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11 As your operation grows in SpaceCraft, automation lets you scale beyond what you can do by hand. It is how mining and production keep running while you focus on strategy and expansion.
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33 Automating Production
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55 As you progress on your journey, you can maximize efficiency and expand the scale of your enterprise by automating your production. You set up automated mining systems, build interplanetary logistics networks, and create supply chains to fuel your growing industry.
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88 Drones and Cargo Ships
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1010 Automation is carried out by your fleet of helpers. You establish production and delivery lines with drones and cargo ships to automate and improve mining, extraction, and logistics operations. Drones and cargo ships move materials so that production and delivery continue without you piloting every run. These delivery lines tie your bases together. See Base Building.
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1212 What Automation Covers
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1414 SystemPurposeAutomated miningKeep extracting raw materials without constant manual input.Production and delivery linesDrones and cargo ships move goods and feed production automatically.Interplanetary logistics networksMove goods between planets and systems automatically.Supply chainsFeed raw materials and parts into ongoing production.
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1616 Why Automate
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1818 Automation lets you optimize resource extraction, streamline production, and let automation handle the heavy lifting while you focus on strategy and expansion. Instead of personally mining every load, you build systems that produce continuously, which is essential for running a large industry.
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2020 Automation, Trade, and Corporations
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2222 Automated production and logistics make large-scale trade and organization practical. A steady automated supply of materials and parts feeds the marketplace, and within a Corporation, shared logistics let many players coordinate interplanetary operations. See Trading and the Player-Driven Economy and Corporations and Co-Op.
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2424 Production Continues Offline
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2626 Because the universe is persistent, automated factories keep producing resources even while you are logged out, and market prices keep moving. Setting up reliable automated production and logistics is also what makes Corporation Requests practical, since those ask for large quantities delivered on a deadline. See Corporations and Co-Op.
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2828 Liquids Are a Special Case
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3030 Automated shuttles cannot transport liquids between bases. To move a liquid you either bottle it (using a Bottling Plant) so it can travel in solid containers, or fly it manually in a ship fitted with the right tanks. Within a single base, cisterns are automatically connected and a Landing Pad transfers liquid between ship tanks and base cisterns. See Liquid Resources.
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3232 Shuttles
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3434 Shuttles are the delivery craft that move goods on your behalf, including into shared Corporation Storage. A late-July 2026 patch increased their range by 1.5 times and their speed by four times, which shortens the wait on long supply runs considerably. The same patch stopped Shuttles getting stuck when the storage they were delivering into was already at capacity, and fixed Recyclers blocking drone routes from being set.
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3636 See Corporations and Co-Op for shared storage and Updates and Patch Notes for the full change list.
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3838 Automation Runs on Power
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4040 Every automated extractor, factory and drone route draws energy, and because a base keeps running while you are logged out, generation has to cover the load without you there to manage it. Planning power before scaling production is the practical order. See Power and Energy.
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4242 Warehouse Routing After Community Update #1
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4444 Community Update #1 on September 16, 2026 added the Advanced Warehouse, which raises the number of route drones a single warehouse supports from 5 to 12 and links directly to the Workshop, so crafting pulls the resources it needs out of the warehouse rather than waiting on a route you configured by hand. Per-item storage limits let you specialise a warehouse to a single material, and a Basic Warehouse can be upgraded in place. The Drone Dispatcher no longer costs any footprint, Recyclers run three times faster and unlock at Tech Level 2, and Assemblers and Factories craft six times faster, which changes how much throughput a single production line can carry. See Storage and Warehouses for the building itself and Updates and Patch Notes for the full change list.
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46+Remote Extraction and Level 6 Logistics
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48+Major Update #1 on October 8, 2026 extended automation beyond the base. Extractor Pods mine unclaimed deposits on their own and ship what they gather back to an Extractor Bay, and the level 6 Technology unlocks upgraded the base's own logistics.
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50+Unit or buildingWhat changedFreighterAn upgraded Shuttle that travels farther and faster with more storage capacity. Weighs 50 SU, like a Shuttle, after an October 9 fix.Advanced DroneMoves items three at a time.Advanced Extractor33% faster. An October 13 patch fixed extraction speed not updating after the upgrade.RecyclersOutput drone routes, a display of the scrap being processed, and a Take All button.Shuttle PadSet a maximum value per item in its storage. On October 13 its storage rose from 1,000 to 2,000 and its footprint cost fell from 5 to 4 FP.Mag Plasma DeliveryOrder Mag Plasma from the nearest stations using your Mag Plasma Tank.