Fluids

Water, steam, oil and acid travel through pipes. You lay your first pipes in Epoch 1 for steam power; later tiers carry oil products and finally corrosive Sulfuric Acid.

How pipes work

• Pipes connect on their own. A pipe links to pipes on its four sides and to every machine connection that points at it. Pipes do not connect up or down. The shape (straight, end, corner, T, cross or single) follows from the neighbours automatically.
• One pipe network, one fluid. All connected pipes form one network with one shared content. A network only takes the fluid it already carries. Keep separate fluids in separate pipe runs.
• Each pipe holds 100 units. Flow is not limited: a network carries whatever its pumps and machines put in.
• The window in each pipe shows which fluid is inside.
• The weakest pipe decides. If any pipe in a network cannot carry a fluid, the whole network refuses it.
• Pipe and Storage Tank contents are not saved. After a server restart they start empty and refill from pumps and machines within seconds.

Pipes

	Pipe T1	Pipe T2	Pipe T3	Reinforced Pipe T1	Reinforced Pipe T2	Reinforced Pipe T3
Epoch	0	2	3	3	4	5
Unlocked by	Start	Fluid Handling	Reinforced Pipes	Reinforced Pipes	Fortification	Nuclear Power
Carries	Water, Steam	all except Sulfuric Acid	all except Sulfuric Acid	all fluids	all fluids	all fluids
Recipe	1 Iron Plate	1 Steel Plate + 1 Pipe T1	2 Steel Plate → 2	2 Steel Plate + 1 Plastic Bar → 2	2 Reinforced Pipe T1 + 1 Rune Slate → 2	1 Reinforced Pipe T2 + 2 Concrete + 1 Steel Plate

All pipes are 1 × 1. Sulfuric Acid is corrosive and needs a Reinforced Pipe.

Underground Pipes

An Underground Pipe connects to a normal pipe at its back and jumps underground to the next Underground Pipe of the same tier in front of it. Place the second one facing the other way, like an underground belt. Underground Pipes carry every fluid.

	Underground Pipe T1	Underground Pipe T2	Underground Pipe T3
Epoch	2	3	4
Unlocked by	Fluid Handling	Reinforced Pipes	Fortification
Gap	up to 10 blocks	up to 15 blocks	up to 20 blocks
Recipe	5 Iron Plate + 2 Pipe T2 → 2	5 Steel Plate + 2 Pipe T3 → 2	4 Steel Plate + 2 Reinforced Pipe T1 → 2

Each tier only connects to its own tier.

Pumps and tanks

	Water Pump	Storage Tank	Fluid Pump
Epoch	1	2	3
Unlocked by	Steam Power	Fluid Handling	Reinforced Pipes
Size	1 × 2	3 × 3	1 × 2
Capacity	outputs 1200 water/s	25,000 units	200 units
Recipe	2 Electronic Circuit + 1 Pipe T1 + 1 Iron Gear	20 Iron Plate + 5 Steel Plate	1 Engine Unit + 1 Steel Plate + 1 Pipe T3

• Water Pump: place it at the shore while looking at the water. The walkway goes over the water, the outlet faces you. It needs no power. Without water under its walkway it pumps nothing.
• Storage Tank: a buffer for any fluid, with one connection in the middle of each side. Use opens a window with its fluid and fill level. Each side is its own pipe network: the tank keeps them apart and balances them like connected vessels. So a Pipe T1 on one side does not block oil coming in through Pipe T2 on another side (the T1 side simply stays empty).
• Fluid Pump: a small inline buffer with a connection at the back and the front, for any fluid. It shows when fluid is flowing. Fluids lose no pressure over distance, so you mainly need it to fill and empty a Fluid Wagon at a station.

Oil comes from the Oil Pumpjack, see Oil Processing.

Fluids

Fluid	Where it comes from
Water	Water Pump
Steam	Water Boiler, Heat Exchanger
Crude Oil	Oil Pumpjack
Heavy Oil, Light Oil, Petroleum Gas	Oil Processor, cracking in the Chemical Plant
Lubricant	Fabricator T2 (from Tallow and Water), Chemical Plant (from Heavy Oil)
Sulfuric Acid	Chemical Plant (from Sulfur, Iron Plate and Water)

In recipe windows a fluid shows up as an icon with an amount. You can never hold a fluid in your inventory.

Machine connections

Machines with fluid inputs or outputs have pipe stubs on their model: Water Boiler, Steam Generator, Fabricator T2 and T3, Tree Farm, Oil Processor, Chemical Plant, Auto Drill (for acid), Flame Tower, Heat Exchanger and Steam Turbine. A pipe must touch the stub. A Fabricator only opens its fluid connections while it runs a recipe that needs them.

Status icons

Icon	Meaning	Fix
Wrong Pipe	A machine or pump is connected to pipes that cannot carry its fluid. The icon names the lowest pipe that can, e.g. "needs Pipe T2" or "needs Reinforced Pipe".	Replace the weak pipes in that network.
Tank Full	A machine's output tank is full, so it stopped.	Connect a pipe that takes the fluid away, or a Storage Tank.

More icons: Status Icons and Warnings.

See also

• Power
• Oil Processing
• Railways
• Nuclear Power