Hydroneer Automation Guide

In this Hydroneer Automation Guide, I'll tell you how to build machines that will let you automatically mine and process resources.

When you first start playing Hydroneer, you'll be doing all of your Mining by hand. Eventually, you'll want to invest your hard-earned Hydrocoins into machinery that makes things easier. Read on to learn all about Automation!

How Hydroneer Automation Works

Hydroneer Automation is powered by Water. That means anything you build will need to be close to a source of Water, such as a river, pond, or lake.

Water pressure determines how fast a machine works. Water may need to be filtered in some cases, too, in order to reduce the damage a machine takes. Increasing pressure and filtering can be accomplished with specialized pipe pieces.

This Hydroneer Automation Guide will take you through the basics of setting up -- it will be up to you to figure out the best machine for your needs.

Best Starter Automated Hydroneer Mining Setup

The best starter Hydroneer mining setup can be built fairly cheaply -- you can buy used Forged Iron machines right across the road from your starting location. The above image shows you exactly how it's set up:

1. Intake Water Pipe - This pulls water in from the river.
2. Valve Hook - This allows you to shut the flow of water off.
3. Pressure Tank - You can put Shards or Shard Bars in this compartment in order to increase the flow of Water.
4. Forged Iron Drill - This actually drills into the ground and automatically mines clumps of Dirt.
5. Forged Iron Harvester - This takes clumps of Dirt and extracts Resources from them.
6. Pan - A standard Pan can catch all of the Resources coming out of the Forged Iron Harvester.

How to Build Your First Automatic Drill in Hydroneer

Before you can build your first automatic drill, you'll need to earn some money through Mining by hand. Once you have a few hundred Hydrocoins, you can build an automated setup and really ramp up production.

Here's how to build a basic automatic Mining setup:

1. Place a Drill where you would like to Mine. Remember, the further underground you go, the better resources you get!
2. Place a Harvester directly underneath the Drill's output -- this will automatically convert the Dirt clumps into Resources.
3. Start placing Pipes and make a path towards a source of Water.
   • Optionally, place Pressure Tanks, Valve Hooks, Water Filter Hooks, and any other optional attachments you'd like to add.
4. Once the pipes are all hooked up, turn the machines on and they'll start mining!

Expanding Your Mining Operation With Conveyors

This starter setup is just the beginning of Hydroneer Automation -- you can expand it further with the use of Conveyor Belts. Sure, you could walk down below, pick up the Pan, and bring it to the surface to smelt items by hand. Once you start bringing in more Hydrocoins, you can instead opt to build a series of Conveyor Belts that will automatically ferry all of your materials to the surface.

How to Automatically Sort Resources in Hydroneer

The easiest way to automatically sort resources is using the Water-powered Hand Sorter. All you need to do is place a nugget of the Resource you would like to filter out in the tray; it will shoot that resource out of one port and deposit the remainder out of the other port. Three or four of these machines can be used to separate all of the early-game Resources into separate bins; refer to the picture above for one possible design for a sorting setup.

Logic Lets You Build Complex Machines

A shop at Bridgepour has various "Logic" devices that are somewhat akin to Minecraft's Redstone. These allow you to precisely set up your production. We won't go into detail about this aspect of the game, but it's certainly worth experimenting with once you have some money to spend!

Maintaining and Repairing Your Machines

Much like the real world, Hydroneer machines will break down. You'll need to use tools to repair them; you can find them at most major shops. It's always a good idea to have some tools on hand to keep your machines running smoothly!

How to Get the Best Automatic Drills and Harvesters in Hydroneer

While you can buy a couple of Hydroneer Automation machines right across the road, getting the best stuff requires you to travel east to Icehelm. You're also going to need a lot of Iron (and later, Cloutium) to make them.

Where to Buy the Best Drills and Harvesters

You can buy the best Drills and Harvesters inside of Icehelm. Head down the elevator and walk to the right at the intersection to access the shop; refer to the table below for pricing.

How to Craft the Best Drills and Harvesters

The process for crafting the best Drills and Harvesters in Hydroneer requires you to gather a hefty amount of Iron (and later, Cloutium) along with a fair few Hydrocoins. here's what you need to do; make sure to refer to the above picture to learn how this massive Anvil works!

1. Acquire enough Hydrocoins and Iron/Cloutium to purchase the template for the Machine you want to build and craft it.
2. Put the Hydrocoins and Resources into a Pan.
3. Take the Pan to Icehelm. Go down the elevator, head right to the shop, and purchase the template.
4. Place the template on the Item Blueprint Pedestal (1).
5. Place the minimum amount of needed Resources into the Crucible (2). Don't worry about any leftovers -- they'll be deposited in special slots once you've built your Machine.
6. Pull the Activation Lever (3). The Machine will be deposited on the Construction Platform (4). Leftover Resources will be deposited in the slot out front (5).

Once you've built your Machine, you can carry it out by hand or place it on the nearby Conveyor -- this will automatically transport it to the surface. You can park a vehicle underneath the output pipe to load up multiple Machines without having to do any extra work.

Hydroneer Machine Costs

We're all done with our Hydroneer Automation Guide, but there's still more to explore! Check out our other guides below: