Bridge Conduit

Bridge Ducts are specialized fluid-transport blocks that span terrain and other buildings to move liquids across gaps that normal ducts and pipes cannot cross. They are used to route liquids over obstacles, across chasms, or above floor tiles without having to clear a path; because of their high build cost they are primarily a late-game convenience rather than an early-game workhorse.

Bridge Ducts accept fluid inputs from every side except the side that is connected to another Bridge Duct. Each Bridge Duct can have at most one configured outbound Bridge Duct to which it will send fluid; however, any number of other Bridge Ducts may be configured to send fluid into the same Bridge Duct. If a Bridge Duct is set as a destination for others but does not itself have an outbound destination, it will evenly distribute incoming fluid across any sides that are not connected to other Bridge Ducts.

Configuring a Bridge Duct's transport destination is done by selecting the Bridge Duct and then clicking another Bridge Duct up to three tiles away in a cardinal direction. Assigning a destination that already exists will remove that assignment; clicking a Bridge Duct that currently uses the first one as its destination will reverse the flow direction between the pair. Clicking the current destination again or clicking the same Bridge Duct will clear the destination. When planning multiple Bridge Ducts by drag-placing, the planner attempts to space them three tiles apart to improve cost efficiency.

Placement rules include special constraints for certain liquid terrains. When placing a Bridge Duct in Deep Water, Slag, Tar (as floor), Arkycite (as floor), or Cryofluid (as floor), at least one of the non-corner adjacent tiles (the four orthogonal neighbors) must be either a shallow-water-type tile or a non-liquid tile; otherwise placement is not valid. Bridge Ducts will also be automatically added to building plans when the player plans a line of ducts that must cross a researched, unbanned non-duct block or terrain feature that is less than three tiles wide.

Practical notes and strategy:

• Bridge Ducts are expensive; avoid heavy use in early game and reserve them for routing liquids where removal or replacement of terrain is impractical.
• Use destination assignments to create one-way long-range fluid links; chain Bridge Ducts sparingly since each can only target one outbound peer.
• You can funnel many incoming Bridge Ducts into a single Bridge Duct to consolidate flows, but be mindful of output capacity and even distribution behavior if that consolidator lacks its own destination.
• Plan drag-placed runs to take advantage of the three-tile spacing the game prefers, which reduces overall cost compared with arbitrary placement.
• Remember the special placement rules on Deep Water, Slag, Tar, Arkycite, and Cryofluid floors; ensure adjacent orthogonal tiles satisfy the requirement before attempting to build.