Satisfactory gets weird for a month with the adorable, festive FICSMAS event

Satisfactory released its big 1.0 update this year to pretty much universal acclaim from critics and record player numbers, the blend of first-person survival and factory building giving a unique flavor that's hard to put down once you get going. I think some of us figured that'd be it, but now developer Coffee Stain Studios has rolled out a revamped and upgraded version of their FICSMAS holiday event for its 1.0 version. Having happened throughout early access, FICSMAS is an in-game holiday that releases giant gifts, surprises, and an entire new research tree of stuff to mass produce for the pure holiday spirit of it all.

As in prior years you'll be able to research and produce festive items like tinsel, trees, bows, ornaments, and more to work toward a special goal: A spectacularly decorated giant FICSMAS tree. Along the way you unlock special skins, placeables, toys, and equipment that match the spirit of the event. I'm a particular fan of the gingerbread truck and wintry gift-wrapped drone.

There's a lot going on that's new for this 2024, finished game edition of FICSMAS, the biggest one of which is an adorable advent calendar of sorts that pops up in your HUB building and dispenses new rewards every day. We had one of these before, but this time it'll dispense special data cartridges that you use in your MAM to unlock parts of the special FICSMAS research tree.

To get started with FICSMAS just load up your Satisfactory world, then visit the HUB for details on the calendar and stay vigilant for giant FICSMAS gifts that'll fall from the sky within about 300 meters of your pioneer. You'll also go into the MAM and work your way down the research tree to get stuff like conveyor belt skins that have the holiday vibe, culminating in the FICSMAS Wonder Star as a tree topper for your giant FICSMAS tree—a seasonal corollary to your classic Satisfactory space-elevator-driven megaproject.

Alternately, if you're about to let out a big ol' humbug, you can turn of FICSMAS in Satisfactory: just go into Options from the main menu, then "Gameplay Settings," and tick the "Disable Seasonal Events" box. (I'd encourage you not to, though, because it's a fun little challenge to that doesn't really distract from normal factory building.)

Be sure to enjoy the other FICSMAS stuff like your Pioneer's special red-and-white cap, the Lizard Doggos' antlers and red noses, the string lights on power lines, the wreaths on poles... you get the drift. Be sure to shoot a radioactive hog with some fireworks and bash a space deer-whale-tick thing with a candy cane for me.

There are also rumors of a totally normal giant FICSMAS gift that looks like a giant nobelisk explosive but is just a normal gift and you should totally open it.

You can find Satisfactory (and FICSMAS 2024) on Epic and Steam.

Why did I spend so much time talking to you about a holiday event? Because, as I wrote in my 90% PC Gamer Satisfactory review, Satisfactory is a "masterfully made game for crafters, builders, and factory managers of all kinds."

"For all that the factory-building genre is about balancing input and output rates with proper conveyor belt loads, Satisfactory remembers that videogames are also supposed to be satisfying and silly. It turns your building game into a theme park all its own, where you can turn this colorful alien landscape into a work of your imagination," I said.

While you boot up FICSMAS, might I recommend you go read about how Satisfactory could've been called something else because some of its developers hated the pun?