Start with a documented source
Documented Water sources and uses
- Surface lakes and underground Water deposits are finite pools already present in the world.
- Heating Ice produces Water; heating Water or Snow produces Steam that can rise and return as rain.
- Lumlings are listed as a Water source. The official pages do not provide a fixed output rate per creature.
- One Sand plus one Water becomes two Wet Sand. One Seed plus one Water becomes one Wet Seed.
Containment, flow, and transport are different layers
Water spreads until it settles into a depression with a flat surface. Blocks, Conveyor Belts, Kinetic Presses, and Flux Emanators stop its direct flow. Basic Filters do not: Water can pass through them, even if the Filter is configured for a solid. Two blocks that meet only at their corners may also leave a diagonal leak path.
Move Water with Pumps and Pipes
- Expose the Pump to liquid
Place its active area in the source without letting Sand, Gold, or another solid occupy the same cells.
- Connect a continuous Pipe path
Pipes link Pumps to Liquid Vents and can share inputs and outputs across a network.
- Keep liquids separated when practical
A shared network can carry supported liquids together, but a Vent does not provide simple per-liquid destination control.
- Leave the Vent mouth open
A Vent stops depositing when Water or another obstruction covers enough of its active opening.
- Test one endpoint pair
Confirm a single Pump and Vent before adding branches, then check each added endpoint.
| State or event | Documented input | Documented result | Boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wetting | Sand + Water | 2 Wet Sand | Consumes both input pixels. |
| Melting | Ice + heat | Water | No stable rate is published. |
| Vaporising | Water or Snow + fire | Steam | Current Steam page gives no enclosed-condensation timer. |
| Rain | Steam reaches the sky | Water falls as rain | Guide the rising Steam with open sky above. |
| Freezing | Snow contacting sufficiently deep Water | Ice | Snow behavior has geometry conditions. |
Renewable Water versus apparent duplication
The official Water page explicitly lists Lumlings and a Cryoblaster Snow to Steam to rain path as sustainable sources. Those mechanisms add or renew Water through documented progression. They are not the same claim as cycling an existing Water pool through Snow, Steam, and rain to multiply it. Current players report that some apparent gains stop after a restart, disappear when the player moves away, or may be delayed return from an internal rain buffer.
| Method | Evidence label | What can be said | What remains unknown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural pools or melted Ice | Officially documented | Normal source | World quantity and local accessibility. |
| Lumlings | Officially documented | Renewable source | Per-creature output and submerged behavior. |
| Cryoblaster Snow → Steam → rain | Officially documented | Renewable route | Stable net rate and space efficiency. |
| Existing Water closed loop that appears to multiply | Conflicting | A reported experiment | Whether output is new Water, buffered Water, or a bug. |
| Setup that stops after reload | Community-reported | Restart-sensitive behavior | Patch persistence and root cause. |
| Symptom | Likely cause | Check or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Pool shrinks with no obvious consumer | Corner leak or unsettled droplets disappearing. | Seal diagonal corners and provide a deeper basin. |
| Pump stops | A solid pixel occupies its active area. | Hover with the Grabber, remove contamination, and retest. |
| Vent stops at a shallow level | Its active output cells are obstructed. | Clear the Vent face or move it above the target level. |
| Wet Sand line starves | Consumption exceeds the replenishment route. | Pause consumers, watch source recovery, then restart one module at a time. |
| Rain falls in the wrong place | Steam path reaches open sky outside the collector. | Build a controlled vertical channel and wider catch basin. |
| A duplication loop loses its gain | The effect was buffered or restart-sensitive. | Stop treating it as supply and switch to a documented renewable source. |
Update record
- 2026-08-21 — Merged standalone Infinite Water intent into #renewable-water.
- 2026-08-21 — Corrected the restart-failure source and separated documented renewable sources from conflicting duplication reports.
Frequently asked questions
Does Water disappear on its own?
Water that cannot settle into a depression can disappear after 45 seconds according to the official Water page. Also check corner leaks, Pump obstruction, active wetting reactions, and Vent backpressure before assuming evaporation.
Is there renewable Water in current Early Access?
The official Wiki lists Lumlings and a Cryoblaster-made Snow to Steam to rain path as renewable sources. That is separate from community duplication setups that can stop after a restart or appear to draw from a delayed rain buffer.
Why is my Liquid Vent not outputting?
Its active opening may be covered by Water or a solid pixel, the connected Pump may be obstructed, or the Pipe path may be incomplete. Check the two endpoints before rebuilding the full network.