Factorio 2.1 is out of experimental. Wube Software marked the update as stable in Friday Facts #449, which arrived exactly two years after the Space Age expansion launched. Wube has said 2.1 is the game’s last major update.
The studio describes 2.1 not as new planets, enemies or research, but as “a big collection of quality of life, small features, polish, and the things we wanted to do for 2.0 but didn’t have time for.” Wube thanked experimental players, saying many changes since the first 2.1 release came directly from their reports. It also updated the classic Factorio trailer “one last time.”
What is new in 2.1
Space platforms get the biggest boost. Rockets can now carry multiple different items in one launch, platforms can request items from and provide items to other platforms in orbit, and a blank import slot pulls from every location. Asteroid damage now depends on an asteroid’s remaining health rather than its speed, and platform drag is based on mass instead of width, so long thin “pencil ships” are no longer the only way to go fast.
A new landing pad unloading bay lets inserters pull items straight into trains, chests and belts. The circuit network gains an Input/Output split that sends reads and writes to different wire colors, and labs, boilers, heat exchangers and pipes can all be wired up. Land mines can now work as tripwires and enemy detectors.
Space Age can now be played without Quality, with the Recycler split into its own mod. Quality locomotives and wagons arrive, and the “space casino” is closed, since Quality modules no longer work in asteroid reprocessing. Fluid mixing prevention returns, pumpjacks and burner miners can be flipped, and biter expansion groups now scale with evolution. Wube also calls the new graphics, including new assembling machines, oil refinery, rocket silo and heat exchanger, its last big graphics pass. Native ARM64 Linux support rounds out the list.
Before you update
Wube warns that 2.0 saves will load, but some changes, such as the circuit Input/Output split, may break existing factory designs. Once updated, blueprints and saves cannot be downgraded to 2.0, so the studio recommends backing them up. Most popular mods were updated during the experimental period, though some may not be ready yet.
