CaveCrafterGuide 04 · Simulation
Plan the batch from end to end
Simulation calculates what your factories produce together, what they consume from each other and what is left to sell. Any missing materials become required purchases. The result represents the selected batch, not a day of production.
Configure factories and levels
Simulation opens in the Game view, with factory images. Executive presents the same plan in a different visual layout. Changing the view does not turn the batch into a daily estimate.
- Configure the five columns and adjust the number of active factories in each row for the scenario you want to evaluate.
- Choose a starting set of levels: All level 1, All max or My Factories. Use Custom to explore individual levels.
- Choose the level of each factory using its own dropdown.
- Enter the final products' cycles. Factories supplying other active recipes will have their cycles calculated automatically.
Custom lets you keep individual levels. When you change a factory to a level different from its saved setting, this mode is selected automatically; if all active factories match My Factories again, that option is selected again. The same factory type can have different levels in different columns without changing your general setup.
Factory zoom starts at its minimum, 35%, to give you an overview of the five columns. The complete column headers stay visible. Below 100%, the aligned factory rows use icons; column 5 keeps its token selector so you can add, change or remove factories at any zoom. Return to 100% to edit levels and cycles. The workshop with 0% belongs to the whole row, scales with the zoom and opens a Coming soon notice; it does not appear on the mine row. At 100% zoom, each card also has a booster icon beside its level selector: it opens Mine Booster for a mine or Factory Booster for a factory, with a Coming soon notice. These Bonus Speed features are not implemented yet and do not change the calculation. Use Summary to the right of the divider on the zoom bar to scroll straight to the balances below the columns.
Why do some rows have automatic cycles?
If another active recipe uses a token, it is an intermediate in the batch. The engine adds up demand for that resource across all columns and calculates how many whole rounds of its factories are needed to meet it.
The capacity of one round is the sum of the output per cycle from all active factories of that token. They may have different levels; in this automatic stage, they run the same number of rounds. The total number of executions also takes the active factory count into account.
Hypothetical example: three factories meeting the same demand
Suppose three factories produce 4, 6 and 10 units of A per cycle respectively. Together, they produce 20 units in one round. If the rest of the batch needs 45 units, 3 rounds are required.
The group produces 60 units, consumes 45 internally and has 15 left over. Each factory ran 3 cycles, totaling 9 executions — not 3 for the entire group.
This shared production comes from the factories configured in the simulation. The planner does not automatically read your actual in-game or wallet inventory.
Final products, surplus and required purchases
The engine classifies tokens across all columns, not just the adjacent row. Production supplies the batch's own recipes first. Only the remaining balance counts as a sale.
| Category | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Final products | Produced tokens that are not used by another active recipe. They are the production goals of that batch. |
| Surplus | The excess of intermediates after meeting internal consumption. These units are also considered for sale. |
| Required purchases | Missing quantities, including inputs whose factory is not active in the scenario. |
The Summary filters let you see all items, purchases only, surplus only or final products only. They change the displayed list; they do not remove the other categories from the calculation.
Hypothetical example: a sale, a surplus and a purchase
The batch produces 30 units of A and consumes 25. It also produces 2 units of a final product and needs to buy 4 units of B. If A sells for 1 COIN, each final product for 20 COIN and B costs 2 COIN, revenue is 5 + 40 = 45 COIN.
With 6 COIN of power in the batch, the result is 45 − 8 − 6 = 31 COIN. The 25 units of A used internally do not appear as a sale and are not charged again as a purchase.
The sales shown in rows and columns are parts of the batch's sales. Use the Summary total to evaluate the whole; do not add those subtotals to the result again.
The movements panel above the columns shows Total sales and Total profit on the right. On narrow screens, these totals appear below the movements. Total sales combines final-product and surplus sales. Total profit deducts required purchases and power costs from those sales; hover over it to see the components.
Use the combination suggestions
Find the best combinations first opens a setup form. No calculation or allowance use starts just by opening it. After you confirm with Calculate, the search explores blueprints in columns 2 through 4 and factory choices in column 5, while keeping column 1's configuration. Each candidate is compared using the whole batch's result, including purchases, sales and power.
The search button and access notice start the toolbar. A divider separates them from Game/Executive, followed by factory zoom in Game, Summary and Reset simulation. Executive keeps search and Summary without the zoom control. On narrow screens, the controls flow onto additional lines.
The general search shows one suggestion per set of blueprints in columns 2–4, ignoring their order but keeping repetitions: A+A+B differs from A+B+B. It keeps the most profitable configuration evaluated for each set, including its column 5 choices. The search limited to column 5 still shows different alternatives for that column.
- According to My Factories: use the levels and Mastery saved in My Factories for the choices being searched. This is not an inventory count and does not read your game or wallet.
- Independent of My Factories: explore factory choices at maximum level and Mastery, without changing your saved settings.
With either mode, you can combine Must include (up to 7 factory types) and Must not include (up to 5 types). Open each selector to choose the types. An included type must have at least one active factory in the result. Excluding a factory also excludes every blueprint that contains it, even when that factory has a quantity of zero. Its token can still be bought as an input.
The form checks conflicts and whether the selected types fit the available columns before using your allowance. The same type cannot be included and excluded. You also cannot exclude a factory present in a column that this search must keep unchanged, even with a quantity of zero: column 1 in the full search, or columns 1 through 4 when searching only column 5. Adjust the filters or the existing configuration if no combination can satisfy them. Closing the form or correcting invalid choices does not use the allowance; confirming Calculate starts the authorized search.
If you have already configured columns 1 through 4, use the option in the column 5 header to search for combinations only in that column. The earlier columns' configurations stay in place; automatic cycles may change to supply the new demand.
Examine the values before using Apply. The search is limited and heuristic: it compares candidates but does not guarantee the best result among every possible combination. A suggestion also depends on the prices and parameters used at that time.
Find the best combinations and the column 5 search share one visitor use every 6 hours. The next availability is shown beside the button. All signed-in accounts have unlimited searches at no charge. A browser identifier and network identifier help enforce the visitor limit; people sharing a network may share that allowance.
A batch is not a schedule
Simulation calculates required quantities and cycles. It does not schedule each factory's start, estimate the full completion time of its dependencies or limit the batch to the hours in your day. Daily playing time is used in Profit Loss's daily estimates.
To interpret the result correctly, confirm that the factories and levels represent the intended scenario, that the power cost is filled in and that all required purchases are acceptable. Then consult the batch-balance methodology to check the formulas.