Starter

The Starter is the first machine a new person will find, and the base of the whole game.

It provides the ore your Assembly Line needs to be able to create items to sell.

A Starter can output one of 5 different ore types, or switched off when not required to save energy costs. Tap on the starter to change its output.

Upgrades
The number of starters is limited to a maximum of 8 per assembly line at the beginning of the game. You can purchase upgrades to allow you to have more starters in the Upgrade Shop, up to 56 starters per assembly line.

Starters can also be upgraded to increase the spawn time of their output from an item per 3 seconds to an item per second, to reduce their energy usage from $5 per activation to $1, and to increase the maximum number of resources spawn at a time from 1 to 3.

Function
The ores are Aluminium, Copper, Gold, Diamond and Iron. Ores cost $5 to produce (plus power costs), and sell for $80 on their own, but more when processed or crafted.

Trivia

 * Starters are the first buyable item in the Machine Shop.
 * Maximum number of starters is 56.