Alchemy Factory Beginner Guide: Your First Shop Alchemy Factory Game Walkthrough Wiki

1. Follow the updated introduction before expanding

Use the current tutorial to establish the shop and learn its interfaces before planning a large factory. Hotfix 1.0.4962 adds a specific step for applying for Shop Recognition, making it part of the introduction rather than a mystery to solve later. Read the requirement shown by that step and identify the application NPC. A useful first-session goal is to understand how one product reaches a customer and how one recognition is requested, rather than buying every available expansion at once.

Sources: Ledger and receiving-rule hotfix / Unlock and sorter hotfix

2. Separate equipment unlocks from production research

The 1.0 research changes remove non-production devices from the Tech Tree and place their unlocks at the Workbench. If a furnishing or shop device seems absent, check there before assuming that you need a more advanced production recipe. This also makes older progression screenshots unreliable. Plan around the equipment actually available in your save. Keep a short list of the next missing component, its unlock location and its required resources so an expansion has a specific purpose.

Sources: 1.0 release notes

3. Build a chain you can inspect from start to finish

The advertised production system connects grinding, extraction, distillation, smelting and other processes with conveyors and pipes. For your first line, choose a recipe whose input and output you can follow through every device. Watch where materials arrive, where a machine stops, and where the finished item goes. Add equipment only when you can explain the limiting step. This is a practical learning method, not a claim that one particular product is the fastest universal route to wealth.

Sources: Current Steam listing

4. Check the customer route as carefully as the factory route

Version 1.0 supports multi-story shops and multiple gates, and the subsequent hotfixes correct customer access to upper floors and stairs. A shop can contain stock while still presenting a navigation problem. After changing a gate, staircase or sales area, observe a customer reaching it before adding another floor. Keep production transport and the customer route understandable. If an upper floor behaves differently from an old video, update first and compare with the released navigation fixes rather than abandoning vertical construction entirely.

Sources: 1.0 release notes / Blueprint and upper-floor hotfix / Invites and stairs hotfix

5. Price deliberately and complete the intended sale

In the full release, an item sells at the price it has when the customer picks it up. A later price change therefore should not be treated as a way to retroactively alter an item already selected. Stock the goods you intend to sell and inspect a complete customer visit when testing a change. Keep commissions distinct from ordinary shop stock, since their requirements give you a separate production target. Changing several recipes, prices and customer routes simultaneously makes the result harder to interpret.

Sources: Current Steam listing / 1.0 release notes

6. Apply for recognition using current requirements

Recognition is now the route for reputation and profit benefits, and the release integrates former shop-sales and purchase-contract upgrade bonuses into it. Check the updated Shop Reputation section in the Manual and the indicators on the NPC who handles applications. Work toward the condition shown by the game instead of trying to farm purchase feedback under the old Reputation rules. When a benefit appears, note it before changing your factory again; that makes later profit comparisons more meaningful.

Sources: 1.0 release notes / Unlock and sorter hotfix

7. Treat the Knowledge Altar as a resource decision

The release notes allow the Knowledge Altar to break down any item for experience, with additional experience from Relics. That gives surplus items a use beyond selling them, but the notes do not establish that every valuable object should be destroyed immediately. Before feeding an item into the altar, compare its role in a commission, a planned production line or your shop stock. Decide which resource you currently need: an item, sale income or experience. Preserve anything committed to a task you intend to finish.

Sources: 1.0 release notes

8. End the session with one explainable bottleneck

Before your next expansion, identify whether you are limited by inputs, processing, transport, customer access or an unlock. If you play together, give each person a specific part to inspect and announce any rerouting before doing it. The current game offers public lobbies and join codes; September hotfixes also correct private-room invitations and improve lobby latency detection. Use those facilities to establish a stable session first. You will learn more from one functioning chain than from an unexplained collection of disconnected upgrades.

Sources: 1.0 release notes / Invites and stairs hotfix / Blueprint and upper-floor hotfix

Related guides

Sources checked October 13, 2026. Published facts are linked beside their explanations. Planning and practice suggestions are editorial advice rather than verified optimal builds.