Generators are a great power production source in Astroneer. They produce the largest amount of power in the smallest amount of space. This isn't to say that other power production isn't viable, the advantage of generators are offset by taking a lot more resources to produce similar quantities of power. This guide seeks to reduce some of the burden by attempting to maximize power output alongside efficient use of resources.


Every plant that has a seed can be tapped for resources. You can unlock the tapper for 1000 bytes. It costs 1 aluminum and is made in the backpack printer. Placing a tapper on a plant produces organic material after a set amount of time (event plants produce random things that are exo event correlated). The amount of time it takes a plant to produce organic is influenced by the numbers of tappers on the plant. Each tapper adds the original set amount of time to all tappers on the plant. 2 tappers will take twice as long for each, 3 trappers will take 3 times as long, etc. It is always most efficient to place a single tapper on a plant.

Auto-arms are the other important piece of a generator setup. You can unlock the auto-arm for 1,500 bytes. It costs 1 aluminum and one graphite and is made in the small printer. Auto arms will grab any resource from their green circle and place it into their blue circle (seen when you hover your mouse over an unpacked one). They take up a medium slot and use 1 u/s while on. Placing an item in its middle slot while restrict the auto-arm to only move that item. There is a limit to how many resources they can move within a time period. While they can technically move 17.5 items/minute, I find that they realistically move around 12 items/minute. This is often due to the auto-arm needing to decide what to pick up and where to put it as it hesitates when presented with multiple places to put an item or multiple items that need to be picked up.

Generators are the power production part of the assembly. Small generators produce 2 u/s and medium generators produce 9 u/s. Both generators will take 120 seconds to completely burn a resource nugget. Small generators will spend 120 seconds to use up one organic. Medium generators will spend 120 seconds to use up one carbon. They will automatically burn through any fuel that is placed on their same platform until there isn't any remaining.

To produce carbon, organic must be smelted in a furnace of any kind. Both the backpack furnace and the regular furnace smelt one item every 15 seconds. Either furnace is capable of providing resources for 8 medium generators, any more and the furnace will not be able to keep up with consumption. Similar to generators, they will automatically burn through any smelt-able items that are placed on their same platform until there isn't any remaining. Large furnaces use 5 u/s while backpack furnaces use 2 u/s and only take a small slot. While the clear choice is for backpack furnaces, they are either found through luck or are able to obtained at the decently expensive cost of 8 astronium for one at the trade platform.


Below is a handy chart for seeing how quickly the different plant produce organic. Plants in green are non-hostile plants. Plants in blue are hostile plants that become "mutated" and non-hostile after collecting their seeds. The Volatile Attactus is the best plant in the game. It is found on Atrox and produces one organic every 10 seconds. I've calculated the number of generators that a single plant can feed as well as how many plants it takes to keep one furnace fed and how many plants a single auto-arm can handle.

These configurations are available incredibly early in the game as you only need basic resources found on all planets to craft them. You will need to adjust the number of tappers and plants to match your needs.



Shopping List

• Medium T-Platform (2 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• Medium Storage (2 Resin)
  
• 6 Small Generators (6 Compound)
  
• Tappers (1 Aluminum per plant)

Total: 4 Resin, 6 compound, 1 Graphite, 2+ Aluminum

Place the auto arm on the platform with the green side aimed towards the tapper. Place the medium storage on the tapper. Care must be taken with the medium storage to make sure empty spots are left to shuffle the organic around. The arm is incapable of placing items on every spot.


The fishback produces 11 u/s (12 from the generators subtracting one for the arm). It is incredibly easy to get going in the early game and not too difficult to get set up on any planet you desire. It produces enough power to open Sylva and Desolo gateways but is just shy of being able to open Calidor gateways. My son named it the fishback since it looks like it has a singular fish eye and two flippers when the arm is waiting on the next organic.




Shopping List

• 2 Medium T-Platform (4 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• 3 Medium Storage (6 Resin)
  
• 18 Small Generators (18 compound)
  
• Tappers (1 Aluminum per plant)

Total: 10 Resin, 18 compound, 1 Graphite, 3+ Aluminum

Create a fish back the add another medium platform within the auto-arm's blue circle. Place a medium storage on each on the new platform's medium slots and add 6 generators to each platform. Make sure the entire of both the new medium storage of the new platform fits within the blue circle.


The triple fishback produces 35 u/s and is capable of opening any gateway in the game. However, I consider it a side grade. The fishback can easily be upgraded into more powerful/useful configurations. It can technically hold 6 more generators before overwhelming the auto-arm but it can be a bit awkward fitting everything within the blue circle while making it look nice.

If you want to toss aesthetics out the window however. The most efficient technique is the cursed Sgetti Pile technique. Click it on accident one time or have it load in funny and chaos is guaranteed to ensue. It does produce a mean 47 u/s though so the choice is yours at the end of the day.

These generators start to become viable after you've been to space a few times. They rely exclusively on medium generators and need quite a bit of tungsten to create.



Shopping List

• Extra Large Curved Platform (2 Ceramic, 2 Compound)
  
• Medium T-Platform (2 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• Large Storage (3 Ceramic)
  
• Medium Storage (2 Resin)
  
• 6 Small generator (6 Compound)
  
• 5 Medium generators (5 Tungsten, 5 Aluminum)
  
• Tappers (1 Aluminum per plant)
  
• Smelting Furnace (2 Resin, 1 Compound)

Total: 6 Resin, 9 compound, 1 Graphite, 5 Ceramic, 5 Tungsten, 7+ Aluminum

Start by making a fishback generator setup. Place the furnace and large storage on the large slots of the XL curved platform. Place the 4 medium generators on each medium slot of the large storage and one on the medium slot on the curved platform. Place the XL platform so that only the input slots of the medium furnace are in the arm's blue circle. It really only needs to have access to one input slot in order to function correctly.


The furnace leaf produces a respectable ~54 u/s. This is taking into consideration that the furnace will only be one 2/3 of the time and uses less than 5 u/s over the span of 120 seconds. This is my go to upgrade on the fishback, being able to add on to the back of it often just replacing plants with better ones to compensate.



Shopping List

• 3 Extra Large Curved Platforms (6 Ceramic, 6 Compound)
  
• Medium T-Platform (2 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• 3 Large Storages (9 Ceramic)
  
• Medium Storage (2 Resin)
  
• 6 Small generator (6 Compound)
  
• 15 Medium generators (15 Tungsten, 15 Aluminum)
  
• Tappers (1 Aluminum per plant)
  
• 3 Smelting Furnaces (6 Resin, 3 Compound)

Total: 10 Resin, 15 compound, 1 Graphite, 15 Ceramic, 15 Tungsten, 17+ Aluminum

Start with a furnace leaf and create 2 more copies of the configuration on the XL curved platform. There is enough space to squeeze all of the furnace inputs within the arm's blue circle without having any major clipping. Be sure to lock platforms once you get them into position, the XL platforms are being placed close enough to each other to bump around if they are not.


The furnace palm produces a substantial ~137 u/s. The three furnaces only come on when needed after a while and help to keep their power draw from hurting the output. I often replace one of the medium generators in the center of an XL platform with a resource canister to collect some carbon. It scales nicely from the palm leaf and is the go to upgrade on first base of the game.





Shopping List

• Medium T-Platform (2 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• Medium Storage Silo (2 Tungsten)
  
• 22 Small Generators (22 Compound)
  
• 2 Tappers (2 Aluminum)

Total: 2 Resin, 2 Tungsten, 22 compound, 1 Graphite, 3 Aluminum


The layout for this is similar to the fishback except you replace the medium storage with a medium storage silo. Leave the lowest two slots that are furthest from the arm empty. Similar to the fishback it is important to keep certain spots clear on the storage to allow the organic to filter out where it is needed.


Abysmal solar and wind demand a hefty generator setup on Atrox despite a serious lack of minerals to help set one up. I prefer to take this setup in as it probably the most compact out of all the generator setups. It squeezes into a backpack (a tapper can be smuggled in the printer) and can be upgrade off of compound scavenged off of Atrox. It produces 43 u/s which is enough to open the gate as well as power a few atmospheric condensers (under-powered slightly, but still plenty quick enough to harvest 3 separate gases).

These generators take a wide breadth of resources and lots of them. These are a massive time and resource sink. They are absolute overkill and more about attempting to squeeze as much power in as aesthetically pleasing package as possible. They aren't the most compact power configurations either. That would belong to an absolutely ridiculous build featuring tons of small generators, auto-arms, and plants. I may add that build to this guide at some point if it gets enough traction, but it really isn't worth the hassle.



Shopping List

• Extra Large Platform C (2 Iron, 2 Resin)
  
• Medium T-Platform (2 Resin)
  
• Auto-arm (1 Aluminum, 1 Graphite)
  
• Medium Storage (2 Resin)
  
• 6 Small Generators (6 Compound)
  
• 2 Large Storage Silo As (4 Aluminum, 2 Steel)
  
• 16 Medium generators (16 Tungsten, 16 Aluminum)
  
• Tappers (1 Aluminum per plant)
  
• 2 Smelting Furnace (4 Resin, 2 Compound)

Total: 10 Resin, 8 compound, 1 Graphite, 2 Iron, 2 Steel, 16 Tungsten, 23+ Aluminum

Start by making a fishback. Place the two furnaces in the center slots of the XL platform facing each other. Place the two large storage silos on each side of the XL platform. Place the 16 medium generators on each slot of the storage silos. Place the XL platform so that the inputs of the two furnaces are inside the blue circle of the auto-arm.


The smokestack produces an impressive 145 u/s. One of my favorite features is how this configuration can be added to the back of an already present fishback. The fishback produces enough power to compensate for the auto arm and both furnaces (with one additional power generated). The only thing holding this back from being the obvious choice is the need for steel.




Shopping List

• Extra Large Platform C (2 Iron, 2 Resin)
  
• 3 Medium Platforms (3 Resin)
  
• 3 Auto-arms (3 Aluminum, 3 Graphite)
  
• Medium Storage Silo (2 Tungsten)
  
• 16 Small Generators (16 Compound)
  
• 4 Large Storage Silo Bs (12 Steel)
  
• 47 Medium generators (47 Tungsten, 47 Aluminum)
  
• 6 Tappers (6 Aluminum)
  
• 8 Backpack Furnaces (64 Astronium)

Total: 5 Resin, 16 compound, 3 Graphite, 2 Iron, 12 Steel, 49 Tungsten, 56 Aluminum, 64 Astronium


Place a Large storage Silo on each slot of the XL platform. Place a medium generator on each slot of the Storage Silo with the exception of one slot on the bottom. Place the 16 small generators and 8 backpack furnaces on the medium storage silo. Place the medium storage silo on the last empty slot. Place an arm on each medium platform. Place the medium platforms in such a way that the arm can reach every single slot of the medium storage silo is completely within the blue circle of each auto arm. Plant two Volatile Attacus with tappers within each arm's green circle.


The Behemoth Smokestack produces an absolutely absurd 400 u/s. It is entirely unnecessary except for large scale builds. Nothing in the game should require a base that needs 400 u/s. It is a flex above all else.

Not for the faint of heart, read onwards only if you are obsessed with power production in the smallest space possible.
Instead of using medium generators, you could use a medium storage silo filled with small generators. Each medium storage silo would be capable of producing 48 u/s on its own. Running it in a similar configuration to the behemoth where you had one silo dedicated to moving resources around instead of generating power, you could generate 2,259 u/s on that same platform. You would need 23 auto arms, 46 Volatile Attacus seeds, and a whopping 1,128 small generators though. I haven't bothered to build it as it would be absolutely absurd and I don't have the patience for it.

Generators can produce a hefty amount of power but take a lot of time to get setup. Being heavily reliant on large quantities and needing similar space requirements as the next tier of power producers above them hampers them in a fair way. I wouldn't consider them a go to for everything but are a superb choice for medium bases and larger.

When I originally planned this guide, I was going to include all kinds of different power setups. Wind/Solar setups are so easy you can just plug and play them however they will fit without deeper considerations outside of keeping solar panels out of the shade. You can easily keep green energy flowing smoothly in two different ways. You have enough batteries to match peak u/s production, or you can have enough batteries to match expected production with a splitter to keep the batteries from dumping too quickly.


By placing a splitter with one ouput going to a single thing that is not draining power, you can control limit how much power comes out of your banks of green energy. After charging your batteries up, remove your green power. This will let you tune the amount of power your batteries put out to match expected up times. Reconnect your green power and the system should hold just as steady as a generator from that point forward.


You can find the data for expected wind power on each planet on the astroneer wiki[astroneer.fandom.com]. You can find solar there[astroneer.fandom.com] as well, but be sure to divide the output by half since you'll only have sun half the day.
You can go a little crazy with solar towards the north pole of any planet, but that takes quite a bit of dirt moving to get working correctly.


Here I have set the limited output to match the expected wind output of a single medium wind turbine on Glacio. Leaving the system running with a program to watch it overnight, it never drained and stayed relatively topped up the entire time.

Just leaving everything running and hoping for the best tends to work for most people. This is here just in case you want your green energy to match the stability of a generator really.

Hope my guide was helpful in some form or another or gave someone inspiration to try some new power layouts. Thanks for reading!