Processing Plant Guide

Sandustry does not have a single building called a “Processing Plant.” Players use the name for the full production line that turns raw Sand into Gold and, eventually, Energy. This guide walks through the standard chain stage by stage, using verified mechanics and community-tested ratios.

The Big Picture

A basic plant has four early stages:

Sand + Water → Wet Sand
Wet Sand → Shaker → Gold + Residue
Residue → burn → Burnt Residue
Burnt Residue → Kinetic Press → Gold + Seed
Seed + Water → Planter Box → Flower → Gold + Amethelis

Late game extends this into the Energy chain.

Stage 1 — Sifting with the Shaker

Field	Value
Input	Wet Sand
Structure	Shaker (Tier 1, 20 Gold)
Output	Gold (20–25% chance per pixel)
By-product	Residue / Slag

Sand becomes Wet Sand when it touches Water. Route your water supply onto the Sand stream, or dig where the two naturally mix. Move material with Conveyor Belts (horizontal) and Launchers (vertical/diagonal), both from Tier 1 Logistics (30 Gold). After the Shaker, use a Filter (Tier 1, 250 Gold) to split Gold from Residue.

Stage 2 — Burning Residue

Field	Value
Input	Residue
Method	Flamethrower, lava trap, or Burner Belt + Thermal Buffer (Tier 2, 500 + 1,000 Gold)
Output	Burnt Residue (25% conversion per pixel)

Because only a quarter of each Residue pixel becomes Burnt Residue, your input stream must be roughly four times larger than the Burnt Residue you want. See the Slag Burner Guide for detailed burner setups.

Stage 3 — Pressing with the Kinetic Press

Field	Value
Input	Burnt Residue, dropped from ≥ 25 blocks
Structure	Kinetic Press (Tier 2, 500 Gold)
Output	1 Gold + 1 Seed per Burnt Residue

The 25-block drop requirement shapes your plant layout: build the press at the bottom of a dedicated shaft. Gold yield is probabilistic at the Shaker but deterministic from the press onward, so this is where income stabilizes. Gold must land inside a Collector tile before it becomes spendable.

Stage 4 — Farming with the Planter Box

Field	Value
Input	Seeds + Water
Structure	Planter Box (Tier 3, 2,000 Gold)
Output	Flower → Gold + Amethelis

A Wet Seed placed on a Planter Box grows into a Flower made of a Moss stem and a head containing four Amethelis and one Gold. This closes the loop: the Kinetic Press produces Seeds, and the farm turns them into Gold plus the Amethelis needed for Energy.

Stage 5+ — Energy Chain

Stage	Input	Process	Output
5	Amethelis + Steam	Heating	Dry Amethelis
6	Dry Amethelis + Heat	Thermal structure	Florin (gas)
7	Florin + Cold	Condenser	Florinol (liquid)
8	Florinol	Florinol Battery (Tier 5, 1,500 Gold)	Energy

Thermal rule of thumb: heat refines solid → liquid → gas; cold refines gas → liquid → solid.

Input and Output Ratios

The community-tested overall ratio, credited to Discord users Knuks and Metylene, is:

2 Sand : 3 Water : 4 Redsand = 3 Gold : 8 Fluxite

Final outputs depend heavily on Stage 2 burn yield and vary slightly at the Planter Box. After a map’s Redsand is exhausted, you are typically left with a large volume of Amethelis.

Plant Design Tips

Symptom	Diagnosis	Fix
Empty belts	Not enough input	Expand Sand and Water supply upstream.
Piles full but Gold barely rising	Throughput or clogging	Check Filters, belt direction, and press drop height.
Residue backing up	Burn stage too slow	Add parallel burn capacity; remember the 25% yield.
Constant rebuilding	Over-expanding the wrong stage	Work on the current objective’s blocker, then stop.

General advice:

Use C to copy a structure, then Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V for repeated builds. Replace in place with Ctrl.
Keep fluid lines separated because Liquid Vents output the nearest liquid.
Sweeper Drone (Tier 2, 800 Gold) and Hauler Drone (Tier 4, 3,000 Gold) automate collection and transport as the plant grows.

Sources

This guide is a rewritten compilation based on:

Sandustry Slag Burner Guide in this repository.
Sandustry Beginner’s Guide in this repository.
Community-tested ratio data from Discord users Knuks and Metylene.