Guides
Sandustry Guides
How to play, first steps and player tips for Sandustry. Mechanics, buying guides, mods and community links live under their own sections in the navigation above.
New to Sandustry?
Dig sand, add water, and refine it into gold to fund research. That loop - gather, process, research, automate - is the whole game, and every guide on this site hangs off it. Start with the beginner guide for the first-hour loop, then jump into tips for hotkeys, currencies and fast gold.
Hour one. Read the beginner guide before your first map. It covers what the three currencies do, where to place your first shaker, and how the research panel gates your unlocks. Then skim the tips guide - half of it is hotkeys you'll wish you knew ten minutes earlier, like V for the tile grid and W+Space to walk through your own factory.
First factory. Once gold is flowing, the core mechanics guide explains how the systems connect: wet sand into shakers, slag into presses, research into logistics. The Kinetic Press guide is the deep dive for the machine that prints most of your early gold, and the lava and water guide covers the two liquids that shape every map - including how to freeze lava into cinder so you can actually move it.
Going deeper. The copper and materials guide picks up where the early game ends, with the smelting chains and energy materials the official wiki now documents. When you want to bend the game itself, the mods guide walks through Steam Workshop support and the Fluxloader ecosystem as they stand after the Early Access launch.
Buying questions. If you haven't bought the game yet, the buying guides answer the rest: what it costs (and how long the launch discount runs), which platforms it's on, whether Game Pass includes it (it does - PC Game Pass), what the free demo lets you try, and how Sandustry compares to Factorio and Mindustry.
Sandustry Guides for Getting Started
First steps, hotkeys and where to begin.
When did Sandustry release?
Sandustry launched into Early Access on August 13, 2026 on Steam. The developer expects Early Access to last about a year. A full 1.0 release date has not been announced yet.
Is Sandustry multiplayer?
No. Steam and GOG both list Sandustry as single-player. The "online" version you may see mentioned is the browser demo, not online multiplayer. A community mod called Sandustry Together adds multiplayer, but it's unofficial.
Is Sandustry on Xbox Game Pass?
Yes - but on PC only. Sandustry joined PC Game Pass on day one (August 13, 2026) as a Game Preview title. There is no Xbox console version.
Can I mod Sandustry?
Yes. Steam Workshop support opened with Early Access and the community runs a separate loader called Fluxloader. There's no stable official mod API yet, so installation methods vary by mod.
Is Sandustry similar to Factorio?
In some ways - it shares Factorio's automation and production chains, but adds falling-sand pixel physics: the whole world is destructible, and every pixel can be mined, mixed and processed.
How much does Sandustry cost?
The list price is $14.99. A 35% launch discount ran on Steam and GOG through late August 2026, bringing it to around $9.75. Prices use regional pricing and may rise as Early Access content is added.
Is there a free demo?
Yes. There's a free standalone demo on Steam and a browser version on itch.io. The demo is an older build - the Early Access version is a rewrite of the simulation, so don't expect the same content.
Does Sandustry run on Mac and Linux?
Yes. Steam lists separate system requirements for Windows, macOS (12 or newer) and Linux, and GOG sells all three versions. There is no official mobile version.
How is the Early Access version holding up?
As of August 17, 2026, Sandustry sits at 97% positive across roughly 1,500 Steam reviews. Two patches shipped in the first week: a hotfix on August 14 and Update #1 (v0.5.4) on August 17.
Which guide should I read first?
The beginner guide. It walks through the first hour - sand, water, gold, research - and links to the deeper mechanics guides once your factory is running.
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