Sandustry Guide and Wiki

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Sandustry Water and Liquid Routing Guide

Liquids can travel beyond the module that uses them, so a routing mistake can affect mines, storage, and several production lines. This guide combines current documented components with conservative commissioning that remains useful when exact rates or balance change.

Early Access · fluid commissioning · Checked 2026-08-22

Protect the main reservoir

Install an isolation boundary before experimental plumbing. Use a small header or test basin so a wrong connection cannot drain the only supply. Mark the source and normal level. If the main store is already exposed, close the branch and create containment before changing any low wall or pipe endpoint.

Verify the current component chain

Use the official Wiki to confirm the documented Pump, Pipe, and Liquid Vent roles in the current build. Test placement and direction with a small amount of water. Community layouts can suggest geometry, but do not assume an older clip proves present transfer speed, accepted liquid, or restart behavior.

Commission one branch

Connect source, pump, pipe, destination, and vent as one visible branch. Keep endpoints accessible. Start below normal level and watch the entire route, not only the destination. If delivery fails, preserve the state and test direction, source contact, destination capacity, and power or control conditions one at a time.

Mark operating levels

A fluid route behaves differently when source and destination are empty, normal, or full. Mark each state and watch for submerged outlets, backflow, or spill paths. The destination needs overflow capacity below any path toward another process. A line that works only at one level needs a tighter control range.

Separate liquids and solids

Keep solid feed from burying pump or vent interfaces. Use verified filtering when materials share a boundary, and route rejection to quarantine. If a mixed failure occurs, isolate both supplies before excavation. Moving the mixture through valuable machinery can convert a local plumbing fault into several uncertain outputs.

Test full and empty states

Run the source near empty, destination near full, stopped pump, blocked destination, and save/reload as separate tests. Confirm that the safe state contains liquid and keeps controls reachable. Record whether manual priming or draining is required. Reliable automation includes the startup and shutdown states, not only mid-flow.

Avoid bug-dependent supply

Community reports about infinite water or duplication are demand evidence, not a production guarantee. If you test one, isolate it, back up the save, and verify reload plus away-from-area behavior. Do not connect a bug-dependent design to the only essential line or publish its output as an official mechanic.

Expand with branch isolation

Give each major consumer a shutoff and clear destination. When one branch fails, the others should not drain or backfeed through it. Measure delivered liquid at the consumer rather than nominal pump activity. After patches, recommission one branch before opening the full network.

Create a branch isolation map

Draw every liquid source, branch control, Pump, Pipe path, Filter if used, Liquid Vent, consumer, destination high line, and overflow basin. Number the controls in safe shutdown order. Then close one branch at a time and confirm the remaining network does not drain, backfeed, or exceed its normal level. Use a limited source for the first audit. If two consumers cannot be isolated, mark the shared boundary as a single failure zone and keep additional containment there. Update the map after geometry or research changes. A readable isolation map shortens recovery and prevents a player from opening the wrong connection while trying to save a different flooded module. Post the map near the blueprint notes and repeat the closure test after adding any shared pipe or consumer.

Sources and evidence notes

Frequently Asked Questions