Hard Drive



The Hard Drive is an item resembling a heavy-duty carrying case that can be found inside the Dropship around Crash Sites which can be located by using Object Scanner after Radio Signal Scanning has been researched.

It can be researched in the M.A.M. and results in a choice of one of 3 alternate blueprints, chosen from the pool below. See Below

There are 89 Crash Sites. This means a total of 89 Hard Drives could theoretically be obtained. 4 of them however require materials not currently available in early access.

2 Hard drives will be used for the character Inventory expansions, leaving 83 for alternate recipes.

Alternate Recipes
Alternate recipes generally require different input materials than the original, trading between raw material consumption, space, power, simplicity and availability of material.

The set of blueprints to choose from is determined randomly at the beginning of the scan. Because of this, the player can keep re-rolling to get the desired blueprint by saving the game before researching a hard drive, then loading the save and wait for another 10 minutes if the choices are undesirable.

The recipes that show up depending on the current unlocked original recipes. For example, researching Quickwire in the Caterium chain opens up alternate recipes that involve it.

However, some alternate recipes also seem to require that previous alternate recipes are unlocked in order to appear as one of the three random options presented at the time the scan is complete. It is required to have these prerequisites unlocked first at the M.A.M.. This means if a player builds a factory that requires certain alternate recipes that they have not yet unlocked, they may need to find more hard drives than they anticipated in order to unlock the prerequisites blocking their intended alternate recipes. (This page is incomplete regarding these requirements and regarding the complete list of alternate recipes which require other alternate recipes in order to be shown after the scan is complete. Please help improve this page by indicating on the "discussion" tab which alternate recipes do not appear as one of the three random options until another alternate recipe was unlocked and which alternate recipes they require).

Note: Alternate Recipe: Uranium Cell appears to require at least Turbofuel. Turbofuel requires Compacted Coal.

Important Notes

 * The Hard Drive research is repeatable.
 * If you research a Hard Drive, and there is nothing more to unlock, the Hard Drive will return to your inventory. "The analysis of Hard Drive is completed! No new research is available. Try again later after further progress. Your Hard Drive has been returned to you. "

Alternate recipe analysis
The analysis below is based on the target production of the following items, which is normally achievable in the late game, see this link for detailed production list->. This amount is chosen to max the coupon farming rate, while maintaining reasonable amount of parts on hands for building additional buildings. All resources on the map are fully utilized.

Useful recipes

 * Bolted Frame: Significantly improved production speed with negligible amount of Iron Ore loss.
 * Casted Screw, Steel Screw: Prioritize "Casted Screw" first for increased production speed. When iron is exhausted, augment it with "Steel Screw", sacrificing a small amount of steel.
 * Caterium Computer mixed with original recipe: The alternate recipe is preferred, however Caterium can get used up quickly and this is where the original recipe comes in handy to make up for it.
 * Cheap Silica: Limestone is abundant, using it to reduce the load in Raw Quartz is almost a necessity.
 * Compacted Coal: Not an alternative really. It is needed for the "Compacted Steel Ingot" recipe and ammunition. At the endgame, ditch all your Turbofuel production.
 * Copper Rotor: Increased production speed by mixing Copper into it.
 * Diluted Packaged Fuel: Adds Water to get more Fuel. This Fuel is not for power production; it's meant to be converted into Plastic and Rubber.
 * Electrode Aluminum Scrap: Relieves the Crude Oil consumption. It also has a better conversion rate.
 * Encased Industrial Pipe: All-round winner.
 * Fine Black Powder: All-round winner.
 * Fused Quickwire: Caterium is much more precious than Copper, so yes.
 * Heat Exchanger: Saves Crude Oil and Bauxite.
 * Heavy Encased Frame: All-round winner; only eats a little more Limestone.
 * Heavy Oil Residue: Not an alternative. You'll need this in your fuel production chain.
 * Infused Uranium Cell mixed with original recipe: The alternate recipe is preferred, use the original recipe to boost the production if Quartz and Caterium are insufficient.
 * Insulated Crystal Oscillator: A little bit of Crude Oil is worth it to save on Quartz.
 * Iron Wire mixed with original recipe: The original recipe is preferred, unless Copper is fully utilized.
 * Nuclear Fuel Unit mixed with original recipe: The alternate recipe is preferred, unless Crystal Oscillators are insufficient.
 * Polyester Fabric: Necessary to automate the production of Filters.
 * Pure Caterium Ingot: Just add Water.
 * Pure Copper Ingot: Just add Water.
 * Pure Iron Ingot: Just add Water.
 * Pure Quartz Crystal: Just add Water.
 * Radio Control System: Although Supercomputers seem to be difficult to produce, this recipe is actually an all-round winner.
 * Recycled Plastic: More complex, but way better than original recipe.
 * Recycled Rubber, Residual Rubber: More complex, but way better than original recipe. "Residual Rubber" can be used to clean up the Polymer Resin byproducts.
 * Silicone Circuit Board: Actually better than "Caterium Circuit Board" since no Oil is involved.
 * Solid Steel Ingot, Compacted Steel Ingot: "Solid Steel Ingot" is preferred. Use "Compacted Steel Ingot" if you have Coal shortage and excess Sulfur.
 * Steamed Copper Sheet: Just add Water.
 * Stitched Iron Plate: Combined with "Iron Wire", this uses less Iron Ore than the original recipe.
 * Turbo Rigour Motor: Necessary for large scale Turbo Motor Production. The key point is to reduce the need for Radio Control Units which are also not easy to be mass-produced.
 * Wet Concrete: Just add Water.

The remaining alternate recipes that did not appear in the above list, can be considered not beneficial in the late game. Engineers could chose to use them at their own preference.

Inefficient recipes
TODO.