Your production chain is only as good as the pixels that reach the next machine. Conveyor Belts are the horizontal workhorses, Launchers are how you fight gravity, and Filters are how you split a mixed stream. Learn the rules once and the same three parts solve most factory problems.
Most layouts are just these three pieces arranged in a loop: belt the material sideways, launch it upward, filter what should and should not continue.
A belt has no throughput cap: it advances as many pixels as the space ahead allows. Only the layer directly on the surface is driven; anything stacked above just rides along on top of it. If the leading pixel is stuck, the entire pile holds still rather than flowing over the blockage.
Checkpoint: a pile on the belt advances exactly as far as the clear space ahead of it.
A Launcher pushes solid pixels upward. Reaching the far end, they coast a short way past it, drop back onto the machine, and bob on its top while they wait for a way out. Angle the top Launcher of a tower and the pixels fire out to whichever side it faces, turning a straight column into a vertical lift.
Checkpoint: pixels rise up the column and fire out the angled top in the direction it faces.
The Filter behaves like a Conveyor Belt with one extra rule: it only lets the elements you specify continue past it. When a single line carries several solids, a Filter is what stops them from piling up at the wrong machine.
Checkpoint: chosen elements pass the Filter while everything else stops at it.
A Conveyor Belt seals out liquids, gases, and the player, so it can double as a wall. A Launcher blocks none of them, so liquids and gases flow straight through it. That difference decides which one you use when a line has to cross a reservoir.
Checkpoint: a line that needs to cross a reservoir uses a Launcher, not a belt that would seal it.
Logistics is not a late-game luxury. It is the research that turns the manual hauling of the opening minutes into a line that runs while you dig.
The Logistics research node unlocks both the Conveyor Belt and the Launcher in one purchase, and it sits right next to the Shaker in Tier 1. It is the cheapest automation step in the entire tree.
Belt the Wet Sand toward your Shaker staircase, launch material out of pits, and the first Gold line stops needing your hands on every single pixel.
A blocked bottom pixel can stop an entire pile on a belt. If material backs up, the cause is usually a jam at the front of the line, not a broken belt.
Four common logistics failures, each paired with the mover rule behind it and the fix that uses the right part.
A blocked leading pixel stops the entire heap, because a belt only drives the surface layer and nothing flows over the blockage. Clear the jam at the front of the line; the belt is not broken.
Launchers sample their tile on an interval, so a pixel that has just dropped in can sit for a moment. Give it a beat or nudge the pixel back onto the tile instead of rebuilding the machine.
A Conveyor Belt blocks liquids and gases, so across a reservoir it acts as a wall. Swap for a Launcher, which lets liquids and gases flow straight through.
When one line carries several solids and nothing splits them, they pile up at the first machine the stream reaches. Insert a Filter set to the element you want to continue.
The three movers each have a deeper mechanics page that covers the full rules behind the steps above.
Every rule of the horizontal workhorse, from direction to what it seals out.
The physics behind vertical lifts, angled tops, and what passes through it.
How the belt-with-a-rule splits mixed streams, and where it fits in the tree.
Most early logistics failures make sense once you separate three jobs clearly: belts move solids sideways, launchers lift them through space, and filters split mixed lines.
Exact route shape, final throughput, and which mover feels best still depend on map geometry, elevation, and what else must cross the same space.
Conveyor Belts move solids sideways, Launchers lift them vertically, and Filters separate mixed streams by allowing only chosen elements through.
Use a Launcher when material must rise or when liquids and gases need to pass through the same space. Belts are better for flat solid transport and wall-like separation.
The usual cause is a blocked front pixel, wrong receiving tile, or mixed materials arriving together without a Filter.