Gear

Gear is a component crafted from Iron Ingot and used throughout the early and midgame. It is one of the materials that appears constantly in building construction, alongside items such as Magnetic Coil and Circuit Board, so keeping a stock of it on hand is useful. In practice, Gear is also a key intermediate for Electric Motor production, which is its main non-building use.

Gears can be crafted in Assembling Machine Mk.I, Assembling Machine Mk.II, and Assembling Machine Mk.III, and they can also be made directly by the player in the replicator. Because so many recipes that consume Gears also consume Iron Ingot, it is often efficient to build a dedicated Gear production line fed from the same belt as your ingots. A Sorter can then move Gears straight from the Gear factory into the next factory, avoiding the need to reserve an entire belt just for Gears.

A small buffer of Gears is especially convenient in the early game, when they are frequently required for buildings and infrastructure. Since they are a common dependency and usually share the same upstream material as many other components, Gear production tends to fit naturally into a factory’s early smelting and assembly layout.

• Commonly needed for early buildings and other construction materials.
• Crafted in Assembling Machine Mk.I, Mk.II, and Mk.III, and in the replicator.
• Often best produced on a small dedicated line fed from the same Iron Ingot belt.
• A Sorter can deliver them directly to downstream factories, saving belt space.
• Their main item-use beyond buildings is Electric Motor production.