Armor Equipment and Guns

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For full keybind references and advanced details, see the FA docs page on combat.

Armor types

Armor must be crafted and researched. Light armor is available early and is significantly better than nothing. Heavy armor (steel) provides strong protection against physical attacks. Higher tiers offer better protection across all damage types. Power armor and modular armor also include an equipment grid, letting you install armor equipment modules.

To equip an armor item, open your inventory (not from inside a building menu), take the item in hand with LEFT BRACKET, and equip it with SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET.

Armor equipment modules

Equipment modules attach to the equipment grid of modular or power armor and provide passive benefits. The grid has a limited number of slots and most equipment draws power, so you need a mix of generators (solar panels or fusion reactors) and the modules you actually want.

Read your current armor and equipment stats by opening your inventory and pressing G. Press SHIFT + G to list installed equipment. To unequip everything (armor and all modules), press CTRL + SHIFT + G.

Important: Equipment stays with the armor when you unequip it. If you unequip your armor and the modules seem to disappear, put the armor back on, remove the modules first, then unequip the armor.

Equipment types

• Energy shields — absorb damage and recharge from armor power.
• Exoskeletons — consume power to increase running speed by 30% per unit in smooth walking mode.
• Personal roboports — deploy construction robots around you for repairs and blueprint construction.
• Personal laser defenses — automatic laser turrets that target nearby enemies.
• Batteries — store charge for other equipment.
• Power generators — personal solar panels or portable fusion reactors.

Grid packing strategy

Install equipment largest to smallest. Large items fit first and leave the fewest gaps; smaller items fill in around them. Note that equipment cannot be rotated, so some combinations may not fit even with enough total slots.

Combat mode

Enter and exit combat mode with CTRL + SHIFT + I. Combat mode disables your cursor and changes key meanings to support directional aiming and an enemy audio radar.

In combat mode, move with the arrow keys. Set your aiming direction with W/A/S/D. Hold SPACE to fire at enemies in your preferred direction. The mod handles precise targeting automatically — this includes weapons like the shotgun that require mouse aim in the sighted game. Toggle spawner priority with SHIFT + R, and closest vs. strongest targeting with CTRL + R.

Outside combat mode, press SHIFT + SPACE to fire at the selected entity or the tile under the cursor. Press C to cycle between equipped weapons.

Capsules

Capsules are throwable or usable items such as grenades, poison capsules, and combat robot deployers. In combat mode, use a capsule in a given direction with SHIFT + W/A/S/D, or at maximum range with CTRL + SHIFT + W/A/S/D. Outside combat mode, LEFT BRACKET uses a capsule at the cursor position.

Safe mode (CTRL + SHIFT + R) prevents firing weapons that would damage you, such as explosive rockets.

Managing guns

The engineer has three gun slots and three ammo slots, separate from the main inventory. Press TAB (with no menus open) to cycle the active gun and hear its ammo count. Press R from the inventory to read all gun slots, or SHIFT + R to reload all ammo slots at once. To reset your gun arrangement, press CTRL + SHIFT + R from the inventory.

To equip a gun, open your inventory, take it in hand with LEFT BRACKET, and equip with SHIFT + LEFT BRACKET. Ammo equips the same way, provided the corresponding gun can use that ammo type.

Gun types

• Pistol — available from the start, quickly outclassed.
• Submachine gun — reliable and well-balanced personal weapon with decent range and automatic aiming. Scales well with weapons and ammo research. Generally recommended.
• Shotgun / combat shotgun — effective against clustered enemies at close range. Aim assist handles targeting.
• Flamethrower — strong area damage, short range. Aim assist applies.
• Rocket launcher — automatic aiming for standard and explosive rockets. Best used against worms and spawners at range; individual rockets may not keep up with a large swarm.

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See also:

• Cars and Tanks
• Combat Robots
• Early Game Combat

External links:

• Official Factorio Wiki: Armour
• FA Docs: combat