S Sandustry Tips
Gold factory blueprint

Sandustry Gold Factory Blueprint: Shaker Staircase

Layout concept: feed Wet Sand from the high side of a descending Shaker staircase, keep the area below open for Gold, and give Residue a clear path off the low side. This follows the official Shaker tip; the full layout has not been independently benchmarked by this site.

Evidence: Source-based layout — not independently tested Source checked: 2026-08-23 Primary source
Evidence level

Source-based, not “tested optimal”

The Shaker behavior and diagonal-staircase recommendation come from the official wiki. Spacing and surrounding logistics are recommendations you should adapt to your terrain.

Sandustry Gold factory schematic with Wet Sand entering a descending Shaker staircase, Gold falling below and Residue exiting to the side
Source-based Shaker staircase schematic. Not to scale; adapt the surrounding transport to your map.

What the layout needs

  • A controlled Wet Sand input
  • One or more Shakers arranged downward from the input side
  • Open collection space below for Gold
  • A side/downhill exit for Residue
  • A way to keep foreign solids out of the Shaker body

Why the staircase works

The official Shaker page notes that Shakers move Residue very slowly and recommends a downward diagonal layout. Wet Sand is denser than Residue, so incoming Wet Sand can settle on the machines while Residue is displaced toward the output.

Build sequence

  1. Build the staircase first

    Place the Shakers as descending steps before connecting a large input. You want to see the material path clearly.

  2. Open the space underneath

    Gold passes through the Shaker; do not place an unrelated solid-processing line directly under the output.

  3. Add Wet Sand gradually

    Start with a controlled feed. Watch whether fresh Wet Sand spreads across the Shakers or immediately buries one location.

  4. Watch the Residue exit

    If Residue has nowhere to go, adding more input only makes the backup harder to diagnose.

Failure recovery

Wet Sand piles in one spot

Reduce the feed and confirm the staircase slopes away from the input. More input is not a fix for poor distribution.

Residue covers the line

Clear the exit and reduce incoming Wet Sand until the top surface becomes readable again.

Something is trapped inside

Non-Gold solids can become trapped in a Shaker body and may need manual removal.

Gold output looks inconsistent

Shaker Gold is probabilistic at 25% per Wet Sand pixel. Check the input and machine behavior before assuming a fault from a short sample.

Prerequisite / next

Read Wet Sand mechanics if the input is unclear. If the layout stops, go to Factory Troubleshooting.

Primary sources