Beginner tutorial

Sandustry Tutorial: Your First Gold in Five Steps

This page walks the opening loop step by step: dig Dirt into Sand, mix it with Water into Wet Sand, and run it down a Shaker staircase until Gold drops out the bottom. Every number here comes from the official Sandustry wiki, so you can verify each step as you build it.

5 steps Official wiki numbers Verifiable checkpoints No spoilers

Next: Early Game Tips Read Water Guide

Verified against v0.5.5 on 2026-08-20 Official source

The loop you are building

Dig sand, wet it, shake out Gold

Destroying Dirt drops Sand
1 Sand + 1 Water becomes 2 Wet Sand
Wet Sand on a Shaker always leaves 1 Residue, with a 25% chance of 1 Gold
Gold falls through the Shaker; roughly 4 Sand yields 1 Gold overall

Quick answer

How to get Gold in Sandustry

Dig Dirt to drop Sand, mix it with Water (1 Sand + 1 Water becomes 2 Wet Sand), and feed the Wet Sand onto a Shaker. Each Wet Sand pixel always leaves 1 Residue and has a 1-in-4 chance of dropping 1 Gold straight through the machine. Slope several Shakers into a descending staircase so the Residue keeps sliding off the top.

The Five Steps

Follow these in order. Each step has a checkpoint so you can confirm it worked before moving on.

Step 1

Dig Dirt to get Sand

Sand is not lying around as a free layer; it is dropped by destroying Dirt. Dig into the ground and let the falling Sand pile up somewhere you can reach.

Checkpoint: a growing pile of Sand sits where you dug.

Step 2

Add Water to make Wet Sand

One Sand pixel plus one Water pixel turns into two Wet Sand pixels, so water doubles your material. Surface lakes and underground deposits are your starting water sources.

Checkpoint: the pile darkens into Wet Sand as water touches it.

Step 3

Build a diagonal Shaker staircase

The Shaker is the first building that produces Gold. Instead of a flat row, stack your Shakers as descending steps beneath the Wet Sand input: Wet Sand is denser than Residue, so it flows down the staircase in a thin layer and pushes Residue toward the output.

Checkpoint: Shakers form a descending staircase, each one level lower than the last.

Step 4

Feed Wet Sand and collect Gold

Drop Wet Sand on top of the staircase. Each pixel always becomes 1 Residue, with a 1-in-4 chance to also drop 1 Gold straight through the bottom. Expect roughly 1 Gold per 4 Sand; keep feeding until Gold appears.

Checkpoint: Gold falls out under the Shakers while Residue spills off the top edge.

Step 5

Turn the Residue into Seeds

The Residue left on top is not garbage. Burn it into Burnt Residue (some guides call this leftover "Slag"), then drop it onto a Kinetic Press from 25 or more blocks up: it yields 1 Gold and 1 Seed, and that Seed opens the whole flower and Amethelis loop.

Checkpoint: Residue stops piling up and starts feeding your next production chain.

Beginner Mistakes This Loop Teaches You to Avoid

All four of these come straight from official wiki mechanics notes, and each one can stall the five steps above.

Water loss

Stray droplets evaporate

A water droplet that does not settle into a depression within 45 seconds evaporates. Route water into a basin instead of letting it skitter across flat ground.

Water loss

Liquid slips through corners

Water cannot pass solid blocks, but it can slip through where two block corners meet. Seal diagonal joints in your reservoir walls.

Shaker trap

Foreign solids get stuck

Gold is the only solid that passes through a Shaker. Anything else dropped into its body stays trapped until you dig it out manually.

Throughput

Shakers push Residue very slowly

One Shaker backs up fast. That is why the diagonal staircase matters: gravity and density do the moving, and each step adds processing capacity.

Where to Go Next

Once Gold is flowing, these pages extend the same loop instead of starting a new one.

Stability