Alchemy Factory Upgrade Guide — All Ten Tracks and What to Level First

Alchemy Factory's upgrade system is a ten-track skill tree, and the running argument in every source is which track pays back fastest. The Codex documents all ten tracks and their base values; TheGamer's guide explains that the points come from levelling through the main quests; and the community guide makes the case that Fertilizer Efficiency is the only track worth rushing. This page lays out both sides so you can judge for your own factory.

How Upgrade Points Work

Points come from levelling, and levelling comes from completing main quests, according to TheGamer's guide. Because Alchemy Factory has no campaign, those quests double as the structure of the game, which means your skill tree advances at the pace of your production milestones rather than as a separate grind. The Codex upgrade panel lets you model a build before committing, showing each track's base value and letting you set levels to see the effect.

Track	What it scales	Base value
Logistics Efficiency	Conveyor Belt Speed	60/min
Throwing Efficiency	Catapult and Cannon fire rate	60/min and 120/min
Factory Efficiency	Device production, heat consuming speed	100%
Alchemy Skill	Extractor Output	100%
Fuel Efficiency	Fuel Heat Value	100%
Fertilizer Efficiency	Nutrient Value	100%
Sales Ability	Shop Profit	100%
Negotiation Skill	Purchase Contract Amount	100%
Customer Management	Quest Rewards	100%
Relic Knowledge	Relic Withdrawal Bonus	100%

All Ten Tracks at a Glance

Reading the table as two groups makes the priorities clearer. Six tracks are production multipliers — logistics, throwing, factory, alchemy, fuel and fertilizer — and four are economy multipliers — sales, negotiation, customer management and relic knowledge. The production group decides how much you make; the economy group decides how much that output is worth at the counter.

Group	Tracks	When they matter
Production multipliers	Logistics, Throwing, Factory, Alchemy, Fuel, Fertilizer	Every phase, but fertilizer most of all
Economy multipliers	Sales, Negotiation, Customer Management, Relic Knowledge	Once you have surplus output to sell

What to Upgrade First

The community guide is explicit that fertilizer comes first and stays first until it hits 200%, and possibly 300%. The logic is that fertilizer is the cheapest source of cauldron item value, so improving it lowers the cost of everything the cauldron makes — which in turn makes wholesale production cheaper. The same guide allows a few points in logistics or fuel for quality of life, but only after the fertilizer target is met.

• Fertilizer Efficiency first, to 200% and then 300% if you can.
• A few points in Logistics or Fuel are acceptable quality-of-life spending.
• Negotiation becomes valuable once wholesale caps your income.
• Sales and Customer Management matter only when the storefront is a real revenue share.
• Relic Knowledge is a specialist track; the forum thread notes relics open up from level 5.

A second forum thread on which skills are best adds the practical note that once you reach level 5 you can start making relics, which changes which tracks feel mandatory — but the thread's own concession is that fertilizer efficiency is not strictly necessary in the earliest game, only once cauldron production scales. Exact per-level gains, the level cap and whether respecs exist are not documented yet, so treat them as to confirm. For what the fertilizer points buy, see the fertilizer guide, and for the recipes they feed, see cauldron recipes.

• Level up by completing main quests before planning a build.
• Reach 200% Fertilizer Efficiency before branching out.
• Use the Codex panel to preview a track's effect before committing.
• Treat logistics and fuel as comfort, negotiation as mid-game income.
• Re-check base values after 1.0 in case they were rebalanced.