You’ve arrived on a vast unexplored planet filled with diverse biomes and beautiful landscapes – time to bring the fires of industry! From humble beginnings sifting gold from sand, you will quickly build a growing factory, unlocking powerful new technologies and production chains as you assess the viability of the planet for further industrialization. Countless options lie before you – will you focus on developing more advanced processing and logistical capabilities across your rapidly-expanding factory? Will you take advantage of local wildlife to aid with your mission? Or will you prioritize the hunt for artifacts, spending valuable resources to unlock access to their benefits?
The planet awaits you, Prospector!
User Interface
There are various tools at your disposal at all times, so let’s review them in order:
- Currency - Various currencies needed to unlock new Research, Upgrades, and Tool Utilization.
- Tab Reference - Key shortcuts to access your tabbed content.
- Objectives - Any current objectives provided to you. Note that objectives will also have a yellow arrow in the Minimap to point you in the right direction.
- Minimap - Provides a minimap of the world around you, allowing you to see beyond your main screen.
- Hotbar - There are ten hotbars, each with ten slots for Inventory and Building items, which can be used for quick referencing and construction. To quickly move between hotbars, press Alt+Hotbar Number to access that hotbar. Alternatively, you can hold Alt+Mouse Scroll to quickly scroll between them.
- Shortcuts - Various key bindings that allow you to shortcut building infrastructure and other hotkey items, such as copy/paste, selecting structures and moving them, or replacing a structure with something else.
Logistics and Transportation
A key component of Sandustry involves efficiently moving large quantities of resources to their final destination, whether that’s transporting a resource like Sand through its multiple refining methods, managing the logistics of multiple resources in a single pile, or transporting water from the deep so it can serve its various purposes. A note that all of these structures require no power to operate, and will continually run regardless of any resources present.
Let’s take a look at the core logistical buildings used to accomplish these tasks.
Conveyors and Launchers
Conveyor Belts and Launchers are the primary logistical tools for moving solid resources such as Sand, Residue, Cinder, Seeds, and Amethelis, to name a few. Both of these tools are straightforward to operate and build.
Conveyor Belts can only be placed horizontally, with the direction of the belt determined by the direction your mouse is dragging. Launchers can be placed vertically and diagonally. Regardless of which direction you drag, the “highest” point of your launcher shaft will be the point where resources are thrown out, with the drag direction determining whether resources are thrown left or right.
As you progress through the tech tree, you will be able to unlock Mark 2 versions of both, drastically increasing the speed of resources moved and the velocity of the resources thrown.
Filters
Filters allow you to sort Solid resources only, which is useful when you have a pile that contains multiple types all together. Filters have two settings you can use: Allow and Block.
- The Allow setting permits a single resource to fall through the filter, but nothing else. For example, use the Allow Gold setting to only allow Gold through the filter, moving all other resources down the track.
- The Block setting permits all resources BUT the selected resource to fall through the filter, such as blocking Redsand, but allowing any other resources to fall through.
Basic Filters only apply to a single Solid resource in both the Allow and Block settings. This means, for instance, that you could not Allow Redsand and Moonhop on a single filter. Rather, you would need to block Moonhop on one filter, allowing Redsand to fall through, then block Redsand in a separate filter below it, to capture both of them.
Once unlocked, Advanced Filters will allow you to filter Solid, Liquid, and Gas resources and still abide by the Allow/ Block settings, as well as the single resource rule.
Transporting Liquids
You can move any Fluid besides lava by using:
- The Pump as your input device
- A Liquid Vent as your output device
- And connecting those withPipes. As long as there is a Fluid at the level or above the Pump, and the Fluid level has not reached the Liquid Vent’s level, said Fluid will continually pump.
A note that you can use a single pipeline to transport multiple Fluid types; however, you cannot filter what Fluid will be pumped out of a Liquid Vent. The Liquid Vent will always prioritize whichever Liquid is closest. Therefore, it’s a good practice to separate Fluid lines as you build.
Production & Refining
As you progress deeper into Sandustry, you will need to rely on more advanced production structures that refine resources through multiple stages to produce multiple other resources.
An early tip: The Material Scanner Upgrade for your Grabber lets you hover over a resource to learn more about how you could refine or use it in another process.
Gold Production
Gold is essential for all Research, and three core structures refine resources into Gold: 1. The Shaker, 2. Kinetic Press, and 3. Planter Box. Each of these also produces a by-product that you will need for the next respective production method.
Refining
As mentioned, many resources require refining in order to create Gold or another by-product.
Using Thermal structures - both hot and cold - will refine resources into another resource. Note that Heat Thermal structures will only refine a solid resource into a liquid, or a liquid into a gas, while a Cold Thermal structure will refine resources in the reverse order.
Research
Research is your progression through the game, unlocking more structures and inventory items. Research is unlocked with Gold, with more advanced Research locked behind your Factory Level. Your Factory Level represents tiered access to new tools, structures, and technology granted to you by your superiors based on reaching performance milestones. These milestones demonstrate your mastery of already granted systems along with growing intrigue at the resources and ancient ruins available on the planet.
Upgrades
Upgrades can be used to increase the abilities of various items in your Inventory, such as your Grabber, Flamethrower, or your Drones. These Upgrades cost Fluxite to unlock, which can be found naturally or produced using certain resources.
Augments
Scattered throughout the planet are Augments, which provide upgrades to your Utility items like the Gun, Rocket, or Shovel, as well as your person, allowing you to move faster or extend your boost speed and duration.
Gameplay Tips & Tricks
- Use the C key to select any structure you want to copy, then use CTRL+C to copy, and CTRL+V to paste for faster construction of repeated systems.
- When pursuing upgrades from Fluxite, a great early investment is increasing the capacity and capabilities of your Grabber, as being able to manually move larger chunks of material is especially helpful in the early game.
- The replace hotkey (default CTRL) is great for when you quickly want to readjust things in your factory. It’s especially handy once you unlock a better tier of conveyor belts and launchers if you’re otherwise happy with a layout but want to get things moving faster.
- Florinol batteries and power bricks are distinct sources of energy, with the former using dried Amethelis petals broken down into florin to fill the batteries, and the latter being made of copper molds filled with liquid copper.
- Capturing creatures you discover in your exploration with the Corraller is always a wise choice, as they can provide you with new sources of resources or processes for your factories as long as they are contained and used properly. For example, enough Lumlings in a location can create a small but constant supply of water.
- If you’re having trouble moving a resource up efficiently, consider if it can be converted into another state of matter to make the process easier. It might be better to convert it back closer to your other structures.
- With the right creativity, some of the ruins the ancients have already dug out and shaped may serve as useful layouts to integrate into your factory.
- When you’re trying to isolate a byproduct on a busy factory line, filter blocks are your best friend.
- Lava process spoiler: To move lava, once you discover a location, find a way to freeze it (likely the Cryoblaster) until it’s solid cinder. Cinder can be mined out with your shovel or other tools. Once loose, the cinder can then be moved to a desired location. When the cinder is reignited from a hot enough source like a flamethrower, it will then convert back into lava.
- Energy production process spoiler: To achieve Energy production, you must follow this production method: Amethelis -> Use Steam to create Dry Amethelis -> Heat to turn Dry Amethelis into Florin (Gas) -> Cold to condense Florin into Florinol (Liquid)-> Florinol put into a Florinol Battery
- Some of the puzzles left behind by the ancients may require access to a tool or resource you may not have access to yet, and you should consider returning to it later if you feel too stuck. However, trying to create a solid bridge across teleporter gaps using freezing or other methods is often useful.
- If you do somehow end up trapped in a puzzle, use the unstuck command from the pause menu.
- Some weapons will be more effective at tackling certain types of obstacles. While it has more raw destructive power, a rocket launcher still pales in comparison to a flamethrower when coming across solid ice stalactites.
- While extremely power-hungry to fire for long, the laser has an incredible potential to tunnel through most obstacles you can find in the surface layers.
However you choose to build your massive factories, we hope this guide has helped you understand what Sandustry has to offer. Enjoy learning to produce, refine, and upgrade your centers of industry, and unlock new methods and resources!
