Satisfactory: Starting Out – Landing to Your First Iron

Satisfactory starting area selection screen with Grass Fields highlighted, tagged Ideal for first-time pioneers

Part 1 of the Satisfactory beginner walkthrough. Start from the series overview.

This is the first part of a beginner’s walkthrough of Satisfactory. It covers the opening stretch of the game: choosing a starting area, working through the onboarding objectives, and hand-mining your first Iron Ore. Everything here is current to the 1.2 update, though this opening plays the same as it did at launch.

Picking a Starting Area

Before you land you choose one of four starting zones: Grass Fields, Rocky Desert, Northern Forest, and Dune Desert. The choice isn’t permanent (the whole map opens up to you later), but it sets the difficulty of your first few hours.

For a first save, choose Grass Fields. The game labels it “Ideal for first-time pioneers,” and that’s accurate: it’s flat and open, the resource nodes are close together, and there are few dangerous creatures. Rocky Desert is a reasonable alternative with good early ore, but it’s more exposed. Northern Forest and Dune Desert are both harder starts, so leave them for a later save.

Satisfactory starting-area select screen with Grass Fields highlighted, tagged Ideal for first-time pioneers
Four zones, one obvious first pick. Grass Fields is the one the game itself flags for new pioneers.

One setting on this screen is worth noting: Skip Intro, near the Session Name box, drops you straight into Tier 1 and skips the onboarding. Leave it unchecked. The Tier 0 sequence this series covers is that onboarding, and skipping it starts you in a world without the tools it unlocks.

Equip the Xeno-Zapper

The first objective is to equip the Xeno-Zapper before you leave the drop zone. This is Onboarding Objective 1, the game’s inventory tutorial.

Press Tab to open your inventory. You start with one item, the Xeno-Zapper, in your item list. Drag it onto the HANDS slot on the Pioneer panel to the right, and the objective clears.

Satisfactory inventory open with the Xeno-Zapper, Onboarding Objective 1 to equip it to the Hands slot
Objective 1: hit Tab, then drag the Xeno-Zapper into the HANDS slot on the Pioneer panel.

The Xeno-Zapper is a close-range stun baton for the local wildlife, and what you’ll use on the Fluffy-tailed Hogs early on before you have anything better. Drag-to-equip is the part to remember: it’s how every tool and piece of equipment goes on from here.

Dismantle the Drop Pod

Objective 2 covers Dismantle Mode, which you’ll use throughout the game. Press F to enter it, look at the drop pod until it highlights orange, and hold the left mouse button until it comes apart.

The pod isn’t wasted. As ADA explains, it’s recycled into the first stage of your HUB (the Habitat and Utility Base, the base everything else attaches to), so dismantling it is the first step toward building your factory.

Satisfactory Dismantle Mode aimed at the Drop Pod, recycled into the first stage of the HUB
Objective 2: press F for Dismantle Mode, then hold LMB on the pod. ADA recycles it into your first HUB stage.

Dismantle Mode refunds the full cost of anything you take down, so a misplaced building isn’t a loss. If you place a machine facing the wrong way or run a belt into a rock, dismantle it, collect the returned materials, and rebuild. Early placements don’t need to be permanent.

Your First Iron

Objective 3 sends you after Iron Ore, which feeds nearly everything you build early on.

Hold V to bring up the Resource Scanner, highlight Iron Ore, and release V to scan. Every node in range is marked on your HUD compass with a distance readout (the nearest one in this save was about 400m). Pick the closest marker and walk to it, then hold E on the node to hand-mine a stack. This is the only extended hand-mining you’ll do, so there’s no need to get used to it.

Satisfactory Resource Scanner scanning for Iron Ore, node markers on the HUD compass at 411m
Hold V, pick Iron Ore, release. Scanned nodes show up on the compass at the top with their distance (411m here).

You’ll usually find a Fluffy-tailed Hog guarding each starter-area resource node. This armored creature will become aggressive and charge if it notices you, and since it’s parked on the node you came for, the simplest fix is to kill it: two hits from the Xeno-Zapper does it. If you’d rather not fight, dodge the charge and slip past to mine.

A Fluffy-tailed Hog in the Satisfactory grass fields as the player crosses toward an iron node
A Fluffy-tailed Hog guarding a resource node. It charges if it notices you; two hits from the Xeno-Zapper takes it down.

Healing Up with Paleberries

If the Hog hit you, your health dropped. Early healing in Satisfactory is done by eating berries. Look along the grass and rock edges for a Paleberry plant (pink flowers with clusters of orange berries) and hold E to pick them, three per plant here.

A Paleberry plant in Satisfactory with a Press E to pick up Paleberry prompt, used to heal
Paleberries: pink flowers, orange fruit. Hold E to grab them, then eat them from your inventory to heal.

Open your inventory with Tab and click a Paleberry to eat it and restore some health. There’s no hunger meter in Satisfactory; food exists only to heal you, so you eat when your health is low and ignore it otherwise. Beryl Nuts and Bacon Agaric do the same job.

You’ve landed, cleared the opening objectives, and pulled your first Iron Ore. Next comes the structure everything else attaches to: the HUB, and the upgrade that hands you your first machine.

Keep going: the walkthrough overview lists every part of the series in order.