How To Fix ‘Pipeline Has Been Overextended’ in Factorio

With the launch of Factorio: Space Age on Oct. 21, long-time Factorio players returning to the game are finding one annoying quirk – an error message saying that their Pipeline has been overextended. Fear not! This isn’t some bug, and isn’t going to require you rebuilding your entire base. Here’s the cause and fix for each the problem.

How to solve Pipeline has been overextended in Factorio

When Factorio: Space Age was released on Oct. 21, 2024, it completely overhauled the game from top to bottom. This included a free 2.0 update to Factorio, which changed a lot of things within the celebrated simulator game, including the way fluids work. This means a lot of you fluid systems, such as oil, gas, etc. might not work anymore.

Luckily the fix is easy: Add pumps. Pumps had been a severely underutilized feature in the game, really only used by players to slightly increase throughput in pipelines, or load train tankers. Now they’re essential, making your pipelines actually function.

We found you only have to add them every 200-500 ‘blocks’ or so. Any other issues you might find after adding pumps is usually down to them facing the wrong way. The best way to make sure things are working is to start your pipeline with a pump, then continue until you get the error. If you’re fixing existing pipelines, again, start at the source, then just place one every 200-500 blocks.

Factorio is one of the best city-building games around (although some might disagree with that label).  Space Age is a brand new update to the game, but there’s still plenty to explore in 2.0, even if you’re not ready for Space Age. There’s smarter worker robots, new rails, a new remote view, new combinator and circuit network improvements, better train controls, the new fluid system (which affects the pipelines) new terrain generation for your starting planet (now called Nauvis), and more coming in the following week.

Keep your eyes peeled on esports.net for more Factorio news and guides!