Sandustry Factory Tiers and Anomaly Gates

Sandustry uses three progress bars that players keep mixing up. Gold in a Collector buys Research nodes. Fluxite buys grabber and hover upgrades on the U panel. Factory Level (the factory tier) is a performance milestone granted by your off-world superiors: it gates later research, including the Energy shelf around tier 5. You can print gold all afternoon and still stare at a grey node if the tier objective is unfinished. This page is the gate, not a voltage spreadsheet — chain details stay on How to Get Energy.

Gold vs Factory Level vs Energy

Official beginner language: Factory Level is tiered access based on milestones that prove you already run the systems they handed you, plus interest in ruins and resources on the planet. It is not a second gold wallet. Spending 2,000 Gold on the Rocket Launcher does not raise Factory Level by itself.

Energy is a currency and a power store. Official wiki text unlocks Energy around Research tier 5. Florinol Batteries, the Drill, and the Snowmaker sit behind that shelf. If you only farm Fluxite, you will own a scanner and still bounce off Shatterstone.

After Hotfix 0.5.3, a blocked tier shows why. Special objectives are visually louder. Translations for those strings were still pending in the 0.5.3 note — switch the client to English once if your locale shows a blank reason.

Typical tier-5 blockers

Treat the in-game objective panel as canon. Community launch-week reports (Steam, Discord, Reddit) keep repeating two requirements that match that panel:

1. Produce Florinol at the volume the objective names (often cited around 10,000 — confirm the live number; do not grind a remembered figure after a patch).
2. Finish the anomaly investigation tied to the previous tier — follow the marker, retrieve the Orb (or equivalent artifact), and return so the tech tree notices.

Missing either one looks identical: Tier 5 stays blocked. 0.5.3 made the reason readable. Update 0.5.4 fixed a softlock where the tree stayed blocked even after the investigation, and repairs saves automatically on load.

How to run the anomaly without wrecking the factory

Anomaly rooms reuse the same physics as Artifacts and Puzzles. Pack Lights, a Grappling Hook if you have the node, and a tool that matches the biome (Flamethrower is often banned in frost puzzles; shovel Frostbed instead — Snow, Firn, and Frostbed).

Do not pause gold while you spelunk if the Florinol number is the other gate. Keep a starter factory printing Wet Sand, and a botanical line drying Amethelis into Florin / Florinol. The investigation is a trip, not a new shaker recipe.

If the marker points at a puzzle you cannot solve yet, the official beginner guide’s advice still holds: come back with later tools. 0.5.4 also restored puzzle reset buttons if you deleted one, and lets small demolisher selections chew red blocks that used to soft-lock a corridor (Demolisher).

After you load 0.5.4

1. Confirm the build number is 0.5.4 or newer.
2. Load the stuck save once so the automatic repair can run.
3. Read the highlighted objective. If it still names Florinol, finish the Energy chain — Steam-dry petals, heat to Florin gas, condense to liquid, fill batteries.
4. If it still names the anomaly, walk the marker; do not buy random Gold nodes hoping the gate notices.
5. If the tree is open, spend Energy on Drill or Snowmaker first, not decorative lamps.

What Factory Level is not

It is not shared multiplayer progression (the game is single-player). It is not the Steam achievement list (16 launch achievements are a separate overlay). It is not Fluxite. Mods via Fluxloader can hide or skip gates — this page describes vanilla EA from Lantto Games / Hooded Horse.

Related factory work

While a tier is blocked, you can still improve purity and throughput. Filters after 0.5.4 edit in place — useful when Florin leaks through a mis-set Advanced Filter. Material Ratios keeps sand : water : redsand honest so the botanical wing actually feeds the condenser. Research Priority still tells you which Gold node to buy inside an unlocked shelf.

Reporting a stuck tier after 0.5.4

If the auto-repair fails, send a 0.5.4 build number, whether the objective text is empty, and whether the anomaly marker still exists. Attach main.log from Crashes and Performance only if the client also dies — a grey node is not a crash. Feature requests belong on sandustry.nolt.io.

Session checklist

• Client 0.5.4+.
• Objective text read in English if translations are pending.
• Florinol production visible, not just Gold.
• Anomaly / orb trip done, or scheduled with Lights.
• Save reloaded once after the patch.
• Next Energy spend planned (Drill / Snowmaker).

Gold built the lake. Factory Level is the stamp that says the lake is good enough for the next crate of toys. Read the stamp before you blame the shaker.