Processing Plant — What It Actually Is
Straight answer: Sandustry has no building called a "Processing Plant." It appears in neither the wiki Buildings list nor any of the 46 Research items. What players mean by it is the game's production and refining chain — and that is fully documented below.
Why You Won't Find a "Processing Plant"
We checked every captured official source: the wiki Buildings list (16 entries) has no Processing Plant, and neither does the full 46-item Research tree. The phrase is a search term, not a machine name.
What the game does have is this official framing: "As you progress deeper into Sandustry, you will need to rely on more advanced production structures that refine resources through multiple stages to produce multiple other resources." Processing in Sandustry is a chain of specialized machines, not one big factory building.
One caveat: snapshots alone cannot fully rule out an in-game label somewhere (unverified — we will update if in-game checking finds one).
The Three Gold-Processing Structures
The official Beginner's Guide names the core trio: "Gold is essential for all Research, and three core structures refine resources into Gold: 1. The Shaker, 2. Kinetic Press, and 3. Planter Box. Each of these also produces a by-product that you will need for the next respective production method."
| Machine | Tier / Cost | Official research description |
|---|---|---|
| Shaker | Tier 1 — 20 Gold | "Unlocks the Shaker, which can separate Gold and Residue from Wet Sand." |
| Kinetic Press | Tier 2 — 500 Gold | "Unlocks the Kinetic Press to further process Burnt Residue into more gold and Seed." |
| Planter Box | Tier 3 — 2,000 Gold | Grows Wet Seeds into Flowers that yield Gold and Amethelis when harvested |
Each machine has its own in-depth page — see the links at the bottom.
Thermal Refining: The Other Half of Processing
Beyond the gold trio, refining runs on temperature: "Heat Thermal structures will only refine a solid resource into a liquid, or a liquid into a gas, while a Cold Thermal structure will refine resources in the reverse order." The research tree provides a whole family of these machines.
| Structure | Tier / Cost | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Thermal Buffer | Tier 2 — 1,000 Gold | Stores and distributes heat for nearby machines |
| Burner Belt | Tier 2 — 500 Gold | Ignites flammable materials when fueled through a Thermal Buffer |
| Pyro Dispenser | Tier 3 — 2,000 Gold | Fires flame bursts every 3 seconds beside a Thermal Buffer |
| Drying & Condensing | Tier 4 — 2,500 Gold | Steam Dryer dries materials; Condenser turns gases into liquids using snow |
| Smelter | Tier 5 — 3,000 Gold | Smelts elements placed on top, fueled by Thermal Buffer heat or Lava |
| Snowmaker | Tier 5 — 2,500 Gold | Converts Water into Snow using Energy |
| Synthesizer | Tier 6 — 7,500 Gold | Uses energy to convert one material into another |
Smelter, Synthesizer, Steam Dryer, Condenser and Snowmaker have no wiki articles yet — only these one-line research descriptions exist (details unverified).
A Full Chain in Practice
The official energy chain shows what multi-stage processing looks like end to end: "Amethelis → Use Steam to create Dry Amethelis → Heat to turn Dry Amethelis into Florin (Gas) → Cold to condense Florin into Florinol (Liquid) → Florinol put into a Florinol Battery."
The guide also distinguishes two energy sources: Florinol batteries use dried Amethelis petals broken down into florin, while power bricks are copper molds filled with liquid copper.
Working Tips From the Official Guide
- The Material Scanner upgrade for the Grabber lets you hover any resource to see how it can be refined or used.
- "If you're having trouble moving a resource up efficiently, consider if it can be converted into another state of matter to make the process easier."
- "When you're trying to isolate a byproduct on a busy factory line, filter blocks are your best friend."
Think chain, not building
Every "processing plant" in Sandustry is one you design yourself: Shaker line → burner → Kinetic Press tower → Planter Box farm, with Filters between the stages. The machine pages linked below give you each link of that chain.
Shaker Guide
Stage one of every processing chain.
Gold Production
The complete chain assembled, with numbers.