Episode 6 picks up on the same freeplay map, and an edited-in card reads "World 1: Copper Mining" over the belt loop from last time. "So this is what we worked on in the last episode," the commentary says. Copper was not started when Episode 5 ended. This time Basket mines it, smelts it, crafts the first science pack and places a lab. By the end a pump, boilers and two steam engines sit by a lake, and the belt meant to bring them coal is not hooked up yet.
Fuel and a far-off patch
The loop still has a gap: nothing feeds the burner machines. Basket tries an inserter facing into the belt to see if it grabs from the front. It only takes from behind. "Interesting." The fix waits. A look at the map turns up copper, and it is "far away."
Before leaving, Basket puts the ore from the inventory onto the belt so it can cook "instead of sitting in my inventory," and shuffles the inserters and chests so fuel rides the outside lane and things to cook ride the inside.
Copper on a long belt
Five burner mining drills go down on the copper patch, with a belt from them back to the base across the sand. "Am I really going to run coal all the way out here? I feel like I'm not." Red warning icons hang over the drills, and Basket goes to "grab some more fuel" to feed them by hand.
A second row of furnaces
Back at the base, a second row of furnaces goes in above the first, with its own inserters: "make six more. One, two, three, four, five, six." "This guy doesn't have any fuel," the commentary notes, and red warning icons sit above the new top row. "I feel like I need a separate line that somehow gets to these back guys, too." For now Basket fills them by hand and adds a chest so items have somewhere to leave the system.
Science and a lab
Copper plates arrive, and the crafting menu shows Science pack 1: one copper plate and one iron gear wheel. "I don't know what that is, but we'll do it." The recipe says it is used by a lab, so a lab goes down, and "that requires power." The research screen lists Automation, costing ten science packs and unlocking the Long handed inserter. "What does that do?" Automation then shows in the research box at the top right.
Power by the lake
Steam engines and boilers "need to be by water," so Basket walks to a lake and places a pump, "one, two, three boilers and two steam engines." The boilers need coal, which is back at the base. "I will give it some coal to start," the commentary says, and then a long belt goes down from the base.
Where it ends
Night has fallen. The belt reaches the boilers, but they still need inserters, and the crafting window shows a burner inserter short on iron plates and gears. "We need to get some plates." A "To Be Continued..." card closes the episode before the belt is hooked up.