Planet Crafter: Nauvis Reborn

Survive a frozen world. Build a terraforming industry. Restore entire planets.

Planet Crafter: Nauvis Reborn turns Factorio into a planetary restoration and survival experience. Begin on a frozen, nearly lifeless Nauvis, build a factory that can survive the cold, establish oxygen and heating infrastructure, and gradually make the environment habitable.

Terraforming is active factory production, not a passive timer. Manufacture environmental resources and supply specialized machinery to increase Heat, Pressure, Oxygen and Biomass. Your production lines drive planetary recovery.

Version 3.7.0 brings a substantially reworked frozen-world start, practical early heating and steam-power progression, more compact native Factorio machine graphics, a cleaner interface, and performance improvements.

NEW IN 3.7.0 — THE FROZEN WORLD

Frozen Nauvis start

With the Frozen Nauvis Start startup setting enabled (the default), new games begin with snow-covered ground and frozen lakes.

• Naturally varied, Aquilo-style snow using native Space Age terrain tiles when available; a base-game visual fallback otherwise.
• Frozen waterways that can be thawed locally to obtain water.
• Cold-sensitive factory machines that stop working without sufficient warmth and recover when heated.
• Progressive environmental recovery as planetary Heat increases.
• Protection for player-built flooring, important structures and existing resource areas.

The frozen start is applied to new games, not retroactively to existing saves. You can upgrade an established save without automatically freezing its terrain. If Space Exploration is installed, its Nauvis start and world generation are preserved instead.

Heating, thawing and early power

The frozen world changes your early factory priorities:

1. Craft a Primitive Heater and fuel it with coal or another suitable chemical fuel.
2. Use low-tech Thermal Conduits to carry heat where you need it.
3. Warm nearby machinery so production can resume.
4. Thaw frozen water and establish a water supply.
5. Build towards boilers and steam engines to power your growing factory.

Working heaters and thermal infrastructure interact with the local cold environment. Planet-wide warming gradually reduces the restrictions imposed by the frozen climate.

ACTIVE PLANETARY TERRAFORMING

Develop four primary environmental statistics:

• Heat — warm and stabilize the planetary environment.
• Pressure — develop a viable atmosphere.
• Oxygen — build breathable conditions and support survival.
• Biomass — restore living ecosystems.

The Terraform Index (TI) tracks overall restoration progress. Machinery, resource consumption, research, planetary milestones and objectives connect your factory to environmental recovery.

Terraforming machinery

Build production equipment such as Terraform Heaters, Pressure Compressors, Algae Factories, Animal Shelters, Atmospheric Processors, Biodomes and Incubators.

Manufacture Heat Cells, Pressure Canisters, Oxygen Canisters and Biomass Samples, then deliver them to infrastructure such as Thermal Injectors, Pressure Arrays, Oxygen Distributors and Biosphere Seeders.

Advance into Mk2 and Mk3 technologies, Terraform Relays and other restoration infrastructure. Renewable ecological cultivation can produce wood and biomass resources.

In 3.7.0, many machines use more compact, animated native Factorio graphics instead of oversized legacy artwork.

SUIT OXYGEN AND LIFE SUPPORT

Your character starts in an environment that is not safely breathable.

• Suit Oxygen drains while away from protected zones.
• The crash site offers an initial safe area.
• Oxygen Distributors and supplied life-support infrastructure provide recovery zones.
• Life Support Hubs, Oxygen Relays, Water Relays and Shelter Beacons help extend support beyond the starting location.
• Planetary recovery gradually reduces survival pressure.

Suit Oxygen and Planet Stats have movable HUD panels. Establish life support before exploring far from your factory.

RESTORE MULTIPLE WORLDS

With Space Age installed, expand restoration beyond Nauvis:

• Nauvis: Atmospheric recovery and the frozen-world survival start.
• Asterra: A dedicated planetary restoration campaign.
• Vulcanus: Volcanic stabilization and geological pressure.
• Fulgora: Electromagnetic recovery and environmental instability.
• Gleba: Biological containment and ecological restoration.
• Aquilo: Thermal survival and cold-resistant infrastructure.

Work through planetary objectives toward System Restoration Victory. Terraforming rocket payloads provide another way to contribute to environmental progress in later stages.

Space Exploration compatibility

Space Exploration is an alternative optional configuration, not something you must combine with Space Age. When SE is active, Planet Crafter runs cooperatively with its systems:

• SE retains its intended Nauvis start, resources, surfaces and scenario progression.
• PCN's frozen Nauvis start is disabled to avoid overwriting SE world generation.
• PCN terraforming statistics, machinery, suit oxygen, life support and dashboard remain available.
• SE-managed surfaces are protected from destructive automatic PCN terrain conversion.
• /pc-se-status reports the cooperative integration status.

INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE

Version 3.7.0 includes a more compact Terraform Dashboard, expandable details, objective guidance, and independently movable Planet Stats and Suit Oxygen HUD panels.

Use Shift + T to open the full dashboard. The mod also uses event-maintained machine indexes, bounded terrain work, cached heat coverage and less frequent HUD updates to reduce simulation overhead.

Safe terrain transformation

Environmental change is designed to preserve working factories and player-built surfaces. The separate automatic water-visual transformation setting remains off by default; this is distinct from local frozen-water thawing around heat sources.

COMPATIBILITY

• Factorio: 2.1.22 or newer
• Forgeworks Core: 0.3.11 or newer — required
• Space Age: Optional; supports native Aquilo snow textures and additional planetary campaigns
• Space Exploration: Optional; cooperative compatibility, with SE's start protected
• Base game without either expansion: Supported

Space Age-only planets and associated progression are not included when Space Age is disabled.

Existing saves

Existing saves are supported by migration logic. The frozen Nauvis start is for new games, so upgrading an older save does not automatically freeze your world. Back up established saves before upgrading, particularly when changing expansion combinations. The 3.7.0 release checks include a synthetic 3.5.3-to-3.7.0 factory migration, but do not guarantee every possible historical mod combination.

USEFUL COMMANDS

• /pc-status — current planet's terraforming statistics
• /pc-next — recommended next objectives
• /pc-system-status — system-wide restoration progress
• /pc-se-status — Space Exploration integration status (when applicable)
• /pc-aio — isolated hidden-surface diagnostic and gameplay test suite
• /pc-aio-live — read-only diagnostics for your current world

Shift + T opens the Terraform Dashboard.

RECOMMENDED EXPERIENCE

For the intended frozen-world restoration experience, start a new game with Frozen Nauvis Start enabled. Use ALT mode, establish reliable heat and oxygen infrastructure, thaw a water source, build your power and production chains, and expand from survival into planetary restoration.

COMMUNITY & SUPPORT

Join the Forgeworks Discord for development updates, feedback and support:

https://discord.gg/HwAXSv5E5d

Please include the Planet Crafter version, Factorio version, Forgeworks Core version, any Space Age/Space Exploration versions, the full error and a save file or factorio-current.log when reporting an issue.

Planet Crafter: Nauvis Reborn

Don't just conquer the planet. Bring it back to life.