Gradus, the Stairway World

Gradus is a Space Age planet made of five big terraces stacked like stairs, from the Basin at the bottom to the Summit at the top. Cliffs separate the levels and you can't blow them up, so you have to work around them. You can walk, belt and rail through the gaps in the cliffs, or run trains over them on elevated rails.

To get things over a cliff anywhere else there are four new pieces. Chutes and aqueducts drop items and fluids down for free. Lifts and uphill pumps carry them up, and that costs power.

Each level has its own resources. Iron, oil and dense ore are down in the Basin, copper and coal in the Lowlands, and ice, light crystals and helium up on the Summit. You land in the middle, on the Midshelf.

Gradus has its own science pack, Gradient science, made from parts built in three new machines. A recipe won't run on the level its raw material comes from, so you end up sending parts up and down between the levels.

Some cliffs have a waterfall with a small pool at the bottom where you can build hydro turbines for steady power. There's also a vacuum ice melter that turns ice into water, and it works on other planets and space platforms too.

Gradient science unlocks long-span undergrounds, a rocket silo that needs half the rocket parts, and infinite electronic circuit productivity. You can use all of them on any planet.

Tips & Tricks has a Gradus section that explains how it all works.

Needs Factorio 2.1 and Space Age. The art is in a separate mod, Gradus graphics, which gets installed along with Gradus. If you use Any Planet Start, you can start on Gradus.

Credits

Made by StitchFaced, co-created with ArgHereBeDragons. Our first playtester was wille179.

License: MIT