The standard recipe, in real numbers
Supercomputers sit at the top of the electronics tree, and the standard recipe unlocked at Tier 6 - Industrial Manufacturing is a four-input Manufacturer job:
| Recipe | Machine | Cycle | Inputs (per craft) | Inputs (per min) | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supercomputer (standard) | Manufacturer | 32 s | Computer 4 + AI Limiter 2 + High-Speed Connector 3 + Plastic 28 | 7.5 Computer + 3.75 Limiter + 5.625 Connector + 52.5 Plastic | 1, 1.875/min |
| OC Supercomputer (alternate) | Assembler | 20 s | Radio Control Unit 2 + Cooling System 2 | 6 RCU + 6 Cooling System | 1, 3/min |
| Super-State Computer (alternate) | Manufacturer | 25 s | Computer 3 + Electromagnetic Control Rod 1 + Battery 10 + Wire 25 | 7.2 Computer + 2.4 Rod + 24 Battery + 60 Wire | 1, 2.4/min |
“Supercomputer: 4 Computer, 2 AI Limiter, 3 High-Speed Connector and 28 Plastic per craft, 32 s in a Manufacturer, 1.875 per minute” — the row mirrored from the satisfactory.wiki.gg recipe table into
src/data/satisfactory-recipes.json.
1.875 per minute is the headline, and it is an awkward number for planning: one Manufacturer does not quite make two per minute, so a Space Elevator phase built around clean multiples wants an even number of machines. Two Manufacturers give 3.75/min, four give 7.5/min.
The recipe’s real weight is in its three complex inputs. Every Supercomputer needs Computers, AI Limiters and High-Speed Connectors at once, which means three separate production lines all have to be running before the Manufacturer does anything at all.
The cascade back to plastic
Follow the standard recipe backwards and the cost compounds fast. One Supercomputer carries:
| Stage | Per supercomputer | Per minute (1 Manufacturer) |
|---|---|---|
| Supercomputer | 1 | 1.875/min |
| Computer | 4 | 7.5/min |
| Circuit Board (inside those Computers) | 16 | 30/min |
| Cable (inside those Computers) | 32 | 60/min |
| Plastic (direct + inside Computers) | 28 + 64 = 92 | 172.5/min |
| AI Limiter | 2 | 3.75/min |
| High-Speed Connector | 3 | 5.625/min |
That plastic line is the striking one. A single Supercomputer Manufacturer indirectly consumes 172.5 plastic per minute once you count the 16 plastic per Computer. At the standard 20/min plastic rate, that is nearly nine Refineries behind one machine.
The AI Limiter and High-Speed Connector feeds are no cheaper. The cached consumption rows show an AI Limiter recipe drawing 25 Copper Sheet and 100 Quickwire per minute, and a High-Speed Connector recipe drawing 210 Quickwire, 37.5 Cable and 3.75 Circuit Boards per minute. Both are caterium-heavy, so a Supercomputer block is really a caterium block with a plastic habit.
Machine counts for a real target
Ten Supercomputers per minute is a common Space Elevator target. On the standard recipe:
| Step | Rate needed | Machines |
|---|---|---|
| Supercomputer | 10/min | 6 Manufacturers (1.875/min each) |
| Computer | 75/min | 30 Manufacturers (2.5/min each) |
| Circuit Board | 300/min | 40 Assemblers (7.5/min each) |
| AI Limiter | 37.5/min | to order |
| High-Speed Connector | 56.25/min | to order |
| Plastic | 1,725/min | 87 Refineries (20/min each) |
Thirty Computer Manufacturers and forty board Assemblers for ten Supercomputers a minute. That is why almost nobody builds the standard recipe at scale: the Computer stage alone is a factory. The alternates exist to break that cascade, and both of them do it by removing the Computer multiplication.
The two alternates
OC Supercomputer is the fastest at 3/min and the simplest to feed: 2 Radio Control Units and 2 Cooling Systems in an Assembler over 20 seconds. It contains no Computers at all, so the 30-Manufacturer cascade disappears. Instead it wants a Radio Control Unit line — which itself needs Aluminum Casing, Crystal Oscillators and Computers — plus Cooling Systems, which are a heat-sink and rubber recipe.
It is not a shortcut, it is a reroute. You trade a Computer-heavy chain for an aluminum-heavy one, and you get 60% more output per machine for the trouble.
Super-State Computer is the balanced option at 2.4/min, 28% faster than standard. It still uses Computers, but only 3 per craft, and it replaces the AI Limiter and High-Speed Connector with an Electromagnetic Control Rod, 10 Batteries and 25 Wire. The wire is trivial (60/min is two Wire Constructors); the battery is the awkward part, because it pulls in the aluminum and sulfur chains.
Which one to run depends on what you already have:
| If your base already has | Run |
|---|---|
| Heavy computer and caterium production | Standard, then Super-State |
| Aluminum and battery lines for drones | Super-State Computer |
| Radio Control Units for drones and Turbo Motors | OC Supercomputer |
| Nothing yet | Standard first, switch once one of the above exists |
The practical path most players take is standard recipe for the first Space Elevator phase, then Super-State Computer once the battery line exists, keeping OC Supercomputer for a dedicated drone-heavy outpost.
Where supercomputers go
| Consumer | Supercomputers per min | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Neural-Quantum Processor | 3 | heaviest single draw |
| Assembly Director System | 0.75 | 1 per craft, 0.75/min |
| Miner Mk.3 | building cost | one per miner |
| Nuclear Power Plant | building cost | one per plant |
| Particle Accelerator | building cost | one per accelerator |
| Quantum Encoder | building cost | one per encoder |
The building costs are the sneaky demand. Every Miner Mk.3, Nuclear Power Plant, Particle Accelerator and Quantum Encoder consumes Supercomputers as a construction item, so a player who never “produces supercomputers” still ends up building a line to place five or six buildings. A small standard-recipe Manufacturer plus a buffer covers that; a full 10/min block is for the Space Elevator phases.
The Assembly Director System is the phase part that eats them at 0.75/min per machine, alongside Adaptive Control Units — the two lines are usually built together because they share the Computer feed.
Build notes that prevent the usual stall
- Build the Computer line first, then count backwards. 7.5 computers per minute per Supercomputer Manufacturer is three Computer Manufacturers; if you only have one, the Supercomputer machine will run at a third of its rate and look broken.
- Do not overclock the Supercomputer first. It draws a lot of power and its four inputs cannot be overclocked to match — see the overclocking guide. Overclock the Computer Manufacturers instead.
- Buffer each input separately. Four inputs consumed in one 32-second gulp means a single short input stalls the whole cycle; small containers per input are worth the space.
- Sink overflow at 97,352 points. Supercomputers are among the highest-value sink items in the game — see the AWESOME Sink guide — so an overflow sink is a genuinely good use of surplus output while you build the next consumer.
For the parts that feed this machine, start with the Computer chain and the Circuit Board line, and use the production ratio walkthrough to scale the cascade to your own target.