Ultimate Factory Guide for Arknights: Enfield

The factory system in Arknights: Enfield is one of the most powerful mechanics in the entire game and also one of the most commonly ignored. Many players focus heavily on operators, team composition, and combat content, while treating the factory as something optional or confusing. In reality, skipping or delaying factory setup actively hurts your progression.

Factories are not just about convenience. They are a core progression engine that continuously produces resources, credits, consumables, and gear materials even while you are offline. A properly set-up factory means the game works for you, not the other way around.

This guide combines and restructures two full factory breakdowns into one complete, end-to-end explanation. We’ll cover why the factory matters, when to start, how automation works, and how to build every critical production line you’ll need from early game through endgame.

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What Is the Factory Used For?

The factory system serves multiple essential purposes:

• Producing gear for operator equipment
• Crafting consumables, including healing capsules
• Supporting story progression, such as crafting explosives
• Increasing regional development levels
• Producing items to trade for Stock Bills
• Powering long-term account progression systems

Factories are mandatory. You cannot fully skip them. However, they are also extremely forgiving. You do not need a perfectly optimized layout or a hyper-efficient setup to succeed. As long as you understand the underlying logic, you’ll be able to produce everything the game asks of you.

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When Should You Care About the Factory?

Early on, the game throws a lot at you. Story missions, exploration, combat systems—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Because of that, it’s perfectly fine to delay serious factory work at the very beginning.

A good rule of thumb is:

• Focus on story progression first
• Complete the second region
• Reach around Account Level 10–11
• Defeat the first major boss
• Unlock the technology tree

Once you reach this point, factory investment starts paying off rapidly. You unlock:

• Automatic mining
• More factory zones
• Key production technologies
• Power management systems

From here on, factory progression becomes a long-term advantage instead of a chore.

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Automation: Why the Factory Is So Powerful

One of the most important ideas to understand is automation.

Once a production line is set up, it continues to work:

• When you leave the map
• When you switch regions
• When you log off
• When you sleep

For example, you might set up an industrial explosive factory in another region, leave it running, log off for the night, and come back the next day to thousands of explosives waiting for you. You didn’t have to interact with it at all.

This is the real value of factories: time efficiency.

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Stock Bills: The Backbone of Progression

Many players underestimate Stock Bills early on, but they are one of the most important currencies in the game.

Stock Bills are used for:

• Operator gear crafting
• Gacha pulls
• Gifts to increase operator trust
• Upgrading systems like the Control Nexus
• Expanding facility areas
• Unlocking higher-tier upgrades
• Improving recycling output

Factories are your primary way to generate items that can be traded for Stock Bills at outposts. The more complex the item, the higher its value. This makes advanced production lines incredibly important later on.

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The Foundation of Everything: Minerals

Every factory chain in Arknights: Enfield starts with minerals. There are three (four) types:

• Originium (brown)
• Amethyst (purple)
• Ferrium (blue)
• Cuprium (late-game, water-based mining) is used for top-tier gear and rewards.

Absolutely everything—credits, batteries, discs, capsules—depends on these.

Finding Mineral Deposits

• Open the map
• Look for crystal icons
• Each deposit shows its mineral type when selected

Powering Mineral Nodes

To extract minerals, the area must have electricity.

1. Extend a power cable from your factory
2. Cables can reach up to 80 meters
3. Place a relay tower to extend further
4. Place an electric pylon at the mineral site
5. Any structure inside the pylon’s blue radius receives power

Once powered, place a mining machine directly on the vein.

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Mining Machine Progression

• Portable Originium Rig: basic mining, manual collection
• Electric Mining Rig: automatic mining machines for Originium and Amethyst
• Electric Mining Rig Mk II: advanced extractor for Ferrium

Automatic mining sends materials directly to base storage, even when you’re offline.

The technology tree needs to be upgraded to allow you to build these rigs.

Check the Protocol Dataloggers in the quarries around the map to receive Basic AIC index currency to upgrade the tech tree. This is done by interacting with the floaty men in these sites.

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Tech Tree Priorities for Factory Progression

You don’t need a strict order for every tech, but certain upgrades are essential for the production lines covered in this guide.

Key Tech Unlocks

• Material Moulding → unlocks Solid Filling → unlocks Planting
• Parts Fitting → unlocks Packaging
• Gearing Tech (obtained through story progression)
• Mining II (obtained through story progression)
• Power Upgrades (to increase total factory capacity)
• Field Stash → Protocol Stash (optional but highly recommended)

The Protocol Stash is a massive quality-of-life upgrade. Instead of running long conveyor belts back to the Automation Core, you can dump items into a stash that automatically transfers them to storage, keeping layouts compact and clean.

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Factory Zones and Regional Power

Not all regions can generate power independently.

Regions with factories:

• The Hub
• Valley Pass
• Originium Science Park
• Northern region (later)

Regions without factories:

• Aburrey Quarry
• Origin Lodespring

To power these:

• Extend cables from neighbouring regions
• Aburrey Quarry  → from the Hub
• Origin Lodespring→ from Science Park

This allows full mining coverage across the map.

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Understanding Production Chains

Every item follows the same structure:

1. Raw material extraction
2. Refining or processing
3. Combining components
4. Output to storage or base

You can always:

• Open the Database
• Search for any item
• View its full production chain
• Pin it for reference

Example:

• Originium Ore → Refining Unit → Origocrust
• Amethyst Ore → Refining Unit → Amethyst Fiber
• Origocrust + Amethyst Fiber → Gearing Unit → Component

Build each step individually and connect them.

If something looks complicated, break it down line by line instead of trying to understand everything at once.

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Your First Production Line: Origocrust

Origocrust is the first major refined resource you’ll work with.

Why It Matters

• Used to craft machines
• Can be sold for Stock Bills
• Your earliest reliable income source

How to Produce Origocrust

1. Place a Refining Unit
2. Feed it Originium from base output
3. Convert Originium → Origocrust
4. Send Origocrust back to base input

Repeat this with multiple refining units early on to scale production.

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Self-Feeding Plant Systems (Buckflower & Aketine)

Some materials must be grown rather than mined. The plant system allows you to create infinite loops.

How the Loop Works

• Seed Picking Unit:
  • 1 plant → 2 seeds
• Planting Unit:
  • 1 seed → 1 plant

By using:

• 1 Seed Picker
• 2 Planting Units

You create a self-sustaining system:

• One planting unit feeds the seed picker
• The other produces surplus plants

Send the surplus into a Protocol Stash, and the system will run forever without intervention.

This setup is essential for:

• Buckflower
• Aketine

Both are used heavily in capsules and explosives.

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Selling Items and Regional Development

Each region has a regional base.

• Assign an operator to manage it
• This improves sales efficiency

Selling items:

• Generates Stockbills
• Increases regional development
• Unlocks new rewards
• Enables higher-value trades later

As regions level up:

• Base defense missions appear
• Completing them boosts selling efficiency

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Industrial Explosives

Explosives are used to clear red rocks and unlock new paths.

Ingredients

• Amethyst Component
  • Amethyst → Refining Unit → Amethyst Fiber → Fitting Unit → Component
• Aketine Powder (comes from Aketine Plants out in the world)
  • Aketine → Shredding Unit
• For any plants, putting down the Seed Picking Unit and two planting units (atleast) from the blueprints is highly recommended.

Final Assembly

• Both inputs → Packaging Unit → Explosives

Efficiency Note

• Shredding produces 2 powders per Aketine
• Packaging only needs 1
• Route excess powder to storage or a second line

Once you have enough explosives, dismantle the setup.

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Power and Battery Production

Every machine consumes energy. If consumption exceeds generation, the entire factory shuts down.

LC Valley Batteries

Ingredients:

• Originium → Shredding unit → Originium Powder
• Amethyst → Amethyst Fiber → Amethyst Component

Packaging Unit requires:

• 10 Originium Powder
• 5 Amethyst Components
• Twice as much Originium as Amethyst.

Ratio Optimization

One shredding unit isn’t enough.

• Add a second Originium shredding unit connected to the Packaging Unit
• Prevents downtime
• Doubles effective output

Using Batteries

• Send to Thermal Banks to generate power
• Excess batteries can be stored or sold

SC Valley Batteries

• Same formula
• Replace Amethyst with Ferrium
• Much higher efficiency

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Gear Component and Equipment

Operator gear requires Gear Component.

Component tiers:

• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• Gold (best, unlockable in Wuling region)

Green Components

• Originium → Refined
• Amethyst → Refined
• Combine in a Gearing Unit

Blue Components

• Same process
• Use Ferrium instead of Amethyst

Simple and easy to scale.

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Healing Capsules (C, B, A)

Capsules are vital:

• Constant healing supply
• High resale value
• Excellent Stock Bill generation

C Capsules

• Buckflower → Powder
• Amethyst → Fiber → Moulding Unit
• Combine in Filling Unit

Efficiency Trick

• Setup Seedpicking Unit and Planting Units using the blueprint.
• Bottles require 2 fibers
• Use two refining lines feeding one moulding unit

Excess Powder Usage

• Shredding creates extra powder
• Feed a second filling unit
• Maximize capsule output

B Capsules

• Same process
• Replace Amethyst with Ferrium

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Protocol Stash and Clean Layouts

Instead of routing long belts back to the automation core:

• Use Protocol Stash
• Stores items
• Automatically feeds them back to base
• Keeps layouts compact and readable

This is a major quality-of-life upgrade.

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Advanced Progression and Expansion

As regions develop:

• Build area expands
• Depot Bus unlocks
• Output slots increase dramatically
• Massive production chains become possible

Early bases are limited to six outputs, but Depot Bus removes this restriction entirely.

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Once these fundamentals click, the factory system stops being intimidating and starts feeling incredibly powerful. At that point, Arknights: Enfield becomes a game that plays itself while you plan the next move—and that’s exactly how the factory is meant to work.