Explosives — Factorio Production Calculator
Explosives is crafted in the chemical plant in 4 seconds, producing 2 per craft from 1 × Sulfur, 1 × Coal, 10 × Water. At 60 per minute you need 2 chemical plants, and the chain behind it draws on 3 raw resources: water, petroleum gas, coal.
Production chain for 60 Explosives / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explosives | 60 | 2 | Chemical plant |
| Sulfur | 30 | 0.25 | Chemical plant |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Water | 750 |
| Petroleum gas | 450 |
| Coal | 30 |
Machine counts are not rounded up. Add a little headroom in game — belt throughput and inserter speed usually mean you want 5-10% more than the exact number.
Explosives recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chemical plant | 4 s | 2 | Sulfur × 1, Coal × 1, Water × 10 |
What the whole chain needs
60 explosivess per minute pulls in 1 intermediate product, and the whole tree comes to 2 machines across 1 machine type, fed by 3 raw resources. The table above already sums demand across every branch — if copper cable is used by two recipes, you see the total, not one of them.
Belt check: the busiest input here moves 750 per minute, which is 0.83 of a yellow belt's 900 per minute. Above 1.0 and you need a second belt (or a faster tier) before the machines themselves become the limit.
What uses explosives
9 base-game recipes consume explosives, sorted by how much each one takes:
- Atomic bomb — 10 per craft
- Cliff explosives — 10 per craft
- Artillery shell — 8 per craft
- Cluster grenade — 5 per craft
- Explosive cannon shell — 2 per craft
- Explosive rocket — 2 per craft
- Land mine — 2 per craft
- Cannon shell — 1 per craft
- Rocket — 1 per craft
What explosives is made from
- Sulfur — 1 per craft
FAQ
How many chemical plants do I need for 60 explosivess per minute?
2 chemical plants. One at standard speed produces 30 per minute, so 60 ÷ that number is the count. The calculator above rounds nothing — add 5-10% headroom for belt and inserter losses in a real factory.
How much raw ore does explosives take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 750 water per minute, 450 petroleum gas per minute, 30 coal per minute. Those numbers are the theoretical minimum — mining productivity research and productivity modules both reduce them.
Is explosives needed for science packs?
Not directly. It feeds Atomic bomb and Cliff explosives, and those in turn feed the science packs. Open the science pack page to see the demand that lands on this recipe.
Machine counts assume bare machines at standard speed. Recipe data comes from the game's own prototypes (PlayerCalc, Factorio 2.0 base game). Not affiliated with Wube Software.