Sandustry EA vs Demo: What Actually Changed
The single biggest "why doesn't my old tutorial work" trap is the heat-system rework between the Demo and Early Access. This page is the EA/Demo difference reference — and it's one of the few places on the web that documents it cleanly.
The Heat System Was Reworked
| Demo | Early Access | |
|---|---|---|
| How you ignite slag | Pour lava into a filter to self-ignite | Burner Belt + Thermal Buffer |
| Heat storage | Emergent / ad hoc | Explicit Thermal Buffer you connect & charge |
| Old tutorials | — | Often invalid; label everything by build |
The rework is confirmed by community version-tracking and first-hand EA footage COMMUNITY. If a Demo-era video tells you to drop lava in a filter to start a fire, that method is dead in EA.
What Stayed the Same
- Core loop. Dig → wet sand → Shaker → gold. Identical in both builds VERIFIED.
- Water mechanics. The three infinite-water paths behave consistently across Demo and EA COMMUNITY.
- PC keybindings. Same controls in both builds.
Old Tutorials That No Longer Apply
- "Pour lava into the filter to self-ignite" — replaced by Burner Belt + Thermal Buffer.
- Any exact combustion ratio from Demo footage — combustion is probabilistic and the numbers shifted after the 2026 simulation rewrite.
- Heat-side layouts that assume the old ignition point.
Rule of thumb: when a tutorial predates the EA heat rework (Aug 2026), treat its heat-system advice as suspect. The gold/sand/water loop is safe; the lava side is not.
Builds & IDs
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Steam app (Early Access) | 2764460 |
| Steam app (Demo) | 3490390 |
| Latest hotfix | v0.5.3 (crash logs, steam-rain memory, GPU overlay launch option) |
| Current build | v0.5.4 |