Controls Guide: Cursor, Quickbars & Vehicles

Controls in Factorio govern player interaction with the world (cursor modes, quickbars, vehicle driving, console and replay controls), input configuration, and UI elements used for fast building and alerts. Proper use of controls speeds up construction, navigation, combat and multiplayer coordination.

Cursor modes and targeting

• Two cursor modes exist for controller (console) play: Free Cursor and Automatic Cursor. Toggle between them by pressing the right stick button.
  • Free Cursor: a visible cursor (crosshair or current selected item) is moved with the right stick and behaves like a mouse cursor. It remains relative to the screen and is useful for selecting distant objects, aiming weapons, and placing items without moving the character. Touchscreens jump the cursor to the touch point.
  • Automatic Cursor: no visible cursor. The game automatically selects nearby objects relative to the character (or shows the selected item from inventory near the character). This mode centers controls on the character and is similar to traditional console games; useful for close-range interactions where proximity matters.
• Interaction range limit: many actions require the cursor to be within a limited distance of the character. The selection box changes color to indicate reachability (e.g., yellow = in range, red = out of range).
• Combat: Free Cursor lets you target specific enemies or positions (valuable with long-range weapons). Automatic Cursor will automatically fire at the closest enemy to the character.

Quickbars, quick panel and shortcut keys

• There are 10 quickbars (also called quick slots) available, giving up to 100 shortcut slots (10 per bar).
• Top-row shortcuts: keys (default 1–10) select the corresponding item in the top quickbar.
• Quickbar cycling: you can switch which quickbar is active (top row contents) using configured keys to move the active quickbar up/down or by other bindings set in controls.
• Quick panel (controller): some mouse/keyboard UI elements are consolidated into a pop-up quick panel for controller use. Press-and-hold the configured quick panel button to display it; releasing hides it.

Blueprints and blueprint books

• Blueprint Books group multiple blueprints for quick switching at the construction site.
• While holding a blueprint book, switch the active blueprint inside it with Shift + mouse wheel up/down. This lets you cycle through a planned sequence quickly (e.g., mining → power → labs).
• The Blueprint UI is opened by default with B, which is the management entry point for creating, organizing and storing blueprints and books.

Vehicle controls (cars, locomotives)

• Vehicles use configurable bindings and offer two joystick/drive modes (applies to gamepads and can be mirrored by keyboard/mouse):
  • Relative vehicle driving mode (default): moving the stick or pressing a direction causes the vehicle to turn and accelerate toward that side of the screen.
  • Absolute vehicle driving mode: stick up/down (or up/down keys) controls accelerate/brake; stick left/right (or left/right keys) controls turning.
• Cars:
  • Accelerating opposite to current velocity will brake; held acceleration stops having effect once a brake is applied.
  • Braking distance increases with speed.
  • Fuel affects acceleration: higher-energy fuels increase acceleration (solid fuel, rocket fuel, nuclear fuel provide progressively larger acceleration modifiers).
  • Surface influences rolling resistance (stone brick, concrete, refined concrete reduce resistance).
  • Cars cannot be remote-controlled and have no equipment grid.
• Locomotives:
  • Enter/exit train by standing next to a locomotive and using the Enter/Exit binding.
  • Connect train cars by placing cars next to each other on rails (green connection outline) or by driving a locomotive near cars and using the Connect binding; disconnect the last car with the Disconnect binding.
  • Drive controls follow the same relative/absolute driving modes on controllers.

Programmable speaker and alerts

• Programmable Speaker can play sounds and send GUI text alerts when triggered by circuit signals.
• Sounds can be set to play globally (audible anywhere) or locally (audible near the speaker). Use global playback sparingly in multiplayer.
• A single-player/game limitation allows up to 50 sounds to be heard at once.
• Speaker volume is adjustable in the GUI; when not global, volume affects audible range (range at full volume is roughly 64 tiles).
• The speaker GUI can also send a text alert (up to 150 characters) and an icon if "Show alert" is enabled. This displays in players' GUI.
• Allow polyphony: when enabled, multiple sounds can overlap (can cause rapid repeats if a constant signal is connected). When disabled, sounds are rate-limited to prevent repeated alerts. There is an option to vary pitch by signal (useful for music).
• Custom alerts triggered by programmable speakers can be managed via the /alerts console command (enable/disable/mute/unmute). Custom alerts are listed under the "custom" alert type.

Console, chat and commands

• Open the console/Lua prompt with the console key (backtick/grave by default) or the binding configured in Settings → Controls → Open console (and Lua console).
• The console accepts chat and commands; pressing Enter sends the message and closes the console.
• Console supports labels/tags: holding and clicking the map or ground inserts a GPS position tag; holding and clicking many items inserts their prototype tags into the console.
• /alerts command controls which alert types are enabled or muted (does not affect achievements).
• Use /clear to clear the console display. The console supports history scrolling and smart autocomplete for commands, options and player names.

Replay controls

• During replay playback a simple GUI is available:
  • Displays overall position in the replay timeline.
  • Controls include play/pause and playback speed adjustments (slower/faster).
  • In multiplayer replay, you can switch the player viewpoint via dropdown or a key to cycle through player perspectives.

Debug and editor keys

• Debug mode includes many development/debugging panels and toggles (texture atlas, prototype viewers, debug panels, scaling, etc.). These keys are often unbound by default and are mainly used by developers and modders.
• The /editor command is available when the editor is enabled.

Input configuration and tips

• All default bindings are changeable via Settings → Controls.
• For fast on-site switching, organize blueprint books with the order you will use and use Shift + mouse wheel to rotate through them quickly.
• Controller users should experiment with cursor and vehicle joystick modes to find which suits their playstyle.
• Be mindful of global sound alerts in multiplayer to avoid spamming other players.

This page covers the in-game control modes, UI shortcuts, vehicle handling modes, programmable speaker alerts, console usage, and common tips for organizing and using blueprint books and quickbars to improve speed and precision.