them out.
A note on Frameworks
As is usually the case with many modded games, some mods require one or more “Framework” or “Library” mods to work. These mods are essential to enable their connected mods and help them work properly, and in most cases to work at all. Therefore, we feel obligated to mention these important mods here without filling our list with different variations of each of them, as they would make for a fairly bland Top 10.
Some of the mods that fall into this category are Bob’s Functions Library, Factorio Library, and Informatron, to name a few. Mods that require one or more Framework mods will usually mention or link them in their descriptions and installation instructions.
1. Squeak Through
Starting off our list is a fairly small and simple mod whose utility cannot be understated. Playing the vanilla game, you must have gotten stuck dozens of times between buildings and modules, or wanted to find a quicker path without having to go around an arbitrary bend, even though there clearly should be enough room for you to pass. Well no more, thanks to this simple mod. It’s a quintessential quality of life mod that feels like it should be part of the base game.
2. Bottleneck
Another quality of life mod, Bottleneck lets you see at a glance if your production is hampered by input, output, or working as intended. This mod decorates assembling machines, furnaces, mining drills, pump jacks, and chemical plants with an indicator light, making it easier to identify bottlenecks throughout your factory. It does so by employing a customizable light system. By default, red light means that it’s limited by the input, yellow light means that it’s limited by the output, and green light means that everything’s working fine, but you can set it up to light up in whatever colors you like the most.
3. Bob’s Modpack
There are Factorio modders that have overhauled the game in separate chunks of content from which you can pick and choose whether to add to your game. One such modpack is Bob’s Modpack, from user Bobingabout. There are mods for practically a little bit of everything here, from simple retextures, to small additions such as a clock or an enemy type, and extensive overhauls like adding new resources and buildings. Bob’s mods are a great way to see just how extensively you can modify the vanilla game in one approachable and unified package.
4. Todo List
This mod is pretty useful for single-player games, but where it truly shines is when it’s used for multiplayer Factorio sessions. Picture this: you and your friends are building a factory together and you have agreed on what each of you will do. Hours into the session and Timmy has gotten completely confused, driving the Main Bus into the science array that John has forgotten to relocate. To avoid these conundrums (and worse), Todo List is a mod that lets you and your group coordinate and plan ahead in a simple and easy-to-use format with a shared list of things to do. This mod lets you and your group add and assign tasks, edit existing ones, and then mark them as completed or open.
5. Factorissimo2
A revised second version of an already popular mod, Factorissimo2 lets you build true factory buildings of varying sizes. These huge constructs let you enter their factory floors and set up production chains inside them for added realism. Outside of the buildings, you are able to see what is being produced in them and plan accordingly. It even adds more technologies for you to research, improving their size, connection types, layout, and efficiency. So if you simply need to have a roof over your head, or protect all those busy inserters from alien rainfall, Factorissimo2 lets you do that while giving you the option to decorate the interior of some good-looking buildings.
6. Alien Biomes
Ever thought that the vaguely dusty planet of Factorio is a bit samey after a while? Alien Biomes is a fun cosmetic mod that lets you generate a variety of different biomes as you explore the planet and expand your factory. More than a simple reskin, this mod introduces more interesting sights to discover and lets you control the way the planet looks during setup. You can play around with the temperature settings, influencing how much of the planet is covered in hot or cold biomes, and similarly with moisture for more wet and dry biomes — and combinations of all four. There are also settings for terrain types, and even options to restrict some biomes from ever spawning. This mod also has a version with high-res textures, for those who need their visuals to pop even more.
7. Factory Planner
To help with the logistics of your factory, Factory Planner is a mod that allows you to plan out your production in advance. You can select the products you want to produce and specify the recipes, machines, buildings, and modules to accomplish that task. You can choose which timescale to use, incorporate resource productivity, and even do advanced calculations with the help of this mod. This mod appeals to both a factory management amateur and a power-user, letting you take control of just how much of its potential you leverage for your Factorio projects.
8. Krastorio 2
The first complete overhaul mod on our list, Krastorio 2 is an interesting and different take on the vanilla game. It adds a number of new buildings, items, techs, gear, mechanics, and more to the base game, while changing many of the graphics, icons, and sprites from what you might be used to. It’s great for those who want to play something different, yet in many ways the same — only expanded more than a simpler single mod would do. What we like about this mod is that it expands on every aspect of the game in a way that doesn’t feel lazy or shoehorned in. It plays nice with many other mods, and there are even some secrets for players to discover that aren’t necessarily related to simple game mechanics, which lends itself well to narrative playthroughs.
9. Space Exploration
For those players who consider an average game of Factorio a “short and sweet experience”, we’ve got another overhaul mod just for you. Usually, with the launch of your rocket into space, you’ve won and completed the game. With Space Exploration, the launch marks only the beginning of the bigger, grander things to come. This mod is a unique challenge, letting you discover new planets, satellites, asteroids, and stars. Once you find yourself in space, you can then build space stations and explore, mine special resources, and expand your newfound interstellar empire. After all, the factory must grow — even in space.
10. Story Missions [Scenario Pack]
For those players looking for a more structured way of playing Factorio instead of the usual sandbox experience, this mod contains 10 fully scripted missions spread over a connected campaign reminiscent of classic RTS games. The missions come with mandatory goals for you to complete, but also some optional side quests too. You play as the Engineer, the same one from the introductory Factorio tutorials, and your goal is to play through the story of how he came to survive after crash-landing on a hostile alien planet. The mod is still in active development, with the final two missions playable but incomplete. However, once done, this mod could prove to be the definitive Factorio campaign experience. Another caveat is that this mod is not really compatible with other mods, as they can interfere with the scripted nature of the scenarios — especially those mods that greatly change the way the game works. After all, Story Missions are best experienced in a vanilla Factorio setting.
