Sandustry Beginner Guide for Early Access

Sandustry entered Early Access on August 13, 2026. Your first useful goal is a repeatable Gold line: turn Dirt into Sand, wet it, shake out Gold, burn the Residue, then recover more Gold and Seed with a Kinetic Press.

This guide reflects sources checked on August 16, 2026. Research tiers and costs may change during Early Access.

Your First Gold Production Line

The current basic chain is:

Dirt → Sand → Wet Sand → Shaker → Gold + Residue

The wetting recipe is 1 Sand + 1 Water → 2 Wet Sand. Each Wet Sand pixel processed by a Shaker has a 25% chance to produce one Gold and always leaves one Residue. Gold is your main early research currency.

Residue is not useless waste. Lava or a Flamethrower can ignite it, with each pixel having a 25% chance to become Burnt Residue. Drop one Burnt Residue at least 25 blocks onto the top of a Kinetic Press to receive one Gold and one Seed from below.

Seed, Flower, and Amethelis

The current planting chain begins with 1 Seed + 1 Water → 1 Wet Seed. A Wet Seed that touches a Planter Box becomes a Flower.

The official community Wiki records Amethelis and Gold as mature Flower products, but harvesting behavior and exact layouts remain version-sensitive. Build a contained collection area because Amethelis is a light Wisp material that can drift sideways as it falls.

Logistics, Filters, and Fluids

• Conveyor Belts move solid material horizontally.
• Launchers can build vertical or angled solid transport lines.
• Filters use Allow or Block rules and drop matching pixels through the machine.
• Pumps, Pipes, and Liquid Vents move supported fluids, but not Lava.

Keep reactions away from Filters. Sand or Seed can change into Wet Sand or Wet Seed while passing through Water; the new material may no longer match the Filter rule and can jam inside it.

Moving Lava and Producing Fluxite

Raw Lava cannot enter the normal fluid network. Move it by changing its state:

Lava + Snow/Cryoblaster → Scoria → mine into Cinder → transport → ignite with Flamethrower → Lava

For Fluxite, current Early Access information uses Void Petal + Redsand → Voidbloom, followed by 1 Voidbloom → 1 Fluxite in a Flux Emanator. Feed Voidbloom from the top and leave collection space below the machine.

Research Is Version-Sensitive

Gold is central to early research, but the research system also references Energy and Auralite. Do not assume every unlock always costs only Gold. The official Research page is marked as work in progress, so check the current build before planning a precise budget.

Demo Information You Should Ignore

Current names include Residue, Burnt Residue, Kinetic Press, and Seed. Older guides may use Slag, Burnt Slag, Kinetic Slag Press, or Spore; those names describe the Demo-era production tree.

FluxLoader also belongs to the old Demo ecosystem. Current Steam Early Access modding uses the Sandustry Workshop and Steam’s Mods branch.

Reliable Next Steps

1. Stabilize a Water supply and Wet Sand line.
2. Separate Gold from Residue without letting the Filter react mid-flow.
3. Add a controlled burn stage for Residue.
4. Give the Kinetic Press its full 25-block drop and a clear output.
5. Read the dedicated Filter guide, Kinetic Press guide, and infinite Water guide before scaling.

Sources: Steam, Sandustry Official Wiki, and the official modding FAQ.