BlockFactory:Belts

Belts move items through your factory. Belt T1 is available from the start; faster tiers, Underground Belts and Splitters come with the Logistics research line. Belts need no power and make no noise.

Belts and drills on the steppe

Belt tiers

	Belt	Epoch	Unlocked by	Speed	Per lane	Per belt	Recipe
	Belt T1	0	Start	1.875 blocks/s	3.75 items/s	7.5 items/s	1 Iron Gear + 1 Iron Plate → 2
	Belt T2	2	Logistics 2	3.75 blocks/s	7.5 items/s	15 items/s	1 Belt T1 + 5 Iron Gear
	Belt T3	3	Logistics 3	5.625 blocks/s	11.25 items/s	22.5 items/s	1 Belt T2 + 10 Iron Gear + 1 Plastic Bar
	Belt T4	5	Logistics 4	7.5 blocks/s	15 items/s	30 items/s	1 Belt T3 + 2 Steel Plate + 1 Processing Unit

All belts are 1 × 1. A Research Capsule (see Research) can also unlock the alternate recipe Stone Belt (2 Stone Brick + 1 Iron Gear → 2 Belt T1, Fabricator only), see Recipes.

Two lanes

Every belt has two lanes, left and right in the direction of travel. Each lane holds 2 items per block. Items stay on their lane along straight belts, through curves and across a change of tier, so one belt can carry two different items, for example ore on one lane and coal on the other. Where a belt line ends, the items stop and back up.

Curves and side loading

You never place a curve by hand. A belt decides from its neighbours:

• Straight: a belt continues the belt that points into its back.
• Curve: if nothing points into its back and exactly one belt points into its side, it becomes a curve. Left stays left.
• Side loading: any other belt that points into the side feeds in from the side. Both lanes of the feeding belt go onto the near lane of the target belt, and only into gaps. The through belt has priority.
• Two belts that point at each other do not connect.

Side loading is the usual way to fill a single lane on purpose.

Putting items on and taking them off

Look at a belt and press Use:

• With an item in your hand, one item goes onto the lane you aim at. In Creative mode the stack stays in your hand.
• With an empty hand, you take one item off the lane you aim at. If that lane is empty, you get one from the other lane.

Grabbers and drills (Mining) also put items on belts: a drill puts them on the near lane, a grabber on the far lane. Items lying on the ground are not picked up.

A belt that runs into the Portal of the Ancient, a research center, the Outlander Test Site or the Great Portal Altar delivers into it directly. Other buildings, such as furnaces, need a grabber.

When you pick up a belt, the items on it go into your inventory together with the belt; whatever does not fit drops to the ground.

Underground Belts

An Underground Belt carries items under other buildings. Place two in a row facing the same way: an entrance and an exit. Items go into the entrance, skip the gap and come out of the exit at the speed of the tier.

	Underground Belt	Epoch	Unlocked by	Max gap	Recipe
	Underground Belt T1	1	Logistics	4 blocks	10 Iron Plate + 5 Belt T1 → 2
	Underground Belt T2	2	Logistics 2	6 blocks	2 Underground Belt T1 + 40 Iron Gear → 2
	Underground Belt T3	3	Logistics 3	8 blocks	2 Underground Belt T2 + 80 Iron Gear + 2 Plastic Bar → 2
	Underground Belt T4	5	Logistics 4	10 blocks	2 Underground Belt T3 + 20 Steel Plate + 2 Processing Unit → 2

The speed of each Underground Belt matches the belt of the same tier. The max gap is the number of blocks between entrance and exit.

Which end is the entrance depends only on position, not on the order you place them:

• Underground Belts of the same tier and direction in one row take turns along the direction of travel: entrance, exit, entrance, exit.
• If the next one is farther away than the max gap, it starts over as an entrance.
• The exit has its own model, so you can see which end is which.

An entrance is closed at the front, and an exit only takes items from its entrance. You can side-load into both ends, and Use works on them as on a normal belt.

Splitters

A Splitter is three blocks wide (3 × 1). Belts can run into all three blocks from behind. The Splitter passes the items on to the belts in front of its left and right blocks, each lane on its own; the middle block has no output.

	Splitter	Epoch	Unlocked by	Recipe
	Splitter T1	1	Logistics	5 Electronic Circuit + 5 Iron Plate + 4 Belt T1
	Splitter T2	2	Logistics 2	1 Splitter T1 + 10 Iron Gear + 10 Electronic Circuit
	Splitter T3	3	Logistics 3	1 Splitter T2 + 10 Iron Gear + 10 Advanced Circuit
	Splitter T4	5	Logistics 4	1 Splitter T3 + 10 Steel Plate + 5 Processing Unit

Without settings, a Splitter alternates: one item left, the next one right. If one side is blocked, everything goes to the other. Press Use on a Splitter to open its window:

• Input priority (Left, None, Right): the Splitter takes from the belt behind that side first; the other inputs only get a turn when nothing waits there.
• Output priority (Left, None, Right): items go to that side first and only spill over to the other side when it is full.
• Filter: Use held item sets the item in your hand as the filter, Clear filter removes it. Matching items go to the output priority side (left if none is set), everything else goes to the other side. With a filter there is no spill-over: if a side is blocked, its items wait.

To copy the settings to other Splitters, crouch and right-click one Splitter, then crouch and left-click the others. Grabbers can also put items into a Splitter and take them out of it.

See also

• Grabbers
• Mining
• Railways
• Goblin Planner
• Buildings