Water is the first resource that runs out. Sand is everywhere; the water to wash it is not, and most early factories stall the first time a pool runs dry. Here is every source the game has, and the machinery that turns steam from a loss into a loop.
Every way to get water
- Melt snow and ice. Any fire source turns Snow into Water; Ice cannot be dug, only melted. Frostbed ground is too hard to melt directly — dig it to collect Snow instead.
- Rain from steam. Steam that rises to the Sky condenses and falls back as rain. Steam trapped under a ceiling condenses on its own after about 30 seconds.
- Pump underground deposits. Standing water pockets exist underground; pipe them out with Pumps.
- The Cryoblaster loop. The wiki says it outright: melting Cryoblaster snow "can create infinite water." The Cryoblaster produces endless Snow; Snow burns into Water; the Tier 5 Snowmaker closes the circle by turning Water back into Snow with Energy. This is the intended renewable source.
- Lumlings. Capture enough of these critters in one place and they produce "a small but constant supply of water" — a cute trickle, not an industry.
Two loss mechanics to design around: stray droplets that never settle into a pool evaporate after about 45 seconds, and water that lands on Lava flashes to Steam without consuming the lava. Sloppy plumbing literally evaporates.
Condensing steam back
If you searched "sandustry boiler": there is no machine called a boiler. Heating is done by the Flamethrower, Burner Belts, Thermal Buffers, Pyro Dispensers and Lava; condensing has dedicated machinery:
- The Condenser (Tier 4 research, "Drying & Condensing", 2500 Gold) converts gases into liquids using Snow — steam in, water out, where you want it. The same research unlocks the Steam Dryer, which uses your steam to dry materials instead.
- The Steam Turbine (Tier 5, 3000 Gold) burns steam for automated power and exhausts Depleted Steam. Depleted Steam that rises into a Condenser becomes water again; Depleted Steam that reaches the Sky simply vanishes. A turbine without a condenser above it is quietly throwing water away.
- No machinery at all: cap your steam under a ceiling and wait 30 seconds, or let it rain from the Sky. Slow, but free.
Consumption ratios
The numbers the wiki gives for water use: 1 Sand + 1 Water = 2 Wet Sand for the sifting line, and 1 Seed + 1 Water = 1 Wet Seed for the farming line (see the seeds guide). The community-measured chart hosted on the official wiki puts the whole chain at 2 sand : 3 water : 4 redsand ending in 3 gold and 8 fluxite — water is consumed faster than sand, so the water loop deserves at least as much conveyor space as the sand line.
The demo-era duplication trick
In the demo, exploding Rocket Launcher fire against water duplicated it through the water→steam→water cycle (Flamethrower fire specifically did not, and rockets do not produce fire underwater — players detonated them against bedrock at the waterline). This is documented demo behaviour; whether the Early Access build retains it is unconfirmed — the Cryoblaster loop above is the supported route.