BlockFactory:Goblins

Goblins are the first creatures you meet. They come through the Portal of the Ancient for worked metal, study your products at the Goblin Research Center and, from Epoch 2 on, fly items between your Logistic Chests like logistic robots. Their bigger cousins, the Hob-Goblins, build for you.

Trapped Goblins

The Goblin call at the portal gives a Trapped Goblin: a Goblin in a crystal trap-stone, used as a crafting ingredient (stacks up to 10). See Portal of the Ancient for what the call takes.

	Uses a Trapped Goblin	Count	Notes
	Goblin Research Center	2	Pays Gob points, see Research
	SlaughterHouse	1	See Hunting and Farming
	Goblin Cart	1	Rail cart, see Railways
	Goblin Hut	2	Part of the recipe; the working Goblins go into its slots separately
	Trap-Stone (Hob-Goblin)	1	See Hob-Goblins
	Goblin Backpack	1	Module of the Modular Armor, see Weapons and Armor

At the Goblin Research Center two Goblin Scholars stand in front of the building while it works and wander around when it is idle. They laugh when a scroll is done, murmur when you deliver something, and sound bored when its curiosity for an item has dropped below 50 %.

Goblin Hut

The Goblin Hut is the base for flying Goblins, like a roboport. What a hut does depends on what you put into its slots:

• Trapped Goblins carry items between Logistic Chests.
• Hob-Goblins build ghosts, tear down marked parts and upgrade them.

Both can live in the same hut. Open the hut to put the trap-stones in.

	Goblin Hut	Big Goblin Hut
Epoch	2	3
Unlocked by	Goblin Logistics	Goblin Logistics 2
Size	4 × 4	5 × 5
Range (radius)	32 blocks	64 blocks
Slots	16	32
Goblin speed	5.2 blocks/s	7.8 blocks/s
Items per flight	4	8
Goblin stamina	200 blocks	400 blocks
Hob-Goblins out at once	up to 10	up to 20
Hob-Goblin speed	3.9 blocks/s	3.9 blocks/s
Recipe	2 Trapped Goblin, 20 Wood, 10 Iron Plate, 5 Electronic Circuit	1 Goblin Hut, 20 Steel Plate, 10 Advanced Circuit

Huts need no power. A hut with neither Goblins nor Hob-Goblins inside, and none of its own out flying, shows the No Creature status icon.

The hut network

Huts of the same team whose ranges touch form one network:

• Goblins and Hob-Goblins work anywhere in the range of any hut of the network, not just their own.
• A job starts at the hut where the creature's trap-stone lies. Afterwards the creature flies to the nearest hut of the network.
• The trap-stone flies with it. It leaves the hut on take-off and lies in the new hut after landing, so the next job starts there. If that hut is gone or full, a Goblin flies on to the nearest hut with room (or waits in the air if there is none); a Hob-Goblin lands in the nearest hut of its team with room.
• If you tear down a hut, its creatures that are out keep working and land elsewhere. Trap-stones still inside fall out with the hut's contents.
• A creature in the air when the world saves is back in a hut after loading.

Seeing the range

• On the world map, the Goblin Hut range layer paints the range of all huts. It is off by default; switch it on in the map layers window (/maplayers). The setting applies to everyone in the world.
• While you hold the Goblin Planner, a ring of sparkles shows the range of huts near where you look.

Carrying: Goblins and Logistic Chests

Goblins carry between three kinds of Logistic Chest (32 slots each; recipe 1 Steel Chest + 3 Electronic Circuit, unlocked by Goblin Logistics):

	Chest	Role
	Logistic Chest (Provider)	Gives everything inside to the network
	Logistic Chest (Requester)	Asks for items; Goblins fill each request up to a full stack
	Logistic Chest (Storage)	Stores items and gives them out again; Hob-Goblins put torn-down parts here

To set up a Requester, put one of the wanted item into it as a sample: it remembers every item that has been inside. Or crouch and use it to open the Requests window: search for an item and press Request, or Request item in hand. Strike removes a request; a struck item is not requested again just because it is still in the chest.

How Goblins fly:

• A request goes to the free Goblin with the shortest path from where it is, to a chest holding the item, to the Requester. Free means fully charged and resting in a hut, or out and just done with a delivery. Provider chests are used before Storage chests.
• Each flight carries up to the hut's load (4 or 8 items).
• Goblins fly about two blocks above the ground, with a propeller on their back.
• Stamina: flying to a chest and on to the Requester costs stamina per block. After a delivery a Goblin takes the next job straight away if its stamina covers the whole way. When it runs low, it flies home at half speed; with no work left, it flies home at full speed. The way home costs nothing.
• In the hut, an empty Goblin recharges to full in 5 seconds.

Hob-Goblins

Hob-Goblins are the builders. They work from a Goblin Hut like construction robots.

• Recipe: 1 Trapped Goblin + 2 Rune Slate + 1 Processing Unit in a Fabricator (10 s). The item is called Trap-Stone (Hob-Goblin).
• Unlocked by Hob-Goblin Construction (Epoch 4), together with the Cut, Deconstruct and Upgrade modes of the Goblin Planner. Hob-Goblin Construction 2 (Epoch 5) makes them 50 % faster.
• They build ghosts, tear down parts marked for deconstruction and replace parts marked for an upgrade.
• Material comes from the network: a Hob-Goblin takes the part from the Provider or Storage chest in the network that gives the shortest path hut → chest → target. Requesters are never used.
• Torn-down parts and their contents go to the nearest Storage chest with room in the network, otherwise into the hut; what does not fit there drops at the hut.
• A job goes to the free Hob-Goblin with the shortest path, and the shortest job of all starts first.
• Hob-Goblins fly like Goblins, sink down at the target to work for a second, and fly to the nearest hut of the network.

If nothing happens after you place ghosts or marks, the chat tells you why: no Goblin Hut in reach, no Hob-Goblins in the huts there, or parts missing from the chests.

The Goblin Backpack module of the Modular Armor is a personal builder: it builds ghosts within 8 blocks of you from the parts you carry, without a hut.

See also

• Goblin Planner
• Portal of the Ancient
• Storage
• Golems
• Outlanders