Sandustry controls

Move through the factory

Hover is a 50 Gold research node. Demo Hotfix 7, after an 88 percent vote, lets you phase through buildings while hovering so a tight deck is still traversable. Descend with S in community references so you can align a lower belt with an upper launcher. Grappling Hook is the vertical tool when hover is not enough.

You are not a platformer character first. You are a walking editor. If you cannot reach a jam, the factory is illegal even if it prints Gold.

Build and delete

R toggles linear versus rectangular build in community control guides. That is how you paint a floor or a long conveyor run. X deletes. Shift plus a marquee selects a belt segment for mass delete, which matches the official Marquee building page existing as its own article. Demo Hotfix 8 lets you hold Control to replace or override buildings in place. Use that on Planter rows and Filter swaps.

Launchers have an extra placement rule: hold Shift to skip the outlet when chaining several so two launchers do not double-feed one tile. That single habit saves more Gold than a new Shaker.

Tool habits

Flamethrower is a precision heat brush, not a room clearer, unless you want Moss and flowers on fire. Vacuum is the jam tool inside enclosed conveyor rooms. Cryoblaster writes Ice plugs. Rocket Launcher opens volume and, with Napalm, can boil water. None of these replace the editor keys. A factory you cannot edit is a demo you will abandon.

Keys worth muscle memory

Hover on, descend with S, R for paint mode, X to delete, Control to replace, Shift to skip launcher outlets and to marquee. That is the set that shows up in patch notes or in every serious community control page. The rest is mouse aim and tool swapping.

Rebind only after you can perform those six without looking. Early Access will patch tools faster than it will patch the editor. v0.5.3 did not touch these bindings. A custom scheme that fights the next hotfix is a self-inflicted jam.

More detail worth keeping

Your hands should be able to paint a belt, delete a belt, replace a Filter, skip a launcher outlet, hover through a jam, and descend to the lower deck without opening this page. That is the competency bar. Everything else is tool flavor. If a key fight your muscle memory, write it on a sticky, not in a custom scheme you will forget after a week away. The official Marquee page existing as its own building is the tell: selection is a first-class verb. Use it. Mass delete is cheaper than a new planet.

Practice that survives a patch

Practice the Control-replace on a row of Lights before you practice it on Filters. Lights are cheap and they teach the muscle. Then replace a Filter that is facing the wrong way. Then replace a Planter that grew against a wall. After that you will stop demolishing good floors to fix one tile. That is the only control skill that scales into a 2000 Gold factory.

Close the loop

After every research buy, spend thirty seconds in paint mode. Extend the belt you now need. Delete the belt you now hate. Replace the building the new node made obsolete. Then go mine. People who skip that minute create the jams they later blame on physics.

Do not rebind hover to a mouse button you use for mining. You will hover into lava once and then write a Reddit post. Keep hover on a key you cannot click by accident.

Frequently asked questions