Farming Guide: Best Drills, Oil & Resource Routing Tips

Farming in Mindustry means reliable, repeatable production of resources (ores, liquids, biological products, and derived items) for crafting, power and unit manufacture. Good farming balances tile choice, drill/extractor selection and throughput (conveyors, ducts, tanks) so your factories never stall while minimizing space, power and complexity.

What to farm and why

Basic ores (copper, lead) — feed early production, turret ammo and basic constructors.
Sand and scrap — needed for metaglass, silicon, and some late-game items; scrap is also used directly or converted with Pulverizers.
Titanium, thorium, tungsten, beryllium — mid/late-game metals for advanced buildings, reactors and units; some come from Separators/Disassemblers if the map lacks deposits.
Oil and water — fuels for generators, Cryofluid, and liquid turrets; surface oil is high-value.
Spore pods, cryofluid and specialty fluids — power sources or unit-upgrade inputs.
Consumables (coal, pyratite, slag) — fuel and high-DPS ammo components.

Farm to keep continuous throughput to your crafters (Smelters, Melters, Crucibles, Compressors), power plants and unit factories (Fabricators/Reconstructors).

Choosing extractors and drills

Select the extractor/drill by the resource tile and desired throughput.

Mechanical Drill: cheap early drill. Low per-tile yield but easy to cover veins. Useful for wide copper/lead veins.
Pneumatic Drill: better per-tile efficiency than Mechanical; good mid-game for compact setups and bridging coverage gaps.
Laser Drill and Blast Drill: much higher per-tile yields and high maximum throughput; use when space is limited and power is available.
Airblast Drill / Impact / Eruption / Plasma Bores / Large Plasma Bore / Large Cliff Crusher / Cliff Crusher: high-tier drills for late-game deposits (beryllium, tungsten, thorium). Use boosted variants when possible for dramatic speed increases.
Oil Extractor: extracts oil from specific tiles (not generic oil patches). Placement matters: dark sand vs light sand dramatically affects oil per-extractor. Avoid building on salt unless necessary; salt yields very poor oil.
Cultivator: farms spore pods on appropriate floor tiles. Output increases during Sporestorm weather.
Pulverizer: converts scrap into sand at a 1:1 ratio — useful when scrap is abundant but sand is not.
Separators and Disassemblers: convert scrap into higher-tier resources (Titanium, Thorium, etc.). They can produce those metals even in sectors without natural deposits provided you import initial resources. Their outputs are random — combine with sorting or buffering to avoid clogs.

Tips:

Boosters (liquid or power boosters) increase drill speed; many late-game drills have very high multipliers when boosted.
Unit miners (Mono, Mega) can serve as mobile farming — Monos are excellent copper/lead miners and can replace fixed drills when you have high unit cap.

Terrain and placement considerations

Tile affinity matters: some extractors cannot work on certain wall types (e.g., Cliff Crushers cannot extract sand from some wall types).
Oil Extractors require specific tiles and do not extract from generic oil tiles; plan placement accordingly.
Water Extractors: output is affected by weather (Rain/Fog increase, Sandstorm decreases). Consider weather and tile choice.
Cultivators produce more on certain ground tiles — check terrain and take advantage of spore tiles and water adjacency where appropriate.

Throughput and balancing with crafters

Match resource throughput to downstream consumption. Common examples:
- Plastanium Compressors and other high-input factories demand significant titanium, oil and other inputs — plan oil and titanium lines accordingly.
- Tetrative Reconstructor and other high-tier factories require many inputs (e.g., multiple Plastanium Compressors, Cryofluid Mixers, Phase Weavers). Their Cryofluid demand often requires many Liquid Tanks if relying on stored liquid.
Use Melters and Pulverizers efficiently: one Melter at full power can support multiple Separators; Pulverizers turn scrap into sand with predictable ratio so you can size drills accordingly.
Random-output blocks (Separator/Disassembler) need sorting or containers with unloaders to prevent clogging. Sorters and Inverted Sorters must be spaced properly to avoid instant-transit loops.

Logistics: conveyors, ducts, tanks and throughput caps

Conveyors move items at fixed speeds according to type; higher-tier conveyance (ducts, manifolds) is needed for heavy flows (e.g., 15–100 items/sec depending on block).
Liquid pipes have much higher throughput; large Cryofluid demands may require tanks, containers and liquid junctions to share contents without throttling.
For massive liquid consumption turrets (Tsunami) or generators (Steam, Pyrolysis), put Liquid Tanks adjacent to the consumer for short-term surges; a full tank can sustain heavy use for a limited time (e.g., one tank next to a Tsunami supplies ~25s of continuous fire).
Use reinforced or higher capacity containers for turret ammo supply (e.g., Diffuse, Scorch, Swarmer consume a lot of ammo quickly).

Fuel and power farming

Steam Generators are more efficient than Combustion Generators for the same fuel type; they produce ~5.5× the power of a single Combustion Generator on the same fuel and consume fuel faster per-unit time but are more efficient when replacing multiple generators.
Pyrolysis Generators and Turbine/ Vent Condensers interact with other systems (electrolyzers, pumps); plan liquid routing carefully because some generators output fluids back into nearby conduits.
Spore pods are good fuel sources but are more efficient when processed (pressed into oil and then spun into coal), though this requires extra crafting blocks.
Separators/Disassemblers can supply thorium for Thorium Reactors and titanium for Cryofluid production; one Disassembler at full capacity can significantly support reactor fleets but is best used as a supplement due to randomness.

Ammo and special product farming

Pyratite: used for high-damage flame ammo and fuel for some generators; burning ammo combos (Swarmer, Scorch, Tsunami) rely on liquids like oil and slag for status synergies. Pyratite is high-flammability and high burn damage — it provides superior DPS and better fuel performance than coal for some turrets.
Silicon, oxide, graphite and other turret ammos require specific smelting chains. Silicon production often relies on coal + sand in smelters/crucibles, or on Chemical Combustion Chamber setups.
For high ammo-consuming turrets (Scorch, Swarmer, Diffuse), dedicate production lines and large containers to avoid supply interruptions.

Defensive and opportunistic farming

Salvage derelicts/ruins for early boosts: ruins often contain pre-built drills, conveyors and other blocks that can be deconstructed for resources.
Use units (Megas, Monos) to supplement or replace drills in certain situations: Megas are strong mobile supports and can mine titanium; Monos are particularly efficient for copper/lead.
When defending sectors with guardians or heavy damage dealers, farm and build strong wall layers (Plastanium walls when available) to survive bursts.

Common layouts and ratios (qualitative)

Compact high-throughput: cluster Laser/Blast/Plasma drills with boosted outputs feeding directly into high-capacity ducts/manifolds and into Melters/Smelters.
Wide-area farming: use Mechanical/Pneumatic drills to cover large veins, conveyors to a central hub, Pulverizer/Separator/Disassembler when parcels of scrap are abundant.
Liquid-heavy setups: align Oil Extractors and Water Extractors feeding into reinforced liquid networks with tanks near big consumers (Steam Generators, Cryofluid Mixers, Tsunamis).
Random-output mitigation: buffer with Containers/Unloaders or sort outputs to dedicated lines; consider incinerators for overflow protection.

Troubleshooting stalls and clogs

If a crafting block stalls, check upstream throughput (conveyor speed, duct capacity) and power availability.
Random-output producers (Separator/Disassembler) often clog conveyors with unwanted items; use sorters, inverted sorters or containers with unloaders as buffer/sort.
Ensure liquid routing prevents unwanted mixing — some generators will accept the lowest-flammability fluid first; use unidirectional conduits, junctions, and avoid placing tanks that might get filled with unintended byproducts.
Monitor turret ammo consumption: fast-firing turrets can exhaust ammo quickly; use Reinforced Containers or dedicate production lines.

Farming in Mindustry scales with tech: upgrade drills and extractors as deposits thin or demand rises, add buffers and sorters for reliability, and prioritize the resource throughput that unlocks your next tier of factories or defenses.