Coal, Carbon, Sulfuric Acid, Tungsten Carbide, Capsules Guide

If your goal is to turn Coal and Sulfuric acid into the advanced materials you actually need, the first hurdle is getting the right planetary tech and then wiring the chain so it does not starve itself. Start by unlocking the right planet, then build Sulfuric acid as a shared utility, then choose your Carbon source, and only after that scale Tungsten Carbide and capsule production. If you skip the order, you will end up with a factory that can make one ingredient but not the one it is waiting on.

Unlock Vulcanus first, then decide where your Carbon line will live

Do not plan the Tungsten Carbide line before you have Planet discovery Vulcanus unlocked, because that research gate is what opens both Calcite processing and Tungsten carbide. The unlock itself requires a Space platform thruster and costs Automation science pack×1, Logistic science pack×1, Chemical science pack×1, and Space science pack×1. That means your real first job is not Tungsten Carbide at all; it is making sure your science supply can reach Space science pack production.

If you are building toward that science path, remember that Space science pack is made in an Assembling machine 1 from Iron plate×2, Carbon×1, and Ice×1, producing 5 packs in 15 seconds. That makes Carbon relevant earlier than many players expect. You do not want to unlock Vulcanus and then realize your next science step is waiting on a Carbon line that was never planned.

Once Vulcanus is unlocked, decide early whether Carbon will be a local chemical line, an asteroid-driven supply, or a cleanup route from Spoilage. That choice affects how much space you reserve near your consumers.

Set up Sulfuric acid supply before you expand Carbon processing

Treat Sulfuric acid as a shared utility, not a side product. It is produced in Chemical plant as part of the intermediate chemistry chain involving Sulfur, and several recipes in this chain all pull from the same fluid. If you let acid become an afterthought, the whole line will stall at once.

For planning, use the baseline 5 Chemical plants making Sulfur to 2 Chemical plants making Sulfuric acid. Build to that ratio first, then expand from there only if your module and beacon setup changes machine speed or recipe consumption. When you lay out pipes and storage, leave room for the grouped output of those sulfuric acid producers so downstream consumers do not get temporarily starved.

Here is a quick reference for the core recipes and where they fit in the chain:

Choose how you will make Carbon, and keep the losses in mind

Use Carbon as a crafted intermediate, not as something you endlessly loop back and forth with Coal. Carbon is made in a Chemical plant in 1 second from Coal×2 and Sulfuric acid×20, and that makes it fast enough to become a real pressure point if the acid feed is weak. If you build Carbon too early without Sulfuric acid capacity, the line will look simple but constantly underperform.

You can also get Carbon from Burnt spoilage, Carbonic asteroid crushing, and Advanced carbonic asteroid crushing. When those routes are available, prefer them where they fit your factory. Advanced carbonic asteroid crushing yields more outputs than the base crushing route, so it is the better choice when you are scaling. If you have Spoilage cleanup, Burnt spoilage is a straightforward way to make Carbon from waste.

The important caution is that converting between Carbon and Coal is lossy. Repeated cycling will reduce total resource mass, and those conversion processes also consume Sulfur and Sulfuric acid. Do not build a closed Carbon-Coal loop unless you are intentionally accepting the losses. Instead, place Carbon production close to the consumers that need it, especially if byproducts need immediate processing.

Feed Tungsten Carbide directly from Tungsten ore, acid, and Carbon

Once Vulcanus is unlocked and your acid line is stable, add Tungsten carbide production directly where it belongs: right next to the inputs it needs. Tungsten carbide is made in an Assembling machine 1 in 1 second from Tungsten ore×2, Sulfuric acid×10, and Carbon×1. It depends on the Tungsten carbide research unlocked by Planet discovery Vulcanus, so do not try to place it earlier.

The safest scaling approach is to expand Sulfuric acid and Carbon first, then add more Tungsten Carbide assemblers once those inputs stay stable. The recipe is fast, which means any weakness in the feed shows up immediately as idle machines. Put the assemblers close to both your Carbon source and your acid network so you are not wasting belt space or logistics on intermediates that should have stayed local.

Use Coal for capsules only after the base Carbon chain is stable

Keep capsule production separate from your Carbon-processing core so a combat surge does not steal Coal from chemistry. Poison capsule is made in an Assembling machine 1 in 8 seconds from Steel plate×3, Electronic circuit×3, and Coal×10. Slowdown capsule is made in an Assembling machine 1 in 8 seconds from Steel plate×2, Electronic circuit×2, and Coal×5.

Use Slowdown capsule when you want control, and Poison capsule when you need area denial. Poison capsules create a poisonous cloud that deals 2 hits per second of 8 poison damage for 20 seconds, for up to 320 total damage if a target stays in the cloud the whole time. Be careful where you throw them: the cloud can destroy Trees and can damage anything that remains inside it, so do not use them casually near forests or structures you want to keep.

If you are already spending Coal on Carbon, then capsule lines should come after that base chain is stable. Otherwise your combat production will compete with your processing production, and the Coal shortage will show up everywhere at once.

Scale the chain around the bottlenecks you will actually hit

When you expand, watch the shared pressure points: Coal, Calcite, and Sulfuric acid all show up in different recipes, so the weakest one will slow the entire chain. Simple coal liquefaction is made in an Oil refinery in 5 seconds from Coal×10, Calcite×2, and Sulfuric acid×25, producing Heavy oil×50. Acid neutralisation is made in a Chemical plant in 5 seconds from Calcite×1 and Sulfuric acid×1000, producing Steam×10000.

If you use either of those routes, keep the output close to where it will be consumed. That matters because Steam is a useful power fluid and does not lose heat while sitting in pipes or tanks. Steam condensation can convert Steam×1000 into Water×90 in a Chemical plant in 1 second, so you can also reclaim fluid where that fits your build.

Remember that Steam produced by acid neutralisation is 500°C. That makes it especially valuable for power generation because Steam stores energy by temperature and Steam engines and Steam turbines can use it efficiently. The practical takeaway is simple: do not solve one bottleneck by creating a second logistics problem. Keep the acid, calcite, steam, and heavy oil flows short, local, and matched to the machines that actually consume them.