Status Icons and Warnings

BlockFactory tells you about problems in three ways: icons that float over a single machine, warnings for the whole factory, and a few HUD panels with the numbers that matter. This page lists all of them.

Status icons over machines

When a machine is stuck, a spinning icon floats above it. Icons for fuel, power, output and recipe problems appear only after the machine has been stuck for about 4.5 seconds, so short waits do not make them flicker. Icons show only within 64 blocks of a player.

When a machine works fine, the item it is making floats above it instead.

Icon	Appears when	What to do
No Fuel	A fuel-burning machine has nothing left to burn	Add Coal or Wood (crouch + Use), or feed it with a grabber
No Power	An electric machine gets no power at all	Connect it with power poles to a grid with a generator
Low Power	The grid delivers less than the machines want; the machine works slower	Build more generators
Output Full	The output slot is full, so the machine stopped	Take the products out, or let a grabber move them onto a belt or into a chest
Tank Full	The output tank of a fluid machine is full	Connect a pipe that carries the fluid away
No Recipe	A Fabricator has no recipe chosen	Open it and choose one
No Ammunition	A tower has nothing to shoot	Fill it with Cartridges by hand or with grabbers
Wrong Pipe	A fluid machine sits on a pipe that cannot carry its fluid	Use a better pipe
Wrong Pipe: needs Pipe T2	As above; at least Pipe T2 is needed	Replace the pipe with Pipe T2 or better
Wrong Pipe: needs Reinforced Pipe	As above; a Reinforced Pipe is needed	Replace the pipe with a Reinforced Pipe
No Creature	A building that needs a creature has none (for example a Goblin Hut without goblins)	Put the creature in
Marked for Deconstruction	You marked the part with the Goblin Planner	Hob-goblins will tear it down
Marked for Upgrade	You marked the part for an upgrade	Hob-goblins will replace it with the chosen tier

A drill on ground without ore shows no icon, but its window and info panel say "Nothing to mine under the drill".

More detail

• Look at a machine: an info panel under the crosshair shows what it is making and how long it still takes, its fuel or power, its inputs and its output.
• Open the machine with Use: the window states its status in words, for example "No fuel – add coal or wood" or "Output full – take the products out".

Warnings for the whole factory

Warnings cover problems you may not see from where you stand. A warning pops up as a notification for all players in the world, and the factory warnings panel counts the active ones.

Warning	Appears when	Sound
Your factory is under attack!	Creatures damage or destroy one of your parts, or an attack group sets off toward your factory	Warning horn
A Gun Tower is out of ammunition	A tower shows the No Ammunition icon	Warning tone
A train is stuck (no fuel or no path)	A train cannot move on	Warning tone

• Attacks are grouped by area (64 × 64 blocks). An attack stays active until 30 seconds after the last hit.
• Each kind of warning pops up at most once a minute, so a long fight does not flood your screen.
• The notification tells you roughly where ("Near x, z"). The map shows attacks with a marker, and stuck trains as "Train (stuck)".
• The first attack in a world also plays a short scene for nearby players. See Enemies.

HUD panels

Panel	Where	Shows
Factory warnings	HUD	"Attacks on the factory: N" and "Towers without ammunition: N"; each line hides at zero
Research & towers	Top left	Gob points and Gol points on your account; tower ammunition as total shots, with the number of empty towers
Next goal	Right, middle	Your current goal with progress, for example the materials of the current portal phase
Tip	Right	A short tip that fits the moment, for 15 seconds
Crafting	Bottom left	Your handcrafting job: item, count and waiting jobs
Machine info	Under the crosshair	The machine you look at
Minimap	Top right	Surroundings, time and epoch

Tips

Tips appear when they fit: a machine nearby has no fuel, no power or a full output, a drill finds no ore, enemies are on their way, or it is time to start research. Each tip shows once per player, at most one per minute. /tips --off turns them off, /tips --on turns them back on.

See also

• Controls and Building
• Power
• Fluids
• Defense
• Railways