Mod Cursor Features

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The mod replaces the mouse with a keyboard-controlled cursor. This cursor can move anywhere on the tile grid — including off-screen tiles — and handles everything the mouse would in vanilla Factorio: selecting entities, creating building previews, and performing actions in the world.

Understanding the cursor, and in particular the relationship between the cursor and your character, is the foundation for everything else in the mod.

The Cursor and Your Character

The cursor is where you are looking and operating. As it moves across the tile grid, the entity or terrain under it changes — this is called selecting. Most actions apply to whatever is currently selected.

Your character is your body. It has arms, so it must be physically close to something to interact with it — the default building range is about 10 tiles. The cursor, however, can be anywhere, including far off-screen. This separation between cursor and character is what makes precise building and remote interaction possible.

An item held in your hand is held at the cursor, just like a mouse pointer. When you select something from a menu list, the cursor moves to that entity's location on the map.

By default, the cursor stays just in front of your character as you walk, announcing the terrain or entity ahead of you. This is how you perceive the world while moving.

Cursor Mode

Pressing I decouples the cursor from your character. In Cursor Mode, WASD moves the cursor freely while your character stays still. Arrow keys still walk your character independently.

This is essential for:

Placing buildings precisely without repositioning your character
Exploring how a section of your factory is laid out without walking through it
Reaching entities that are blocked by obstacles
Area scanning (see below)

Press I again to exit Cursor Mode, or simply start walking your character. Press J at any time to snap the cursor back to your character's position without changing modes.

The distinction between I and J matters: I toggles whether the cursor follows you as you walk, while J is a one-time snap that does not change the current mode. If you have moved the cursor far away and want to return it without exiting Cursor Mode, J is the right key.

Coordinates and Navigation

Press K to announce the cursor's current coordinates. In Cursor Mode, K also reports which part of a multi-tile entity the cursor is on — for example, "southwest corner." Press ALT + K for the cursor's position relative to your character. Press SHIFT + C to enter coordinates directly and jump the cursor there.

The coordinate origin (0, 0) is where you first landed on the planet.

Cursor Skipping

Moving one tile at a time across large distances is slow. The mod offers two forms of cursor skipping:

SHIFT + WASD skips up to 100 tiles in the given direction, stopping at the first meaningful change: a transition from ground to water, the edge of an ore patch, a belt corner, or the boundary of a group of entities. This is the fast way to traverse open ground or scan along a belt run.
CTRL + WASD skips by the size of the item currently in your hand. If you are holding a 3×3 assembling machine, each press moves the cursor exactly 3 tiles, so you can place a perfect row without counting. This also works with blueprints.

When the cursor is larger than 1×1, the behavior of these keys changes — see Area Scanning below.

Bookmarks and the Audio Ruler

The cursor bookmark is a fast way to remember one position temporarily. Press SHIFT + B to set the bookmark at the cursor's current location, and B to move the cursor back to it. Useful when you need to step away to fetch items and return.

The audio ruler places a cross of audio lines at a point you choose. Press CTRL + ALT + B to place the ruler at the cursor and ALT + SHIFT + B to clear it. Whenever your cursor or character crosses a ruler line, a tone plays. This lets you align buildings or navigate to a reference line without counting tiles. Cursor skipping also triggers the tone when it crosses a ruler line.

Area Scanning

Press SHIFT + I to enlarge the cursor beyond its default 1×1 size. The enlarged cursor is an odd-dimensioned box — 3×3, 5×5, and so on — centered on the cursor tile. As it moves, it announces a summary of everything inside the box: entity counts sorted by type, paved tiles, water tiles, and whether the area has been charted by a radar.

This is the primary way to survey a factory section without walking through it, estimate the size of a resource patch, or get a broad picture of an unfamiliar area.

When the cursor is larger than 1×1, movement behavior changes:

WASD moves by the cursor's full size, so adjacent scans cover new ground without overlap
CTRL + WASD moves by 1 tile for fine adjustment
CTRL + I reduces the cursor back toward 1×1

Charted vs. uncharted: Scanning an uncharted area gives no information. This tells you where your radars and exploration have not yet reached.

Building with the Cursor

When a buildable item is in your hand, the cursor shows a preview of where it would be placed. The preview is always anchored to the northwest corner of the entity's footprint. This differs from vanilla Factorio, which centers on the mouse pointer — when discussing placement with sighted players, be aware of this difference.

Press LEFT BRACKET to place the entity at the preview location. Press R to rotate clockwise, SHIFT + R to rotate counterclockwise. H and V flip the preview horizontally or vertically.

To place a ghost — a marker for where a building should go, which can be placed at any range — press SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET. Ghosts are how you work with construction robots, and how Kruise Kontrol can build structures autonomously on your behalf.

Build Lock

CTRL + B with an item in hand enables Build Lock, which places entities automatically as you move the cursor or walk. The most common use is laying a long run of belts: teleport to the start, put a belt in hand, enable Build Lock, and walk in a straight line.

The cursor and your character each have independent build locks. Using both at once creates two lines simultaneously, so best practice is to use only one at a time.

Build Lock has special behavior for some items:

Belts follow your walking direction and form corners automatically
Electric poles are placed at maximum connection spacing

Build Lock disables automatically when you empty your hand or toggle Cursor Mode.

Interacting with Entities

When the cursor selects an entity, a range of actions are available. A few key ones:

LEFT BRACKET — Open the entity's menu or perform the primary interaction
RIGHT BRACKET — Read the entity's current status
X (hold) — Mine or remove the entity
CTRL + LEFT BRACKET — Fast transfer: inserts full stacks from your hand into the entity, or collects all available output into your inventory if your hand is empty
CTRL + RIGHT BRACKET — Same, but half stacks
Z — Insert one item from hand into the entity
Q — Pipette: with something in hand, empties the hand; with empty hand on an entity, grabs the matching item from your inventory if available; on terrain, grabs the contextually appropriate tool (ore gives a mining drill, water gives an offshore pump)
SHIFT + F — Cycle through all entities stacked on the same tile, announcing each one

Teleportation

Press SHIFT + T to teleport your character to the cursor's current location. This works both for short-range alignment (centering yourself precisely on a tile) and long-range jumps across the map. If enemies are present at the destination, use CTRL + SHIFT + T instead.

Teleportation is particularly useful after selecting an entry from the scanner list or a travel point — the cursor is already positioned there, so one keypress brings your character to it.