All Legendaries: Factorio Quality guide p.1 - Quality and recycler basic mechanics

Storyline / Context (Factorio mod mechanics)

• This video is part 1 of a “Quality guide” focused on how the Quality system works (introduced via Space Age DLC) and basic recycler mechanics, setting up later builds/implementations.
• No narrative plot is involved; the “story” is the progression of game systems:
  • Quality → how to generate higher-quality items → how to control quality flows → why recyclers matter later

Core Gameplay: Quality system basics

• Quality is a modded item system for non-fluid items.
• Each non-fluid item can have one of five quality tiers:
  • Normal
  • Uncommon
  • Rare
  • Epic
  • Legendary
• Fluids have no quality tiers: for recipes that require fluids-only inputs, fluids are effectively always normal quality.

What Quality does

• Quality generally improves item effectiveness.
• A common pattern emphasized in the video:
  • Most quality jumps are approximately ~+30% effectiveness per tier
• Crafting speed behaves differently:
  • Normal → Uncommon: 1.3×
  • Rare: 1.6×
  • Epic: 1.9×
  • Legendary: 2.5×
• Exception called out: Epic → Legendary increases more sharply for crafting speed (described as +60%).

How to obtain higher-quality items (start of the loop)

Step 1: Research quality modules

• Quality Module 1 unlocks:
  • Uncommon and Rare quality (and later modules)
• Quality Module 2 and 3 are researched later.
• Requirements: Automation + Logistics science packs (per the subtitles).

Step 2: Install quality modules in machines

• Quality modules have two effects:
  • Reduce machine speed
  • Increase chance to output a higher-quality product
• Chance to improve output quality (per quality module):
  • Quality Module 1: +1%
  • Quality Module 2: +2%
  • Quality Module 3: +2.5%
• Modules can be further strengthened when using improved module tiers, such as:
  • Uncommon-quality modules
  • Rare-quality modules
  • Legendary-quality modules
  • (These boost the odds further.)

Quality module math (example)

• Example build: four Quality Module 3s
  • Each gives 2.5% → total 10% chance at quality improvement
• With normal-quality ingredients and 10% quality chance, expected outcomes:
  • 90% Normal
  • 9% Uncommon
  • 0.9% Rare
  • 0.09% Epic
  • 0.01% Legendary
• Letting the craft run longer makes these ratios closer to the expected distribution.

Ingredient quality inheritance (guarantees vs chances)

• If the input ingredients are already set to a higher quality:
  • the output quality becomes much more likely to match the input tier.
• Especially strong approach described:
  • Set the machine’s ingredient quality to Uncommon
  • Then crafted gears become Uncommon 100% of the time (before adding quality modules)
  • Adding quality modules afterward makes:
    • Uncommon most of the time
    • higher tiers occur only rarely

Liquids and quality restrictions

• If a recipe uses only fluids (or the needed intermediate is fluids-only):
  • you cannot choose ingredient quality—fluids are effectively normal quality.
• Workaround demonstrated:
  • Light oil (fluid, normal) can be used to produce solids like solid fuel
  • The recipe outcome can be forced into higher quality when the recipe requires a higher-quality solid output
    • Example: rocket fuel becoming rare quality

Important restrictions and tradeoffs

• Quality modules cannot be inserted into beacons.
• Speed modules reduce quality odds:
  • Speed Module 1 reduces quality by 1%
  • Speed Module 2 reduces quality by 1.5%
  • Speed Module 3 reduces quality by 2.5%
• Combining speed and quality is possible, but the video warns:
  • the quality reduction may not be worth the speed gain

Quality Inception (crafting modules with modules)

• You can craft quality modules using a machine that already has quality modules installed.
• This increases module quality odds.
• Example claim:
  • Uncommon quality Module 3 has 3.2% chance at quality vs 2.5% base (as described).

Gameplay control: routing/sorting by quality

Splitters (filters)

A splitter filter can route based on quality rules, such as:

• All Normal items to one lane
• All Uncommon+ items to another lane
• Only Epic/Legendary to one lane
• Only a specific item quality set (e.g., epic+legendary plates)
• “Any quality” for one lane, with others separated similarly

Inserters

• Inserters can use similar quality filters as splitters.

Circuit logic limitation

• With circuits, the selection rules are stricter:
  • The video states you can use only “exact quality”
  • It’s not possible to filter for “any quality,” “above X,” or “below X” via those circuit signals.

Selector combinator (two quality interactions)

• Quality filter mode:
  • Controls which quality signals pass through (e.g., passing only qualities above normal).
• Quality transfer mode:
  • Transfers a chosen quality level to another signal.
  • Uses “direct selection” / “select for signal.”
  • Suggested approach:
    • select for signal to match the quality of one ingredient’s signal onto another
  • If there are multiple source quality signals, it selects the highest quality (as explained).

Recycler mechanics (basic understanding)

What the recycler does

• Recycler attempts to reverse most crafting processes (with exceptions).
• Returns ~25% of ingredients on average.
• Fluids are not returned by the recycler.

Return behavior examples

• If the recycler returns the same item:
  • For each processed item: 25% chance to return that item again.
• If the recycler returns ingredients:
  • It returns the ingredients used to craft the item.
  • Probabilities are not “rolled independently for each ingredient count.” (The video stresses this.)
• Examples described:
  • Barrel (from 1 steel plate):
    • 25% chance to return 1 steel plate
  • Iron gear (from 2 iron plates):
    • 50% chance return 1 plate
    • 50% chance return 0 plates
  • Electronic circuit (1 iron plate + 3 copper cables):
    • Iron plate: 25% chance for 1, 75% chance for 0
    • Copper cables: 75% chance for 1, 25% chance for 0
  • Advanced circuit patterns involving 4+ ingredients are described similarly, including cases where some ingredients become guaranteed depending on ingredient count (e.g., 5, 6, 7, 8).

Biological spoilage clarification

• Subtitle description differs from earlier claims:
  • The recycler converts to spoilage only for the spoilage item itself (and nutrients created from it).
  • Most other biological items are returned rather than turning into spoilage (as demonstrated).

Recycler speed

• Recyclers recycle at:
  • 1/16th the crafting time
• Example:
  • Processing unit crafts in 10 seconds → recycler time:
    • 10 / 16 seconds
• Recycler default crafting speed:
  • 0.5 (as noted).

How to use recycler outputs

The recycler can output like a mining machine:

• Directly onto a belt
• Into a chest
• Output into another recycler (looping trick)
• If output is blocked, an inserter can extract from it
• It has storage capacity, which can fill up

Strategies / Key takeaways from Part 1

• Focus quality on key machines/products rather than trivial materials:
  • Quality intermediates can matter because they enable better downstream outputs.
• Use Quality Module stacks for predictable probability distributions.
• Control input quality deliberately:
  • Setting machine inputs to a tier can lock baseline output quality before RNG from modules.
• Avoid common pitfalls:
  • Don’t put quality modules in beacons
  • Be cautious with speed modules, since they reduce quality odds
• Prepare for later builds:
  • Quality and recycler mechanics are connected (recyclers support later quality implementations).

Gamers / Sources featured

• Factorio Wiki (referenced in the subtitles for the quality probability breakdown)