04 — Industrial

Last updated: May 18, 2026

The Industrial Update gave Rust a real automation backbone. Conveyors move items between storage. Filters route specific items to specific containers. Industrial crafters auto-craft recipes from input materials. Pipes connect everything. The whole system runs on power (rW) and has a few hard limits you can't engineer around — most importantly, a single conveyor network maxes at 16 containers and storage adapters in/out.

This file covers the components, the limits, the wiring, and the common networks that actually pay off (auto-sort, auto-smelt, auto-craft, auto-recycle).

The components

Industrial conveyor

Cost: 200 metal frags, 1 gear, 1 high-quality metal, 1 wire. Workbench 1. Researches for 210 scrap. Power draw: 2 rW.

The mover. A conveyor pulls items from any container connected to its input via storage adapter and pushes them to any container on its output side. Conveyors have built-in filters (12 slots) — set what items or categories should pass through. Empty filter = everything passes.

Conveyors do not connect directly to other conveyors. They connect through containers — one conveyor outputs into a box, the next conveyor's storage adapter taps that box.

Default move frequency: 5 seconds. Once every 5 seconds, the conveyor attempts to move up to 32 items per stack from each input container to each output container that passes the filter. The frequency is server-side configurable (server.conveyormovefrequency), so dedicated servers can run faster. On Facepunch official it's 5s.

Storage adapter

Cost: 75 metal frags, 1 gear, 1 wire. Workbench 1. Power draw: 0 (no rW needed).

The "tap" that connects a container to a pipe. Place on the side of a box, a furnace, a workbench output slot, or a recycler. Connect adapters to conveyors with industrial pipes.

A container with a storage adapter is "in the network." It can also still be opened and used manually.

Industrial crafter

Cost: 200 metal frags, 4 gears, 1 high-quality metal. Workbench 2. Researches for 250 scrap. Power draw: 2 rW.

Auto-crafts a single recipe of your choice. You select an item via the crafter UI (anything in your researched/blueprinted recipes), feed in the ingredients via conveyor input, and finished items come out the output port.

Default craft frequency: 5 seconds per craft. Configurable via server.industrialcrafterfrequency.

A single crafter handles one recipe. Want to auto-craft three things? Three crafters in parallel.

Industrial combiner

Cost: 75 metal frags, 1 gear. Workbench 1. Function: merges two pipe inputs into one output. Free, no power.

For when you want two different sources feeding the same container.

Industrial splitter

Cost: 75 metal frags, 1 gear. Workbench 1. Function: takes one pipe input and routes to 3 outputs. Free, no power.

Use sparingly — splitters are for symmetric routing. Most networks use conveyor filters instead.

Industrial pipes

Pipes are placed by holding the wire tool (it's the same tool — Rust uses the same wire tool for electricity wires and industrial pipes, but they're different visual types selected by which component you started from). Pipes connect storage adapters to conveyor ports.

Length isn't limited the same way as wires, but you'll want pipes to be relatively short and clean for performance and ease of debugging.

The hard limits

16 containers per network

This is the most-misunderstood rule in the system. A single connected industrial network can have a maximum of 16 storage adapters total (inputs + outputs). A conveyor with 4 input adapters and 4 output adapters takes 8 of your 16. Add a crafter (2 adapter ports — input and output) and you're at 10. Add another conveyor with 4 in / 2 out and you're at 16. That's your network.

To exceed 16, build separate isolated networks. Each conveyor that's not pipe-connected to another conveyor is its own network. So a typical mid-game base has 2–4 small networks rather than one giant one.

32 items per stack per tick

Conveyors move up to 32 items per stack per tick. So a stack of 1,000 sulfur takes ~32 ticks (= ~2.5 minutes) to fully move. Plan accordingly.

12 filter slots per conveyor

Each conveyor has 12 filter slots. A slot can be an exact item ("Tech Trash") or a category ("Components"). Categories filter broadly: Components catches all loot crate components (springs, gears, rifle bodies, etc.) in one slot.

Conveyors don't connect directly

You must have a storage adapter (and therefore a container) between any two conveyors. This is the rule that limits network sprawl.

No conveyor pulling from a conveyor

Same constraint, different phrasing. The "pull" happens on the input side of a conveyor and the source must be an adapter on a container.

Common networks

Auto-sort: deposit anywhere, sorted everywhere

The killer network. You walk into your base with a backpack full of loot, dump it all into one "drop box" near the entrance, and 30 seconds later it's distributed to component box, weapon box, food box, ammo box, etc.

Layout (one network, 12 adapters total): - Drop Box (1 adapter on side, output to conveyor) - Conveyor 1 (filter: Components → output to Component Box adapter) - Component Box (1 adapter) - Conveyor 2 daisy from Components Box overflow → Weapons (filter: Weapons → output to Weapon Box) - Weapon Box (1 adapter) - ... and so on

You build this once per wipe, takes 30 minutes and 1k frags + some gears, and saves you literally hours of manual sorting across the wipe.

Pro tip: put a "garbage" box at the end of the chain that catches anything not filtered. That's where you find the items you should have set up a filter for.

Auto-smelt

A network that takes raw ore from a drop box, feeds it to multiple furnaces (electric furnaces are the play — see 03_Electricity.md), and outputs ingots to a smelted-metal box.

Layout (one network, 8 adapters total): - Ore Box (1 adapter, output) - Conveyor (no filter, send everything) → Electric Furnace 1 input adapter - Electric Furnace 1 output adapter → Conveyor → Smelted Box - Repeat for Furnace 2, Furnace 3...

The electric furnace's big advantage here: it doesn't burn wood as fuel, so wood in your input stream just sits in the slot (or gets filtered out by a conveyor filter set to "metal ore, sulfur ore, hqm ore"). And it can't be turned off by a sprinkler accidentally, which matters for greenhouse-integrated bases.

Auto-craft: turn ore into gunpowder into ammo

Multi-stage networks where one crafter's output feeds the next crafter's input. Classic example: 1. Sulfur + Charcoal → Crafter 1 → Gunpowder 2. Gunpowder + Metal Frags → Crafter 2 → Explosives 3. Explosives + tech trash + low-grade → Crafter 3 → C4

You'd run this as 3 separate networks (or 1 carefully laid out with combiners) because each crafter is 2 adapter slots and the chain quickly eats the 16-adapter budget.

Auto-recycle: turn loot into scrap

Place a recycler (Workbench 3 craftable, 500 metal frags, 75 HQM, 2 gears, 1 sewing kit). Storage adapter on the input side, storage adapter on each of the 6 output slots (or combine outputs via combiners). Conveyor feeds your "to-recycle" box into the recycler input. A second network catches outputs.

Common mistake: thinking you can put adapters on every recycler output slot. You can — but each one counts against the 16 limit. Most setups combine all 6 recycler outputs into a single pipe via combiners, then output into one "scrap and parts" box.

Auto-load auto-turrets

Crafter set to craft 5.56 rifle ammo (charcoal + gunpowder + frags). Output pipes to a box. Conveyor pulls from that box and feeds the auto-turret's storage slot. Your turrets reload themselves overnight from your sulfur/charcoal stockpile.

Filter Pass / Filter Fail logic outputs

Each conveyor has two logic output ports: Filter Pass (powers on each time an item matches the filter) and Filter Fail (powers on each time an item is rejected). These give you free 1 rW logic signals you can use elsewhere — e.g., alarm when uncommon item enters your base by setting a filter to match "Targeting Computer" with Filter Pass wired into a smart alarm.

Wiring a network — step by step

1. Plan in advance. Sketch boxes and pipe paths on paper or in rustrician (which now supports industrial too).
2. Place all containers. Make sure they have at least one open side for adapters.
3. Place storage adapters on each container side that needs to be in the network. Snap-and-place.
4. Run pipes from adapter to conveyor input ports, from conveyor outputs to other adapters.
5. Power the conveyors. Each is 2 rW. A small network of 4 conveyors needs 8 rW continuous — fits within one large battery's discharge rate.
6. Set conveyor filters. Open the conveyor UI by looking at it and pressing E. Drag items or categories into the filter slots.
7. Test by dumping items into the input box and watching the chain.

Recipes by quick reference

Research costs (scrap to learn from a workbench): - Storage adapter: 75 scrap - Industrial conveyor: 210 scrap - Industrial crafter: 250 scrap - Combiner/splitter: 75 scrap each

Power budgeting

A typical solo industrial network: - 4 conveyors × 2 rW = 8 rW - 2 crafters × 2 rW = 4 rW - 2 electric furnaces × 60 rW (only when smelting) = 120 rW intermittent - 1 recycler (when running) = 0 rW (recyclers don't need external power, they self-power)

Continuous: 12 rW. Peak with both furnaces running: 132 rW.

You need enough source + battery to sustain the peak when you actually smelt. Solution: smelt during daytime when solar+wind output is high, let furnaces sleep at night.

Common mistakes

1. Trying to connect two conveyors directly. Always need an adapter+container between.
2. Maxing the 16-adapter network on one giant chain. Plan smaller networks; performance and clarity both benefit.
3. Filter set to category instead of specific item. Category filters catch everything in that category — that includes the trash you don't want. Use specific item filters when you only want certain items.
4. Forgetting that crafters need ingredients in the correct slot. Crafters have specific ingredient slots; conveyor must filter and route correctly.
5. Empty filter assumed = no movement. Empty filter = everything passes. If you want no movement, the conveyor shouldn't have a path or shouldn't be powered.
6. Adapter on a workbench output expecting all 4 output slots. Each workbench output is a separate inventory slot — you can pipe from a workbench output but only what's been crafted, not from input slots.

A few quality-of-life networks worth building

• Sulfur → gunpowder → 5.56 → turret ammo box: keeps turrets fed forever as long as you have sulfur.
• Wood + ore → electric furnace bank → smelted output box: just dump raw farmed stuff and walk away.
• Component box → recycler input → scrap output box: dump loot from any monument run, scrap comes out the back end.
• Auto-cooking: animal fat + cloth + meat → crafter → cooked meat / bandages.

These networks pay back their material cost in hours, not days. The industrial system is the single biggest force-multiplier in the game for any player who logs more than a few hours a wipe.

Pro tips

• Build the network in a dedicated room in your base, separate from the loot core. The pipes and conveyors take a lot of wall space.
• Mark each conveyor's filter on a sign above it. Mid-wipe you'll have 8 conveyors and no idea which one filters what.
• Test new filters with a few items first. Drop 5 of something and watch where it goes before dumping a stack.
• Use Filter Fail outputs as an "I forgot to filter for X" alarm. Wire all your Filter Fail ports through an OR gate into a siren light. When the siren lights up, check the garbage box.
• Power efficiency matters at clan scale. A clan with 20 conveyors and 6 crafters draws 50+ rW continuously just on industrial — needs a real solar array, not just one panel.