How to Craft and Use the Compressor

Building the Compressor

Craft the Compressor before you leave your first base. It is the machine that turns raw ingots into the compressed blocks used in engines, plating, and tanks. Place it on a solid floor with at least one free block above it.

Compressing Materials

Feed the Compressor an ingot to receive its compressed form. The four outputs you will use most are Compressed Steel, Compressed Desh, Compressed Ostrum, and Compressed Calorite. Each compressed block is denser than nine loose ingots, so store them in a chest near the machine rather than carrying them.

Use Compressed Steel for structural plating and early engine frames. Compressed Desh and Compressed Ostrum go into higher-tier engines and tanks. Compressed Calorite is reserved for Calorite Engines and Calorite Tanks.

Feeding the Machine

Insert fuel in the form of Fuel or a Fuel Bucket. Keep a stack of Coal Torches or a Coal Lantern nearby so you can see the input slot while working. If the Compressor stalls, check that the input slot holds an ingot and not a nugget.

Where Compressed Blocks Go

Compressed blocks feed directly into the NASA Workbench for rocket parts and into the Fuel Refinery chain for engine assembly. Do not smelt them back down unless you specifically need loose ingots for hand crafting.