Beginner Guide to Sandustry: Getting Started Fast

Getting started in Sandustry means proving one dirt-to-gold loop before anything else: dig Sand with the Shovel, drop it into water to make Wet Sand, and feed that Wet Sand onto a diagonally sloped Shaker so Gold falls through the grate into a Collector while the leftover residue slides off the side. Every research unlock in the game is paid for with the Gold that line produces, so the opening hour is about getting it to run without you. The game entered Early Access on August 13, 2026 and sits at version 0.5.5 as of Update #2 (August 19), and the systems below are the ones a new prospector actually needs in the first few hours.

What should you build first in Sandustry?

Sand is the most basic resource in the game, and it only becomes valuable after it touches water and passes through a Shaker. The chain has four stages, and each one is physics-driven rather than menu-driven.

1. Dig Sandsoil with the Shovel to produce Sand, moving it by hand with the Grabber.
2. Drop Sand into a water pool; one Sand pixel plus one Water pixel becomes two Wet Sand pixels, so a small pool goes further than you would expect.
3. Drop Wet Sand onto a Shaker; each pixel has roughly a one-in-four to one-in-five chance (20-25%) of yielding Gold, which falls through the machine.
4. Catch the Gold in a Collector underneath while the leftover byproduct piles on top.

Place Shakers diagonally so Gold falls through the grate while the byproduct continues sideways, because a flat Shaker clogs. Community guides widely flag flat Shaker spam as the most common beginner mistake. None of the core logistics buildings need power, so once they are placed they keep working whether or not you are watching.

Build the first gold line step by step

A compact early base: water pools on the left, a Shaker line above Collectors, and separate lanes for Gold and Residue.

Find or dig a spot right next to an existing water pool, because keeping the Shaker close to water saves enormous hauling time before automation exists. Dig a decent supply of Sand, and if you are pulling it out of a deep hole, stack Launchers diagonally to throw it up to the surface automatically. Drop the Sand into the water to make Wet Sand, controlling how much you dump so you do not flood the working area.

Place the Shaker above your Collector boxes with a slight downward slope, so the byproduct can slide off the top instead of stacking up and stalling the surface. Route the Wet Sand onto the top of the Shaker with Conveyor Belts and Launchers, building one clean, connected path so grains do not scatter off the sides. Add enough Collectors to catch Gold over a long session, because a full Collector stalls the whole line.

You know the factory works when Gold drops into the Collector and your gold count climbs while you walk away. The byproduct should be moving off the top of the Shaker rather than building into a stalled pile. That is the signal to stop tinkering and start spending Gold on Research.

Byproducts are the second income stream

The material left on top of the Shaker is not waste, even though community sources disagree on its name: some call it Slag and others call it Residue. Burn it with a Flamethrower or lava to produce the burnt form, then press that in the Kinetic Slag Press (unlocked by the Refining 2 research tier) for additional Gold. The press also emits Seeds, which feed the farming side of the game covered in our Planter Box setup guide.

Do not delete byproduct piles, and do not over-mine. If Wet Sand starts backing up and mixing with the residue on your Shakers, you are producing raw material faster than the line can process it. The fix is matching how fast you dig to how many Shakers you have, and planning where the burn lanes and a future press will go before the pile gets large.

Research order for the first hours

Research costs Gold and unlocks structures, and buying in the right order removes pain early. The community-documented priority looks like this:

• Refining 1 unlocks Shakers, your core income.
• Logistics 1 unlocks Conveyors and Launchers, which separate mining from processing and kill manual hauling.
• Filters let you sort mixed streams before they jam machines.
• Pipes, Pumps, and Liquid Vents give you fluid control for stable water delivery.
• Refining 2 unlocks the Kinetic Slag Press for the second Gold payout.

You do not need everything at once. Play the loop, identify your actual bottleneck (sand, water, shake rate, or backlog), then buy the branch that fixes it. Advanced research also requires a high enough Factory Level, which rises as you hit performance milestones, so progression is not purely a Gold problem.

Move materials with belts, launchers, filters, and pipes

Once the first loop is stable, duplicate the lane rather than making one giant line, and add Filters before machines that must see only one material.

Conveyor Belts move solids horizontally, and the direction you drag while placing sets the direction they run. Launchers move solids vertically or diagonally, releasing material from the highest point of their shaft, which makes them the tool for hauling out of pits. Mark 2 versions of both arrive later through research, and the replace function lets you upgrade an existing layout in place instead of rebuilding it.

Filters separate solids from a mixed pile using two modes: Allow passes only the selected resource, and Block passes everything except it. A basic filter recognizes one solid at a time, so chain several filters in sequence to split a busy line into organized outputs. Advanced Filters extend the same logic to liquids and gases.

Most fluids move through a three-part system: a Pump draws the liquid in, Pipes carry it, and a Liquid Vent releases it. Pumping continues while fluid is present at or above the Pump's level and has not risen to the Vent's height. Pipes can carry any liquid except lava, and because Vents cannot sort output, dedicated pipelines per liquid are the safe choice.

Three currencies fund three progression tracks

Gold unlocks research, but it does not replace the other two currencies. Fluxite pays for upgrades to inventory equipment such as the Grabber, the Flamethrower, and Drones, and it can be found naturally or manufactured later. Energy powers advanced structures and becomes essential as the factory grows, so prepare for it before the tech tree forces the issue.

Two upgrades stand out early. Grabber capacity and capability improvements are among the strongest first investments because the Grabber determines how easily you move materials by hand. The Material Scanner upgrade for the Grabber lets you hover over any resource and see how it can be refined, which removes most of the guesswork from unfamiliar chains. If you need a steady water source, captured Lumlings gathered in one place produce a small but continuous supply, and the Corraller can capture other creatures whose industrial use may not be obvious at first.

Controls worth memorizing early

A handful of keybinds saves large amounts of construction time. Press C to enter select mode, then Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste structures, which is how you repeat production modules quickly. The default replace hotkey is Ctrl, letting you swap structures inside a working layout, and Ctrl+H flips a copied or selected structure before placement.

You also get ten hotbars of ten slots each. Press Alt plus the hotbar number, or hold Alt and scroll the mouse wheel, to switch between them. Organizing related structures onto separate hotbars (logistics, refining, utilities) keeps large builds manageable.

Habits that prevent rebuilds

Keep fluid networks separate, because Liquid Vents cannot reliably sort mixed liquids. Preserve byproducts until you understand their role in the next production stage, since many chains are designed around feeding one process's output into the next. Use filter sequences on congested lines, and treat ancient ruins as usable factory space rather than pure obstacles.

A few mistakes account for most failed starts: building Shakers flat, ignoring the byproduct because Gold already dropped, researching Drones before Conveyors feed the Shakers reliably, flooding the wetting area by piping water without an overflow plan, and descending deep without lights or a grapple plan. If a puzzle or ruin is beyond your current tools, mark it and come back later, and use the Unstuck command in the pause menu if you get trapped. For your next steps, see the beginner guide and our troubleshooting page on filtering wet sand out of water.

Sources and version notes

This guide is written for Early Access v0.5.x (Update #2, August 19, 2026; the game launched into Early Access on August 13, 2026 from developer Lantto Games and publisher Hooded Horse). Primary sources are the official Sandustry Beginner's Guide published by Hooded Horse in Steam Guides, the pinned official Sandustry FAQ on the Steam forums, and community references including sandustry.wiki and allthings.how. The 20-25% Gold chance per Wet Sand pixel comes from community sources and player measurement, not an official number, and the Shaker byproduct is called Slag in some guides and Residue in others (the same material; this site uses Residue). Exact research costs and upgrade prices change during Early Access, so verify current values in your in-game Research tab.