How to Move Lava in Sandustry
In Sandustry pipes will not carry Lava. Freeze it into Scoria with the Cryoblaster, dig it up as Cinder, belt the Cinder where you want it and relight it.
GamePrimer EditorialUpdated Verified
Pipes will not carry Lava — it is the single exception. Freeze it with Snow from the Cryoblaster and it becomes Scoria, a solid block. Dig the Scoria and it drops Cinder, which rides a Conveyor Belt like any other solid. Put the Cinder where you want the Lava and hit it with the Flamethrower.
Every other fluid in Sandustry moves the obvious way: a Pump at one end, Pipes in between, a Liquid Vent at the other. The official Beginner’s Guide names the exception in the same breath as the rule — Official“You can move any Fluid besides lava”.
So Lava does not travel as Lava. It travels as a rock.
The cycle
Four steps, each with a catch worth knowing before you build for it.
1. Freeze it — Cryoblaster, tier 2, 1,000 Gold
The Cryoblaster is the game’s snow gun, and it never runs dry: it will generate Snow indefinitely, which is what makes this loop repeatable rather than a one-off trick. Snow landing on Lava turns that Lava into Scoria.
Scoria exists for no other reason. It is not something you find while digging — the only way any Scoria comes into the world is by freezing Lava, which means finding a pool of it in the first place is unavoidable.
2. Dig it — 10 HP, any digging tool
Scoria takes 10 HP to break. That puts it above Dirt at 4 and Stone at 8, and below Redsoil at 20 — tougher than the ground around it, but not gated behind an unlock. Even the Shovel works.
Breaking it drops Cinder.
3. Move the Cinder
Cinder is an ordinary solid: density 50, and launchable. It rides Conveyor Belts and Launchers, and the Grabber carries it.
Note what it shares that number with: Residue and Burnt Residue are also 50. On a line carrying any of those together, nothing settles below anything else, so you cannot let the pile sort itself and skim Cinder off the bottom. A Filter set to allow Cinder still works — it sorts by name — but only if the Cinder actually reaches it. Feed that stretch as a thin, well-mixed layer rather than a deep pile, or run the Cinder on its own belt and skip the problem.
4. Light it — the Flamethrower, and nothing else
This is the step that catches people. Ambient heat will not do it; Cinder needs a direct flame on it to melt back into Lava. That means the Flamethrower — tier 2, 400 Gold, and cheaper than the Cryoblaster you already needed to start the cycle.
Where Lava comes from in the first place
Lava occurs naturally, deep underground, in the Lava Cave. Worlds are generated, so no coordinates will find it for you, but the cave is a fixture of every world rather than a lucky roll.
Two things Lava does once you have placed it
It ignites whatever passes over it. Lava can be held inside a Filter, and anything crossing that Filter catches fire if it is capable of burning. That is the no-moving-parts auto-burner behind the slag processing setup — and the official page names Flower auto-burners in the same breath, which is the cheap way to harvest a flower bed.
The official method for pinning it in place is worth spelling out, because it sounds backwards: set a Filter to allow Cinder only, put a solid block underneath it, fill it with Cinders, and light them. The Cinders become Lava with nowhere to go, and now you have a lava cell exactly where you wanted one. Run Residue along the belt over the top and it comes off as Burnt Residue.
It makes Steam without being consumed. Drop Water onto Lava and the Water flashes to Steam while the Lava stays exactly as it was — the pool does not shrink.
That second property is the one worth building around. A lava cell with water dripping onto it is a Steam source that never runs down, and Steam is what the Steam Turbine and the heat chain run on. The Cryoblaster closes the loop from the other side: Snow becomes Water, so the same tool that starts the lava cycle also feeds a renewable water supply — though the snow has to be heated and rained back down first. A captured Lumling is the other renewable route, and it skips the conversion entirely; the critters page compares the two.
The numbers
| Material | Density | HP | Comes from | Turns into |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lava | 75 | — | Cinder + fire | Scoria (with Snow) |
| Scoria | — | 10 | Freezing Lava | Cinder (when broken) |
| Cinder | 50 | — | Breaking Scoria | Lava (Flamethrower) |
At density 75, Lava sits between Residue at 50 and Water at 100 — in a mixed pool it sinks below the Water and floats above the Residue.
Related
- Sandustry Slag and Residue Processing — the Lava auto-burner, in full
- Sandustry Heat and the Thermal Buffer — where the Steam goes
- Sandustry Filters Explained — why density decides what a Filter ever sees
- How to Move Water in Sandustry — the fluid that does go down a pipe
