Sandustry Spores, Seeds, and Flowers
The press byproduct that feeds planters — wet spores, seeds, and the flower line that prints Amethelis.
Every clean hit on a Kinetic Slag Press yields Gold and a Spore. Players who only chase gold throw the second output into a pit and then wonder why Planter Boxes starve. Spores are the industrial seed stock of Sandustry’s botanical wing: wet them, plant them, grow Flowers, harvest Amethelis, mix Voidbloom, and grow Fluxite. This page follows the particle from the press chute to the greenhouse.
Where Spores come from
Spores are a press byproduct, not a surface crop. You cannot shake them from Wet Sand. Throughput scales with Burnt Slag drops, which scale with shaker slag, which scales with wetting. If spore production is low, fix mining and burning before building more boxes (Kinetic Slag Press, How to Get Gold).
At high press rates, spores stack about three tiles under the machine. Leave that headroom or they cap the press and gold stops too. Filter spores away from gold collectors so the wallet and the farm do not share a clogged hopper (Collectors and Lights).
Wet Spores
Spores + Water → Wet Spores, using the same sand-physics mixing instinct as Sand + Water → Wet Sand. A small wash station — gravity drip, pump, or sponge tool — is enough. Do not flood the press hall; steam rain also threatens lava pits (Water, Ice, and Steam, Lava, Scoria, and Cinder).
Wet Spores are what Planter Boxes want. Dry spores in soil underperform; treat washing as a required step, not optional flavour.
Seeds and Flowers
Official material lists include Seed, Flower, Spore, and Wet Spore as related organics. In factory practice:
- Planter Boxes filled with Soil take Wet Spores (and related seed stock depending on patch).
- Mature Flowers drop Amethelis petals and a little Gold when harvested, burned, or processed.
- Hotfix 8 changed the flower algorithm — yields in old videos may not match live EA. Rebuild a test box after patches (Demo Patches, Flowers and Planters).
Fire is a double tool: a controlled burn can harvest petals; stray Embers from slag lava will delete a greenhouse. Wall farms off from burn halls.
Why this chain exists
Gold buys Research. Fluxite buys tool and drone upgrades. Fluxite does not fall from shakers. The published loop is:
Flowers → Amethelis + RedSand → Voidbloom → Flux Emanator → Fluxite crystals below the tile.
Spores are how a slag factory funds that loop without waiting on wild flower patches. If RedSand is the bottleneck, stop adding planters and dig (RedSand and Fluxite, Voidbloom and Amethelis). If Amethelis overflows, you have too many flowers for your redsand belt — throttle boxes, do not delete spores (store them).
Layout: press to greenhouse
- Press outputs split: gold → Collector; spores → wash.
- Wet spore belt to Planter Boxes on a surface row if you rely on Hydro Sponge Grabber (above ground only after Hotfix 8).
- Petal catch under boxes → Amethelis chest → mixer with RedSand.
- Voidbloom up to the single Flux Emanator with open shaft below (Flux Emanator).
Use Filters so wet spores never re-enter the Burnt Slag drop. Organic pixels in the kinetic window clog the press just like extra slag.
Density and handling
Spores are lighter, stacky organics compared with slag. Launchers can toss them; water can wash them off belts. Hauler Drones help when the greenhouse is far from the press (Drones). Do not store dry spores in a flooded basement.
Early Access
The spore → planter link is easy to miss in launch-week streams that only show gold. In Early Access after 2026-08-13, Fluxite upgrades (scanner, hover, capacity) make the botanical wing mandatory rather than optional flavour (Fluxite Upgrades). Demo players may hit research caps before the greenhouse pays off — EA is where the loop should run to completion.
Related
- Flowers and Planters — Box construction and fire safety.
- How to Get Fluxite — End of the chain.
- Slag Processing — How spores are born.
- Material Ratios — When petals outrun redsand.
Treat Spore as a product with a customer (the greenhouse), not as press dust. The factories that do this have Fluxite in the shop instead of a pretty but empty emanator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Sandustry questions.
How do I get Spores in Sandustry?
Drop **Burnt Slag** on a Kinetic Slag Press. Each hit yields Gold and a Spore.
What do I do with Spores?
Wet them, put **Wet Spores** in **Planter Boxes**, grow Flowers, and harvest **Amethelis** for the Fluxite chain.
Why are spores clogging my press?
They stack ~three tiles high. Catch them on a lower floor and filter them off the gold collector.
Do I need spores if I find wild flowers?
Wild patches help, but press spores scale with your slag line. Industrial Fluxite wants a greenhouse, not luck.
Can I skip washing spores?
Planters expect **Wet Spores**. Dry dumping into soil is a common reason boxes look “broken.”