How I Unlock Tier 5 When 10,000 Florinol Is Not Enough

Quick Answer

If I have already produced 10,000 Florinol and Factory Tier 5 is still locked, I do not keep scaling the Florinol line.

I check the other progression gate:

reach Tier 4

→ follow the Anomaly marker

→ investigate the Anomaly

→ retrieve the Orb

→ finish the 10,000 Florinol requirement

→ open the Tech Tree and unlock Tier 5

The easy step to miss is the Anomaly and Orb objective.

I also do not wait for the Drill to reach it. The Drill becomes available with the Tier 5 research stage, so waiting for it sends me in the wrong direction.

The confusing part about unlocking Tier 5 is that I can make the factory look completely ready while one exploration objective is still unfinished.

That is exactly when the progression starts to feel broken.

I can have Florinol flowing.

I can have plenty of Gold.

I can buy the research I currently have access to.

I can even push past the visible 10,000 Florinol target.

And Tier 5 can still remain locked.

When that happens, I stop treating it as another production problem.

For me, the important distinction is:

Florinol is one gate.

The Anomaly is another.

Finishing only one of them is not enough.

I Treat Tier 4 as the Signal to Leave the Factory

Once Factory Tier 4 opens, I do not immediately spend another hour rebuilding the production line.

Zoe initiates a subsurface scan and detects an Anomaly.

That changes what I am trying to accomplish.

I hit M, open the map, and look for the objective marker.

In my run, the signal was well below the factory, so this became an exploration trip rather than another production build.

That is an important point for how I spend my time.

If the objective says to investigate the Anomaly, I do not:

• add another Condenser
• expand the flower line again
• buy unrelated convenience research
• or stand beside the factory waiting for a new message

None of those complete the active exploration step.

I leave the factory and go toward the marker.

I Follow the Marker Instead of Somebody Else’s Coordinates

I do not try to memorize a fixed underground coordinate for the Anomaly.

What I use is the yellow objective marker in my own world.

I open the map, identify which direction the signal is from my current position, then work toward that area.

If my route starts drifting sideways while the marker is still far below me, I correct before digging another huge tunnel.

If I reach a cave that gives me a cleaner way downward, I use it instead of insisting on a perfectly straight line.

The map marker is much more useful than trying to reproduce another player’s exact tunnel.

There are plenty of distractions underground.

I may run into:

• Fluxite
• Critters
• Moon Crystal
• Artifact rooms
• Lava
• side caves
• breakable terrain

I take something useful if it is directly on my route.

I do not let every discovery turn the Anomaly trip into a completely different project.

My immediate question stays:

Am I getting closer to the marked signal?

If the answer is no, I return to the route.

I Do Not Wait for the Drill

One of the easiest ways to waste time here is seeing dense stone around the Anomaly marker and assuming I need a better mining tool.

I do not wait for the Drill.

This changes how I read the terrain.

A wall in front of the marker does not automatically mean:

come back after Tier 5.

It may mean:

find the intended approach from another side.

I use the tools I already have, check nearby openings, and keep comparing my position with the objective marker.

I am especially careful not to spend a long time attacking one stubborn wall just because the marker happens to be behind it on the map.

The shortest geometric route is not always the route I actually want to take.

Finding the Anomaly Is Only Half of the Objective

Reaching the strange underground room is not where I turn around.

Once I reach the Anomaly, Zoe updates the objective.

The important action is to retrieve the Orb so it can be sent to the Sentinel for analysis.

This is the check I make whenever I think:

I already found the Anomaly. Why is Tier 5 still locked?

I look at the active objective.

If it still says anything about retrieving the Orb, I am not done.

I go back into the room and finish the interaction before returning to the factory.

That sounds small, but Sandustry makes an important distinction here:

reaching the location

is not automatically the same as:

completing the mission step.

For Tier 5, I care about the second one.

After the Orb, I Go Back to the 10,000 Florinol Gate

Once the Orb is handled, I return to the factory.

This is where I check the production side again.

The Tier 5 requirement I care about is:

produce 10,000 Florinol.

I do not rebuild the entire chemistry chain on this page.

If my Florinol production is not working, I trace the actual conversion in my Florin and Florinol guide.

For the Tier 5 unlock itself, my decision is much simpler.

If I am still below the requirement:

I keep Florinol production running.

If I have already reached it:

I stop scaling that line just for the sake of scaling it.

Adding another Dryer or Condenser after the production gate is already satisfied does nothing to fix an unfinished Anomaly objective.

This is the point where I separate:

my factory is too slow

from:

my progression condition is incomplete.

Those need completely different fixes.

I Open the Tech Tree Once Both Conditions Are Done

After I have handled the Anomaly and reached the Florinol target, I open the Tech Tree again.

That is the point where Tier 5 becomes the thing I actually take.

This is also why I do not sit around expecting every progression change to happen automatically.

When the conditions are complete, I check the Tech Tree.

If Tier 5 is available, I take it and move on.

I do not keep producing another 5,000 or 10,000 Florinol because I assume a larger hidden number must exist.

My Tier 5 Troubleshooting Order

If Tier 5 still appears locked, I check the save in this order.

First: did Tier 4 give me the Anomaly objective?

If yes, I open the map and follow it.

Second: did I actually reach the Anomaly?

If not, I keep following the marked signal instead of waiting for the Drill.

Third: did I retrieve the Orb?

Finding the room is not enough.

I finish the Orb interaction.

Fourth: have I produced 10,000 Florinol?

If not, I return to the production chain and fix the stage that is holding it back.

Fifth: have I reopened the Tech Tree?

Once both gates are complete, I check the Tier 5 unlock instead of continuing to wait for another objective message.

That sequence is much faster than randomly buying research or rebuilding factory sections that are already working.

I Do Not Clear Every Research Node Just to Force Tier 5

When progression stalls, it is tempting to assume I missed a research prerequisite.

That can lead me into a bad spending pattern.

I see Gold sitting in storage, buy every remaining convenience unlock I can afford, and then discover that Tier 5 is still locked.

I avoid that.

Once I already have the production systems required to reach Florinol, I do not treat clearing the entire earlier Tech Tree as the fix for a missing mission step.

The Anomaly objective does not disappear because I bought more research.

If the active progression is pointing me underground, I go underground.

I save the optional purchases for when I know what the next bottleneck actually is.

I Know Tier 5 Worked When the Goal Changes to Energy

The clearest confirmation for me is what happens immediately after the promotion.

The game stops asking me to prove the Florinol stage and gives me a new large-scale objective:

reach a peak of 100,000 Energy.

That is where I stop treating this as a Tier 5 unlock problem.

The route that got me through the gate was:

Tier 4 opens

→ follow the Anomaly marker

→ reach the Anomaly

→ retrieve the Orb

→ produce 10,000 Florinol

→ return to the Tech Tree

→ unlock Tier 5

→ receive the 100,000 Energy objective

If I already have 10,000 Florinol and Tier 5 still refuses to open, the first place I look is not the factory.

I look at the Anomaly objective.