A completely subjective tier list of best and worst alternate recipes, with actual explanations of why I arrived at that conclusion. Introduction This tier list is not purely based on efficiency like other ones out there, and also factors in things like convenience of implementation. Some of the most efficient methods are also the most annoying to add, and having the most efficient factory is never necessary when you can grab more materials, so a balance between ease of use and efficiency must be considered. Rarity of materials is also a factor, as something that is highly efficient in general but consumes lots of rare materials is still worse for the average player, and something that is very inefficient but mostly consumes incredibly cheap/common materials is better. Recipes are alphabetized within each section for easier searching. You are welcome to comment if you believe I made an error in my judgement and a certain recipe is better or worse than mentioned here. It is recommended to hold unnecessary recipes so that they will not come up in future hard drive searches and only redeem ones that will help you right away. Depending on your factory location and construction, a recipe may be slightly better or worse than stated; this is not meant to be taken as gospel. What's most important is that you like using a recipe (though with F-Tier ones, you should really, really think about it...) Phasing out parts There are certain parts in factories that can be entirely phased out. Your best alt recipes will depend on whether or not you do this, making it similar to a branching path of sorts. This is because choosing not to phase something out will necessitate an alt recipe for making it down the line, and different recipes to utilize it. These paths will largely depend on whether or not you wish to stop using Screws, but there are other independent decisions that can be made. Screws Advantages: Phasing out Screws will make it easier early in the game, because they are extremely hard to make in large numbers until you have Steel (Phase 2). You will also be using less Iron. Disadvantages: You will not want to skip Stitched Iron Plate or Steel Rotor, making you expend more hard drives. You don't have to wait to find Heavy Encased Frame and can just proceed with the default recipe (though Heavy Encased Frame is still arguably better even if you are using Screws). It's also worse late game, when Aluminum Beam makes Screws virtually free. If you phase out Screws, you will want, at a bare minimum: Caterium and/or Iron Wire Heavy Encased Frame Stitched/Adhered Iron Plate Steel Rotor (Phase 2) If you do not phase out Screws, you will want, at a bare minimum: Steel Screws or Steel Rod (Phase 2) Bolted Frame Molded Beam (optional - skippable) Aluminum Beam or Aluminum Rod (Phase 4) (optional - skippable) Note: Picking whether to use Steel Rod + normal Screw recipe or Steel Screws is a matter of personal discretion. Steel Rod has the greatest multipurpose functionality, but uses slightly more Steel Ingots compared to Molded Beam and will need (many!) more Constructors, even if they are fully overclocked. The output of Steel Screws will likely be worth wasting a Hard Drive on, but the super-stingy can do a ton with just Steel Rod alone. Warning: Cast Screws is a "noob trap". I recommend avoiding it, as it does not make your Screw production more efficient, becomes pointless quickly, and not using Iron Rods is actually a downside. Even if you don't phase out Screws, wait for Steel Screws or Steel Rod. A simple alternative beforehand is 1 Smelter > 2 Iron Rod Constructors > 3 Screw Constructors, or 1 Smelter (underclocked to 50%), 1 Iron Rod Constructor, 1 Screw Constructor (overclocked to 150%). Iron Rod Advantages: Phasing out Iron Rods has synergy with phasing out Screws. It lets you use fewer parts. Disadvantages: Not phasing out Iron Rods has synergy with not phasing out Screws. You'll still need them for construction anyway, and not taking Steel Rod makes you produce fewer overall. If you do phase out Iron Rods, you will want, at a bare minimum: Bolted Frame if you will not phase out Screws, Steeled Frame if you will Steel Rotor (Copper Rotor is also a valid choice if you do not phase out both Copper Sheets and Screws, but may not really be worth it) If you do not phase out Iron Rods, you will want, at a bare minimum: Steel Rod (Phase 2) (optional - skippable, but a bad idea to) Aluminum Rod (optional - probably not necessary) Copper Sheet Advantages: Plastic AI Limiter is so much better you may want it anyway. Saves Copper, which is good for Phase 4 and beyond when you need Copper Powder. Disadvantages: Silicon Circuit Board has huge output and is very cheap compared to the others in terms of resources. No need to waste a drive or have to wait for Heat Exchanger. If you do phase out Copper Sheets, you will want, at a bare minimum: Caterium/Electrode Circuit Board Plastic AI Limiter Heat Exchanger If you do not phase out Copper Sheets, you will want, at a bare minimum: Steamed Copper Sheet (Phase 3) Silicon Circuit Board Helpful tips Only start scanning hard drives after you have researched Quickwire. Most of the very early recipes are lackluster, and it gives you the most chance to get more useful Caterium recipes. Use 4 meter foundations for your base layer, it causes the uneven ground to interfere less. Whether you're building multiple storeys or not, it's usually a good idea to have a 12 meter empty floor below anything you build. This logistical floor makes it far easier to make belts or pipes without the interference of buildings. Getting the Concrete or Asphalt material from the AWESOME Shop removes the need to expend metal on foundations. While they become slightly more Concrete-intensive, they are nevertheless much easier to build. The easiest way to bring Coal for steel back to your base is by fueling a tractor with some of the same coal you're loading onto it. You only have to fuel it on one truck station. Compacted Coal and Turbofuel, while good on paper due to their higher efficiency, are more trouble than they're actually worth to implement and should typically be skipped when it comes to power generation. I recommend getting Nitro Rocket Fuel before swapping to Rocket Fuel. Ionized Fuel is actually less resource-efficient than Rocket Fuel, and should only be used for the Jetpack. Research and craft Power Slugs into Power Shards so you can unlock overclocking as soon as possible. The north middle of the map has the most Power Slugs in the game, and you can use Zipline and Power Towers to get there quickly. Look up Variable Input Priority (VIP) junctions, as this is necessary to recycle waste liquids rather than having to sink them. Don't spend time making massive amounts of infrastructure or beautification prior to Phase 4. It's best to do the bare minimum for ease of reaching the next phase, as the unlock of the Hoverpack and blenders make setting up certain things drastically easier. Making Uranium power is fun and a net positive, but never strictly necessary. Plutonium Rods can be disposed of in the sink. It is far harder to justify ever making Plutonium and Ficsonium power besides messing around. It's easier to build nuclear plants near the ocean or on top of it. Alien Power Augmenters, while cool, are always pointless, even with the Alien Power Matrices being fed into it. Use the Somersloops to boost the fuel you are producing or the items you are making. Once you reach a certain point, it's better to use conveyors as a "pipeline" over any decently long distance and send back the empty canisters, *especially* with Nitrogen Gas. The MK6 conveyor can send as much liquid as 2 pipelines with zero fluid dynamics, and as much Nitrogen Gas as 8. But, you can also blueprint large stacks of pipelines if you prefer the aesthetics. S-tier Items in this tier are foundational recipes that are "redeem now, think later". I wouldn't wait to get them, and I certainly wouldn't reroll them. Caterium Wire - This is one of the main reasons to find and tap Caterium as quickly as possible. You likely won't be using your entire Caterium supply for Quickwire production, so it's a good way to make Wire at high volumes without straining your resources. Furthermore, it needs far fewer constructors. The sheer convenience of it doesn't stop being relevant even in the endgame. Dark Matter Trap - Effectively halves the SAM needed to make Dark Matter Crystals with no downsides besides using a bit more electricity. Diluted Fuel - Drastically boosts the fuel you can make from a given Crude Oil node. This can increase the amount of Rocket Fuel you can make by a similar level, so it's a must-have. Heavy Encased Frame - This is a tremendous upgrade to the default recipe by swapping screws for concrete. It also consumes less Modular Frames, and is the most efficient recipe in the game from a stat-based standpoint, making it a must-have for essentially everyone. Even if you use Steel Screws, it's still better than the default, which is really nuts and makes it worthy of a top spot. Heavy Oil Residue - Allows for the oil-efficient creation of Diluted Fuel and numerous other recipes. It's also fairly easy to automate fabric making/gas filters with its output. May be one of the best recipes in the game. Ionized Fuel - While pointless for power generation (it is less energy-efficient than Rocket Fuel), it is the single best jetpack fuel source in the game. Since the jetpack is so heavily-used, it's well worth spending the hard drive on it and setting up a small facility to supply your Dimensional Depot indefinitely. Molded Steel Pipe - Most people will find Molded Steel Pipe highly useful in one way or another, even if just for making Stators and Heavy Modular Frames. It's also much less resource-consuming than Iron Pipe, making it one of the game's most powerful recipes. The only real downside is that you'll want Fine/Wet Concrete to avoid running low on Limestone. Nitro Rocket Fuel - It consumes more Nitrogen Gas than the default recipe, but also requires far fewer buildings. The ease of construction will likely outweigh the slight additional consumption unless you are really short on Nitrogen Gas. Even better in subsequent playthroughs where you aren't going for achievements, since you don't need to ever unlock Compacted Coal, saving a hard drive. Plastic AI Limiter - You'll probably be cranking out a lot of these bad boys at all times, and the default recipe will hog your Quickwire and Copper supply. These cut Quickwire used by 3/4 and substitute easier-to-make Plastic, as well as having significantly higher output. Silicon High-Speed Connector - It reduces the Quickwire needed by about half, while substituting Cable for the much easier to make Silica. The slightly lower production speed is made up for easily by its huge Caterium-saving benefits. Sloppy Alumina - A pure upgrade in every way - more Alumina Solution is always going to be more valuable than extra Silica, and there's one less output to worry about (even though with the introduction of Priority Mergers, it's far easier to feed it into later ingot production now without risking the system backing up). Solid Steel Ingot - The best Steel Ingot recipe for a large chunk of the game. Not only does it reduce Coal used, but the use of Iron Ingots rather than ore allows you to use an additional alt recipe to reduce Iron consumption (by how much depends on the recipe, but any of them are better than the default). Turbofuel - Mostly S-tier due to the technicality that you need to unlock it to reach Rocket Fuel. Otherwise, its main use is to make Rocket Fuel. I wouldn't recommend using it on its own as a power source before you reach Rocket Fuel, it's more trouble than it's worth. A-tier Items in this tier are rarely ever a bad idea to choose. They are likely to be immediately beneficial to you in various ways. In most cases, they are also insta-redeems, but aren't necessarily the best in every situation. Adhered Iron Plate - Arguably the best method to make Reinforced Iron Plate, it's just unlocked rather late. The main downside is that they have the lowest output of all Reinforced Iron Plate recipes, and I recommend a full overclock. Automated Speed Wiring - This would normally be a B-tier since it's so dependent on Silicon High-Speed Connector, but given that Silicon High-Speed Connector is a must-have anyway, it shouldn't really matter. You're essentially subbing 2 Manufacturers' worth of Automated Wiring with only one High-Speed Connector Manufacturer. Basic Iron Ingot - With how common Limestone is, this is an excellent option that is unlocked early and will not need to be retooled later, and is strictly better than the default recipe. Foundries can fit easily in any sort of factory. A great example of "boring but practical". Crystal Computer - Cutting out the sheer amount of wire makes this a highly useful upgrade for Computer production. It's also much easier to Somersloop, since it only uses an Assembler. Electrode Circuit Board - Even without any alt recipes, this recipe is very good, and likely the best way to make Circuit Boards due to only requiring a single ingredient to start with, Crude Oil. You can either transport the boards alongside whatever you are using to ship Plastic/Rubber, or just pipe the Crude Oil to your base instead. Encased Industrial Pipe - Steel Pipe is much easier to make, making this a significant boost. That it uses comparatively less Concrete is just an additional bonus. Flexible Framework - Halves the Steel Beams you need, trading it for Rubber. Pure upgrade over the default. Heat Exchanger - Quite good, given it substitutes two annoying-to-make parts with two easy-to-make ones, and has a nice output boost to boot. Insulated Crystal Oscillator - This is one of the rare recipes where the production speed is actually more worth it than the change in materials, as it almost halves the amount of Manufacturers needed. This is useful given the amount of Oscillators you will likely have to produce. Molded Beam - A major upgrade on the default recipe, but, late game, it's rendered obsolete by Aluminum Beam. Nevertheless, given how useful it is during the time you do need it, it's a must-have. OC Supercomputer - This is very dependent on whether you have gotten the alt recipes for the previous parts, but it can potentially make creating Supercomputers significantly more efficient and easier to Somersloop. Oil-Based Diamonds - Can't make Plastic/Rubber cheaply like Petroleum Diamonds, but incredibly easy to set up. Odds are this is really all you will need, since you can set it up near any big Oil deposit and drone the diamonds back. Plastic Smart Plating - Anything that lowers the Rotors you need is great in my book. Polyester Fabric - Largely needed to make unlimited gas filters. Pure Caterium Ingot - The extra output on these is essentially "free", making them have very little downside. But, in some cases, the throughput is quite low, requiring numerous buildings. Pure Copper Ingot - See above. Pure Iron Ingot - See above. Pure Quartz Crystal - See above. Quickwire Cable - Unlike its companion, Quickwire Stator, this recipe is actually quite good. Even factoring in Caterium Wire, it's slightly more resource-efficient. Its main downside is the low production amount, potentially requiring numerous fully overclocked Assemblers, but the overall material savings are well worth the extra power consumption. Radio Control System - It may seem more complex than Radio Connection Unit on the surface, but requires significantly fewer buildings for its input parts, making it the clear winner here. Turbo Pressure Motor - The best Turbo Motor manufacturing method. Uranium Fuel Unit - This one is hard to argue against, given you'll need almost the same amount of Manufacturers either way... there isn't all that much reason not to use it. Wet Concrete - The most convenient Concrete making method, it lets you crank out tons of Concrete with only water nearby. For most players, this is the only Concrete recipe you will ever need. B-tier Items in this tier are broadly good for general use, and there is rarely a downside to them. However, they are also usually only small upgrades on the default, or require other recipes to be good. Aluminum Beam - This recipe's more of a drastic improvement than Aluminum Rod. At the same time, your Steel production is likely to already be chugging away by the time you get this, so it depends on whether you really need more Beams. If you do, it's not a bad option. Bolted Frame - If you don't phase out Screws and get Steel Screw, this recipe is recommendable as a better alternative to Steeled Frame. If you do, it will generally be pointless. Caterium Circuit Board - A solid improvement on the default recipe, but a bit of a Quickwire hog. It starts out mediocre, but becomes better once you unlock MK3 miners and/or drones to expand your Quickwire production. Alternatively, if you have a large train network and can easily access Caterium, it's about equal to Electrode Circuit Board. Cheap Silica - The usefulness of this recipe will depend on how much Limestone you have available. It can range from handy to straight-up unnecessary, given you also get tons of Quartz. Coated Cable - One of the best Cable recipes, but if you have a separate building for fluids, having to pipe Heavy Oil Residue into your main factory may be a slight downside compared to just sending the more broadly useful Rubber. It also needs a tall Refinery and is less efficient than Quickwire Cable. You will probably want the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe when using this one. Coated Iron Plate - A solid recipe that lowers iron needed with relatively minimal plastic investment. But the ease of obtaining Iron means that even that tiny amount of Plastic may be a waste. Compacted Steel Ingot - Nearly pointless early game, but can actually be useful late game if you have a Nitro Rocket Fuel plant. Using the waste from it will essentially remove the need to expend normal Coal to make your steel, letting you put even more of it into power generation. This does, however, come at the cost of higher Iron consumption, and it virtually requires being fully overclocked. Electrode Aluminum Scrap - Needs the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe to be very good, but, once you have it, it becomes quite good. It uses up negligible amounts of Crude Oil compared to the large amounts of Coal used by the normal recipe. Electromagnetic Connection Rod - Requires Silicon High-Speed Connector, and preferably Silicon Circuit Board, to be good, but is quite powerful once you have those. Fine Concrete - You can unlock it a lot earlier than Wet Concrete, but its Quartz requirement can limit where it is used, making it a less preferable alternative despite being even more Limestone-efficient. If you do unlock this, you shouldn't need Wet Concrete, but I'd typically advise against it. Iron Alloy Ingot - While an improvement on the default, Iron is so common that spending Copper to augment your iron may often be unnecessary. Petroleum Diamonds - Works well in concert with Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe. Less Oil-efficient than Oil-Based Diamonds, but the output of Polymer Resin can be used to make decent amounts of Residual Plastic/Rubber, potentially making it even better if you can figure out the logistics of it. Radio Connection Unit - If you only have the default recipes of its ingredients, it's terrible, albeit still better than the default. But, if you have both Silicon High-Speed Connector and Heat Exchanger, it's not that bad. Even then, I don't think it beats Radio Control System. Recycled Plastic/Rubber - I don't recommend using these with standard Fuel, it's essentially worse than the default. Once you have Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe to make Residual Fuel, or Diluted Fuel alt recipe as well, you are in business, as they become more efficient than the default recipes. It works best when you have both of these, so you can set up a loop. At this point, they easily become the best way to make Plastic and Rubber. Silicon Circuit Board - While rather good if you have Steamed Copper Sheet, given that Steamed Copper Sheet's utility is so limited otherwise, the other Circuit Board alternate recipes do exceed it. Steamed Copper Sheet - Situationally useful depending on whether you phase out Copper Sheets (see pros vs. cons list above) Steel Rod - This is a recipe that can be fantastic or useless depending on what path you take with the other recipes. I do think it has significantly more utility than Aluminum Rod due to how much earlier you unlock it, and how similar it is in output despite the less rare materials. Steel Rotor - If you have both Steel Rod and Steel Screw unlocked, it's a bit worse than the default. But, it's also one recipe less than getting both of those things, making it a solid choice if you wish to phase out Screws entirely in your factory. Steel Screws - This is another recipe that can be excellent or pointless depending on whether you phase out Screws. I'm not sure I can definitively say whether it's better to do so or not, so it's ultimately up to your discretion. If you continue using Screws until endgame, it's virtually required. Steeled Frame - A rare example of a recipe that uses Steel Pipe but is somehow still mediocre. A lot of it has to do with the existence of Steel Rod, which lowers the default recipe's resource consumption a lot, and, even later, Aluminum Rod, making it practically free. Reinforced Iron Plates are easy to make, so consuming slightly less of them isn't worth the trade-off. However, taking Molded Steel Pipe is more universally useful than Steel/Aluminum Rod, so it does have the advantage in not having to redeem an extra hard drive. Stitched Iron Plate - Amazing early on in the game due to its compatibility with Caterium Wire, but less all-around useful than waiting until you can get Steel Screws and just using the default recipe. It's still helpful if you can't be bothered to wait for Steel Screw to get higher Reinforced Iron Plate production. Tempered Caterium Ingot - Can be good situationally if you're making a lot of Heavy Oil Residue at your factory you need to get rid of. Isn't good at all times and places like Pure Caterium Ingot, but it's completely interchangeable with it if you know what you're doing. Turbo Diamonds - It has excellent output, and it can potentially recycle output from your Nitro Rocket Fuel plant for cheap Turbofuel. I think this is the best of the Coal-based recipes, but the fact remains that using Coal for Diamonds may be a waste. C-tier Items in this tier are not something most players will likely ever need, but aren't quite as lackluster as D-tier. They can be useful in situational circumstances depending on your needs. Caterium Computer - A definite improvement on the default recipe. Its rank would be higher if Crystal Computer wasn't just so much better and unlocked at the same time. Coke Steel Ingot - It's a sidegrade to Solid Steel Ingot at best, and consumes more Iron. If you are not running out of Coal, there is little reason to retool your factory to use it. Cooling Device - Cooling Device only becomes "better" when you have run out of Nitrogen Gas to use. Before then, the default recipe wins very clearly. In most cases, it's better to simply transport more Nitrogen Gas. Copper Alloy Ingot - Too Iron-consuming and not Copper-efficient enough to be worth it in most cases. While you can get it early on in the game, just use Caterium Wire, or, if necessary, Iron Wire, to make your factory's wire and you likely won't need a special ingot recipe until later. Dark Matter Crystallization - While nearly useless for normal purposes, it can be handy for absorbing excess Dark Matter and disposing of it. Diluted Packaged Fuel - While exactly the same as the blender variant besides a number of extra steps, it's usually not worth the effort to set up Diluted Packaged Fuel compared to just tapping as any Crude Oil nodes as possible for normal Fuel and rushing to reach Phase 4 and blenders. Similar to Turbofuel, it falls under the "good, but more trouble than it's worth" category. Distilled Silica/Quartz Purification - These recipes must be deployed together, and are the best at making both Quartz Crystal and Silica at the same time. Most players will be better off with Pure Quartz Crystal and Cheap Silica separately due to their flexibility of deployment and output, lack of requirement for a sink, as well as their lack of Nitrogen Gas consumption. This recipe can be good, but implementing it is a pure flex, and a waste if you already picked Pure/Fused Quartz Crystal/Cheap Silica beforehand, which is an issue given just how late in the game it's unlocked. Electric Motor - While it does save on Rotors and Stators, Steel Pipe is so easy to make that the added complexity is just not worth the effort. Stators and Steel Rotors even use the same ingredients, making the other Motor recipes even easier. This is, in my opinion, the worst Motor recipe. Heat-Fused Frame - Trades more usage of Nitrogen Gas for significantly less Aluminum usage. This is generally not worth the effort unless you are seriously running short on Aluminum. It's better to stretch your Aluminum production more. Iron Pipe - Coal may be a bit more limited than Iron, but I can't envision a scenario where you would suffer from enough of a Coal shortage to necessitate switching to this rather inefficient recipe over something like the highly economical Solid Steel Ingot. If you are, consider deleting any Coal Power Plants after you get Petroleum Power. Iron Wire - The main thing sabotaging this recipe is its very low output. This means it needs tons of Constructors and is annoying to fit into factories effectively. Despite the large amount of Iron around the map, Caterium Wire is usually just far easier to use at any point in the game. Spending an extra hard drive on this one as well is rarely justifiable. Leached Caterium Ingot - This recipe saves the most ore of the "Leached" recipes, but requires the most Sulfuric Acid to match. Like all Leached recipes, it's never more efficient than just blueprinting more Refineries and using Pure recipes. Leached Iron Ingot - This recipe only saves slight Iron Ore, but has slight Sulfuric Acid requirements. Pink Diamonds - Needs Pure Quartz Crystal/Quartz Purification to be good, and, even then, the Quartz may be better used elsewhere. A definite upgrade over the very lackluster default recipe, but seemingly unnecessary compared to the Oil-based ones unless you are facing an Oil shortage (unlikely). Pure Aluminum Ingot - The normal ingot recipe is usually better - consuming Silica is a small extra price to pay for more Aluminum Ingots. While you can eliminate Silica entirely from the process using Sloppy Alumina and this, it just seems unnecessary. But if you prefer not to deal with the extra transport, manifolds and so on, this can be simpler. Rigor Motor - It seems good on paper since you are using fewer Rotors and Stators, but those are incredibly easy to make compared to Crystal Oscillators. Would be a lot better if Caterium Wire, Molded Steel Pipe, and Steel Rotor didn't exist. As it is, it's just overkill and takes up space when you are forced to add a couple of Manufacturers. Steel Cast Plate - Lags behind Coated Iron Plate in terms of output. A bit mediocre. Turbo Electric Motor - Like the standard Electric Motor, it's more efficient, but its complexity hurts it. Normal Turbo Motor recipe uses simpler parts, with default Cooling System being very easy to make, just a Nitrogen Gas guzzler. It's easier to build a drone and ship more Nitrogen than to have to make more facilities to construct EM Rods, more Radio Control units and Rotors. D-tier Items in this tier are have a very small or extremely situational use, so while I'd typically recommend against ever redeeming them, they may just work for you somehow and be worth it. Aluminum Rod - Even if you were going to phase Screws back into your production line late-game, using this alongside the default Screw recipe would be worse than Aluminum Beam > Steel Screws. Steel Rod is also not all that different despite using more common materials and being unlocked far earlier. This is probably not going to be very useful for the vast majority of players. Automated Miner - You use so few of these that automating them is arguably unnecessary. But if you really have an aversion to manual crafting, it's not necessarily useless, just likely a poor idea compared to other more helpful recipes. Cloudy Diamonds - While an upgrade to the default recipe, its Coal usage is still almost as abysmal, and the need to transport such large amounts of Limestone may prove annoying. There are several better Diamond alt recipes you can use instead, and I never felt the need to use this one over them. Coated Iron Canister - Steel Canister's worse cousin. Its combination of Iron and Copper is simply less convenient than Iron and Coal, since Coal tends to be common near fuel production. Since you are making 2 ingredients, it also needs more buildings if you aren't making it nearby. Compacted Coal - It's only D-tier and not F-tier because you need it for an achievement. In 2nd playthroughs and onwards it becomes F-tier and I'd suggest skipping it and waiting for Nitro Rocket Fuel. Copper Rotor - It's rather terrible when used with the default recipes, being only a small upgrade over the default. It does get better if you have Steel Screws and Steamed Copper Sheets, but since you can phase both of those things out of your factory, I'd prefer not to waste 2 entire hard drives when Steel Rotor is dependent on incredibly common parts. Fine Black Powder - You can set up such huge stockpiles of Black Powder relatively quickly, even with the default recipe, that this is pretty unnecessary. It's "solving" a supply problem where none exists. Fused Quartz Crystal - This is a very pathetic recipe whose only advantage is being unlocked early. You are much better off holding off until Tier 5 when you can get Refineries and Pure Quartz Crystal, which only needs Water as its additional input. Fused Quickwire - Rarely needed, given how few uses Caterium has compared to Copper. Fused Wire - See above. Infused Uranium Cell - Uses less Uranium in exchange for less commonplace ingredients. Given the huge amount of Uranium out there, it's unlikely most players will need it in the course of a normal game because they won't be able to exhaust the map's supply. Insulated Cable - While still a significant improvement on the very bad default Cable recipe, it's also a far worse performer than the other Cable alternate recipes. If you want high output, you're far better off going with Coated Cable in combination with the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe. If you want resource efficiency, Quickwire Cable is better, or a combination of Quickwire+Coated. Leached Copper Ingot - Unlike the other Leached recipes, this consumes even more Copper than Pure. While still better than default, there is not much reason to ever use it. Plutonium Fuel Unit - There's rarely a need to make more Plutonium Fuel Rods due to the requisite increase in Plutonium Waste, and how long they last in vehicles. If we look at the ingredients, there is a bit of an advantage in that Pressure Conversion Cubes are easier to ship in from somewhere else, but they still use vastly more ingredients to make. Meanwhile, the default recipe has more basic and simplistic ingredients in low numbers. Drones can easily be fueled by the Plutonium Fuel Rods you produce, so there isn't a huge reason to have to make Cubes. Polymer Resin - It is more efficient than the default Plastic/Rubber recipes when used with Residual Plastic/Rubber, but there is never a need to grab it instead of waiting to snag Recycled Plastic and Rubber. Wasting a hard drive isn't worth the very marginal gains. Rubber Concrete - This isn't necessarily a bad Concrete recipe, but the other ones are just better. Rubber is likely to be a very high-demand item in your factory, so wasting it on Concrete just to save some Limestone is an odd choice. Steel Canister - If for some reason you don't have access to Plastic where you need canisters, this is the slightly better alternative. Its usage of Steel Ingots means you can use more common materials. Still... just use Plastic. Super-State Computer - It is not that this is worse than the default - the default Supercomputer recipe is reallllly bad - but that OC Supercomputer is so much better that this is only worth using as an emergency recourse. Tempered Copper Ingot - This one's far worse than Tempered Caterium Ingot. It doesn't even have the benefit of being unlocked early, and only opens up at the same time as the Pure recipe. It's simply obsoleted by Pure Copper Ingot in every way that matters. Turbo Blend Fuel - Standard Turbofuel is still the better option, as you can run it with Diluted Fuel and Compacted Coal output from Nitro Rocket Fuel. That makes the use case for Turbo Blend Fuel pretty small, with its sole advantage being that it doesn't require Coal and also needs less Sulfur. F-tier Items in this tier are either so poor as to be useless, or niche enough to not bother using a hard drive on it. I'd recommend keeping them on permanent hold unless it's literally the last recipe you have. Alclad Casing - It saves so little Bauxite that it's nearly useless to take this and expend the extra effort setting up Copper Ingot supply. Really, just don't bother. Biocoal - Sure, let me use a limited resource to make an unlimited resource! 🤪 Bolted Iron Plate - Similar to Bolted Frame, it consumes more resources with the sole advantage being a higher output. However, unlike Bolted Frame, even the default recipe uses Screws, so there's no rational reason one would waste a hard drive on this. You will rarely have any issue using the default recipe fully overclocked instead. Cast Screws - Rather overrated as a recipe, it doesn't change the materials needed to create Screws at all, only eliminates a Constructor making Iron Rods, and slightly increases production speed. While it can indeed make overclocking Screws a bit easier, most players are better off getting Stitched Iron Plate instead if they want to make things easier early on, which lets them replace Screws with Wire (preferably from Caterium Wire). This lowers Screws needed, freeing players to hold off until Steel Screw, Steel Rotor or Steeled Frame. Charcoal - See Biocoal above. Classic Battery - Not only are Batteries almost completely unnecessary given the higher energy output of Packaged Rocket Fuel, but, even if you do intend to use them, this recipe is arguably worse than the default one in the Blender due to potentially needing several more resource types. If you must make batteries, you can hook the excess water back into the Alumina Solution or Sulfuric Acid input. Dark-Ion Fuel - "Wow, the output is so much higher! It must be amazing, right?" Well, no - it absolutely guzzles materials, including an effective 480/minute of Rocket Fuel (halved by packaging into 240/minute). Eliminating a Quantum Encoder from the mix just doesn't make up for the loss in potential power in the slightest. I find it hard to see a scenario where you will need this, especially for the fairly small amount of Ionized Fuel players will actually need. (As a bonus, you can use a Smart Splitter to have the Power Shards produced by the default recipe feed into a Dimensional Depot when it's not making Packaged Ionized Fuel). Fertile Uranium - Lowers the amount of Uranium Waste you need for the same amount of fuel. This is essentially never necessary, since you always want to maximize the amount of Uranium Waste that gets processed. Heavy Flexible Frame - What really makes this recipe bad is just how amazing Heavy Encased Frame is in comparison. Heavy Flexible Frame uses 8.75 more Modular Frames/minute for the same output product, which, if you are using Steeled Frame, comes out to almost 30 Steel Pipe/minute. That means all the Rubber it's consuming is mostly for naught. It's even debatable whether it's better than the default, which uses more Steel/Concrete but no Rubber. One thing is for certain; don't waste a drive on it. Instant Plutonium Cell - See above. Instant Scrap - Offers only a slight reduction in Bauxite consumption over Sloppy Alumina, while requiring fairly large amounts of Sulfur. Since you have to make the Sulfuric Acid, it needs 2 buildings anyway. Using that much Sulfur is not worth saving a tiny amount of Bauxite, so you're always better off just holding out for Sloppy Alumina. Quickwire Stator - It's never worth taking this instead of Caterium Wire and just using the default Stator recipe. Caterium Wire has far more uses. The slightly decreased Steel Pipe usage and higher output doesn't make up for it in the slightest. Turbo Heavy Fuel - Even if you wanted to use your Heavy Oil Residue waste to make Turbofuel, you can just use Residual Fuel. It's a bit less efficient, but not "waste a hard drive on this" less. Otherwise, this recipe is essentially made obsolete once you get Diluted Fuel, so there's virtually no reason to ever get this.