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Logistics Guide: Conveyor, Splitter & Drone Tips

Logistics in Dyson Sphere Program covers the buildings, vehicles, and rules that move items and fluids around your factories and between planets. Good logistics design prevents bottlenecks, reduces wasted infrastructure, and enables reliable interplanetary and interstellar supply chains.

Conveyor belts

  • Three tiers exist: Conveyor Belt Mk.I (6 items/s, 360/min), Mk.II (12 items/s, 720/min), Mk.III (30 items/s, 1,800/min). A full belt holds one item per tile and one per connection.
  • Placement:
    • Belts follow grid lines by default; press R to cycle pathing style (useful near poles). Use Up/Down arrows to change altitude; slopes require horizontal room.
    • Baseline vertical stacking limit is 12 above ground (13 levels); Vertical Construction research raises the limit.
    • Hold Shift while placing to disable snapping.
    • Mass-upgrade: hold the upgrade modifier key when upgrading to replace many belt segments at once.
    • You can directly place/take items on a belt by interacting with a belt tile.
  • Merging: belts may merge into others. When feeding into a straight belt, the straight belt has priority (T-junction behavior).

Splitters and Storages

  • Splitter:
    • 4 belt ports; can be placed in three patterns (Tab to cycle).
    • Can prioritize an input and an output; only the prioritized output can be filtered (single-item filter).
    • A Storage Mk.I (Depot) may be placed on top of a Splitter and is usable as an input/output.
    • Useful for balanced distribution, filtering, and creating compact multi-belt assemblies (main-bus, layered networks).
  • Storage (Depot Mk.I / Mk.II):
    • Configurable capacity; can sit on top of splitters for combined storage/distribution.
    • Can be paired with a Logistics Distributor to form a local pickup/dropoff for Icarus.

Sorters and Automatic Pilers

  • Sorters (Mk.I / Mk.II / Mk.III / Pile Sorter):
    • Move items between belts and buildings; range is up to 3 grid squares.
    • Transport rates vary with tier and distance (examples: Sorter Mk.I 1.5/s at 1 grid, Mk.II 3/s, Mk.III 6/s; higher tiers scale proportionally).
    • Filters: apply a filter on a sorter to make it pick only one item type (essential when multiple item types share a belt).
    • Mk.III and Pile Sorter can move stacks when stacking is enabled—this can cause jams when inputs are mixed; use filters to avoid issues.
  • Automatic Piler:
    • Stacks up to 4 identical items into one pseudo-stack to compress belt throughput.
    • Useful to lower required belt tier for long-distance transport or to make lower-tier sorters more effective.
    • Piler placement direction matters (enter from lower port, exit upper port to stack; reverse to split).

Traffic Monitor

  • Place on a belt to count items and trigger alerts if flow conditions are not met (useful for monitoring production lines, byproduct accumulation, or hydrogen flow for fractionators).

Advanced belt techniques

  • Stacking/Resizing throughput: use Pilers, stacked-belt layouts, or logistics-station stacking tech (Logistics Station Integrated Logistics) to increase effective throughput without only relying on Mk.III belts.
  • Fractionator/Hydrogen loops: fractionators convert a percentage of hydrogen fed in; using pilers and correct belt stacking increases deuterium yield. Pay attention to belt speed, stack size, and saturation when designing loops.

Planetary logistics (drones)

  • Planetary Logistics Station (PLS):
    • Holds up to 50 Logistics Drones.
    • Four resource slots (each slot capacity configurable; base slot capacity noted in station UI). Set each slot to Supply, Demand, or Storage for Local operations.
    • Local Supply/Demand use Logistics Drones to move items between stations on the same planet.
    • Station has significant power draw while charging drones; draw scales with how discharged its internal energy is.
    • Conveyors can connect directly to station ports; to export you must set a belt filter at the exit.
  • Logistics Drone behavior:
    • Default capacity 25 units (upgradable by Logistics Carrier Capacity technologies).
    • Speed upgraded via Logistics Carrier Engine; increases throughput and reduces required fleet size.
    • Drones are best for long-distance on-planet transport where belts would be impractical.

Interstellar logistics (vessels and ILS)

  • Interstellar Logistics Station (ILS):
    • Extends planetary station features with Remote (interplanetary/interstellar) Supply/Demand/Storage settings.
    • Can host up to 100 Logistics Drones and 10 Logistics Vessels.
    • Use Remote Supply/Demand to move items between planets/systems using Logistics Vessels.
    • Configure Point-to-Point, Interstellar Routes, or Groups to control priority; pairing options include Priority Pairing, Ignore Pairing, and Exclusive Pairing.
    • Vessel speed and warp behavior depend on Logistics Carrier Engine upgrades.
    • When unloading from ILS, set filters on belt exits to select which items to output.
    • ILS power draw for charging vessels scales with stored energy; newly built stations can demand large instantaneous power.
  • Logistics Vessels:
    • Base capacity 200 units, upgradable to much larger capacities via Logistics Carrier Capacity tech (max higher levels).
    • Base speed is 600 m/s and can be raised by Logistics Carrier Engine upgrades; Warp (a massive speed boost) requires Logistics Carrier Engine level IV and consumes Space Warpers (two per warp round-trip).
    • Vessels can operate point-to-point, along routes, or service groups; vessel config includes max transport range and warp enable distance.

Logistics upgrades and integrated features

  • Logistics Carrier Capacity: increases cargo capacity of drones, vessels, and stations' slot sizes (enables larger single-trip payloads and better fuel efficiency per item).
  • Logistics Carrier Engine: increases speed of drones/drones/vessels; from Lv.4 enables vessel warp (interstellar viability).
  • Distribution Range: expands the radius for Logistics Distributor (bot) deliveries.
  • Logistics Station Integrated Logistics: enables stations and some buildings to output stacked cargo (like Pilers), increasing belt throughput at the source.

Special buildings and interactions

  • Advanced Mining Machine:
    • Has internal storage and can accept drone logistics (acts like a small station). With Integrated Logistics tech it can output stacked cargo to belts.
    • Mining rate and internal unload behavior configurable.
  • Energy Exchanger / Accumulators:
    • Energy Exchangers charge Accumulators (Full) which can be transported via logistics to move electrical energy between planets using ILS + Remote settings.
  • Orbital Collector:
    • Collects gas giant resources (Hydrogen/Deuterium or Fire Ice depending on giant) and requires remote Logistics Vessels to retrieve cargo.

Best practices

  • Match belt tier to demand: design by calculating item/sec demand and choose appropriate belt(s) or stacking to avoid starving machines or wasting belt capacity.
  • Use splitters to balance inputs to multiple consumers; set priorities/filters where necessary.
  • Prefer filtered sorters or splitter filtering when you must transport multiple item types on a single belt.
  • Use Storage + Logistics Distributor when you need Icarus or small-bot pickup/dropoff points.
  • Place Traffic Monitors on critical lines (fuel, hydrogen, byproducts) to get timely alerts.
  • For interplanetary supply, prefer shipping processed goods (e.g., ingots instead of ore) to maximize ship efficiency (two ore → one ingot doubles transported value per trip).
  • Research carrier capacity and engines early if you plan extensive interplanetary logistics—capacity reduces ship/droid fleet sizes; speed reduces travel time and fleet required.
  • Account for station power draw when charging drones/vessels—newly created stations can spike power requirements.

This covers the core logistics systems and common patterns you will use from local belts and sorters up to interstellar stations and vessels. Design your networks to avoid mixing many item types on the same high-throughput lane unless you deliberately use filters and stackers to control flow.