Nightwater buildings & first automation (Steam island factory)

Press B for the build menu / Build Mode. Early machines use the Primitive prefix. Steam cites 60+ buildings overall; this table lists demo-confirmed HUD names only. You can place many copies and move or deconstruct without losing items (Steam).

First automation chain (wood)

1. Gather Oak Wood by hand → place a Workbench → craft Planks.
2. Place a Research Table (early tutorial build) and open Milestones / Unlocks to track Forest unlocks.
3. Reach Wood Milestone 1 → unlock and place a Primitive Wood Harvester on trees (items count toward milestones).
4. Unlock and place a Primitive Chest (storage / buffer, capacity 30).
5. Unlock and place a Primitive Pipe — connect harvester inventories to the chest. Objective text: automate wood production by connecting a wood harvester to a chest using a pipe.
6. Rotate with R, exit Build Mode with RMB, build multiple with Left Shift. Pipe chevrons mark link direction on the hologram.
7. Extend the same pattern to Stone (Primitive Rock Crusher), Wheat (Primitive Plant Farmer), then feed crafts into a Primitive Assembler.

Building table

Building (HUD)	Age / era	Inputs → outputs	Pipe / link behavior
Workbench	Primitive (sticks and stones)	Build cost: wood logs (panel shows 10). Manual craft of simple parts (Planks and early materials) faster than early Assemblers.	Manual station — no pipe required.
Research Table	Primitive	Early tutorial build (wood/planks). Opens research / progression book side of the early loop.	Standalone.
Primitive Wood Harvester	Primitive	Build: logs + planks. Output: tree resources (Oak Wood) inside radius. Harvested items count toward Milestone Progression.	Pipe out to Primitive Chest / downstream machines.
Primitive Rock Crusher	Primitive	Unlocked on Stone milestone track. Automatically harvests rock, clay, and ore in a small radius. Counts toward milestones.	Pipe out like the wood harvester.
Primitive Plant Farmer	Primitive	Unlocked on Wheat milestone track. Automatically harvests plant resources in a small radius; counts toward milestones.	Pipe out to storage / processors.
Primitive Chest	Primitive	Build: logs + planks. Sturdy wooden container for item storage and buffer management. Limited capacity of 30 items.	Pipe target for harvester outputs; buffer before crafts.
Primitive Pipe	Primitive	Build costs include wood, gears, and Wheat Oil bottles in demo panels. Connects machines to transfer items between inventories.	Short range, low throughput. Direction shown by chevrons on the placement hologram; multiple pipes can feed one machine.
Primitive Assembler	Primitive	Rudimentary auto-crafter for simple recipes. Slow crafting speed, low construction cost (wood, gears, stone bricks, Wheat Oil bottles on panel). Processed items do not count toward milestones.	Pipe inputs from chests/harvesters; pipe outputs to storage.
Manifester	Island tool (not a factory crafter)	Located in front of the cave. Opens Select Land → Manifest to spend resources and expand biome tiles.	No production pipes; world-expansion interactable.

Pipe / link rules (demo)

• Pipes move items between machine inventories; description text: short range, low throughput.
• Placement holograms show directional chevrons for connection sides.
• Objective chain for the first factory: Wood Harvester → Pipe → Chest.
• Steam: link farmers, assemblers, and storage with pipes; rebuild freely without losing items.