Sandustry Buildings Guide: the 34 Buildings & Their Key Mechanics
Buildings are the skeleton of a Sandustry factory. In Early Access the devs confirm 34 buildings total (from the starting Shaker to the top-end Flux Emanator) ✅ VERIFIED, with research costs running from 20 gold for the Shaker all the way to 7,500 gold for the Synthesizer. Below they're grouped by function, with the confirmed buildings and their key points.
Mining & Pre-Processing
| Building | Role | Key point / source |
|---|---|---|
| Shaker | wet sand → gold + residue | Core gold-making building; ~4 wet sand yields 1 gold ✅ VERIFIED |
| Sand Washer | wash sand / process water | A video-speedrun regular; part of the first-hour water loop 🔶 COMMUNITY |
| Collector | store gold | Gold is counted as it's deposited into a Collector ✅ VERIFIED |
Processing & Refining
| Building | Role | Key point / source |
|---|---|---|
| Filter | split / dual output | Both outputs need a destination or they backflow and contaminate downstream ✅ VERIFIED |
| Kinetic Slag Press | Burnt Slag → gold + spore | 1 Burnt Slag dropping onto the press from ≥25 blocks high → 1 gold + 1 spore ✅ VERIFIED |
| Vulcanizer | high-heat processing | Mentioned in Orbital Potato footage; turns feedstock to gold 🔶 COMMUNITY |
| Synthesizer | top-of-tree synthesis | Research cost 7,500 gold; likely a late long-chain starting point ✅ VERIFIED |
| Flux Emanator | last of the 34 | The final building in the list; exact use awaits official data 🔶 COMMUNITY |
Logistics & Transport
| Building | Role | Key point / source |
|---|---|---|
| Belt | basic transport | Identical operation in EA and Demo ✅ VERIFIED |
| Launcher | momentum launch / transport | The launcher tower + Shift skip is the core technique ✅ VERIFIED |
| Pipe | fluid transport | Strongly tied to water / steam management ✅ VERIFIED |
| Pump | pump water / pressurize | Core of fluid management; heavily experimented in footage 🔶 COMMUNITY |
| Drone | late auto-transport | Dedicated drones assist mining / transport ✅ VERIFIED |
Heat System & Power
| Building | Role | Key point / source |
|---|---|---|
| Burner Belt | stable heat supply | Core of the EA heat rework; replaces the Demo "filter-pours-lava" trick ✅ VERIFIED |
| Thermal Buffer | peak-shave / fill-valley | Manages heat sources together with the Burner Belt ✅ VERIFIED |
| Cinder Burner | lava byproduct / water | Feeding cinder into a burner yields water as a byproduct ✅ VERIFIED |
| Cryoblaster | freeze lava | The lava → scoria → cinder chain ✅ VERIFIED |
| Flamethrower | melt ice / heat treat | On ice-heavy maps, raise its research priority ✅ VERIFIED |
| Steam Turbine | generate power | A factory power plan seen in live footage 🔶 COMMUNITY |
| Battery | store energy | Pairs with the turbine ✅ VERIFIED |
| Strata Core | deep mystery structure | "Stratacore Secured" achievement; found in late exploration 🔶 COMMUNITY |
Critter & Exploration
| Building | Role | Key point / source |
|---|---|---|
| Light | illumination | Draws light-sensitive critters like Lumlings 🔶 COMMUNITY |
| Planter Box | planting | Grow flowers / part of sustainable water management ✅ VERIFIED |
| Corraller | capture critters | Unlocks the Critter Catcher achievement ✅ VERIFIED |
| Aura Extractor (Swarm Console) | deep extraction | 1,000 Auralite threshold; suspected link to critter clusters 🔶 COMMUNITY |
Three Key Mechanics You Must Understand
1. The Slag Press: 25-Block Drop + Probabilistic Burn
1 Burnt Slag dropping onto the press from ≥25 blocks high → yields 1 gold + 1 spore ✅ VERIFIED. If the drop is too short, or a non-Burnt-Slag block lands on the press, it just sits and clogs; and the burn is a probabilistic conversion that yields less than it consumes, so you must budget for loss. Full detail in the Lava & Slag Press Guide.
2. EA Heat System: Burner Belt + Thermal Buffer
The Demo-era "filter-pours-lava self-ignites" trick no longer works in EA — it's replaced by the Burner Belt + Thermal Buffer architecture ✅ VERIFIED. Heat now has buffering and conduction layers, turning it from "voodoo" into "engineerable." See EA vs Demo Mechanic Differences.
3. Diagonal Shakers (Advanced Throughput)
Diagonal shakers on slopes are an advanced throughput trick ✅ VERIFIED; combined with the launcher tower + Shift skip they can dramatically raise production-line throughput.
Unlock-order reference: Refining 1 → Logistics 1 → Filter → Pipe → Tools → Refining 2 (Slag Press) → Drone ✅ VERIFIED. Buy production capacity and logistics first, then touch Tools and Drones. Full recipes in Tech Tree & Recipes; production ratios in Automation & Logistics Guide.
Baseline 2026-08-20 · the full official 34-name list is WIP; this page fills in as EA builds and the official bestiary land
The canonical building list is maintained on the official Sandustry wiki; this page tracks that list with source-tier tags.