When should I start automating?
As soon as your first crusher or smelter pays for itself — usually after your first one or two contract cycles. Manual hand-carrying is fine for day one, not for a squad that plans to keep playing.
Ore Factory Squad Automation Guide
Ore Factory Squad automation guide: conveyor lines, splitters, belt mode placement, throughput bottlenecks, and co-op factory layout basics. Verified July 2026.
Belt mode, splitters, and a factory line running on its own.
Ore Factory Squad automation guide
Ore Factory Squad automation is the difference between a squad that hand-carries every crate across the map and one that stands back watching belts feed a smelter on their own. Conveyors, belt mode, and splitters are the highest-impact mid-game skill in the whole loop — they turn a one-machine hobby dig into an actual factory.
This guide covers when to start automating, how to place and edit belt lines without wasting materials, how splitters share one line between two stations, and the bottlenecks that stall a production line even after the belts go in. Pair it with the machines hub for what each station does and the mining guide for keeping the input side fed.
Conveyors and belt mode
A conveyor is a placeable belt segment that carries items from one point to another without a player or a bot walking the route. Chain several segments together and you get a continuous line from a dig site or crusher straight into a smelter's input slot.
Belt Mode is the tool that lets you place, extend, and edit those lines directly — no separate blueprint menu. Select it from the equipment wheel, aim at the segment you want to add or move, and confirm. It is the single most-searched automation term for new squads because the placement feel is different from grid-snapped factory games: belts follow the terrain you dug, not a fixed tile grid.
Placing your first belt run
Run belts flat and short before you chase elevation changes or corners. Every extra turn or slope is another spot where a pallet can clip, jam, or tip over — problems you do not need while you are still learning how throughput behaves.
A good starter layout is a single straight line: dig site output chest → crusher → belt → smelter → warehouse pallet. Get that one line stable and profitable before you fork it with a splitter.
Belt mode controls
| Action | What it does | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Enter belt mode | Switches your tool to place/edit conveyor segments | Bind it if the game allows a quick-swap key |
| Extend a line | Adds a segment to an existing belt end | Aim at the belt tip, not the middle |
| Move a segment | Repositions a placed belt without deleting it | Cheaper than deleting and re-buying |
| Insufficient balance warning | Blocks placement until you can afford the segment | Sell a partial pallet first if you are close |
Splitters and branch lines
Splitters take one incoming belt and divide its output across two (or more) outgoing lines. They matter the moment a single dig site or crusher needs to feed more than one downstream machine — for example, one crusher supplying both a smelter for contract goods and a second line for stock sales.
Mentally label which branch is "contract priority" before you build the split. Co-op partners cannot see your intent from the belt alone, so a quick voice callout ("left branch is the contract order") saves a wasted pallet more often than any in-game label would.
When to add a splitter vs a second line
Use a splitter when you only have one dig site or one crusher and need its output in two places. Use a completely separate second mining-to-smelter line when two different pits are producing two different ores — forcing both through one splitter just adds a bottleneck you do not need.
Splitters also help when a contract needs a small side-quantity of a good you are already producing in bulk for stock sales — peel off a fraction of the main line instead of building a whole parallel setup for one delivery.
Common automation bottlenecks
Belts and splitters do not fix a badly balanced factory by themselves — they just move the bottleneck somewhere else if the underlying production rate is wrong. Below are the failure patterns that show up most in co-op runs once the first line goes live.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Smelter sits idle | Crusher too slow or dig site too far from the belt start | Route belts closer via mining pit placement, or add a second crusher feeding the same smelter |
| Pallets pile up and jam | No pallet parked at the output, or the warehouse is full | Keep an empty pallet at every conveyor end; check vehicles for extra forklift capacity |
| Warehouse bots stall | Bots cannot path to a station through elevation changes | Rebuild access with straighter, flatter paths and fewer stairs |
| Belt refuses to place | Insufficient balance for that segment | Sell a partial pallet or finish the day to bank current earnings |
| Line runs but contract still late | Throughput matches stock sales, not contract deadlines | Check the contract's required quantity against your current line speed before accepting — see contracts guide |
- Do01Confirm the dig site is close enough that a short, flat belt reaches the first machine
- Do02Park an empty pallet at every conveyor output before turning the line on
- Do03Set the receiving machine to run continuously if the option is available
- Do04Watch the first full cycle before walking away — a jam five minutes in wastes less than a jam overnight
- Do05Only add a splitter once the single line is stable and profitable
What a working line looks like
Once a machine is set to run at max and a pallet sits at its output, goods should come out the other side on their own with no player input — that is the moment a "hobby dig" turns into an actual factory. If nothing is moving after a minute, stop and check the table above before buying more machines.
Automation FAQ
Splitters or a second dig-to-smelter line?
Splitters when you only have one dig site feeding two destinations; a fully separate line when two different pits produce two different ores that should never mix.
Why did my belt placement fail?
Most often an insufficient balance warning — the segment costs more than you currently have. Sell a partial pallet or finish the day to bank earnings, then retry.
Does belt mode snap to a grid?
No — segments follow the terrain you dug rather than a fixed grid, which is why flat, short first runs are easier to get right than ambitious multi-corner layouts.
My smelter keeps sitting idle — why?
Almost always crusher speed or dig-site distance. Check the bottleneck table above before assuming the smelter itself is broken.
Related pages
Matched by build plan, shared topics, and guide progression — not random related links.