Since building a mega factory in an extraterrestrial environment is quite dangerous in Factorio, the player character needs to equip armor to fend off any threats amongst other things. To power up these armors and their modular components you do require a power source and a bunch of Personal batteries. This article teaches you how to charge these Personal Batteries in Factorio.
There are two ways of charging Personal Batteries in Factorio; either you can equip Portable Solar Panels on your armor which provide 30kW of power output per panel or you can equip Portable Fusion Reactors which provide 750kW per reactor.
Depending on what components you have on you will dictate the number of power sources you require. There is so much more to this whole Personal Battery and Power Source scenario which we will get into below.
Armors in Factorio
Although there are different low-level armors in Factorio that provide defensive capabilities, only 3 armors have the added advantage of equipping extra components in Equipment Modules. These particular armors offer a certain grid size that can be customized with an assortment of modules for defense, support, or attack. Right-click on the armor to show the equipment grid. These 3 armors are:
- Modular Armor has an Equipment Module grid size of 5×5
- Power Armor has an Equipment Module grid size of 7×7
- Power Armor MK 2 has an Equipment Module grid size of 10×10
Equipment Modules
Each module takes up a certain amount of space in the armor grid and some even consume energy, they can be swapped on the fly so you change them according to your needs. All modules have their own technology that must be researched before they can be crafted. The following table has all the modules with their respective grid dimensions and energy consumption requirements:
Modules | Grid Dimensions | Energy Consumption |
Exoskeleton | 2×4 | 200 kW |
Belt immunity equipment | 1×1 | 100 kW |
Discharge defense | 2×2 | 800 kW |
Energy shield | 2×2 | 240 kW |
Energy shield MK2 | 2×2 | 360 kW |
Nightvision | 2×2 | 10 kW |
Personal laser defense | 2×2 | 75 kW |
Personal roboport | 2×2 | 2 MW |
Personal roboport MK2 | 2×2 | 4 MW |
To power these modules, the armor will require a set of personal batteries and power source modules. The batteries store the power from the output modules so they work in tandem to power the armor’s components. These can be seen in the table below:
Module | Grid Dimensions | Energy Capacity/Output |
Personal battery | 1×2 | 20 MJ Capacity |
Personal battery MK2 | 1×2 | 100 MJ Capacity |
Portable solar panel | 1×1 | 30 kW Output |
Portable fusion reactor | 4×4 | 750 kW Output |
Now that we know the power requirements of each module and from where they are powered, it is time to delve into the Personal Batteries and their charging modules.
Personal Battery
The Personal Battery provides a basic 20MJ power storage for Modular Armor and the Spidertron. They are also components in creating the improved Personal Battery MK2.
- Recipe: 10 Batteries, 10 Steel Plates
- Required Technologies: Personal Battery (research)
The Personal Battery MK2 provides 100MJ power storage for Modular Armor and the Spidertron. This type is an improved version of the personal battery as it provides five times more capacity per size.
- Recipe: 10 Personal Batteries, 5 Low-Density Structure, 15 Processing Units
- Required Technologies: Personal Battery MK2 (research)
These Personal Batteries are automatically charged by whatever power source you have equipped on your armor. Although if your modules are consuming all the power being generated with none to be spared by the batteries then they won’t be charged.
Both these batteries are well-suited for the Modular Armor’s rather smaller grid size and components. For the two advanced Power Armors, other types of power sources are more applicable owing to their larger grid size and accommodations for power-hungry components.
Portable Solar Panel
Portable Solar Panels are the basic power-generating units for Modular Armor and the Spidertron. They provide only a small amount of power, and only during the daytime.
Portable solar panels can be used to slowly recharge energy shields out of combat, but are nearly useless for personal laser defense or exoskeleton, even with a large number of batteries.
- Recipe: 2 Advanced Circuits, 1 Solar Panel, 5 Steel Plates
- Required Technologies: Portable Solar Panel (research)
Portable solar panels are 1×1 in size and are therefore primarily used in Modular Armor, which has a 5×5 grid that cannot usefully hold a much more powerful 4×4 portable fusion reactor. (It could store one, but there would be no room for anything to use the power.) The more advanced armor should almost always use Portable Fusion Reactors instead.
Portable Fusion Reactor
Portable Fusion Reactors are advanced power-generating modules for Modular Armor, Power Armor, Power Armor MK2, and Spidertron. They generate 750kW of power, equivalent to 25 portable solar panels while taking up only a 4×4 area in the equipment grid.
- Recipe: 50 Low-Density Structure, 200 Processing Units
- Technologies Required: Portable Fusion Reactor (research)
Portable fusion reactors are an unlimited source of energy and require nothing to power them. Portable fusion reactors are essential items for power armor and power armor MK2, as running the many other modules in these armors would take far too many solar panels to be practical.
Personal Batteries in Factorio can be charged with both Portable Fusion Reactors and Portable Solar Panels. They are useful for operating the Modular armor but anything above that should consider investing solely in the reactor as it has the most power generation and consistent power output out of the bunch.
The batteries are good for powering smaller and specific modules but they can be easily replaced by a better power supply.