Modules

Modules are devices placed inside electric-powered machines to modify their behavior. Using modules is optional, but producing some of them is required for progression since they are ingredients in advanced recipes. A module's effects apply as percentages and are the same in any machine that accepts it. When multiple modules are installed in the same machine, their effects add up linearly.

Basic modules require circuits and advanced circuits to make. Higher-tier modules have stronger effects but require processing units and lower-tier modules as ingredients.

Efficiency modules

Efficiency modules decrease a machine's power consumption — and by extension its pollution output, since pollution is proportional to power use. They are useful in any power-hungry machine, and are most impactful in the heaviest polluters: electric mining drills, pumpjacks, oil refineries, and chemical plants.

Tier 1 efficiency modules reduce power and pollution by 30% each. The maximum power reduction any combination of efficiency modules can apply to a single machine is 80%. Efficiency modules also pair well with speed or productivity modules to offset the power increases those cause.

Speed modules

Speed modules increase a machine's crafting speed at the cost of higher power consumption and pollution. Tier 1 speed modules add 20% crafting speed and increase power consumption by 50%.

The practical benefit is needing fewer machines to hit a target production rate. The alternative — building more copies of the machine — costs space and infrastructure instead of power.

Productivity modules

Productivity modules give a chance to produce bonus output items for free. They can only be used in machines producing intermediate products. The tradeoff is slower crafting speed, higher power consumption, and increased pollution.

A Tier 1 productivity module gives a 4% productivity bonus (roughly one free item per 26 produced), reduces crafting speed by 5%, and increases power consumption by 40% and the pollution modifier by 5%.

Productivity modules are most valuable in expensive recipes. Good candidates are research labs and rocket silos.