When you start a new game you choose one of four starting areas. The landing point is picked at random from predefined positions inside that area; until you build a HUB you respawn there. With Skip Onboarding the HUB is already complete, Tier 1 is unlocked and the starting inventory contains among other things 4 Portable Miners, 129 Iron Plate, 58 Concrete, 60 Iron Rod, 48 Wire and 8 Reinforced Iron Plate.
Overview
Ratings are the wiki's 1–5 stars from the “New game” screen.
| # | Start area | Suitability (wiki) | Flat terrain | Biomass | Resource amount | Resource variety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grass Fields | Ideal for beginners | ★★★★★ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| 2 | Rocky Desert | Suitable for beginners; sea close by (water) | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| 3 | Northern Forest | For experienced players; large height differences | ★☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ |
| 4 | Dune Desert | For advanced players; biomass and water only in the oases | ★★★★☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★☆☆☆ |
Grass Fields
- Map position: grid cell X2Y0 – the southern centre of the land mass (biome rating: terrain 1, biomass 3, hostility 2 – see Biomes).
- Nearby resources: Iron, Copper and Limestone close to the landing points, but many nodes are impure; Coal is a little further away. A Uranium cave with 2 entrances and a SAM node in the Stone Arch Ravine cave lie in this biome. The Grass Fields lakes sit at −7.3 m (upper) and −26.8 m (north).
- Pros: flattest start area in the game, few hazards, stone arches for orientation, the Giant Flying Manta circles overhead.
- Cons: frequent impure nodes mean lower miner rates until you overclock or upgrade; many Hogs around nodes and slugs.
Rocky Desert
- Map position: grid cells X0Y3–X1Y4 on the western edge; the sea is close by for water.
- Nearby resources: very node-rich – Iron, Copper, Limestone and Coal are all close. The Desert Cave contains 3 Raw Quartz and 1 SAM node (5 entrances). The highest point of the map (Z ≈ 470 m) carries a Uranium node.
- Pros: best resource layout for large factories, open and mostly flat ground, sea water for coal power, the longest cave of the map.
- Cons: little biomass for the Biomass Burner phase; Nuclear Hogs guard the Uranium; the Rocky Desert Lake is at −17.7 m, so water has to be pumped uphill.
Northern Forest
- Map position: grid cells X2Y4–X4Y3 in the north, next to the Desert Canyons and Spire Coast.
- Nearby resources: many nodes, with Caterium and Raw Quartz close by – ideal for the MAM trees early on. Twin Falls Lake (130 m) and the Crater Lakes (154 m) are elevated water sources for gravity-fed pipelines.
- Pros: highest biomass and resource variety of the four; good mid-game location.
- Cons: hilly ground – building requires foundations from the start; the wiki rates it for experienced players.
Dune Desert
- Map position: grid cells X5Y3–X6Y5 on the eastern edge; Abyss Cliffs and Spire Coast border it.
- Nearby resources: very many pure nodes; cave entrances under rocks. Water and biomass only in the tree oases (oasis lakes at 55.3 m, the Dune Desert Abyss Cliffs lake at 228 m; the north coast at −18.4 m).
- Pros: flat dunes, the best scaling later in the game thanks to pure nodes.
- Cons: the slowest start – little biomass and water at the beginning; Gas Pillars and Spore Flowers guard several crash sites.
Which one?
- First playthrough: Grass Fields – nothing to fight, nothing to climb.
- Big factory from the start: Rocky Desert – most nodes per walking distance and water nearby.
- Early Caterium/Quartz research: Northern Forest.
- Late-game scaling with pure nodes: Dune Desert.
All four are marked on the map; use the resource layers and purity filters to compare them. When you have picked one, Using SatisfactoryBase explains how to link the nodes around your base to a factory in the planner.