Spend your first Fluxite here
- Material Scanner - read what each material can become
- Expanded Capacity - a larger grabber that holds more
- Digging Speed - mine faster on every swing
Upgrade guide
Sandustry Upgrade Priority: Which Fluxite Upgrades to Buy First
Research adds new machines and tools to your menu; Upgrades make the gear you already carry stronger. Because Fluxite is rare early on, the order you spend it in matters more than the total you dig up.
Fluxite upgrades
Community-tested order
Pairs with research
Verified against v0.5.5 on 2026-08-20
Official source
Two Currencies, One Goal
Most "what should I unlock first" questions mix up two separate lines. Keep them apart and you stop wasting both resources.
Gold adds buildings and tools
The Research tab spends Gold, Energy, or Auralite to put a new node into your menu. That is where Shaker, Launcher, Kinetic Press, and the other machines come from.
Fluxite strengthens what you carry
The Upgrade line spends Fluxite to improve your tools, weapons, and drones rather than add new ones to your menu.
Buy the First Three Upgrades in Order
This order comes from community guides and player feedback, not from a printed in-game rule. It is a recommendation for how to stretch early Fluxite, so treat it as a starting point rather than a law.
Material Scanner
Lets you hover over a material and see what it can become or how it can be used. It removes the guesswork from every new element you meet, which is the biggest early time-saver.
Checkpoint: hovering over a new material lists what it can become and how it is used.
Expanded Capacity
Enlarges your grabber so you pick up more material in one move. It directly cuts the repetition of hauling small amounts of dirt and sand by hand.
Checkpoint: one grabber move collects noticeably more material than before.
Digging Speed
Speeds up mining, which is the core mechanic everything else depends on. It keeps paying off for the rest of the run, not just the opening hour.
Checkpoint: the same swing clears ground faster than it did before the purchase.
The Research That Complements These Upgrades
Upgrades make you faster, but they do not add new machines. Pair them with a few high-value research nodes so the speed has somewhere to go.
Hover
Unlock Hover as soon as you can. Floating over your factory and dig site makes mining, building, and fixing a stalled line far less painful.
Flamethrower + Kinetic Press
These two roughly double your Gold payout by burning Residue and pressing the result. The Flamethrower also melts ice into water, extending your resource loop.
Where Fluxite Comes From
Upgrade advice is only useful if you can afford it. Fluxite changes source over a run, so plan around both stages.
Dig sparse deposits by chance
Fluxite spawns naturally in small amounts, so early upgrades are funded by whatever pockets you stumble into while digging.
Produce it on demand
The Flux Emanator converts Voidbloom into Fluxite, closing the loop from Redsand and Amethelis. Once that runs, upgrades stop being a scavenger hunt.
Keep the Two Lines Straight
A few naming and boundary points that trip players up, settled in one place.
Fluxite is the official name
The upgrade resource is officially called Fluxite, though players often shorthand it to "flux". Both names point to the same currency, and the Fluxite page covers its sources and uses.
Upgrades are not research
If a purchase puts a new machine in your menu, it is research. If it makes an existing tool better, it is an upgrade. The research order page handles the first line.
When the Priority Does Not Pay Off
These are the four ways early Fluxite can feel wasted, each paired with the fix that uses the currency and machines you actually have.
You bought research instead of an upgrade
If the purchase put a new machine in your menu, you spent research (Gold), not an upgrade (Fluxite). Check which tab and currency you were in before spending the rest, because the two budgets do not mix.
Upgrades outrun your machines
Fluxite strengthens what you carry but adds no new buildings. If you only have the starting tools, pair the early upgrades with a little research so the extra speed has somewhere to go.
Fluxite only comes from digging
If upgrades keep competing with chance pockets, work toward the Flux Emanator loop that converts Voidbloom into Fluxite on demand, so you stop relying on whatever you stumble into while digging.
Research and upgrades got mixed up
Research unlocks buildings; upgrades strengthen existing gear. Keep them as separate budgets, because spending the wrong currency leaves one line strong and the other empty.
Where to Go Next
With the first upgrades bought, these pages continue the same spending and building loop.
Spend Gold in the same spirit
Research grows the other half of your menu node by node, with the exact Gold costs written out.
Know every Fluxite source
Every way to get Fluxite, from sparse early pockets to the on-demand Emanator loop.
Double the Gold payout
Burn Residue and press the result so the machines your upgrades speed up are worth more.