Conveyor Belt

Conveyor belts are buildings used to transport items between miners, processors, storage, power infrastructure, and logistics structures. They are one of the core systems of automation in Dyson Sphere Program, and every production line depends on them to move materials at a steady rate. The line has three tiers: Conveyor Belt Mk.I is the slowest, Conveyor Belt Mk.II is faster, and Conveyor Belt Mk.III is the fastest.

Each belt can carry multiple items per cycle, so as production scales up, sorter throughput becomes increasingly important; either higher-tier sorters or multiple sorters are needed to keep belts from backing up. Belt tiers do not combine or merge into upgraded versions automatically during crafting chains, so each tier is a separate building type with its own throughput and recipe. Mk.I is the simplest to produce, Mk.II adds an Electromagnetic Turbine, and Mk.III requires Graphene and Super-Magnetic Ring.

Conveyor belts are usually placed along the planet grid, but they can also be routed in different ways by cycling the path with R. This allows square paths that conserve space, diagonal paths that make routing easier, or mixed routes for awkward terrain. The diagonal option is especially useful near planetary poles, where grid-aligned placement can become difficult. Belts can also be raised and lowered to cross obstacles or connect to stacked ports on buildings such as Splitter and Storage Mk.I and Mk.II.

They are essential for item transport across all stages of the game, from gathering to manufacturing and power generation. In addition to connecting to Sorters, they can be directly attached to certain buildings such as miners, oil extractors, storage tanks, and logistics stations. Because many production buildings are fixed to the grid, belts are often used either for short, grid-aligned runs or for longer transport lines that ignore the grid for convenience.

A few practical points are worth keeping in mind:

• Belt speed increases with tier, so larger factories eventually require higher-tier belts to keep up.
• Belts can be upgraded or downgraded in place using the upgrade tool, so early lines do not need to be rebuilt from scratch.
• The slope limit is locked at 0.5 rise over run until Super Magnetic Field Generator is researched.
• A one-level change in height requires 3 horizontal grid spaces when creating a ramp.
• Belts can merge together, but merging behavior depends on the approach direction: a side input into a straight belt always favors the straight path, while inputs from both sides merge irregularly.
• Belts cannot branch on their own; Splitter or Sorter is required for branching.
• Holding Shift prevents snapping to belts at different heights, which helps avoid accidental joins when building complex layouts.
• Selecting a placed belt opens an information panel showing its Length, Speed, Path, Total Nodes, and Total cargo, and also allows manual item pickup or insertion from the panel.

Conveyor belts consume no power and do not require connection to the grid. They can even be placed over water without foundations, making them a flexible and universal part of factory design from the earliest conveyor lines to dense, layered late-game production systems.