Sandustry Energy Unlocks
Four power buildings and one tool, what the game says each does, what unlocking them really costs, and the three things documented as needing power.
GamePrimer EditorialUpdated Verified
The five Energy unlocks list 8,500 Gold between them, but unlocking all five costs 11,500 — the Copper Mold needs the Smelter first. Three things in the research tree are stated to need power: the Drill and the Snowmaker in tier 5, and the Synthesizer in tier 6.
Energy is late and expensive. This page is the list of what exists, what each costs, and what the game says it is for — so you can decide whether tier 5 is where your Gold should go.
The five unlocks
| Unlock | Tier | Cost | What the research tree says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy Connector | 5 | 1,000 Gold | The Energy Connector, to pass Energy between power structures. |
| Energy Siphon | 5 | 1,000 Gold | The Energy Siphon tool, to transfer energy between power stores. |
| Florinol Battery | 5 | 1,500 Gold | The Florinol Battery, which stores Florinol as energy to power machinery or tools. |
| Copper Mold | 5 | 2,000 Gold | The Copper Mold, for casting the Power Brick from Liquid Copper. The Power Brick stores large amounts of Energy and can be recharged automatically with input from a Generator. |
| Steam Turbine | 5 | 3,000 Gold | The Steam Turbine, for automated power generation. |
The last column reports the research tree's own description of each unlock. Cost is the unlock's own price, before prerequisites.
Four of them are buildings; the Energy Siphon is a tool, which the research tree says outright. All five are tier 5, and their own prices add up to 8,500 Gold. That is not what it costs to own them: the Copper Mold requires the Smelter, which is not one of the five, so the real total for the set is 11,500 Gold.
Two notes the table’s own wording earns:
The Copper Mold is the only one with stated prerequisites. It needs the Smelter and the Florinol Battery first, which the research tree records directly, putting its own real cost at 6,500 Gold rather than 2,000 — and dragging the Smelter’s 3,000 into the set total above. It casts the Power Brick from Liquid Copper, and the game says the Power Brick Officialstores large amounts of Energy and can be recharged automatically with input from a Generator.
The Battery and the Turbine do different jobs. The Florinol Battery stores Florinol as energy; the Steam Turbine is described as automated power generation. One holds, one makes.
What actually needs Energy
Three unlocks in the entire research tree state that they require it:
| Needs Energy | Tier | Own price | With prerequisites | What the tree says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill | 5 | 2,500 Gold | 6,000 Gold | To break through hard materials. Requires Energy to run. |
| Snowmaker | 5 | 2,500 Gold | 2,500 Gold | Converts Water into Snow using Energy. |
| Synthesizer | 6 | 7,500 Gold | 7,500 Gold | Uses energy to convert one material into another. |
That is the whole demand side. The Drill is the one with a concrete consequence you can check: it is one of only three tools that breaks Stone and Copper Ore, so terrain you cannot get through is terrain that needs power. The maps page has which tool breaks what.
Should you unlock it
Compare against what the same Gold buys elsewhere. Every priced unlock in tier 1 and tier 2 comes to 6,350 Gold — the Shaker, Logistics, the Filter, the Kinetic Press, the Thermal Buffer, the Cryoblaster, the Flamethrower and the rest. Energy’s five list at 8,500, and 11,500 with the Smelter you need for the Copper Mold.
So the case for Energy is specific rather than general. It is worth it if you want the Drill for hard terrain, the Snowmaker for snow without the Cryoblaster, or you are heading for the Synthesizer in tier 6 — which you can research without any of this, but cannot run without it. If none of those three is where you are going, this branch unblocks nothing.
The research planner shows what each of these costs once prerequisites are counted, and how much Gold you still need.
What this page does not tell you
The research tree names each building and states what it does on its own. It does not say how they connect to each other, in what order to place them, how far a connection reaches, or what a working power setup looks like end to end. The official wiki has no page for any of the five — all of them are unwritten entries in its index.
None of that is documented anywhere official, so none of it is asserted here. When it is written down — by the wiki or by us testing it first-hand — this page gets that section.
Related
- Sandustry Heat and the Thermal Buffer — the other supply system, and better documented
- Sandustry Maps and Exploration — which terrain needs the Drill
- Sandustry Research Planner — tier 5 against everything else
