troubleshooting
Diagnose the First Real Bottleneck in a Sandustry Factory
A falling-pixel production chain can hide the original fault several modules away from the visible slowdown. This workflow uses buffer state and controlled tests to identify the first constraint, preserving enough evidence to distinguish capacity, geometry, mixed material, fluid level, and restart failure.
Early Access · systematic diagnosis · Checked 2026-08-22
Describe one observable symptom
Write what changed without naming a cause: the final collector stopped rising, an upstream pocket filled, a launcher cycles with no delivery, or output resumes only after excavation. Include build, location, and time until failure. A neutral symptom prevents the diagnosis from becoming a search for evidence that confirms the first guess.
Freeze new input
Stop or restrict supply through normal controls while preserving the line's state. Do not clear every buffer. The distribution of material is diagnostic evidence. Protect fluid boundaries and create safe downstream capacity before touching walls. If the factory is hazardous or unstable, save and make a backup using current official guidance before continuing.
Walk backward from the destination
Check the final collector, its inlet, the output route, each machine output, machine input, and upstream supply in order. Record the first abnormal state. A full buffer usually points to a restriction after it; an empty buffer points before it. Confirm the pattern over time because a bursty process can temporarily show both.
Separate capacity from geometry
Open downstream space and feed one clean measured batch. If the module processes it, continuous failure may come from overfeed, bridging, burial, or destination fill level. If the clean batch still fails, inspect accepted input and interfaces. Capacity improvements do not fix an outlet that changes state when a pile grows or water rises.
Separate material from transport
Move a tiny verified sample into the module through a temporary simple path. If it succeeds, the normal transport or mixed feed is suspect. If it fails, confirm the material state and current machine documentation. Keep test outputs separate so a successful sample cannot contaminate the stalled production inventory.
Test restart as its own state
Some lines work from empty but fail after pause, reload, or a full buffer. Recreate each state separately. Observe whether stored pixels settle across an opening or fluid reaches a different equilibrium. Add a startup drain, lower normal buffer line, or access point if recovery depends on digging. Do not average restart downtime into a capacity number and call the design stable.
Change one boundary
Choose the smallest reversible change supported by the evidence: clear destination capacity, widen one outlet, lower a buffer line, isolate one feed, or reduce supply. Repeat the same measured test. If the symptom changes, confirm once more before making another edit. Restore failed changes where practical so the module does not accumulate unexplained differences.
Scale and monitor the moved bottleneck
After the constrained stage passes, remeasure the complete chain. The bottleneck will often move to supply or collection. Update the planner with the new conservative rate and preserve the previous measurement with its layout version. Add capacity only where the new buffer pattern supports it. This turns factory growth into a series of explainable changes instead of periodic demolition.
Build a before-and-after evidence table
For the suspected stage, record four values or states before changing it: upstream buffer trend, downstream buffer trend, accepted output over a fixed interval, and restart behavior. Make one reversible change, repeat the same interval, and compare all four. A real constraint should show a coherent improvement, such as slower upstream accumulation and higher accepted downstream output, without creating a new unsafe full state. If only animation appears faster while collected output stays unchanged, the bottleneck remains elsewhere. Preserve failed comparisons; they prevent the same guess from returning later. Once the stage passes, perform the table on the complete chain because the limiting boundary may have moved to supply, collection, or byproduct capacity.
Sources and evidence notes
- Sandustry on Steam ↗
Tier 1 · Early Access retail store listing. Official identity, release state, features, platforms, and requirements
- Official Sandustry Wiki ↗
Tier 1 · Current official community wiki. Named materials, buildings, and documented game systems
- r/SandustryGame community ↗
Tier 4 · Mixed Early Access community reports. Player language, complaints, and candidate workarounds only