COMMON
UNCOMMON
RARE
EPIC
LEGENDARY
What Is Quality?
In Space Age, items can have 5 quality tiers. Higher quality items work better:
| Tier | Color | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Common (1) | Gray | Baseline |
| Uncommon (2) | Green | Plus 20 percent speed, minus 20 percent energy |
| Rare (3) | Blue | Plus 40 percent speed, minus 40 percent energy, plus 2 range |
| Epic (4) | Purple | Plus 60 percent speed, minus 60 percent energy, plus 4 range |
| Legendary (5) | Orange | Plus 80 percent speed, minus 80 percent energy, plus 6 range, plus 2 area of effect |
How Quality Is Generated
Quality modules in assemblers/machines give a chance for the output to be a higher quality tier.
| Module | Quality Chance | Speed Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Quality module 1 | 1 percent per module | Minus 10 percent |
| Quality module 2 | 5 percent per module | Minus 15 percent |
| Quality module 3 | 10 percent per module | Minus 20 percent |
Important: Quality modules slow down production. Balance quality chance vs. production speed.
Building a Quality Production Line
The Recycler Trick
In Space Age, recyclers break items back into raw materials. But they also have a chance to upgrade the item's quality!
- Build an assembler with quality modules
- Output goes to a recycler
- Recycler has a chance to output higher quality version
- Sort the output by quality using quality filters on inserters
Quality Filter Inserters
Inserters can be set to only pick up items of a specific quality:
- Select the inserter
- Click the quality filter button
- Choose which quality tier to pick up
Which Items to Upgrade First?
Priority list for quality:
| Priority | Item | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beacons | More beacons = more speed modules affecting machines |
| 2 | Speed modules | Faster machines = more production |
| 3 | Electric furnaces | Faster smelting = more plates |
| 4 | Miners | More mining speed = more ore |
| 5 | Power armor | Better defense and equipment |
Next: Space Age Overview — all new planets and mechanics.