Satisfactory: Manifold vs Load Balancing for Belts + Tutorial

Belts in Satisfactory can be hard, but there are two primary methods for getting items to where they need to go. Here is how they work and how you can use them in advanced scenarios.

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0:00 Intro
0:26 Manifold basics
2:15 Load Balancing basics
3:42 It's math time, baby
5:41 Outro

[BradHann]

Manifold has one major advantage over load balancing - it's much easier to expand. Just add more machines onto the end of the manifold line.

[rock_it]

the idea of the loop back belt just gave me the biggest lightbulb moment for load balancing ever. i highly appreciate the way you explained it

[rythenx]

I had been doing load balancing intuitively since starting this game and it can get so complicated and had never even considered the manifold approach. It seems like I could create so much cleaner setups with it. Definitely going to start using it, glad I found this.

[Zorgdub]

5:38 : "And then everything will be running smoothly."
In the background, the setup screeches to a halt at this precise moment.

[Marcen]

you can also use different belt speeds at your splitters to help load balance your manifold system to make them start up faster

[robot_spider]

I've always referred to these as "serial" and "parallel". Works kind of like an electrical circuit. Serial mode (like a bunch of resistors in series) requires higher "voltage" (belt speed) to carry current to the end of the line. Just another way to think about it. Good video!

[ColonelSandersLite]

I'm just going to point out that there's a third option here - A Hybrid of the two. For example:

Suppose you're feeding an array of coal generators via a mk4 belt. 480 coal per minute / 15 = 32 generators.

You *could* do a manifold and wait for it to stabilize.
You *could* do a big complicated 1 to 32 balancer.

You could also do a simple 1 to 8 balancer and feed 4 generators off of each of the 8 lines.

The pro's and con's should be fairly obvious but just in case: This sort of thinking will let your array stabilize much faster than a straight manifold while still being way easier and more compact to build than a 1 to 32 balancer.

[jonatansexdoer]

Hey, a slight error at 1:18. The last 2 belts in manifold each output the same amount, in this case both 1/16.
Otherwise you would have 1/32 of the items phasing out of reality as 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 = 31/32
Great video for beginners though

[redgitstrider]

great video man. i hadnt even considered manifold loading before but this was a great explanation of the two methods. the way you showed 5 way load balancing was really helpful too

[hexagull]

During the building process of a manifold I try to get resources moving early and each machine powered on accepting resources as soon as I can - this helps fill up the machines as I go creating the backup of resources that we want - it's also bizzarely helpful to make mistakes and end up with a surplus of items in your inventory to top up machines, which is helpful since I tend to make a lot of little mistakes

[littlefrank]

god bless the new "straight belt" mode

[skilz]

I usually don't have too many issues with the manifold. I'll typically use an MK4 belt to feed the splitters and I'll use an mk1 belt to feed the machines. The rate at which the MK1 belts pulls the items off the MK4 belt can not keep up with the rate at which the MK4 belts moves the materials. I typically do the same on the outputs except I may use an MK2 or MK3 belt feeding into an MK4 belt on the merger side. The builds are typically much easier and cleaner looking and faster to set up. There are some cases where using the balancing method is the better option but more cases than not, the manifold is just fine. Also with early stage productions such as smelting and or construction of basic materials or parts, I'll usually add a storage buffer both before and after each stage of the production line. This helps to minimize shortages when starting to build more complex pieces that involves assemblers and manufacturers. There will typically be an ample supply of materials that are ready to be used instead of having to wait for the production lines to catch up. It does help to reduce bottlenecks.

[Ronin]

I usually build factories from resource node to end product, planning the numbers beforehand, but building 1 layer at a time, this way, by the time I get to the end, every line will be long saturated. In my first game I mostly did load balancing, but I progressively switched over entirely to manifold method for scalability and upgradability.

But with you mentioning nuclear waste I realise that it was probably this, why I kept having problems with waste buildup in my first nuclear power plant. Next time I make one I think I'll load balance them and make every particle accelerator and mixer a little overclocked to ensure no waste pile-up. Yeah. Putting both the mixer and accelerator on the same line was too sloppy in the end.

[terryp]

good video :) Another good thing to keep in mind is combining this logic with the intentional use if lower grade belts (closer to the input rate) to lessen the time it takes to flow throughout the system. you can even use the difference (aka spare capacity) of these belts, split them off and rejoin them in order to expand production while remaining efficient..

[peterbabicki]

For manifold efficiency, use your fastest belt for the core line, then slower belts into each of the machines. If the machine only needs 30 items a minute, you can use a 60 item per minute belt for example. This way the core line will back up much faster.

[JohnDeHope]

I somehow already learned this, but boy, this was a great video. I would really like to see more tutorials like this. I’m good enough at this game to get through the basics. But the intermediate stuff really slows me down. I just built my first fully automated modular frame assembly line. It was a monster. I had to use external resources to know how to balance the constructors. I really would like to be able to do that sort of thing on my own. But I have no idea how to do the math, even in a spreadsheet, to figure out how many constructors to place at which points, etc. Anyway, enough about that, this was a great video!

[kennethknight]

this was seriously the best way i have ever seen this explained.... it finally clicked.

[calicomorgan]

A manafold man myself but I'll admit, load balancing is a MUST for train loading buffers. Very helpful 101 video, thanks!

[JonathanAcunaKonahrik]

Manifolds save a lot more space, which is very important when making blueprints. You can get most of the benefit of load balancing by using a single load balancing splitter, and manifolding the rest. Once your machines are backed up with resources and your belts are full, they will operate similarly to load balancing setups. If the last machine ends up not getting enough resources, I believe that would be a symptom of not having enough flow rate of resources for the entire setup, rather a load balancing issue.

[liamsmith]

You balancing method is better then my method. I normally just create a complex chain of splitters and mergers that produce the same result but costs more time resources and space thanks for the help