Sorter

Sorters are the basic item movers in Dyson Sphere Program, combining the functions of inserting, removing, and filtering items. They are required to move items in and out of almost every production building, and are also used to move items between belts, storage, and other inventories. When placing one, the first click selects the source and the second click selects the destination. The transport distance is limited to 3 grid squares, so layout planning has to account for that constraint.

There are several tiers of Sorter: Sorter MK.I, Sorter MK.II, Sorter MK.III, and Pile Sorter. Higher tiers consume more power, but they also move faster in the same proportion, so the energy required to move a single item is effectively the same across tiers. The main difference is idle power, which becomes slightly more significant if a Sorter spends longer waiting between transfers. Because of that, upgrading or downgrading Sorters usually does not change the energy cost of the transport itself.

Sorter length affects throughput. The listed transport efficiency is measured in round trips per second per grid, which means a longer Sorter takes more time to complete each cycle and therefore moves fewer items per unit time. For maximum efficiency, source and destination should be placed as close together as possible. Short-distance transfers and buildings with long processing times can still make good use of Sorter MK.I, while any transport that spans 2 grid squares or more is better handled by Sorter MK.II or above.

A few practical points are especially important when using Sorters:

• A building-to-building connection always takes at least two grid squares, while a building-to-belt connection is usually one grid square. Outputting to a belt and later pulling from that belt costs no more or less than a direct building-to-building connection, aside from idle power from the number of Sorters involved.
• For Thermal Power Stations, using at least Sorter MK.II is a good safety measure. Sorter MK.I can slow enough during severe brownouts that it may fail to keep up with fuel delivery.
• Sorters can be filtered to move only selected items. This is useful when taking a specific item from a mixed belt, but it is not ideal when every item on the line must be reliably sorted. In that case, Splitter is the better tool.
• When inserting items into production buildings, Sorters usually only pick up what the building can accept, so filters are often unnecessary. However, when supplying power buildings or filtered storage, they may try to pick up items indiscriminately, and a wrong item can cause the Sorter to jam if the destination cannot receive it.
• When outputting from buildings that produce multiple products, such as Oil refinery, a filter can also be set by pressing Tab before clicking the destination. Shift-click copying is useful for repeating the same setup.
• Pile Sorter can be upgraded with Pile Sorter Upgrade, which increases the number of items moved per trip and eventually adds the Automatic Piler function.