Spray Coater

The Spray Coater is a building added in patch 0.9.24.11182 that applies Proliferator sprays to items moving through its lower conveyor passage. Items that are sprayed receive different bonuses depending on how they are later used, while the Proliferator itself is consumed through the upper belt passage and converted into spray storage inside the machine. The Spray Coater has a fixed storage capacity of 600 sprays, and can be placed directly on a conveyor belt, including an airborne belt segment, or stacked vertically on top of other Spray Coaters.

Its spray consumption and output depend on the tier of Proliferator loaded into it. Proliferator Mk.I provides 12 sprays per item, Mk.II provides 24, and Mk.III provides 60. The building’s power use is 90 kW active, with 4.5 kW standby consumption. Sprayed items gain a small yellow triangle marker: one for Mk.I, two for Mk.II, and three for Mk.III. If items with different spray levels are combined into one stack, the resulting stack averages the mark level.

A Spray Coater only coats items that are not already sprayed at the same level. If an item already has a weaker spray, it will be upgraded; if it already has the same spray level, no additional spray is consumed. When stacked cargo passes through, the machine applies spray to the entire stack at once, consuming sprays equal to the number of items in that stack. Because of this, larger stacks increase the Spray Coater’s power consumption proportionally. The building also distributes power through vertical stacks, and its maximum stacking height begins at 7 and increases by 3 per level of Vertical Construction, up to 25. At the highest stack heights, the player must supply Proliferator manually because belts cannot reach the topmost machine.

The main choice when using sprayed materials is between the two production modes: extra products or increased production speed. The extra-products mode reduces factory size and is usually best when materials are abundant, while increased speed is more efficient for material use and is often better for rare or expensive inputs. With Proliferator Mk.III, the bonus values shown in the Proliferator summary are +25% production, +100% speed, and +150% power consumption. Mk.I and Mk.II provide smaller equivalents.

Several recipes and systems interact with spray in special ways:

• Research Matrices used in Matrix Labs generate extra hashes without being consumed faster.
• Sprayed Proliferator items return more spray, making self-spraying worthwhile.
• Sprayed Hydrogen increases Fractionator conversion speed, and the spray mark is not removed unless the Hydrogen is converted.
• Sprayed Solar Sails and Small Carrier Rockets increase launch rate in EM-Rail Ejectors and Vertical Launching Silos.
• Sprayed Graviton Lenses increase Ray Receiver output, multiplying the lens’s own bonus.
• Generic fuels, including Mecha fuel, gain extra energy output from spray, but Antimatter Fuel Rods and Full Accumulators use the speed-style bonus instead.
• Full Accumulators keep their spray marks when emptied, but their storage and transfer behavior is unchanged.
• Items used as building materials, such as higher-tier belts and Sorters, only benefit from the speed bonus.

The Spray Coater is most effective when its input and power are stable; if the grid cannot keep it fully supplied, it will not consistently spray every passing item. It is especially useful for long, slow, or expensive production chains, and for materials where reducing downstream factory count is more valuable than conserving raw inputs.