Sandustry Map and Exploration Guide

Read a destructible world

Every excavation changes the routes available to you and to materials. Treat terrain, open shafts, lakes, frost layers, caves, and ancient structures as working geography: a tunnel can become a steam chimney, a logistics corridor, or part of the factory instead of a disposable path.

Read the map as a set of production opportunities rather than a fixed collection of rooms. Mark Water, deep Lava, unusual terrain, access shafts, and enough flat space for serviceable modules. Because excavation changes the world, record the original boundary before opening a chamber whose pressure, fluid, or loose material can enter the route you are standing in.

Use a simple coordinate convention based on the starting area or another permanent landmark. Name routes by destination and depth, then place return markers at junctions. Procedural generation makes another player's exact coordinates less useful than a repeatable navigation method. A good note explains how to return after a save reload and what tool or research gate stopped the first visit.

Before opening a Water or Lava pocket, trace gravity below and gas space above. Build a temporary catch basin and an escape route for the player. A destructible-world map is useful when it predicts what will move after the next excavation, not only what the terrain looked like before it.

Use separate symbols for confirmed resources, suspected cavities, active logistics, and routes blocked by research. Date any exact research cost because the official Research page is still marked as work in progress. The map should direct the next safe action without turning an early observation into a permanent rule.

After connecting a remote source, walk the full service route while the line runs. Check that loose pixels, vents, or new construction cannot seal the path. Mark shutoffs at both ends and keep one recovery save before the first sustained transfer, especially when the route passes an ancient structure.

Review the map after every major excavation. Remove markers that no longer describe an open route, preserve notes for exhausted deposits, and promote reliable source-to-factory corridors into the blueprint. A maintained map prevents an obsolete shortcut from sending a recovery trip into a collapsed or flooded shaft.

Unlock navigation tools

Tier 1 Map research unlocks the Map and Minimap, while the Activity Heatmap arrives later. Objectives appear with directional help on the Minimap. The late-game Locator requires Void Juice and is designed to scan for hidden alien artifacts rather than reveal a universal list of coordinates.

Separate reconnaissance from extraction. On the first trip, identify the material, hazard, available working space, and shortest safe return. On the second, bring the tool, power, storage, and logistics required for a small sample. Building the full production line before confirming the route can strand resources behind a narrow shaft or force later conveyors through valuable rooms.

Plan vertical travel beside material transport rather than through it. Steam shafts, falling solids, fluids, and player movement can interfere when they share one opening. Reserve a service lane and close diagonal fluid leaks before connecting a source. If hovering or movement settings change access through buildings, confirm the current setting before making an otherwise unreachable maintenance pocket.

Revisit ancient puzzles

Ancient puzzles may expect tools or material transformations that are not available on first discovery. Record the route and return after research unlocks freezing, heating, stronger excavation, or temporary solid bridges; the pause-menu Unstuck command remains a recovery option if a structure traps the player.

Treat ancient structures and artifact rooms as version-sensitive systems. Preserve a save before removing terrain, placing thermal equipment, or introducing Lava. Update #3 fixed a case involving a Thermal Buffer, Lava, and self-healing terrain inside artifact rooms, which is a useful reminder that ordinary factory assumptions may not apply inside a special environment.

Record an unresolved room with three facts: location, visible mechanism, and missing capability. Return after unlocking the relevant tool or research rather than forcing the room with destructive material. Once solved, keep the route marker and note the reward or new access. This turns exploration into a searchable project list instead of repeated wandering.

Before a long expedition, carry enough capacity to preserve a rare sample and leave room for unexpected output. Verify that the return route remains open after digging and that falling material cannot seal the only exit. Save at a stable boundary outside the puzzle area, then change one condition at a time so a failed attempt still teaches you what the room responded to.

Field facts