Science layouts: pack production for all 12 sciences
A science base is usually described in SPM — science per minute — but the number that actually decides the layout is how many assemblers each pack needs and which intermediates those assemblers share. This page works through all twelve science packs from version 2.1.12 at a 100 SPM target, using the ratio solver for the machine counts and the ingredient lists from the game data to show where the chains converge.
Science figures computed from game version 2.1.12, updated 2026-08-22.
What 100 SPM means in assembler terms
One hundred SPM of a single pack means 1.667 packs per second. That is the rate fed into the solver for every pack below. The assembler count returned by the solver is the number of assembling machine 3s needed to sustain that rate at the pack's own crafting speed; the stages below it count the machines for every intermediate the pack consumes.
The twelve packs do not have identical costs. Some — automation, military, space — craft quickly and in bulk, with multiple packs per craft. Others — chemical, cryogenic, electromagnetic — craft slowly and produce one pack at a time. The assembler count in the table is the top-level number only; the total machine count including intermediates is much larger, which is why a science base's footprint is set by the chains behind the packs rather than by the pack assemblers themselves.
The twelve packs at 100 SPM
| Pack | Craft time (s) | Per craft | Assemblers (AM3) | Chain stages | Direct ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation (red) | 5 | 1 | 6.67 | 4 | copper plate ×1iron gear wheel ×1 |
| Logistic (green) | 6 | 1 | 8.00 | 13 | inserter ×1transport belt ×1 |
| Military (gray) | 10 | 2 | 6.67 | 11 | piercing rounds magazine ×1grenade ×1stone wall ×2 |
| Chemical (blue) | 24 | 2 | 16.0 | 17 | engine unit ×2advanced circuit ×3sulfur ×1 |
| Production (purple) | 21 | 3 | 9.33 | 31 | electric furnace ×1productivity module ×1rail ×30 |
| Utility (yellow) | 21 | 3 | 9.33 | 41 | low density structure ×3processing unit ×2flying robot frame ×1 |
| Space (white) | 15 | 5 | 4.00 | 4 | iron plate ×2carbon ×1ice ×1 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | 10 | 1 | 4.17 | 4 | tungsten carbide ×3tungsten plate ×2molten copper ×200 |
| Agricultural (orange) | 4 | 1 | 3.33 | 3 | bioflux ×1pentapod egg ×1 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | 10 | 1 | 8.33 | 19 | supercapacitor ×1accumulator ×1electrolyte ×25holmium solution ×25 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | 20 | 1 | 16.7 | 5 | ice ×3lithium plate ×1fluoroketone cold ×6 |
| Promethium (dark) | 5 | 10 | 0.42 | 27 | promethium asteroid chunk ×25quantum processor ×1biter egg ×10 |
The top-level assemblers sum to 92.9 machines across all twelve packs — before counting gears, circuits, engines, plastic or any other intermediate. The chain stage count gives a sense of how deep each pack's tree is: utility science at 41 stages is the deepest of the base-game packs because it pulls in flying robot frames and processing units, while automation science at 4 stages is shallow because it is only copper plates and gears.
Layout structure by pack tier
The packs fall into three layout groups based on what they consume. Early packs (automation, logistic, military) are built directly from basic plates and simple parts, and their production sits close to the smelting columns. Mid-game packs (chemical, production, utility) consume oil products and advanced circuits, so they need a fluid feed and a dedicated circuit block. The Space Age packs (metallurgic, agricultural, electromagnetic, cryogenic, promethium) consume planet-specific fluids and materials, and their layouts are built around the planet that produces those inputs.
Early packs: red, green, gray
Automation science needs one copper plate and one iron gear wheel per pack. At 100 SPM that is 1.667 packs per second, which the solver reports as 6.67 AM3s for the packs themselves plus a small gear line. The layout is a single row of assemblers with copper on one belt and gears on another, both fed from the main smelting area.
Logistic science consumes inserters and transport belts, each one of which is itself assembled from gears, plates and circuits. Its chain is 13 stages deep — deeper than automation science — even though the final assembler count is similar. The inserters and belts can either be built on-site in dedicated sub-rows or drawn from a shared parts bus; in a 100 SPM base the latter is simpler because those parts are used elsewhere too.
Military science produces two packs per craft from piercing rounds, grenades and stone walls. It is the first pack that produces more than one result per craft, which is why its assembler count (6.67) is comparable to automation science despite a much longer craft time. Its layout needs a dedicated ammunition row (piercing rounds consume steel and copper), a grenade row (coal and sulfur via oil), and stone wall production.
Mid-game packs: blue, purple, yellow
Chemical science takes two engine units, three advanced circuits and one sulfur, producing two packs per craft. The 16.0 assemblers at the top level understate the real footprint: the solver reports 17 chain stages, including petroleum gas at 62.5 units per second for the sulfur and plastic that the advanced circuits consume. The layout must include an oil refinery block, a chemical plant row for sulfur and plastic, an engine assembly line, and an advanced circuit line.
Production science consumes an electric furnace, a productivity module and thirty rails per craft, producing three packs. The rails are the ingredient that surprises people: thirty rails per craft at 1.667 packs per second means 16.7 rails per second across the science base. Rails are cheap individually but the volume is high, and the rail sub-row must be sized accordingly. The productivity module ingredient also pulls in a small module production line.
Utility science is the most circuit-heavy of the base-game packs: three low-density structures, two processing units and a flying robot frame per craft. At 100 SPM the solver reports 1.278 processing units per second shared across the science base, most of which goes to utility science. The low-density structures consume copper, steel and plastic; the flying robot frames consume electric engine units and processing units. The layout for utility science is effectively a small high-tech factory attached to the science mall.
Space science: white
Space science is produced from iron plates, carbon and ice, five packs per craft. Its chain is shallow (4 stages) but its inputs are not Nauvis-native: ice and carbon come from space platforms and planet processing. The assembler count is low (4.00) because of the five-per-craft yield, but the logistical problem is getting the raw materials to the assembler rather than building the assembler itself.
Planet packs: metallurgic, agricultural, electromagnetic, cryogenic
Each of these packs is tied to a specific planet's production chain. Metallurgic science consumes tungsten carbide, tungsten plates and molten copper; agricultural science consumes bioflux and pentapod eggs; electromagnetic science consumes supercapacitors, accumulators and two fluids; cryogenic science consumes ice, lithium plates and fluoroketone coolant.
The layout implication is that these packs are usually built on or near their source planet rather than shipped to a central Nauvis science block. Fluids such as molten copper (3.33 units per second at 100 SPM for metallurgic science), holmium solution and electrolyte are impractical to transport long distances by barrel, and the solid ingredients (tungsten, lithium, supercapacitors) are already planet-bound in their own production chains.
Promethium science
Promethium science produces ten packs per craft from promethium asteroid chunks, a quantum processor and ten biter eggs. The top-level assembler count is the lowest of any pack (0.42) because of the ten-per-craft yield, but the chain is 27 stages deep and pulls in nearly every late-game material: tungsten, sulfuric acid, holmium solution, lithium and fluoroketone. The layout for promethium science is a late-game consolidation block that assumes every other science chain is already running.
Shared intermediates: where the chains converge
The most useful layout number for a science base is not any single pack's assembler count but the total demand for parts that multiple packs consume. A shared bus or a dedicated sub-factory for these parts is almost always smaller than building them redundantly inside each pack's block. The table below sums every stage's production rate across all twelve packs at 100 SPM.
| Intermediate | Total rate / s | Per minute | Used directly by |
|---|---|---|---|
| iron plate | 209 | 12555 | Space (white) |
| copper plate | 161 | 9655 | Automation (red) |
| electronic circuit | 60.7 | 3640 | via chain |
| plastic bar | 31.3 | 1878 | via chain |
| steel plate | 20.4 | 1225 | via chain |
| rail | 16.7 | 1000 | Production (purple) |
| battery | 11.1 | 667 | via chain |
| advanced circuit | 10.6 | 637 | Chemical (blue) |
| iron gear wheel | 6.389 | 383 | Automation (red) |
| engine unit | 2.222 | 133 | Chemical (blue) |
| low density structure | 1.667 | 100 | Utility (yellow) |
| processing unit | 1.278 | 76.7 | Utility (yellow) |
| sulfur | 0.833 | 50.0 | Chemical (blue) |
| electric engine unit | 0.556 | 33.3 | via chain |
| flying robot frame | 0.556 | 33.3 | Utility (yellow) |
Iron plate dominates because it is consumed by nearly every chain: gears for automation science, rails for production science, steel for utility science, and steel for military and production. Copper plate is close behind for circuits. Plastic bar is the third-largest because it feeds advanced circuits and low-density structures across chemical, production and utility science.
The layout decision is whether to centralise these on a bus or build dedicated sub-blocks. For plates and gears, a bus feed from the smelting columns is the standard answer. For circuits — particularly advanced circuits and processing units — a dedicated circuit block that all three mid-game packs draw from is usually cleaner than duplicating the line inside each pack's block, because the circuit recipes share plastic and sulfur inputs that are easier to route once than three times.
Fluids: the part that does not go on belts
Several packs consume fluids directly, and more consume fluids indirectly through their intermediates. At 100 SPM the direct fluid feeds are:
| Pack | Fluid | Rate / s |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical (blue) | petroleum gas | 62.5 |
| Chemical (blue) | water | 12.5 |
| Production (purple) | petroleum gas | 111 |
| Utility (yellow) | petroleum gas | 128 |
| Utility (yellow) | sulfuric acid | 27.8 |
| Utility (yellow) | lubricant | 8.333 |
| Space (white) | sulfuric acid | 6.667 |
| Space (white) | ammoniacal solution | 3.333 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | sulfuric acid | 150 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | molten iron | 33.3 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | molten copper | 333 |
| Agricultural (orange) | water | 50.0 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | holmium solution | 142 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | petroleum gas | 16.7 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | light oil | 8.333 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | sulfuric acid | 200 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | electrolyte | 58.3 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | ammoniacal solution | 50.0 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | holmium solution | 6.667 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | lithium brine | 16.7 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | ammonia | 16.7 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | fluoroketone cold | 10.0 |
| Promethium (dark) | sulfuric acid | 9.167 |
| Promethium (dark) | petroleum gas | 7.500 |
| Promethium (dark) | holmium solution | 3.000 |
| Promethium (dark) | light oil | 0.417 |
| Promethium (dark) | lithium brine | 3.333 |
| Promethium (dark) | ammonia | 3.333 |
| Promethium (dark) | fluoroketone cold | 1.667 |
These are direct ingredients only. The full chain also pulls petroleum gas for plastic and sulfur (visible in chemical, production and utility science's raw inputs), sulfuric acid for batteries and processing units, and water for oil processing and agricultural science. A science base's fluid grid is usually more complex than its item belt grid, which is why fluid routing is planned before the assembler rows are placed.
Labs: consumption, not production
The labs that consume the packs are separate from the assemblers that produce them. A lab has crafting speed 1 and 2 module slots; a biolab has crafting speed 2 and 4 module slots. The number of labs a 100 SPM base needs depends on the research time per technology unit, which is a property of individual technologies rather than of the labs themselves. That value is not in data/2.1, so this page does not state a single lab count.
What can be stated is the feed rate the labs must sustain: at 100 SPM each lab's input belt must deliver 1.667 of each active pack per second, and the inserters loading the labs must keep up with that rate. With productivity modules in the lab slots, the effective pack consumption is reduced (each lab does more research per pack), which lowers the required assembler count; with speed modules, research proceeds faster but pack consumption rises. The production figures in the table above assume no modules in the assemblers, and the lab count must be planned against whichever module configuration the labs actually use.
A biolab is the Space Age equivalent of a lab, with twice the crafting speed and twice the module slots. It is the faster consumer of packs for the same number of machines, so a biolab block needs a higher pack feed rate than an equivalent lab block. The pack production target should be set to match the consumer, not the other way around.
Belt and stack considerations
Every science pack has a stack size of 200 in version 2.1.12. That matters for inserter throughput into labs: a stack-inserter with bonuses can move multiple packs per swing, but the belt feeding the labs must still deliver the sustained rate. At 100 SPM of twelve packs, a single belt of mixed packs cannot carry the total — 20.0 packs per second is more than a yellow belt's 15 items per second — so labs are fed by multiple belts, by a bus split, or by logistic robots in larger bases.
The standard layout is one belt per pack (or per two packs on faster belts), running past the lab block with inserters pulling from the appropriate lane. This keeps the feed rate for each pack independent, so a slowdown in one pack's production does not starve the labs of the others. Mixing all twelve packs onto one belt and filtering at each lab is possible but fragile: any backup on one pack blocks the whole belt.
Beacons and the 100 SPM threshold
At 100 SPM, beacons are optional rather than necessary. The assembler counts in the table are small enough that direct assembly — no beacons, no modules — fits in a reasonable footprint. Beacons become worth considering at higher SPM targets or when the base is tile-constrained: a beaconed assembler row produces the same rate in a fraction of the machine count, at the cost of beacon power and module investment.
The planet science packs are where beaconing is most often used, because their production is confined to a planet's limited build area. Cryogenic and electromagnetic science in particular have long craft times (10s and 20s) and benefit directly from speed beacons. The shared solver can be rerun with speed and productivity bonuses to get the beaconed machine counts; the principle is the same as for smelting columns — beacons reduce the count of the top-level machines but not the demand on their inputs.
Putting the blocks together
A science base laid out from these numbers has four concentric zones. The outermost zone is raw production: smelting columns for iron, copper and steel; oil refineries for petroleum gas; and planet-specific extractors for tungsten, lithium and ice. Inside that is the intermediate zone: circuit lines, engine lines, plastic and sulfur, rail production. Inside that is the pack assembly zone: one block per pack, each fed by the intermediates it needs. At the centre is the lab block, consuming every pack on independent feed belts.
[smelting] [oil] [planet inputs]
| | |
[circuits] [engines] [rails] [plastic]
| | |
[red][green][gray][blue][purple][yellow][white]...
| | |
[LAB BLOCK]
The order matters because the intermediate zone is shared. Pack blocks that draw from the same intermediates are placed adjacent so the belt runs are short; chemical, production and utility science all consume circuits and oil products, so they sit together; military science sits near the smelting and steel that feeds it; the Space Age packs sit near their planet inputs. The exact dimensions come from the assembler counts in the table above, not from a fixed template.
Scaling between 60, 100 and 1000 SPM
The assembler count for every pack scales linearly with SPM. A 60 SPM base needs 0.6 times the machines of a 100 SPM base; a 1000 SPM base needs ten times. This linearity is the reason it is useful to solve at a reference scale — 100 SPM here — and multiply rather than re-solving every time the target changes.
| Pack | AM3 at 60 SPM | AM3 at 100 SPM | AM3 at 1000 SPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automation (red) | 4.00 | 6.67 | 66.7 |
| Logistic (green) | 4.80 | 8.00 | 80.0 |
| Military (gray) | 4.00 | 6.67 | 66.7 |
| Chemical (blue) | 9.60 | 16.0 | 160 |
| Production (purple) | 5.60 | 9.33 | 93.3 |
| Utility (yellow) | 5.60 | 9.33 | 93.3 |
| Space (white) | 2.40 | 4.00 | 40.0 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | 2.50 | 4.17 | 41.7 |
| Agricultural (orange) | 2.00 | 3.33 | 33.3 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | 5.00 | 8.33 | 83.3 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | 10.0 | 16.7 | 167 |
| Promethium (dark) | 0.25 | 0.42 | 4.17 |
The linearity holds for top-level assemblers, but it does not hold for every part of the base. At 1000 SPM the intermediate demand for iron plate reaches 2093 plates per second, which no single bus can carry without multiple parallel lanes. The circuit and oil blocks likewise need to be split across several sub-factories rather than scaled up in place. The assembler counts scale; the belt and fluid routing does not, which is where large SPM bases spend most of their planning effort.
There is also a qualitative change at high SPM. At 60 SPM, direct assembly without beacons is the standard approach: the counts are small enough that every pack block fits in a screen or two. At 1000 SPM, beaconed rows are effectively required to keep the footprint manageable, and the pack blocks are usually city-block sized rather than arranged around a central bus. The ratios do not change; the geometry does.
Feed belt requirements per pack
Each pack must be transported from its assembler block to the labs. At 100 SPM each pack's output rate is 1.667 per second, which fits comfortably on a single yellow belt for any one pack. The question is how many packs share a belt.
| Pack | Output / s at 100 SPM | Yellow belts needed |
|---|---|---|
| Automation (red) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Logistic (green) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Military (gray) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Chemical (blue) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Production (purple) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Utility (yellow) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Space (white) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Metallurgic (cyan) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Agricultural (orange) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Electromagnetic (purple) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Cryogenic (teal) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
| Promethium (dark) | 1.667 | 0.111 |
A yellow belt carries 15.0 items per second, so up to 9 packs at 100 SPM can share a single belt before it saturates. In practice packs are not mixed onto one belt because the lab inserters would need filtering and a backup on one pack would stall the others. The common arrangement is one belt per pack or one belt per two packs on a faster tier. At 1000 SPM the output rate per pack rises to 16.7 per second, which is still under one yellow belt per pack but leaves little headroom; red or blue belts are used instead.
Research order and when each pack comes online
The twelve packs are not all available from the start. Automation science is the first pack produced. Logistic science follows once inserters and belts are in steady production. Military science requires gunpowder and steel, which gate it behind oil processing and a steel supply. Chemical science is the first pack that requires plastics and engines, placing it firmly after oil. Production and utility science follow chemical science and require electric furnaces, productivity modules, low-density structures and processing units.
The Space Age packs are gated by their respective planets. Metallurgic science requires Fulgora-style tungsten processing; agricultural science requires Gleba's bio production; electromagnetic science requires Fulgora's holmium and supercapacitors; cryogenic science requires Vulcanus and Aquilo materials; promethium science is an end-game pack that consolidates materials from all prior planets.
The layout implication is that a science base is built in phases. The first block handles red and green science. Military, chemical and the oil block are added next. Production and utility expand the circuit and high-tech wings. The planet packs are added as their respective surfaces are developed. A common mistake is to reserve space for all twelve packs in the initial layout; the better approach is to plan the shared intermediate zone (plates, circuits, oil) at full size from the start and extend the pack assembly zone outward as each new pack unlocks.
Space science is the exception to the planet-gating pattern. It is produced from platform materials and becomes available once space exploration begins, but it does not require a dedicated planet surface. Its layout is usually placed near the launch pad or spaceport rather than alongside the other packs.
Module choices for science assemblers
Assembling machine 3 has four module slots. The choice of modules changes both the machine count and the input demand. Productivity modules are the usual choice for science packs because they provide free extra output per craft — effectively reducing raw resource consumption — at the cost of speed and power. A full set of productivity module 3 provides a 40% productivity bonus, which reduces the assembler count by roughly 29% (one divided by 1.4) and reduces raw ore consumption by the same fraction.
Speed modules are used when raw resources are abundant but space is constrained. Four speed module 3 provide a 200% speed increase (tripling crafting speed) but raise power draw substantially and provide no resource savings. In beaconed blocks the beacons themselves carry speed modules while the assemblers carry productivity modules, combining high throughput with resource efficiency. That configuration is standard at 1000 SPM and optional at 100 SPM.
The numbers in this page assume no modules so that the ratios are directly comparable across packs. Applying productivity modules scales every top-level count down by the productivity factor; applying speed modules scales it down by the speed factor. The shared intermediate demand scales by the same factor, because the packs are still being consumed at the same SPM rate — the assemblers just produce them more efficiently.
Applies when…
- Machine counts assume assembling machine 3 with no modules. Using AM2 roughly doubles the count at the same rate; using AM1 roughly quadruples it. Speed or productivity modules reduce the count further and can be modelled by rerunning the solver with the appropriate bonus.
- Rates are for 100 SPM of every pack simultaneously. A base researching one technology at a time does not need all twelve packs at once, and the intermediate totals would be lower.
- Lab counts are not given because research time per technology unit is not present in data/2.1. The lab feed rate is the pack production rate; how many labs consume it depends on the specific technology and module configuration.
- Fluid rates are direct pack ingredients only. Indirect fluid demand (petroleum gas for plastic, sulfuric acid for batteries) is included in the chain but is not itemised separately.
- Planet packs assume production on or near their source planet. Transporting molten copper, holmium solution or electrolyte long distances by barrel is possible but changes the layout substantially.
Related
- Science pack ratios — full solver output for every pack at multiple SPM targets
- Oil processing ratios — refinery and chemical plant counts for petroleum, sulfur and plastic
- How production ratios actually work
- Planet-specific production — metallurgic, agricultural, electromagnetic and cryogenic supply chains