SANDUSTRYFIELD GUIDE
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Beginner route

Sandustry Beginner Guide: From Sand to a Stable Factory

Pan the first Gold, unlock the Shaker, and turn a manual loop into an automated Wet Sand line you can diagnose and expand.

Field guideUpdated August 22, 2026
An early Sandustry factory moving sand toward a water processing line

Sandustry begins with a simple loop: excavate material, change its state, separate the useful output, and route everything away before it blocks the machine. Learn that loop on a small scale and the rest of the factory becomes easier to reason about.

The first ten minutes

Do not design a permanent megabase yet. Your opening objective is to unlock one machine and prove one repeatable process.

  1. Dig Sand. Use the starting tool to collect the most available raw material around you.
  2. Pan for Gold. Manual processing funds the first research unlocks.
  3. Unlock the Shaker for 20 Gold. This is the first machine that turns a hand-operated task into a production step.
  4. Build close to the work area. Short routes make direction and blocked outputs obvious.
StepActionTarget
1Excavate SandSecure a steady raw input
2Pan for GoldReach the first 20 Gold
3Research ShakerUnlock automated separation
4Place a compact lineMake every input and output visible

The opening loop is dig → separate → build. Later systems add more states and machines, but the diagnostic logic stays the same.

Your first production line

The first useful line combines Sand and Water into Wet Sand, then separates that mixture in a Shaker.

Sand + Water→Wet Sand→ Shaker →Gold + Residue

Feed Sand and Water at roughly a 1:1 ratio. Excess material remains in the system, so an uneven input eventually slows the line. Give both Shaker outputs somewhere to go: Gold can be collected, while Residue needs its own belt or storage route.

Keep this first line small. A compact build shows whether the mixture formed, whether the Shaker accepted it, and which output is backing up.

Logistics basics

Once machines exist, moving material between them becomes the central design problem.

SystemUse it forCheck first
Conveyor BeltContinuous solid-material routesDirection and free output space
LauncherCrossing a short gapLanding position and orientation
FilterSeparating mixed solid streamsAllow/Block rule on every branch
Pump + Pipe + Liquid VentMoving Water and other liquidsSource contact, missing pipe, vent direction

A belt facing the wrong direction blocks everything behind it. A mixed stream without a Filter sends the right material to the wrong machine. A fluid network with one missing connection can look complete while delivering nothing.

A low-friction research order

  1. Shaker, 20 Gold: automate the first separation.
  2. Logistics, 30 Gold: move inputs and outputs without carrying each item.
  3. Filter, 250 Gold: keep mixed outputs on separate routes.
  4. Kinetic Press, 500 Gold: convert Burnt Residue into Gold and Seed.

After the Kinetic Press, choose research according to the current bottleneck: storage, fluid transport, heat, mobility, or deeper excavation. Costs can change during Early Access, so treat the in-game Research panel as authoritative.

Three failure checks

1. The Shaker stops

Inspect the output before changing the input. Clear the blocked item, add storage or another route, and make output capacity at least as fast as incoming material.

2. Materials arrive in the wrong place

Trace the stream backward from the incorrect storage. Add a Filter before branches merge and verify its Allow/Block rule with one material at a time.

3. The water line runs dry

Follow the entire Pump → Pipe → Liquid Vent chain. Confirm the Pump touches a valid source, every segment connects, and the Vent points toward the intended process.

Change one variable at a time. When you rebuild three systems at once, you lose the evidence that identifies the actual bottleneck.

Sandustry

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