Sandustry beginner guide

Build the first wet-sand loop

Place the first Shaker near a reliable water pocket and leave room below for future belts and launchers. A vertical mining shaft lets falling sand meet underground water before it reaches the processing floor.

Use a filter to send dry sand back toward water while Wet Sand continues to the Shaker. Treat overflow space as part of the machine, because a small pile can let the wrong material ride over a filter.

Run the loop by hand for several batches before enclosing it. Watch one piece of dry Sand enter Water, confirm the material becomes Wet Sand, then follow it through the Shaker. If you cannot point to each state change while the line is moving, the build is still too difficult to troubleshoot.

• Keep the Water surface, filter, and Shaker input visible.
• Give recycled dry Sand a clear path back into Water.
• Leave a collection pocket below the line for material that misses a belt.
• Upgrade Grabber capacity before moving large mixed piles by hand.

Turn residue into the second gold source

Unlock the Flamethrower and burn Residue into Burnt Residue. Feed only the burned material into the Kinetic Press, then separate Gold from Seed at the output.

A Burner Belt and Thermal Buffer reduce manual work, but a second impurity filter is still valuable. Unburned particles can sit on the Press and stop the entire line.

Do the first conversion as a small batch. Burn a visible pile, scan it if the color is unclear, and drop only that batch onto the Press. Once Gold and Seed leave through separate exits without manual clearing, connect the continuous Residue input.

• Reserve a Seed bin before the Press output becomes busy.
• Create an overflow route for unburned Residue and unrelated pixels.
• Keep enough drop height above the active Press surface.
• Inspect both output routes before adding more throughput.

Move from plants to energy

Water converts Seed into Wet Seed. Route Wet Seed to Planter Boxes, burn the resulting Flowers, and separate Gold from Amethelis. Steam dries Amethelis, heat releases Florin gas, and cold condenses Florin into Florinol.

At this stage, keep each conversion in its own visible chamber. Mixing water, gas, Gold, Seed, and petals in one recovery lane makes a blockage much harder to identify.

Pause after every new room. First prove that Seed becomes Wet Seed and exits the washer. Next prove that one Planter Box grows and burns a Flower. Add the Amethelis dryer only after Gold leaves the planter room on its own. This slower order saves more time than debugging three connected rooms at once.

• Buffer Wet Seed before the Planter Box.
• Stop seed delivery while clearing plant growth.
• Store Dry Amethelis before burning it into Florin.
• Build the Florin roof and cold chamber before releasing gas.

Explore between factory milestones

Use the yellow objective arrow and Map rather than waiting beside a slow factory. Artifacts provide Augment choices, Fluxite upgrades improve tools, and later objectives lead into the Stratacore and Aura systems.

The world is procedurally generated, so copy mechanisms and decision rules, not coordinates from another save.

Carry enough tool energy to open a return path and leave the factory in a stable state before departing. A small, slow line that routes overflow safely can keep producing while you explore. A fast line that depends on constant manual clearing will be blocked when you return.

• Follow the active yellow objective arrow instead of another player's compass direction.
• Mark the route back to the main shaft with visible construction.
• Return when storage fills or a newly unlocked tool changes the next production step.

Scale only after the recovery test

A working module should survive a stopped input, a full output, and one wrong particle without spreading the failure into the next room. Close the input, empty each output, and restart with a small batch. If the line returns to normal without moving walls, it is ready to copy or expand.

Use Blueprints for modules you have already tested. Copy the washer, Press drop, or storage interface as a unit, then reconnect materials one route at a time. Large copied factories still need local overflow space because the terrain and nearby Water pockets differ between saves.

• Label or separate every storage basin by material state.
• Keep one inspection opening near filters and machine inputs.
• Do not increase input speed until both outputs stay clear.
• Save a Blueprint before making a risky redesign.