This tier list is not purely based on efficiency like other ones out there, and also factors in things like convenience of implementation. Some of the most efficient methods are also the most annoying to add, and having the most efficient factory is never necessary when you can grab more materials, so a balance between ease of use and efficiency must be considered. Rarity of materials is also a factor, as something that is highly efficient in general but consumes lots of rare materials is still worse for the average player, and something that is very inefficient but mostly consumes incredibly cheap/common materials is better.

Recipes are alphabetized within each section for easier searching. You are welcome to comment if you believe I made an error in my judgement and a certain recipe is better or worse than mentioned here.

It is recommended to hold unnecessary recipes so that they will not come up in future hard drive searches and only redeem ones that will help you right away. Depending on your factory location and construction, a recipe may be drastically better or worse than stated; this is only intended to be a vague guide on what may be worth keeping, holding or ignoring and is not meant to be taken as gospel.

Usually, alt recipes rely on substituting one or more ingredients with another. Some of these substituted ingredients are more convenient than others, and result in better recipes that I rank higher.

Good substitutions

• Wire - Anything that substitutes an ingredient for Wire is usually good, due to the Caterium Wire recipe.
  
• Quartz Crystal and Silica - If you have access to Quartz, you can make them in large numbers, making anything that uses them instead of a different ingredient preferable.
  
• Crystal Oscillator - Setting up significant Crystal Oscillator production is good, because so many useful alt recipes use them as a substitute.
  
• Concrete - Since Limestone is so common, subbing Concrete with anything is an excellent choice.
  
• Iron Ore - Iron is another very common material, making substituting very useful.
  
• Steel Pipe - They are easier to make than Steel Beams, so focusing on replacing Beams with Pipe is a major priority.

Situational substitutions

• Quickwire - Beware that it's not worse than just using Caterium Wire on the default recipe.
  
• Plastic and Rubber - These are excellent to swap for more complex parts, but swapping them for more basic ones, like with Rubber Concrete, it becomes more of a so-so proposition.
  
• Sulfur - Usually improves a recipe when you add it in, but some uses are more helpful than others, while others are largely unnecessary.

Bad substitutions

• Screws - These are usually metal hogs and should be avoided when possible.
  
• Copper - The requirements of making Copper Powder later in the game mean you should generally avoid using Copper or Copper Sheets for anything you could use something else for. Copper Sheets are also pretty low-output unless you get Steamed Copper Sheets.

• Only start scanning hard drives after you have researched Quickwire. Most of the very early recipes are lackluster, and it gives you the most chance to get more useful Caterium recipes.
  
• Use 4 meter foundations for your base layer, it causes the uneven ground to interfere less.
  
• Whether you're building multiple storeys or not, it's usually a good idea to have a 12 meter empty floor below anything you build. This logistical floor makes it far easier to make belts or pipes without the interference of buildings.
  
• Getting the Concrete or Asphalt material from the AWESOME Shop removes the need to expend metal on foundations. While they become slightly more Concrete-intensive, they are nevertheless much easier to build.
  
• The easiest way to bring Coal for steel back to your base is by fueling a tractor with some of the same coal you're loading onto it. You only have to fuel it on one truck station.
  
• Compacted Coal and Turbofuel, while good on paper due to their higher efficiency, are more trouble than they're actually worth to implement and should typically be skipped when it comes to power generation. I recommend getting Nitro Rocket Fuel before swapping to Rocket Fuel. Ionized Fuel is actually less resource-efficient than Rocket Fuel, and should only be used for the Jetpack.
  
• Research and craft Power Slugs into Power Shards so you can unlock overclocking as soon as possible. The north middle of the map has the most Power Slugs in the game, and you can use Zipline and Power Towers to get there quickly.
  
• Look up Variable Input Priority (VIP) junctions, as this is necessary to recycle waste liquids rather than having to sink them.
  
• Making Uranium power is fun and a net positive, but never strictly necessary. Plutonium Rods can be disposed of in the sink. It is far harder to justify ever making Plutonium and Ficsonium power besides messing around. It's easier to build nuclear plants near the ocean or on top of it.
  
• Alien Power Augmenters, while cool, are always pointless, even with the Alien Power Matrices being fed into it. Use the Somersloops to boost the fuel you are producing or the items you are making.

Items in this tier should be redeemed at the earliest opportunity, as they are foundational recipes that will vastly boost your production. They should never be rerolled.

• Caterium Wire - This is one of the main reasons to find and tap Caterium as quickly as possible. You likely won't be using your entire Caterium supply for Quickwire production, so it's a good way to make Wire at high volumes without straining your resources. Furthermore, it needs far fewer constructors. The sheer convenience of it doesn't stop being relevant even in the endgame.
  
• Dark Matter Trap - Effectively halves the SAM needed to make Dark Matter Crystals with no downsides besides using a bit more electricity.
  
• Diluted Fuel - Drastically boosts the fuel you can make from a given Crude Oil node. This can increase the amount of Rocket Fuel you can make by a similar level, so it's a must-have.
  
• Heavy Encased Frame - This is a tremendous upgrade to the default recipe by swapping screws for concrete. It also consumes less Modular Frames, and is the most efficient recipe in the game from a stat-based standpoint, making it a must-have for essentially everyone. There is not really a situation where it is worse than the default.
  
• Heavy Oil Residue - Allows for the oil-efficient creation of Diluted Fuel and numerous other recipes. It's also fairly easy to automate fabric making/gas filters with its output. May be one of the best recipes in the game.
  
• Ionized Fuel - While pointless for power generation (it is less energy-efficient than Rocket Fuel), it is the single best jetpack fuel source in the game. Since the jetpack is so heavily-used, it's well worth spending the hard drive on it and setting up a small facility to supply your Dimensional Depot indefinitely.
  
• Molded Steel Pipe - A way to make even more of one of the best items in the game just by adding some Limestone? Yes please!
  
• Nitro Rocket Fuel - One of the best power-generation methods, it shines when combined with Diluted Fuel and Heavy Oil Residue. This is an immediate must. An added bonus is the comparatively higher output of Compacted Coal, which can be used in several other recipes.
  
• Plastic AI Limiter - You'll probably be cranking out a lot of these bad boys at all times, and the default recipe will hog your Quickwire and Copper supply. These cut Quickwire used by 3/4 and substitute easier-to-make Plastic, as well as having significantly higher output.
  
• Silicon High-Speed Connector - It reduces the Quickwire needed by about half, while substituting Cable for the much easier to make Silica. The slightly lower production speed is made up for easily by its huge Caterium-saving benefits.
  
• Sloppy Alumina - A pure upgrade in every way - more Alumina Solution is always going to be more valuable than extra Silica, and there's one less output to worry about (even though with the introduction of Priority Mergers, it's far easier to feed it into later ingot production now without risking the system backing up).
  
• Solid Steel Ingot - The best Steel Ingot recipe for a large chunk of the game. Not only does it reduce Coal used, but the use of Steel Ingots rather than ore allows you to use an additional alt recipe to reduce Iron consumption (by how much depends on the recipe, but any of them are better than the default).
  
• Steel Rotor - A tremendous improvement in Rotor production thanks to the removal of all Screws, which the default recipe uses particularly heavily. It's only okay when used with the default recipe, but its main benefit is that it's not Copper dependent in the slightest, as you can use Caterium Wire to easily fulfill the Wire requirement.
  
• Turbofuel - In itself, I don't recommend using Turbofuel as your power generation method, as it's more trouble than it's worth. You should only use it for smaller stuff. But, you need it for Rocket Fuel, so unlocking it is essentially a must, and there's no harm in doing it when you are able to so that you aren't missing it later.
  
• Uranium Fuel Unit - Practically a requirement when doing nuclear power, due to its higher output for the exact same Uranium Cells.

Items in this tier are rarely ever a bad idea to choose. They are likely to be immediately beneficial to you in various ways.

• Adhered Iron Plate - Arguably the best method to make Reinforced Iron Plate, it's just unlocked rather late. The main downside is that they have the lowest output of all Reinforced Iron Plate recipes, and I recommend a full overclock.
  
• Automated Speed Wiring - This would normally be a B-tier since it's so dependent on Silicon High-Speed Connector, but given that Silicon High-Speed Connector is a must-have anyway, it shouldn't really matter. You're essentially subbing 2 Manufacturers' worth of Automated Wiring with only one High-Speed Connector Manufacturer.
  
• Basic Iron Ingot - With how common Limestone is, this is an excellent option that is unlocked early and will not need to be retooled later, and is strictly better than the default recipe. Foundries can fit easily in any sort of factory. A great example of "boring but practical".
  
• Cheap Silica - If you need more Silica, then this recipe has very little downside - its higher output can also save on space.
  
• Crystal Computer - Cutting out the sheer amount of wire makes this a highly useful upgrade for Computer production. It's also much easier to Somersloop, since it only uses an Assembler.
  
• Encased Industrial Pipe - Steel Pipe is much easier to make, making this a significant boost. That it uses comparatively less Concrete is just an additional bonus.
  
• Fine Concrete - With how simple and easy it is to make Silica, this is an underrated recipe that can go toe-to-toe with Wet Concrete and even come out on top. An added bonus is that you can get it much sooner as long as you research Silica. This recipe is a very excellent argument for delivering Quartz to your base as soon as possible.
  
• Flexible Framework - Halves the Steel Beams you need, trading it for Rubber. Pure upgrade over the default.
  
• Heat Exchanger - Quite good, given it substitutes two annoying-to-make parts with two easy-to-make ones, and has a nice output boost to boot.
  
• Infused Uranium Cell - A must-have recipe if you're making nuclear fuel, it drastically lowers the needed Uranium. It's sad to swap from a cool-looking green Blender to ugly Manufacturer, but, oh well.
  
• Insulated Crystal Oscillator - This is one of the rare recipes where the production speed is actually more worth it than the change in materials, as it almost halves the amount of Manufacturers needed. This is useful given the amount of Oscillators you will likely have to produce.
  
• Molded Beam - A major upgrade on the default recipe, but, late game, it's rendered obsolete by Aluminum Beam. Nevertheless, given how useful it is during the time you do need it, it's a must-have.
  
• OC Supercomputer - This is very dependent on whether you have gotten the alt recipes for the previous parts, but it can potentially make creating Supercomputers significantly more efficient and easier to Somersloop.
  
• Oil-Based Diamonds - Can't make Plastic/Rubber cheaply like Petroleum Diamonds, but incredibly easy to set up. Odds are this is really all you will need as long as you have an effective method for transporting Crude Oil, like a train.
  
• Plastic Smart Plating - Anything that lowers the Rotors you need is great in my book.
  
• Polyester Fabric - Largely needed to make unlimited gas filters.
  
• Polymer Resin - Using this in concert with Residual Plastic/Rubber will result in higher production for free - with Rubber, significantly so. With no real downside besides the need to build Water Extractors, you can't really go wrong with it.
  
• Pure Aluminum Ingot - While great in areas where you can't get your hands on Quartz, it should be noted that it lowers the ingot output considerably and shouldn't be used unless you have to.
  
• Pure Caterium Ingot - The extra output on these is essentially "free", making them have very little downside. But, in some cases, the throughput is quite low, requiring numerous buildings.
  
• Pure Copper Ingot - See above.
  
• Pure Iron Ingot - See above.
  
• Pure Quartz Crystal - See above.
  
• Quickwire Cable - Unlike its companion, Quickwire Stator, this recipe is actually quite good. Even factoring in Caterium Wire, it's slightly more resource-efficient. Its main downside is the low production amount, potentially requiring numerous fully overclocked Assemblers, but the overall material savings are well worth the extra power consumption.
  
• Radio Control System - It may seem more complex than Radio Connection Unit on the surface, but requires significantly fewer buildings for its input parts, making it the clear winner here.
  
• Stitched Iron Plate - The best Reinforced Iron Plate manufacturing method due to Caterium Wire for a large portion of the game, until Adhered Iron Plate is unlocked. You may still wish to use it over Adhered if space is limited or you do not wish to change around your production line.
  
• Turbo Pressure Motor - The best Turbo Motor manufacturing method.
  
• Wet Concrete - The most convenient concrete making method, it lets you crank out tons of Concrete with only water nearby.

Items in this tier are broadly good for general use, and there is rarely a downside to them. However, they are also usually only small upgrades on the default, or require other recipes to be good.

• Aluminum Beam - Unlike Aluminum Rod, this recipe's actually pretty handy due to its low resource consumption to make traditionally metal-heavy Steel Beams. It's not in A-tier because you will probably want Sloppy Alumina/Electrode Aluminum Scrap to justify spending Aluminum Ingots on something so basic.
  
• Caterium Circuit Board - A solid improvement on the default recipe, but a bit of a Quickwire hog. It is the best one when all you have are the default recipes.
  
• Coated Cable - One of the best Cable recipes, but if you have a separate building for fluids, having to pipe Heavy Oil Residue into your main factory may be a slight downside compared to just sending the more broadly useful Rubber. It also needs a tall Refinery and is less efficient than Quickwire Cable. You will probably want the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe when using this one.
  
• Coated Iron Plate - A solid recipe that lowers iron needed with relatively minimal plastic investment. But the ease of obtaining Iron means that even that tiny amount of Plastic may be a waste.
  
• Compacted Coal - While I wouldn't recommend making Compacted Coal on your own, you need this recipe for full completion of the research tree, so you will have to get this on your first playthrough. It also unlocks Fine Black Powder. Nevertheless, it may be worth waiting until late game to unlock this, since from a gameplay standpoint it's never strictly necessary.
  
• Compacted Steel Ingot - Nearly pointless early game, but can actually be useful late game if you have a Nitro Rocket Fuel plant near your factory. Using the waste from it will essentially remove the need to expend normal Coal to make your steel, letting you put even more of it into power generation. This does, however, come at the cost of higher Iron consumption, and it virtually requires being fully overclocked.
  
• Copper Alloy Ingot - It eats up Iron with no real improvement over Pure Copper Ingot besides output speed. But, sometimes, you have nothing to use the Iron on anyway, and, in those cases, it may just be more convenient than building a vast amount of refineries.
  
• Diluted Packaged Fuel - It's the same input and output as the blender variant, but with extra steps. While it may be overkill for power generation at this point, you can also use it in your main factory for Recycled Plastic/Rubber and Turbofuel. If you do not mind the complication of adding packagers and unpackagers, and already have Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe, it's an all-around useful recipe to have, and outperforms Turbo Heavy Fuel.
  
• Electrode Aluminum Scrap - Needs the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe to be very good, but, once you have it, it becomes quite good. It uses up negligible amounts of Crude Oil compared to the large amounts of Coal used by the normal recipe.
  
• Electrode Circuit Board - The fact that it can be made entirely from Crude Oil marks it as the best Circuit Board recipe, but it needs the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe to truly be good.
  
• Electromagnetic Connection Rod - Requires Silicon High-Speed Connector, and preferably Silicon Circuit Board, to be good, but is quite powerful once you have those.
  
• Fine Black Powder - Early-game it's pretty pointless, but it can be used to profit from Rocket Fuel Compacted Coal late game, thereby requiring no raw Coal input at all. As such, it can potentially become a universally useful recipe once you have the right infrastructure set up.
  
• Iron Alloy Ingot - While an improvement on the default, Iron is so common that spending Copper to augment your iron may often be unnecessary.
  
• Leached Caterium Ingot - An underrated recipe compared to Pure ingots. However, it takes away Sulfur that could be used for power generation, so its usage should depend on the free Sulfur available.
  
• Leached Copper Ingot - See above.
  
• Leached Iron Ingot - See above.
  
• Petroleum Diamonds - Works well in concert with Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe. Less Oil-efficient than Oil-Based Diamonds, but the output of Polymer Resin can be used to make decent amounts of Residual Plastic/Rubber, potentially making it even better if you can figure out the logistics of it.
  
• Radio Connection Unit - If you only have the default recipes of its ingredients, it's terrible, albeit still better than the default. But, if you have both Silicon High-Speed Connector and Heat Exchanger, it's not that bad. Even then, I don't think it beats Radio Control System.
  
• Recycled Plastic/Rubber - They are pretty lacking early on when you need the fuel for power, and you need both of them in order to create a loop for them to have a point. Once you have access to easy fuel in the form of Diluted Fuel, they can become more useful and let you make large amounts of Plastic and Rubber cheaply. A downside is that they need to be constantly on and draining into a sink or the cycle will stop.
  
• Silicon Circuit Board - While rather good if you have Steamed Copper Sheet, given that Steamed Copper Sheet's utility is so limited otherwise, the other Circuit Board alternate recipes do exceed it.
  
• Steamed Copper Sheet - Copper Sheets are one of those ingredients that you are best off phasing out of your factory. So, while a pure upgrade on the default, this recipe may be unnecessary compared to others when all you have is a Rifle Ammo plant and a small Copper Sheet outpost on the other side of the map to feed your Dimensional Depot.
  
• Steeled Frame - A rare example of a recipe that uses Steel Pipe but is somehow still mediocre. A lot of it has to do with the existence of Steel Rod, which lowers the default recipe's resource consumption a lot, and, even later, Aluminum Rod, making it practically free. Reinforced Iron Plates are easy to make, so consuming slightly less of them isn't worth the trade-off. However, taking Molded Steel Pipe is more universally useful than Steel/Aluminum Rod, so it does have the advantage in not having to redeem an extra hard drive.
  
• Turbo Diamonds - It has excellent output, and it can potentially recycle output from your Nitro Rocket Fuel plant for cheap Turbofuel. I think this is the best of the Coal-based recipes, but the fact remains that using Coal for Diamonds may be a waste.

Items in this tier are heavily situational, but may see benefits in specific circumstances.

• Caterium Computer - A definite improvement on the default recipe. Its rank would be higher if Crystal Computer wasn't just so much better and unlocked at the same time.
  
• Coke Steel Ingot - It's a sidegrade to Solid Steel Ingot at best, and consumes more Iron. If you are not running out of Coal, there is little reason to retool your factory to use it.
  
• Cooling Device - Cooling Device only becomes "better" when you have run out of Nitrogen Gas to use. Before then, the default recipe wins very clearly. In most cases, it's better to simply transport more Nitrogen Gas, especially bottled and by train since pipelines are somewhat low capacity.
  
• Dark Matter Crystallization - While nearly useless for normal purposes, it can be handy for absorbing excess Dark Matter and disposing of it.
  
• Distilled Silica/Quartz Purification - If you are going to use everything this recipe outputs, and don't mind spending Nitrogen Gas on it, this can get the max returns on your Raw Quartz without using nearly as much Limestone as Cheap Silica does. But, if you aren't using all its Quartz Crystal and Silica output, it will just waste resources. In many cases, using Pure Quartz Crystal and Cheap Silica may just be better and easier.
  
• Electric Motor - While it does save on Rotors and Stators, Steel Pipe is so easy to make that the added complexity is just not worth the effort. Stators and Steel Rotors even use the same ingredients, making the other Motor recipes even easier. This is, in my opinion, the worst Motor recipe.
  
• Fused Quartz Crystal - Early on, it may sap Coal from more useful recipes. Later on, it's overshadowed by Pure Quartz Crystal, which doesn't need Coal at all. Nevertheless, if you have large amounts of surplus Coal, it doesn't necessarily have a downside.
  
• Heat-Fused Frame - Trades more usage of Nitrogen Gas for significantly less Aluminum usage. This is generally not worth the effort unless you are seriously running short on Aluminum. It's better to stretch your Aluminum production more.
  
• Iron Pipe - Coal is common enough that this is rarely that incredible.
  
• Iron Wire - Low output hinders it greatly compared to Caterium Wire, requiring mass amounts of Constructors.
  
• Pink Diamonds - Needs Pure Quartz Crystal/Quartz Purification to be good, and, even then, the Quartz may be better used elsewhere. A definite upgrade over the very lackluster default recipe, but seemingly unnecessary compared to the Oil-based ones unless you are facing an Oil shortage (unlikely).
  
• Rigor Motor - It seems good on paper since you are using fewer Rotors and Stators, but those are incredibly easy to make compared to Crystal Oscillators. Would be a lot better if Caterium Wire, Molded Steel Pipe, and Steel Rotor didn't exist. As it is, it's just overkill and takes up space when you are forced to add a couple of Manufacturers.
  
• Steel Cast Plate - Lags behind Coated Iron Plate in terms of output. A bit mediocre.
  
• Steel Rod - You can replace Iron Rods in most recipes that use them, making this dubiously useful by the time you unlock it.
  
• Steel Screws - This is the saving grace of anyone who relies on Screws longer than early game. While most people just eliminate Screws, you can also skip Stitched Iron Plate to make up for picking this if you are a fan of those things, as its utility would decrease greatly over the default recipe. Picking Bolted Frame is also a good idea.
  
• Tempered Caterium Ingot - Material-wise, it's strictly worse than Pure Caterium Ingot. But, the amount of Petroleum Coke is also extremely low, and could be worth replacing 2 Refineries with 1 much smaller Foundry if you prefer to make the ingots within your factory.
  
• Turbo Blend Fuel - The fact that it needs no Coal, but generates Coal when you turn it into Rocket Fuel is pretty neat. In a very Coal-limited situation, this recipe could be handy for power generation and more, but I don't think Coal is rare enough to necessitate it in most cases, making its usefulness unclear.
  
• Turbo Electric Motor - Like the standard Electric Motor, it's more efficient, but its complexity hurts it. Normal Turbo Motor recipe uses simpler parts, with default Cooling System being very easy to make, just a Nitrogen Gas guzzler. It's easier to build a train and ship more Nitrogen than to have to make more facilities to construct EM Rods, more Radio Control units and Rotors.

Items in this tier are generally pointless outside of just messing around or massively situational circumstances.

• Alclad Casing - This lowers the amount of bauxite used for Aluminum Casing, replacing it with copper. This is usually unnecessary, as you will be likelier to run out of copper than you will bauxite.
  
• Aluminum Rod - Even if you were going to phase Screws back into your production line late-game, using this alongside the default Screw recipe would be worse than Aluminum Beam > Steel Screws. Steel Rod is also not all that different despite using more common materials and being unlocked far earlier. This is probably not going to be very useful for the vast majority of players.
  
• Bolted Frame - Consumes more resources (if you only have the default recipes, significantly more resources) with no advantage over the original recipe besides having a higher output. It's pointless for most of the game, but may enjoy synergy with Aluminum Beam + Steel Screws in late-game.
  
• Cloudy Diamonds - While an upgrade to the default recipe, its Coal usage is still almost as abysmal, and the need to transport such large amounts of Limestone may prove annoying. There are several better Diamond alt recipes you can use instead, and I never felt the need to use this one over them.
  
• Coated Iron Canister - Steel Canister's worse cousin. Its combination of Iron and Copper is simply less convenient than Iron and Coal, since Coal tends to be common near fuel production. Since you are making 2 ingredients, it also needs more buildings if you aren't making it nearby.
  
• Copper Rotor - It's rather terrible when used with the default recipes, being only a small upgrade over the default. It does get better if you have Steel Screws and Steamed Copper Sheets, but since you can phase both of those things out of your factory, I'd prefer not to waste 2 entire hard drives when Steel Rotor is dependent on incredibly common parts.
  
• Fused Quickwire - Rarely needed, given how few uses Caterium has compared to Copper.
  
• Fused Wire - See above.
  
• Insulated Cable - While still a significant improvement on the very bad default Cable recipe, it's also a far worse performer than the other Cable alternate recipes. If you want high output, you're far better off going with Coated Cable in combination with the Heavy Oil Residue alt recipe. If you want resource efficiency, Quickwire Cable is better, or a combination of Quickwire+Coated.
  
• Plutonium Fuel Unit - There's rarely a need to make more Plutonium Fuel Rods due to the requisite increase in Plutonium Waste, and how long they last in vehicles. If we look at the ingredients, there is a bit of an advantage in that Pressure Conversion Cubes are easier to ship in from somewhere else, but they still use vastly more ingredients to make. Meanwhile, the default recipe has more basic and simplistic ingredients in low numbers. Drones can easily be fueled by the Plutonium Fuel Rods you produce, so there isn't a huge reason to have to make Cubes.
  
• Rubber Concrete - While not necessarily bad, Fine/Wet Concrete are so much better as to render it largely irrelevant unless you have been unable to find those recipes and have an emergency need.
  
• Steel Canister - If for some reason you don't have access to Plastic where you need canisters, this is the slightly better alternative. Its usage of Steel Ingots means you can use more common materials. Still... just use Plastic.
  
• Super-State Computer - It is not that this is worse than the default - the default Supercomputer recipe is reallllly bad - but that OC Supercomputer is so much better that this is only worth using as an emergency recourse.
  
• Tempered Copper Ingot - This one's usage is significantly less justifiable than Tempered Caterium Ingot. It's hard to make sufficient Copper Ingots in one factory anyway once you start needing Copper Powder, and it's just far more wasteful than the Pure recipe.
  
• Turbo Heavy Fuel - While better than Turbofuel if you only have the default fuel recipe, there's rarely ever a reason to take this over Diluted Packaged Fuel/Diluted Fuel. The main reason it's not in F tier is because creating Packaged Water and unpackaging Diluted Packaged Fuel can be annoying to set up before you have Blenders, so telling people they should always do that is a bit much.

Items in this tier are so poor that redeeming them is probably a waste of a hard drive. I'd recommend keeping them on permanent hold unless it's literally the last recipe you have.

• Automated Miner - You use so few of these that automating them is unnecessary. Even for MK3 Miners, it's only a few per miner. You can just AFK while you craft the max amount that will upload into your Dimensional Depot and it's unlikely you will EVER need to craft them ever again, nor waste a Mercer Sphere on this. Setting up a Depot for Iron Plates and Iron Rods also guarantees you can repeat this crafting anywhere on the off chance you do run out. I personally don't think this should be an alt recipe and should have been available by default similar to Nobelisk or gun ammo.
  
• Biocoal - Sure, let me use a limited resource to make an unlimited resource! 🤪
  
• Bolted Iron Plate - Similar to Bolted Frame, it consumes more resources with the sole advantage being a higher output. However, unlike Bolted Frame, even the default recipe uses Screws, so there's no rational reason one would waste a hard drive on this. Just use the default recipe until you can replace it with one of the other alternates.
  
• Cast Screws - Saying it's completely useless may be sacrilege for some, but it's not as big of an upgrade as it seems at first glance. In fact, the benefit is extremely small. It has the same input to output ratio as regular screws, it just skips a Constructor. Each Constructor is only 4 megawatts of power and has a small footprint, so the difference is negligible, and stops mattering entirely when you reach Coal power.
  With normal Screws, one Smelter feeds 2 Iron Rod Constructors which feeds 3 Screw Constructors. Cast Screws don't fit precisely into this, so without overclocking you'd actually be making fewer screws than the normal recipe.
  You're better off keeping it in permanent hold so that Steel Screws may pop up that much faster, or other recipes that will let you phase out screws.
  
• Charcoal - See Biocoal above.
  
• Classic Battery - Not only are Batteries almost completely unnecessary given the higher energy output of Packaged Rocket Fuel, but, even if you do intend to use them, this recipe is arguably worse than the default one in the Blender due to potentially needing several more resource types. If you must make batteries, you can hook the excess water back into the Alumina Solution or Sulfuric Acid input.
  
• Dark-Ion Fuel - "Wow, the output is so much higher! It must be amazing, right?" Well, no - it absolutely guzzles materials, including an effective 480/minute of Rocket Fuel (halved by packaging into 240/minute). Eliminating a Quantum Encoder from the mix just doesn't make up for the loss in potential power in the slightest. I find it hard to see a scenario where you will need this, especially for the fairly small amount of Ionized Fuel players will actually need. (As a bonus, you can use a Smart Splitter to have the Power Shards produced by the default recipe feed into a Dimensional Depot when it's not making Packaged Ionized Fuel).
  
• Fertile Uranium - Lowers the amount of Uranium Waste you need for the same amount of fuel. This is essentially never necessary, since you always want to maximize the amount of Uranium Waste that gets processed.
  
• Heavy Flexible Frame - What really makes this recipe bad is just how amazing Heavy Encased Frame is in comparison. Heavy Flexible Frame uses 8.75 more Modular Frames/minute for the same output product, which, if you are using Steeled Frame, comes out to almost 30 Steel Pipe/minute. That means all the Rubber it's consuming is mostly for naught. It's even debatable whether it's better than the default, which uses more Steel/Concrete but no Rubber. One thing is for certain; don't waste a drive on it.
  
• Instant Plutonium Cell - See above.
  
• Instant Scrap - Offers only a slight reduction in Bauxite consumption over Sloppy Alumina, while requiring fairly large amounts of Sulfur. Since you have to make the Sulfuric Acid, it needs 2 buildings anyway. Using that much Sulfur is not worth saving a tiny amount of Bauxite, so you're always better off just holding out for Sloppy Alumina.
  
• Quickwire Stator - It's never worth taking this instead of Caterium Wire and just using the default Stator recipe. Caterium Wire has far more uses. The slightly decreased Steel Pipe usage and higher output doesn't make up for it in the slightest.