Captain of Industry Equipment Guide: Best Equipment Ranked

Q: Is Captain of Industry finished?

No. It has been in Early Access since 31 May 2022 and MaFi Games still estimate roughly two to four more years, with feature complete progression, better graphics and UX work outstanding. The build is stable and content rich in the meantime.

Q: What research order should I use at the start?

A widely used opening runs Basic Construction, Vehicles and Mining, Power and Maintenance, Beacon, Basic Farming, Trading Dock, Concrete Production, Ship Dock Repair and Basic Diesel. That gets a mine, a power source and a maintenance loop running before the settlement can strain them.

Q: How does maintenance actually work?

A Maintenance Depot turns mechanical parts and electronics into Maintenance I and draws 100 kW while doing it. Machines and vehicles pull from that pool, and Unity can repair one item in an emergency, but there is no way to refill the pool except producing more.

Q: What is Unity for?

Claiming world map nodes, enacting edicts, speeding construction and repairing broken buildings or vehicles instantly. It comes mostly from satisfying settlement service demands, which makes a well supplied settlement your main Unity source.

Q: How many trade ships can I get?

Seven sunken cargo ships on the world map can be repaired into working trade ships, and one more can be bought at the fourth settlement for 600 Construction Parts III. Extra ships give you parallel trade routes rather than faster ones.

Complete Captain of Industry equipment guide. Every equipment option ranked with stats, best builds, and how to get them.

EarlyGuides Editorial Team

Researched and editorially reviewed. Updated August 12, 2026.

Captain of Industry drops you on an unmapped island with a damaged ship, a handful of settlers and a pile of scrap. MaFi Games put it into Early Access on 31 May 2022 and it pairs terrain deforming open pit mining with factory chains, a settlement that eats food and produces Unity, and a world map you sail yourself. Every machine and vehicle also burns maintenance, so a factory that cannot feed its own upkeep will tear itself apart.

Your choice of equipment defines your damage output and playstyle. This guide ranks every major option, explains what makes each one strong, and tells you which builds they pair best with.

Equipment Rankings

Equipment	Tier	Best For	Notes
Mine Control Tower	S	Every ore expansion, and the first thing to place when you open a new pit.	Produces nothing itself.
Blast Furnace	A	The entire early and mid game iron supply, long before Arc Furnace tiers are affordable.	Melts iron ore and shredded scrap into molten iron for Metal Casters.
Maintenance Depot	A	Keeping the base alive. This is the building to overbuild first rather than last.	Consumes mechanical parts and electronics to produce Maintenance I, which every vehicle and most machines draw from.
Crusher	B	Any furnace row you intend to upgrade later, since retrofitting a crusher means tearing up finished belt routing.	Breaks ore and rock into crushed form, which is what the higher tier smelting and separation chains expect as their input.
Distillation (Stage I)	B	Diesel independence, which ends the ongoing import cost of fuel for your vehicle fleet and your ship.	The first stage of crude oil processing, splitting crude into fractions that later stages and the Cracking Unit turn into diesel and petrochemicals.

S-Tier: Mine Control Tower

Produces nothing itself. It is the building that lets you paint mining and dumping designations and assign Excavators and Haul Trucks to a pit, and no vehicle will touch a deposit without one covering it.

Attribute	Detail
Tier	S
Best For	Every ore expansion, and the first thing to place when you open a new pit.
Key Mechanic	Terrain mining and dumping
Recommended Build	Iron and steel line

How to get it: Available from mid-game onward. See our walkthrough for the exact progression point.

Best builds using Mine Control Tower: Pairs naturally with Iron and steel line thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.

A-Tier: Blast Furnace

Melts iron ore and shredded scrap into molten iron for Metal Casters. It vents exhaust that has to reach a Smoke Stack, and one stack can serve several machines.

Attribute	Detail
Tier	A
Best For	The entire early and mid game iron supply, long before Arc Furnace tiers are affordable.
Key Mechanic	Maintenance upkeep
Recommended Build	Copper and electronics line

How to get it: Accessible in the early-to-mid game. Check our maps guide for the location.

Best builds using Blast Furnace: Pairs naturally with Copper and electronics line thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.

A-Tier: Maintenance Depot

Consumes mechanical parts and electronics to produce Maintenance I, which every vehicle and most machines draw from. The standard depot needs 100 kW of power to run.

Attribute	Detail
Tier	A
Best For	Keeping the base alive. This is the building to overbuild first rather than last.
Key Mechanic	Unity and edicts
Recommended Build	Crude oil refining

How to get it: Accessible in the early-to-mid game. Check our maps guide for the location.

Best builds using Maintenance Depot: Pairs naturally with Crude oil refining thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.

B-Tier: Crusher

Breaks ore and rock into crushed form, which is what the higher tier smelting and separation chains expect as their input.

Attribute	Detail
Tier	B
Best For	Any furnace row you intend to upgrade later, since retrofitting a crusher means tearing up finished belt routing.
Key Mechanic	Settlement needs and health
Recommended Build	Farming and food processing

How to get it: Found in later areas. Our walkthrough covers when you can access this.

Best builds using Crusher: Pairs naturally with Farming and food processing thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.

B-Tier: Distillation (Stage I)

The first stage of crude oil processing, splitting crude into fractions that later stages and the Cracking Unit turn into diesel and petrochemicals.

Attribute	Detail
Tier	B
Best For	Diesel independence, which ends the ongoing import cost of fuel for your vehicle fleet and your ship.
Key Mechanic	World map exploration
Recommended Build	Steam power and cooling

How to get it: Found in later areas. Our walkthrough covers when you can access this.

Best builds using Distillation (Stage I): Pairs naturally with Steam power and cooling thanks to how their stat scaling lines up.

Equipment Progression Path

The order you should acquire equipment as you progress:

Starting gear → Enough to clear Home Island
Blast Furnace → Your first real upgrade, available early
Maintenance Depot → Mid-game upgrade with good scaling
Mine Control Tower → Best-in-slot, aim for this by late game
Upgrade to max → The power spike from max upgrades is enormous

Equipment Tips

Always upgrade your primary equipment before diversifying. One strong option beats three mediocre ones.
Match your equipment to your build's stat priorities for maximum scaling.
Maintenance is the real difficulty curve. Below 75 percent a machine or vehicle can break down, and the chance rises toward 50 percent at zero, so one depot starved of electronics can cascade into a base wide stall.
Check our tier list for how equipment rankings affect overall build effectiveness.

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