Wiki: Core Systems Guide — Blocks, Power & Logistics

This wiki page collects core reference material about Mindustry: what the game is, its primary gameplay systems, major block and unit categories, key game mechanics (resources, power, liquids, transport, defenses), and the Mindustry Logic scripting system — all presented as a concise, single-page reference for players and contributors.

Overview

Mindustry is a top-down, grid-based base-building and tower‑defense hybrid. Players manage resource extraction, item and fluid logistics, production chains, power networks, defenses and units while preventing their core from being destroyed. Game modes include Survival (wave-based defense) and Attack (offensive maps with enemy cores). The game is moddable and contains campaign planets with distinct resources and blocks.

Core concepts

Core: The central structure that, if destroyed, ends the game. Protecting the core is the primary objective.
Blocks vs Buildings: A Block is a block type (definition). A Building is an instantiated Block in the world with health, inventories, power connections, etc.
Tiles / grid: World is tile-based; block sizes are expressed as size×size tiles.
Items & Liquids: Resources are Items (e.g., copper, lead, titanium, thorium, surge alloy, pyratite) and Liquids (e.g., water, oil). Items have flags denoting how they are obtained or used (N = naturally generated, M = man‑made, E = enemy drop, B = building material).
Power: Power generation, storage and transmission are handled by generators, reactors and power nodes. Power is a global resource for many blocks (turrets, factories, special blocks).

Resources and production

Extractors and drills gather natural ores (copper, lead, titanium, thorium, beryllium, tungsten, crystal thorium, etc.) from tiles like ore and sand.
Smelters, factories and reconstructors convert raw materials into advanced items (plastanium, phase fabric, surge alloy, blast compound, etc.).
Item flags indicate source and uses; many blocks require specific items to build and operate.

Item and liquid transport

Conveyors, routers, sorters, junctions and similar blocks form item logistics. Conveyors move batches at set speeds (e.g., standard conveyors move items forward at a reference rate; Plastanium Conveyors move faster).
Instant/teleport transport devices (Sorter, Overflow Gate and variants) perform instantaneous item transfers and share placement limits.
Liquid pipes (ducts) and pumps handle liquid routing and distribution. Liquid Sources/Voids provide or remove fluids for testing or creative setups.

Power systems

Generators (Combustion, RTG, Heat/Flux reactors) produce power. Flux Reactor is the highest base power generator.
Power storage blocks (Battery, large Battery) store power for offline buffering.
Beam nodes, towers and power nodes transmit power between networks. Power Voids negate power.
Some blocks consume power as ammunition (e.g., Arc turret uses power as ammo).

Factories, constructors and unit production

Constructors, large Constructors and specialized reconstructor tiers craft items and units. Many unit-producing blocks (Ground Factory, Naval Factory, Mech Fabricator) can hold up to double the input cost of their current output unit.
Payload blocks (Mass Drivers, Loaders, Unloaders, Payload Source/Void) manage launching and receiving item or unit payloads between sectors or for campaign transport.

Defenses and turrets

Turrets are the primary means to defend against enemy waves; they vary by range, damage type and special mechanics (bullets, shells, lasers, beams, missiles, flame, arcs, unit missiles).
Warmup turrets (e.g., Smite, Malign) have spin-up before firing and large turrets (4x4, 5x5) exist with high output.
Overdrive and coolant mechanics can modify turret output; some turrets use specific ammo items or fluids (coal, cyanogen, coolant).
Walls and defensive tiles (standard walls, reinforced/plastanium/graphitic walls, shielded walls, blast doors) provide static defense. Some walls and shield blocks have unique interactions (powered shielded walls increase effective health when powered).

Units

Units have stats like health, armor (flat damage reduction, bypassed by armor-piercing), size (hitbox), speed, item capacity and abilities (flying, boost, build speed, crush damage).
Units are organized by tiers and types (ground, naval, aerial). Many units have unique trivia or special abilities (e.g., Mega/Nova shared sounds; Quasar can mine multiple ore types).
Unit factories spawn units and behave predictably with internal capacities and build queues.

Status effects

Units and blocks can receive status effects (speed multipliers, disarm, health multiplier, immobilize). Some effects are hidden or induced by terrain, weather or abilities (e.g., Sporestorm slows airborne units).
Note: The "health multiplier" shown in some interfaces does not directly change a unit's raw HP; it alters how incoming damage is divided after armor (effectively scaling damage taken).

Environment and tiles

Planet maps (e.g., Serpulo and Erekir) have unique tiles, resources and biomes. Serpulo is the classic campaign planet with many starter maps and resources; Erekir introduces new mechanics, ores and blocks.
Special tiles and environment features can affect production and block behavior (affinities, tainted water bonuses, dark sand changes).

Mindustry Logic (mlog)

Mindustry Logic is an in-game assembly-like scripting language for automating buildings, turrets, units and UI. It provides:
- Block and unit sensors, control operations, memory cells, math ops, flow control (jumps, ends) and world operations (spawn, effects, cutscenes).
- Instructions to read/write building properties, control turrets, spawn units/waves, set weather and draw on displays.
Built-in “senseable” variables start with @ (e.g., @thisx, @thisy, @time, @links) and Building/Unit objects can be manipulated through the API.
The Language is widely used for constructing automated factories, defense scripts and interactive displays.

Modding and development

The game is open to contributions; the source can be compiled (gradle tasks: desktop:run, desktop:dist) and modders can add blocks, items and behaviors via JSON/Java/JS.
Mindustry’s content files (Blocks.java, item and block definitions) drive in-game content; community tools and tutorials exist for mod creation and logic scripting.

Miscellaneous

Music by Anuke covers menu, campaign and in-game themes.
The game contains achievements, campaign-exclusive blocks (launch pads, item launchers) and legacy/removed content across versions.
The wiki and community resources (translations, guides) are commonly maintained on GitHub and fandom pages; contributions to these resources follow standard PR workflows.

This reference summarizes the game systems and building families you will interact with. For in-depth values (exact DPS, build costs, per-block transfer speeds) consult block/unit-specific entries or the in-game Core Database for precise, version‑accurate numbers.