FERIUM BOTTLENECK: STOP FACTORY CHOKING
If your factory keeps stalling because you ran out of Ferium Ore again, you are not alone. This is the single most common headache for Endministrators trying to scale up their Automated Industry Complex (AIC).
Ferium is the gatekeeper resource. You need it for HC Valley Batteries (power your whole base) and Buck Capsule A (your biggest Stock Bill moneymaker). Without enough Ferium flowing, your entire economy hits a wall.
Here is exactly how to break through the bottleneck and get your factory humming at max capacity.
Why You Keep Running Out of Ferium
The math is simple but brutal: your machines eat Ferium faster than your miners can dig it up.
Early game, you are stuck with Low-Purity mineral beds. These barely trickle out ore. Even if you place miners on every node you can find, you will still fall short once you start running multiple production lines.
| Resource | What It Makes | Value | Early Game Pain Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Originium Ore | Basic power, low-tier gear | 1 SB | Low - everywhere |
| Amethyst Ore | Mid-tier gear, fiber | 5 SB | Medium - manageable |
| Ferium Ore | Batteries, capsules, endgame gear | 70 SB | MAXIMUM - you never have enough |
The fix is not “more miners.” The fix is unlocking High-Purity beds.
The Magic Number: Regional Development Level 11
RDL 11 is the threshold where everything clicks. At this level, your mineral beds in Valley IV upgrade from Low-Purity to High-Purity.
What changes at RDL 11:
- Origin Loadspring beds go High-Purity
- Power Plateau beds go High-Purity
- Theoretical max Ferium yield jumps to 1080/min
- You can finally sustain the “18/18” blueprint everyone talks about
How to grind RDL 11 fast:
- Recycling Stations (Owls) - Cheap XP early on, upgrade these first
- Depot Nodes (Buses) - Critical for logistics, gives solid XP
- Fix those smoking generators - Free XP in the Hub area, costs Origicrust
- Outpost levels - Massive XP boost when you can afford it
| Upgrade | XP Range | Cost | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recycling Station | 200-400 | Medium | High |
| Depot Node | 300-500 | High | Critical |
| Stock Redistributor | 500-1000 | Extreme | High |
| Hub Generators | 30-40 | Low | Low (but free XP) |
| Outpost Level Up | 1000 | Maximum | Do it when you can |
Pro Tip: You do not need to 100% the Wulfgard questline to unlock the Power Plateau mining node. Just progress until the gate opens, drop your rigs, and bail.
Electric Mining Rigs: Cover the Whole Map
Once you unlock Electric Mining Rigs, manual mining is dead to you. Your new job is exploration.
You need to:
- Unlock every corner of Valley IV
- Find every Ferium node (including the hidden ones)
- String power lines from your Core AIC to each node
- Drop Electric Rigs on everything
The Bridge Tax: Running belts from distant nodes back to your base eats space. A lot of space. Each belt moves 30 items/min (0.5/sec), so to move 1080 Ferium/min you need 36 full belt lines converging on your depot.
Plan your layout. You will need it.
The 18/18 Blueprint Explained
“18/18” means producing 18 Buck Capsule A per minute and 18 HC Valley Battery per minute. This is the community-tested sweet spot for maxing out Stock Bill income.
Why these numbers matter:
- Each capsule/battery sells for 70 SB
- At 18/min, that is 75,600 SB per hour per product
- Valley IV outposts replenish ~143k SB/hour total
- 18/18 lets you drain every outpost completely
Machine math for Buck Capsule A:
| Stage | Machine | Input (per 10s) | Output/min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ferium → Refined | Refining Unit | 10 Ore | 30 Refined |
| Refined → Bottles | Fitting Unit | 15 Refined | 30 Steel Bottles |
| Plants → Powder | Shredding Unit | 5 Plants | 30 Powder |
| Bottles + Powder → Capsules | Filling Unit | 5 Bottles + 10 Powder | 6 Capsules |
To hit 18/min, you need 3 Filling Units running parallel, fed by the right number of upstream machines.
Common screw-up: Using 1 Amethyst Fiber refiner when your Packaging Unit needs 2. If your battery line stalls, double-check your fiber production.
Blueprint Codes (Copy-Paste Ready)
These are server-specific, so use the right one:
| Module | Asia Code | NA/EU Code |
|---|---|---|
| Core AIC A | EFO01u8U45aI2e0e5AIOU | EFO01iOe7u5E0O2472U4 |
| Core AIC B | EFO01u8U45aI2e0e9A9OU | EFO01Iao8U10Oa905o08 |
| Outposts 1-2 | EFO013o7241uEiau20i79 | EFO01893iaI8UI12oUi73 |
| Sub-PAC | EFO01u8U4EEo950a6AEOU | EFO012I4559Uo0855eIOo |
Setup tip: Place Core AIC A in the top-right corner. Deactivate all Ferium unloaders at first or the initial surge will clog your belts.
Power Management: Keep the Lights On
18/18 production draws serious power. You will need Thermal Banks burning batteries to keep up.
The HC Battery Strategy:
- 1 HC Valley Battery (purple tier) gives way more power cap than LC
- Your 18/min battery production can feed 7-8 batteries to 5 Thermal Banks
- This generates ~4400 power units
- Enough to run your whole 1080 Ferium mining operation + all production lines
Critical buffer: Keep 100 batteries minimum in storage. If your grid collapses (battery feed gets interrupted), you need a jumpstart reserve or everything stays dead.
Protocol Stash Warning: These can clog. If one item type hits the 8k cap, the whole stash chokes. Use splitters to divert excess to your Stock Bill trader instead.
The Money Loop: Outposts + Arbitrage
All this Ferium grinding has one goal: Stock Bills.
Outpost Trading (Reliable):
- Outposts refill ~143k SB/hour at max level
- Sell your 18/min production to drain them dry
- Rotate operators for +44% income (see below)
The +44% Operator Rotation:
- Idle Phase: Assign operator with “Survival Knowledge” (+20% outpost regeneration)
- Trade Phase: Swap to operator with “Turn Scrap to Treasure” (+20% trading bonus)
- Math: 1.2 × 1.2 = 1.44 (44% more SB)
Stock Redistribution (The Big Money):
- Unlocks at Authority Level 15
- Buy Elastic Goods at -75% discount locally
- Sell at +400% markup in a friend’s world
- Daily profit potential: 1M+ SB
| Item Type | Complexity | Value at 18/min |
|---|---|---|
| Origicrust (raw) | Low | 1,080 SB/hour |
| Amethyst Parts | Medium | 5,400 SB/hour |
| HC Batteries / Buck Capsules | High | 75,600 SB/hour each |
Feeding Wuling: Export Your Surplus
Once you unlock Wuling (Chapter II), you will notice something terrible: barely any Ferium nodes.
Wuling produces maybe 90 Ferium/min. You need 1080.
The solution: Export from Valley IV.
Transfer via Regional Transfer (1.5k items/hour limit):
- HC Valley Batteries - Power Wuling without burning local Xiranite
- Steel Bottles - Feed Wuling’s crafting chains
- Keep Wuling’s scarce native resources for gear artifice
| Wuling Need | Valley Export | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Power | HC Batteries | Save Xiranite for gear |
| Crafting | Steel Bottles | Enables syringe production |
| Building | Ferium Parts | Speeds facility upgrades |
Quick Start Checklist
- Hit RDL 11 (grind those Owls and Buses)
- Place Electric Rigs on every Ferium node (including Power Plateau)
- String 36 belt lines back to your Core AIC
- Import 18/18 blueprint for your server
- Set up 3 Filling Units per product line
- Feed 7-8 HC Batteries to Thermal Banks for power
- Keep 100 battery buffer in storage
- Rotate operators: Survival Knowledge (idle) → Trading Bonus (sell)
- Transfer excess to Wuling via Regional Transfer
The Ferium bottleneck is not a bug—it is the final boss of Valley IV industrialization. Break through it and you will print Stock Bills faster than you can spend them.