The World

A BlockFactory world is a wide, flat steppe built by the mod's own world generator. Everything in it follows one rule: the farther you go from the spawn, the richer and the more dangerous it gets.

The steppe

The ground is flat, grassy and only a few blocks thick, so you never dig into it. Trees stand in groves and alone, rocks lie scattered between them. Some trees are dead and bare; they give the same wood.

Around the spawn you find:

What	Distance from the spawn (about)
Bunker	At the spawn, underground
Portal of the Ancient (ruin)	20 blocks
Coal and Stone Fields	60 blocks
Iron and Copper Ore Fields	65 blocks
Grove of trees	80 blocks
Lake	90 blocks
Sand and Clay Fields	100 blocks
Great Portal	210 blocks, visible from the bunker exit

These start fields always exist, whatever the world settings say. The first 160 blocks hold only them; random fields begin beyond that.

Ore fields

Field	Gives	Where
Iron Ore Field	Iron Ore	Start area and everywhere
Copper Ore Field	Copper Ore	Start area and everywhere
Coal Field	Coal	Start area and everywhere
Stone Field	Stone	Start area and everywhere
Sand Field	Sand	Start area and everywhere
Clay Field	Clay	Start area and everywhere
Gold Ore Field	Gold Ore	From 320 blocks out
Uranium Ore Field	Uranium Ore	From 800 blocks out

• Fields are infinite. Drills never empty them.
• Size grows with distance. Start fields are 10 to 16 blocks in radius. Out in the steppe the radius grows with distance up to 48 blocks.
• Richness grows with distance. Richness is how fast a drill mines there. It rises steadily: a field 200 blocks out is about twice as rich as a start field, one 600 blocks out about four times.
• The center of a field is richer than its frayed edge.
• Fields never lie in water or mountains.

Operators can change how often fields appear, how big and how rich they are, in total or per resource. See World Settings.

Oil wells

From 480 blocks out you find groups of 5 to 9 single Oil Wells, spaced so that an Oil Pumpjack (3 × 3) fits on each one with a path between them. See Oil Processing.

Water

• A small lake lies close to the spawn. Your first steam engine needs a Water Pump at the water.
• Farther out: lakes, winding rivers that widen where they meet a lake, and, very far out (from about 700 blocks), rare oceans.
• Water is at most 2 blocks deep. You can swim through it, or fill it with Landfill. See Floors and Landfill.
• Around the spawn the land stays dry.

Mountain walls

From about 240 blocks out, low mountain walls (3 to 7 blocks high) wind across the steppe. They have passes, so they never close off an area completely. You cannot climb through them by mining; TNT can blast them. See Weapons.

Ruins and War Golems

From 300 blocks out, ruins of the old world stand in the steppe: pillar halls, wall squares and gate arches. Each one is guarded by a War Golem sleeping in a pile of rubble. It rises and attacks whatever comes near its ruin, players and factory parts alike, but it does not chase you far and never raids your factory on its own. Beyond 800 blocks the guardians are Elder War Golems, with twice the health. A defeated golem leaves a Research Capsule. See Enemies and Research Capsules.

Animal herds

Herds of Steppe Grazers and Dune Hoppers roam a ring between about 50 and 240 blocks around the spawn. They are harmless. Animal Traps catch them for meat, hides, tallow and bones; a herd grows back slowly. See Hunting and Farming.

Enemy nests

Dust Burrows are the nests of the steppe creatures: Dust Crawlers, Dust Spitters and Dust Brutes. By default no nest lies within 500 blocks of the spawn. Farther out they become more common, and from 300 blocks beyond that free zone Large Dust Burrows appear. The rich fields lie where the nests are. Noise from your machines wakes them. See Enemies and Noise and Unrest.

The map

The world map colors ore fields in their own colors, so you can spot them from afar. Areas you have explored stay on the map. On top of that, BlockFactory adds markers:

Marker	When
Bunker	Always
Portal of the Ancient, Great Portal	Always
Ruin guarded by a War Golem (red) / Ruin freed (white)	After its golem has risen
Small Nest, Large Nest	After a player came within 32 blocks
Attack	While your factory is under attack
Train, Train (stuck)	Your trains
Creatures on the move	Spotted by a Rangertower
Death Chest	Where a player died

Map layers add overlays for everyone in the world: noise, power lines, nests, ruins and Goblin Hut range. Open them with the button at the top right of the world map or with /maplayers. Green means on.

A minimap at the top right of the screen shows your surroundings, the time of day and your current epoch.

See also

• The Bunker
• Mining
• World Settings
• Enemies