Factorio 2.1 is stable: 6 changes to know before you update

After a summer in experimental, Factorio 2.1 is now the stable version. Developer Wube Software announced it in Friday Facts #449 on 23 October, exactly two years after the Space Age expansion came out, and refreshed the game's classic trailer for the occasion. Wube says 2.1 isn't about new planets, enemies or research; it is a big batch of quality-of-life changes, polish and features it didn't have time for in 2.0. If you stayed on 2.0, these are the changes that matter most.

Space logistics get much smarter

Rockets can now carry several different items in one launch, so you no longer have to send a full stack of everything just to build a small platform. Leaving the "Import from" slot blank pulls items from every location, platforms can trade items with other platforms in orbit, hub requests can be driven by the circuit network, and a new Radar Universe mode shares circuit signals between planets and platforms.

Ships fly and take damage differently

Asteroid damage now depends on the asteroid's remaining health rather than its speed, which makes it more predictable. The platform hub is tougher, and drag is now based on mass instead of width, so the narrow "pencil ship" is no longer the only fast design.

Circuits split inputs and outputs

Circuit reads and writes can now go to different wire colours, replacing the old self-subtraction tricks. Labs can pick research by circuit condition, boilers, heat exchangers and pipes can be wired up, and land mines can act as tripwires. A new unloading bay also lets inserters pull straight from the landing pad.

Quality becomes optional

Space Age can now be played without Quality: the Recycler is its own mod, and Quality is a recommended dependency that's on by default. Quality trains and wagons arrive, while the "space casino" is closed, as Quality modules no longer work in asteroid reprocessing.

New graphics and long-standing fixes

Assemblers, the oil refinery, rocket silo and heat exchanger get new art, planets show behind space platforms, and the flamethrower turret can face diagonally. Pumpjacks and burner miners can be flipped, and fluid-mixing prevention is back, so pipes carrying different fluids won't merge. Biter expansions were also reworked to scale with evolution.

It runs natively on ARM64 Linux

Factorio now runs natively on ARM64 Linux. GamingOnLinux notes that covers Valve's Steam Frame, Raspberry Pi headless servers and Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon Macs.

Before updating, Wube's advice is simple: back up saves and blueprints, because once updated they can't go back to 2.0, and some designs, especially circuit builds, may break. Most popular mods were updated during the experimental phase, but check yours first. Bigger factories also mean bigger screens; our gaming monitor guide can help, and the October Steam Next Fest has plenty more automation games to try.