I hand-crafted everything for my first 30 hours of Factorio. Yellow belts, blue inserters, assembling machines, pipes - all by hand. I spent more time standing at a crafting window than building my factory. Then I built a mall, and my playtime efficiency doubled overnight. Here's exactly how to set one up and never look back.
Why Every Factorio Player Needs a Mall
A mall isn't a luxury - it saves more time than any other single build in the game. Here's the math:
| Activity | Hand-craft time | Mall retrieval time | Time saved per use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grab 100 belts | ~40 seconds crafting | 3 seconds walking | 37 seconds |
| Grab 50 inserters | ~25 seconds | 3 seconds | 22 seconds |
| Grab 20 assemblers | ~60 seconds | 5 seconds | 55 seconds |
| Build new outpost | Need all items = 5+ mins crafting | 20 seconds grabbing | 5+ minutes |
Over a typical playthrough, a mall saves hours of real time. It also means you don't carry raw materials - you carry finished building supplies.
Early-Game Mall (Pre-Robots)
The early mall runs on belts. Build it after green science automation, near your main bus.
Belt section (left to right on the bus):
- Transport belt - 1 assembler, feeds from iron. Output to a steel chest.
- Underground belt - 1 assembler, needs iron. Output chest. Note: each underground belt is 2 items.
- Splitter - 1 assembler, iron + 1 gear. Output chest.
- Fast transport belt - research Logistics 2 first. Needs iron + gears, faster than basic.
Inserter section: 5. Yellow inserter - 1 assembler, iron plate + 1 gear. Highest volume item in the game. 6. Long-handed inserter - 1 assembler, iron + gear. Output chest. 7. Fast inserter - 1 assembler, iron + gear + electronic circuit. Output chest.
Production section: 8. Assembling machine 1 - 1 assembler, iron + gear + circuit. Output chest. 9. Assembling machine 2 - 1 assembler, iron + 3 gear + 3 circuit. Output chest (if researched). 10. Stone furnace - 1 assembler, stone. Output chest. 11. Steel furnace - 1 assembler, steel. Output chest (if researched). 12. Electric mining drill - 1 assembler, iron + gear + circuit. Output chest.
Infrastructure section: 13. Pipe - 1 assembler, iron. Output chest. You use more pipes than you expect. 14. Small electric pole - 1 assembler, iron + wood. Output chest. 15. Medium electric pole - 1 assembler, iron + copper. Output chest.
Mid-Game Mall (With Logistic Robots)
Once you have logistic robots, chests, and a roboport network, upgrade to a bot-based mall:
Requester chest method: Each assembler sits next to a requester chest that requests its raw materials. Output goes into a passive provider chest. Logistic bots handle all transport.
Why this is better:
- No belt spaghetti around the mall section
- Materials scale horizontally - add more assemblers anywhere in the network
- Easy to add new items (just drop a new assembler + requester)
- Blueprint-able as a reusable tile
Upgrade path:
- Build a single roboport covering your mall area
- Replace chest outputs with passive provider chests
- Replace belt feeds with requester chests
- Add a buffer chest requesting high-volume items (belts, inserters)
- Set up personal logistics slots to auto-fill your inventory
Item priorities for the bot mall (highest volume first):
| Tier | Items | Chest filters |
|---|---|---|
| High | Belts (all tiers), underground belts, splitters, yellow/fast/stack inserters | Fill priority - you grab these constantly |
| Medium | Assemblers, furnaces, mining drills, power poles, rails, train stops | 1-2 stacks each |
| Low | Pipes, pumps, tanks, combinators, lamps, walls | 1 stack each |
| Spare | Turrets, radars, solar panels, accumulators | 1/2 stack each |
The Items I Keep Forgetting
Some items get grabbed so rarely that you'll forget to automate them. Then you need 50 of something and have to hand-craft. Pre-automate these:
- Pipes (100 stack feels right - you use way more than expected)
- Underground pipes (pairs, so automate in even numbers)
- Electric mining drills (you need dozens for new ore patches)
- Rails, train signals, train stops (if you use trains)
- Power poles (large poles are easy to forget)
- Walls and gates (for defense outposts)
- Efficiency modules (for miners to reduce pollution)
Mall Expansion Checklist
Add these items to your mall as you unlock them:
| Game phase | Items to add |
|---|---|
| Early (pre-green) | Yellow belt, underground, splitter, yellow/long inserter, pipe, small pole, stone furnace |
| Green science | Fast belt, fast inserter, AM1, electric miner, medium pole, boiler, steam engine, radar |
| Blue science | Steel furnace, AM2, red belt, red underground, pump, tank, solar panel, accumulator |
| Purple science | Electric furnace, productivity module, efficiency module |
| Yellow science | Blue belt, blue underground, stack inserter, speed module, roboport, logistic chests |
| Space Age | All buildings for each new planet - asteroid collector, thruster, biochamber, foundry, electromagnetic plant |
Bottom Line
Building a mall is the single highest-ROI build in Factorio. A 15x15 tile early mall replaces hours of hand-crafting. A bot mall later in the game makes expansion seamless. Build the early version after green science and commit to never hand-crafting building materials again.
Numbers to remember:
- 15 assemblers cover every essential building in early game
- Yellow inserters are the highest-volume mall item
- One dedicated iron belt feeds the early mall
- Upgrade to requester chests as soon as you have logistic robots
Related: Your First Factory | Main Bus Guide | How to Use Blueprints
Community Verification & Resources
- Official Factorio Wiki -- Mall - community design concepts
- Reddit -- All About Malls - detailed community guide with blueprints
- Factorio Prints -- Mall Blueprints - tiling mall designs for all game phases