Liquid Management Guide: Pumps, Tanks & Pipes (Guide)

Liquids are the in-game fluids used for cooling, fuels, crafting inputs and turret ammunition; they have properties (heat capacity, viscosity, flammability/explosivity, temperature) that affect behavior and interact with pumps, pipes and storage. Managing liquids efficiently is essential for power production, reactor and turret cooling, advanced crafting, and environmental hazards like neoplasm.

Liquid properties and gameplay effects

• Heat capacity: determines how well a liquid absorbs and dissipates heat (higher = better cooling for reactors and other blocks).
• Viscosity: determines flow speed through conduits (higher viscosity = slower flow).
• Flammability and explosivity: affect whether a liquid can burn or explode (important for storage and when used as fuel/ammo).
• Temperature and boiling point: determine interactions with special tiles and some processing.
• Status effects: some liquids apply status on units (e.g., Water → wet, Cryofluid → frozen effect, Oil/Tar → tarred, Lava → melting, Neoplasm → infects water-containing blocks).

Common game liquids and roles

• Water: primary coolant and crafting ingredient; non-flammable; used to make Cryofluid. Produces the wet status on units.
• Cryofluid: advanced coolant used for reactors, turrets and factories; can extinguish fires and applies freezing to enemies. Higher heat capacity than water.
• Oil (Tar): high flammability and explosivity; used for advanced materials (plastanium) and as turret ammo; applies tarred status.
• Neoplasm: hazardous biological liquid produced by the Neoplasia Reactor; spreads to water-containing blocks and damages them — handle and dispose in slag/void safely.
• Gases and Erekir liquids: Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Cyanogen, Ozone, Arkycite, Gallium, etc. Many behave as "liquids" for transport and are used by Erekir-specific buildings (some are gases with boiling points shown).

When to prefer which liquid

• Use Cryofluid for high-demand cooling (reactors, high-output turrets); water is fine for most basic cooling and crafting.
• Avoid storing/transporting flammable liquids near high heat or vulnerable infrastructure.
• Keep neoplasm isolated and direct spills into slag or tiles that destroy it (Space/Empty tiles or slag pools can destroy neoplasm puddles).

Liquid sources and pumping

• Surface water tiles are the most efficient water source. Pump multipliers vary by tile type (some tiles provide 1×, others 1.5×). Prefer surface water over extractors when available.
• Mechanical Pump: pumps liquids without electricity; usable on specified terrain; base output exists and is modified by tile multipliers.
• Rotary Pump: electric pump with higher base output than Mechanical Pump; its placement rules depend on surrounding tiles for deep water and special liquid floors.
• Water Extractor: usable where surface water is unavailable; intentionally inefficient (higher power use, larger footprint, lower yield than Mechanical/Rotary pumps). Terrain bonuses (ice +40%, mud +100%) can reduce required extractors but do not surpass surface water efficiency.
• Some map-specific tiles (arkycite, slag, deep water, etc.) impose placement rules for pumps and tanks; pumps generally require adjacent non-liquid or shallow-water tiles for placement in deep liquids.

Liquid transport blocks and rules

Transporters differ by speed, capacity, routing behavior, and special features:

• Standard Conduit (Liquid Conduit): basic forward transporter; accepts side inputs? (varies by conduit type). Conduits have limited storage per segment.

• Plated/Pulse/Reinforced/Phase/Bridge Conduits: specialized behaviours

  • Phase Conduit: transports fluids across terrain/buildings up to longer ranges; requires power (output end requires power, input end does not); configured by clicking another Phase Conduit up to 11 tiles away; can only forward to one other Phase Conduit but can accept many inputs; slower when underpowered.
  • Reinforced Bridge Conduit: automatically connects to the closest matching bridge conduit in the facing direction within a small range; cannot be manually configured; cannot be placed in deep liquid tiles or certain special liquid floors; useful for long crossings and preventing upstream spread of hazardous puddles when spaced.
  • Conduits like Pulse/Plated/Reinforced differ in throughput and side-input acceptance; higher-tier conduits store more and move faster and may prevent leakage.

• Junctions and crossovers

  • Liquid Junction and Reinforced Liquid Junction cross liquid lines and treat endpoints as directly adjacent; they do not have liquid capacity and instantly pass fluids — connecting two liquid-holding blocks with them shares contents instantly (infinite throughput as if adjacent).
  • Liquid Router: accepts inputs and outputs fluid toward directions with lower hydraulic pressure; stores a small amount; if kept filled it prevents clogging from other block outputs—useful for fluid-based crafters.
  • Liquid Source / Liquid Sink / Liquid Void: special blocks that produce or remove liquids; note Liquid Void cannot fully drain a Liquid Source output due to engine mechanics.

• Tanks and containers

  • Liquid Tank / Reinforced Liquid Tank / Reinforced Liquid Container: store large amounts of liquid and output in multiple directions; adjacent tanks share liquid equally. Tanks can be placed in deep liquid tiles if adjacent to land; two tanks can bridge up to six-tile gaps.
  • Capacities vary by tier (small to very large). Routers and tanks have different internal capacities; reinforced variants hold more and are used for buffering hazardous or valuable fluids.

Transporter and placement caveats

• Many liquid buildings cannot be placed inside deep liquid tiles unless adjacent to land, or unless internal or surrounding tiles meet specific non-liquid or shallow-water requirements. These rules also apply to tanks, pumps, and conduits on special liquid floors like slag, arkycite, oil floor, and cryofluid floor.
• Reinforced Bridge Conduits and some Erekir variants auto-plan when drag-placing across narrow gaps for convenience.

Storage, buffering and safety

• Use Liquid Tanks and Reinforced Containers to buffer production spikes and to decouple producers from consumers (power plants, reactors, crafters).
• Place routers and junctions to control flow direction, avoid unwanted mixing, and to create priority feeds.
• For hazardous liquids:
  • Isolate neoplasm lines and use reinforced bridge conduits spaced to limit puddle spread; deconstructing buildings spills their internal liquid—empty lines before removal.
  • Direct spills of neoplasm into slag tiles to destroy them; Slag Incinerator cannot destroy neoplasm (but spilled slag puddles can override neoplasm).
  • Keep flammable liquids away from heat sources; avoid large exposed oil pools.

Useful tips and tricks

• Prefer surface water and Mechanical/Rotary pumps over Water Extractors for efficient water supply; use extractors only when necessary and exploit terrain bonuses cautiously.
• Liquid Junctions (and Reinforced variants) provide instant connections with infinite throughput between the crossed endpoints—useful for neat layouts and to bypass obstacles.
• Liquid Routers, when kept full, prevent outputs from other blocks from clogging; maintain constant fluid inside routers feeding fluid-consuming crafters.
• Phase Conduits let you cross long distances or terrain but require power and must be configured to a destination; power shortage reduces throughput.
• For critical coolant lines, protect conduits from artillery/air damage (force fields, projectionors) since losing coolant can cripple reactors and turrets.
• When removing or altering liquid lines that hold hazardous liquids, drain them first: deconstruction spills whatever is inside.

This reference summarizes the practical aspects of liquids: their in-game properties, primary uses, source/pump options, transport and storage systems, and safety considerations for hazardous fluids.