Sandustry update #3 (v0.5.6) lets you pet critters, raises lava density to 200 so it eats Fluxite, and turns stuck seedlings back into Wet Seeds.
TL;DR for players
Update #3 is the first patch since launch that changes how materials actually behave, so a factory that ran fine on 0.5.5 may need a look. Lava is heavier, hungrier and no longer disappears into a cold Thermal Buffer. Runaway flower growth is finally something you can shoot your way out of without losing the seeds. Everything else is cleanup: red block bugs, stuck Conveyor Portals, renderer crashes, and a GPU diagnostics component that was breaking certain hardware. There is also one purely charming addition — you can pet the critters.
New features
You can now pet a critter by moving over it. Doing so makes the creature happy and temporarily boosts its capabilities, which is a small mechanic with a real payoff now that Voltblub energy output has been raised across the board. Between the two changes, spending a moment on your creatures before a heavy production window is measurably worth doing rather than purely decorative.
Balance changes
The lava rework is the headline. Its density has been increased to 200, which reorders where it sits relative to everything else in a mixed column. It now destroys Fluxite, Redsoil and Strataform terrain rather than flowing around them, so unmined Fluxite deposits near a lava route are genuinely at risk and should be cleared before you open a channel.
The counterpart to that is the Thermal Buffer interaction. When a Thermal Buffer is cold — that is, at a negative temperature — lava now adds less heat and converts back into Cinder instead of being fully consumed. Combined with the new terrain destruction, that is the change the developers explicitly call out as opening new automation possibilities: lava that carves its own routing and returns a portable solid at the end of the run, rather than vanishing into the buffer.
Fixes and improvements
The Aura Extractor can now be removed even after crystallization has started. Removed crystals are buffered and released as Auralite once the extractor is rebuilt, so relocating one mid-process no longer throws away the progress.
Flower calamity gets the treatment described in the FAQ above: shooting or digging a growing seedling now attempts to convert it back into Wet Seeds, and seedlings that end up stuck between buildings automatically give up and revert. The underlying economy is untouched — one Wet Seed still produces exactly one flower — so this is a containment tool, not a yield change.
The Laser now melts Ice, which quietly adds a route to Water for anyone with the tool unlocked. Several bugs that created red blocks are fixed, Conveyor Portals no longer get stuck, and Thermal Buffers no longer consume lava in artifact rooms — puzzles that were soft-locked by that behaviour should self-heal when you load the save. On the rendering side, crashes caused by the Aura refreshing the full Tech Tree are reduced, and the GPU diagnostics component that misbehaved on certain hardware has been replaced with a safer alternative.
Modding
Modders get new hooks and methods, including building:removing, fire:terrain:burn and meltAtCell, documented in the sandkit API. The mods branch has moved to 0.5.6 alongside the main build, so mods pinned to the older experimental branch will need attention.
What this means for your factory
Petting critters is worth folding into your routine — it temporarily boosts creature capabilities, and Voltblubs are more valuable now that their output is up. The bigger design question is lava. Terrain destruction plus reduced consumption against a cold Thermal Buffer is an invitation to build lava-driven excavation and heat recovery in the same loop, and it is worth experimenting with before settling on a layout.
Practically: relocating an Aura Extractor mid-crystallization is now safe, since the crystals buffer and come back as Auralite. Flower and Wet Seed infestations can be contained by shooting or digging seedlings without breaking the zero-sum flower mechanic. Previously soft-locked artifact-room puzzles involving Thermal Buffers should resolve themselves the moment you load. And if you run mods, note the branch move to 0.5.6 and the three new hooks.
Affected guides and materials
The lava changes are the ones most likely to invalidate an existing layout, followed by the seedling behaviour if you run a flower farm.
The official announcement is linked in the sidebar and at the foot of this page; the summary above is our paraphrase of it, not a copy.
FAQ
Is Update #3 out for Sandustry?
Yes. Update #3 shipped as version 0.5.6 on September 4, 2026, and it is the current build. The separate mods branch has also moved to 0.5.6.
What changed for lava in Update #3?
Three things: lava density rose to 200, lava now destroys Fluxite, Redsoil and Strataform terrain, and against a cold Thermal Buffer it converts back into Cinder instead of being consumed outright.
Does Update #3 fix flower calamity in Sandustry?
It makes it manageable rather than removing it. Shooting or digging a growing seedling now tries to convert it back into Wet Seeds, and seedlings wedged between buildings give up and revert on their own. Flowers stay zero-sum: one Wet Seed still yields exactly one flower.
Official post
This summary paraphrases the developer announcement for v0.5.6 — Update #3. Read the original at the official Sandustry news post .