Router

The Router is a basic transport block that accepts items from one side and distributes them equally to up to three other directions. It appears early in the tech tree and is a Serpulo-era transport option intended for simple splitting of item flow. Its behavior is deterministic: each output receives a fractional share of the Router's incoming throughput, and chaining multiple Routers divides that flow further.

Because the Router divides input evenly, each downstream branch receives only a portion of the original conveyor throughput. Chaining Routers multiplies this division, so long chains or multiple Routers in series will significantly reduce the amount reaching the far end. The Router does not send items backwards in Router chains since later updates. It can be controlled by a player (like a turret) to manually choose which direction items go when fired at, enabling momentary directional control over distribution.

Practical usage notes:

• Use Routers when you need a compact, automatic split of a single conveyor into multiple directions or when you want to siphon a small fraction (for example, one-eighth) of a stream off the main line. Their compact footprint makes them useful for tight builds.
• Avoid placing a Router directly adjacent to factory input tiles. Factory outputs feeding into a Router commonly lead to clogging because the Router’s finite internal item capacity can fill and stop accepting new items. This warning applies to item outputs; liquid-only factories do not have this clogging issue with Routers.
• Routers can clog under backpressure because they store items; blocks like Overflow Gate, Bridge Conveyor, or Unloader offer alternative equal-distribution behaviors without the same clogging profile and are preferable where continuous maximal throughput is required.
• When designing distribution networks that require full conveyor throughput to be preserved, prefer gates or other distribution blocks rather than chaining multiple Routers, since each Router in series leaks a fraction of the input and reduces throughput to downstream consumers.
• Routers are researchable early (research cost updated in later versions) and are tied to several in-game achievements and community memes. They remain a simple and commonly used transport tool despite their inefficiencies in large-scale logistics.