Temperature Guide: Cooling, Heaters & Heat Management Tips

Temperature governs heat production, propagation, and consumption in Mindustry. It affects block outputs and some fluids and status effects; managing temperature is essential for boosting thermal consumers (turrets, generators) and for cooling or heating fluids and units.

How heat is produced

• Certain blocks are explicit heat producers. Common heat-producing blocks and their heat output:
  • Electric heater: 3
  • Small heater variant: 5
  • Medium heater: 8
  • Large heater: 15
  • High-output heater: 60
  • Other specialized heat producers: 10
• Some non-heater blocks also produce heat as an additional side-effect of their operation. These still emit heat through their marked heat-facing side.

How heat is transmitted

• Heat is emitted from a single marked side of a producing block. A receiving block must touch that emitting side to accept heat.
• The proportion of the emitting side that contacts the recipient determines the fraction of heat transferred. For example, a 2×2 emitter can split its heat among adjacent blocks; touching half the emitter’s output face will receive roughly half of its heat.
• Heat transmission uses dedicated heat-transmitting blocks (Heat Redirectors and their variants). Heat Redirectors forward heat out of their marked output side.
• Small Heat Redirectors can receive heat from the same side they output to; however, Heat Redirectors and Small Heat Redirectors will not accept heat from each other when their output sides face each other (this prevents infinite transfer loops).

Heat consumption and effects

• Some blocks consume heat as an input to function. Each consumer has a maximum heat input; supplying up to that input increases its production or rate proportionally. Excess heat beyond the maximum has no additional effect.
• Examples of maximum heat inputs:
  • Small thermal consumer: 20
  • Medium thermal consumer: 24
  • Larger consumers: 32, 40
  • High-capacity consumers: 144, 150
• For turrets that accept heat input, firing rate increases with the portion of the required heat received (similar to how overdrive works for other modules).

Fluids and temperature

• Fluids have intrinsic temperature and heat capacity values which interact with heating/cooling systems and can apply status effects:
  • Cryofluid:
    • Heat capacity: 0.9
    • Temperature: 0.25
    • Tier: 1
    • Status effect: freezing
  • Lava:
    • Temperature: 0.8
    • Viscosity: 0.8
    • Tier: 2
    • Status effect: melting
• Fluids in-world will respond to heat sources and sinks according to their temperature and heat capacity; hotter fluids can transfer more thermal energy and can apply their status effects to units or structures they contact.

Practical tips

• Align heat-emitting sides toward the blocks you want to power with heat; ensure maximal contact area to maximize transferred heat.
• Use Heat Redirectors to route heat around obstacles or to prevent wasting heat into terrain.
• Avoid placing Heat Redirectors output-to-output facing each other; they will not transfer heat between those faces.
• Match heater output to consumer capacity. Too little heat yields reduced performance; providing more than the consumer's maximum provides no further benefit.
• Use high-temperature fluids (like Lava) when you need strong heating effects; use Cryofluid for cooling and freezing effects.

Manage heat intentionally: position emitters and redirectors for efficient transfer, respect consumer input limits, and leverage fluid temperatures to apply desired status effects.