Factorio 2.1 Is Now Stable, Its Last Major Update

Wube Software has marked Factorio 2.1 as stable after the update spent the summer in experimental, and the studio said back in May that 2.1 would be its last major update before it shifts focus to long term support. There are no new planets, enemies, or research trees this time around. Instead, 2.1 is a collection of quality of life changes, small features, and polish, including things the team wanted to get into 2.0 but ran out of time for, and Wube updated its classic Factorio trailer one last time to go along with the release.

Space platforms get the biggest set of changes in 2.1, starting with mixed rockets that can carry multiple different items in a single launch. After finishing Space Age with a group of three friends for my review, my main complaint was the strict cargo restriction on rockets, which forced far too many launches just to build a platform. The capacity itself hasn’t changed, but mixed rockets at least mean you no longer have to send a full stack of everything to build a small platform. Platforms can also request items from and provide items to other platforms in orbit, hub requests can be controlled with the circuit network, and platform drag is now based on mass rather than width, so the pencil ship is no longer the only way to go fast.

Back on the ground, there’s a new landing pad unloading bay that inserters can pull from, so cargo can go directly into trains, chests, or belts. The circuit network gets an Input/Output split that directs reads and writes to different wire colors, while labs, boilers, heat exchangers, land mines, and pipes can all be wired up now. As I said in my review, Quality is a well-designed system for min-maxers, but those who would rather skip it can now play Space Age without it, since the Recycler has been split into its own mod and Quality is a recommended dependency that’s enabled by default. Quality modules can no longer be used in asteroid reprocessing, though, which Wube describes as closing the space casino.

Fluid mixing prevention is also back, so pipelines carrying different fluids won’t merge and will give a warning instead, and pumpjacks and burner miners can finally be flipped. Enemy expansion groups now scale with evolution, and the game got its last big graphics pass with new assembling machines, an oil refinery, rocket silo, and heat exchanger. Factorio also runs natively on ARM64 Linux now, which covers the Steam Frame, Raspberry Pi headless servers, and Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon Macs.

Before updating, keep in mind that 2.0 saves will load, but changes like the Input/Output split may break existing factory designs, and saves and blueprints can’t be downgraded back to 2.0 once you’ve updated, so Wube recommends backing up anything you care about. Most popular mods were updated during the experimental period, but some may not be ready yet, and the full rundown is on Wube’s website.

Factorio – Trailer 2026