Sandustry Beginner Guide

Sandustry is a dig-and-automate sandbox from Lantto Games, published by Hooded Horse. Steam frames the fantasy as exploring a fully destructible sand world where every pixel can be mined, mixed, processed, or destroyed — then growing that chaos into a factory.

The store pitch starts humble: sift value from sand (wet sand toward gold), then replace shovel labor with conveyors, launchers, filters, fluids, and later deeper tech such as drones and longer production chains.

Your first session should answer three questions only: Can I dig without burying myself? Can I refine something valuable? Can I move materials without walking every load?

Open the free demo first if you have not bought Early Access. Factory games punish weak CPUs late; the demo is the cheapest stress test.

Skim the Steam page features list so you know conveyors, filters, and fluids are intended — not optional cosmetics.

Bookmark the official Hooded Horse Sandustry wiki and the Steam news hub. This fan guide stays principle-level on purpose.

Decide a save habit early. Pixel physics means one bad dig under a belt can cascade into a rebuild.

Dig a compact starter pit next to your first refining setup. Random dopamine tunnels create flooded rooms and stranded machines.

Follow in-game prompts for the early shaker / refine path Steam markets. Do not skip the tutorial objectives to “play freeform” on hour one.

When walking materials hurts, place a short conveyor or launcher immediately — even a ugly temporary belt beats heroic hauling.

Keep one clear dump / overflow zone. Sand, ore, and byproducts will try to bury your buildings.

After the first stable refine loop, stop expanding the dig face until logistics and sorting catch up.

Take a screenshot or save before your first big terraforming cut under active lines.

Value is not “more sand.” Value is throughput of the correct material into the correct machine without clogging.

Wet sand and fluid control matter early because Steam’s marketing loop literally starts there. If moisture is wrong, refining fantasies stall.

Byproducts (including slag-like residuals) are not flavor — they are belt poison if unsorted. Isolate them before you widen dig volume.

Treat every new building as a flow change, not a decoration. Ask: what enters, what leaves, where does overflow go?

Mixing every material on one belt with no filters, then blaming “not enough dig.”

Expanding caves faster than refining and transport capacity.

Ignoring water until a flood entombs logistics.

Building a pretty spaghetti megabase before one clean dig → buffer → refine → sink line works.

Assuming the free demo and paid Early Access are identical in depth — they are not.

Copying competitor wiki recipe tables without checking your patch. EA churn will gaslight you.

Pause digging for five minutes. Watch one junction. Identify which material is flooding the line.

Add or fix filters before adding more machines.

Create a temporary overflow dump so the main path can breathe.

Rebuild one segment (dig face, or refine input, or sink) — not the entire base.

If fluids are involved, fix routing before terraforming more wet sand.

Then continue. Stable flow beats bigger holes.

Automation Tips — belt, launcher, and filter habits that survive rebuilds.

Water Basics — wet sand, floods, and why pipes show up early.

Slag & Processing — byproduct bottlenecks that fake dig problems.

Demo Guide — what to test before buying.

Buildings hub (/modules) — high-level roles from Steam marketing, not fake DPS tables.

For authoritative recipes and unlock order, use the official wiki and in-game tooltips.