Large Payload Mass Driver

Large Payload Mass Driver is a Payload Mass Driver variant used to send payload-form items (blocks or units that exist inside another block but have not spawned) across long distances or over obstacles that conveyors cannot cross. Payload-form items include things like units stored in a fabricator; those can move short distances on Reinforced Payload Conveyors but require a Mass Driver to traverse longer ranges or impassable terrain.

Before placing a Large Payload Mass Driver, the game displays an arrow indicating the block or tile where any payload received from another Mass Driver will be deposited; that output is typically connected to a Reinforced Payload Conveyor. If the payload is a unit and the output tile’s middle space is not blocked by solid blocks (conveyors and conduits are allowed), the unit will spawn there. Once spawned, a unit can only be reloaded into a payload if another unit places it back inside or, from Build 147 onward, if you command the unit to enter the block.

Two Mass Drivers are linked by selecting one and then clicking another within range. When a driver is selected its effective range is shown; clicking a second driver in that range creates a connection with the first acting as input and the second as output (the output is highlighted with a purple circle). When the input driver has power, it transfers its current payload to the linked output driver instantaneously along that link.

Practical notes and interactions:

• Use Reinforced Payload Conveyors for short transfers and to feed or receive payloads from a Mass Driver’s output arrow.
• Ensure the output tile’s center is free of solid blocks if you intend for a unit payload to spawn there; conveyors and conduits do not block spawning.
• Power is required for the input driver to fire its payload to the output; an unpowered input will not transfer payloads along the link.
• The Large Payload Mass Driver shares its description with the standard Payload Mass Driver; functionally it is presented as the same type of block in-game.
• Historically, an earlier version of the Mass Driver appeared on Serpulo under the name Payload Propulsion Tower between builds 127 and 135.2; that older implementation was removed when Erekir was introduced, with other pre-Erekir versions of payload blocks also replaced or reworked.