Pistons et pompes à vide dans Scrap Mechanic : montage et usages

The piston, and how you get past level 1

Only Piston Level 1 has a recipe: 10 Metal Block Level 2, 1 Component Kit and 1 Circuit Board, 10 seconds at the Craftbot. Levels 2 through 5 have no recipe at all. The only way to hold one is to upgrade the level below it, which is the same pattern the engines and seats follow.

That matters for planning. You cannot skip to a level 3 piston by saving materials; you have to build a level 1 first and walk it up. Ten Metal Block Level 2 per piston is also not trivial early on, so a machine with eight pistons is a real commitment.

What the levels change on the part itself is toughness. Durability runs 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 from level 1 to level 5, so the ladder is a steady climb.

Flammability is not. Levels 1 and 3 are flammable and levels 2, 4 and 5 are not, which means upgrading from level 2 to level 3 makes the piston catch fire again. If fire is the thing you are protecting against, level 2 is already safe and level 3 is a step backwards; go straight to level 4 or stop at 2.

A piston that takes hits is worth upgrading for the durability alone. A piston sitting inside a sealed base doing the same slow job every day is not.

Each piston keeps its own two settings, independent of its level: how far it extends, and how fast it travels. Set them by pressing E on the placed piston. A short, fast piston and a long, slow one can be the same level.

Wiring a piston

A piston has one input. While that input is active the piston extends, and when the input drops the piston retracts. There is no separate retract signal.

That gives you three common patterns:

• A Switch. Flip it on, the piston extends and stays out. Flip it off, it comes back. This is the one for doors and drawbridges.
• A Button. The piston extends only while held. Useful for a press or a clamp.
• A Sensor. The piston reacts to something arriving. A Sensor Level 1 costs 1 Metal Block Level 1, 1 Glass Block, 1 Component Kit and 3 Circuit Boards, or 1 Caged Farmer at the hideout, and its own description gives it a reach of ten blocks.

Add a Timer between the trigger and the piston and you get a delay, which is how you stagger a row of pistons so they fire in a wave rather than all at once. The Timer counts in seconds and ticks, and there are 40 ticks in a second.

Sequencing pistons with a Controller

The piston’s own description says it: connect a piston to a Controller and it extends and contracts in a sequence. The Controller records a list of steps, and each step holds a position for every part connected to it. A bearing in a step is a dial you turn to an angle, which can go either way from zero. A piston in the same step is a slider you drag to a distance, which only runs one way from zero because a piston has no negative extension.

That means a single Controller can move arms and rams together in the same routine. A digger that swings a boom on bearings and pushes a bucket on pistons is one Controller, not two systems.

The description’s line about needing to be connected to bearings reads as an exclusion but is a minimum: a Controller with nothing connected has nothing to play back. Pistons are the second thing it accepts, not a thing it refuses.

Controller Level 1 costs 5 Metal Block Level 1, 1 Component Kit, 5 Circuit Boards and 1 Glue, 10 seconds. It is an upgrade ladder with five levels of its own.

When to use Timers instead

A Controller plays a recorded routine from start to finish. That is what you want for a transformation, and it is the wrong shape for anything where the pistons need to be independently addressable, or where the rhythm has to change while the machine runs.

For those, chain Timers. Each Timer feeds both its own piston and the next Timer, so the pistons fire in a wave whose spacing is the Timer delay. Change one delay and the wave changes with it, which a recorded sequence cannot do.

The rough split: a shape that has to reach a specific pose is a Controller job, and a rhythm that has to be tuned is a Timer job.

The Vacuum Pump

The Vacuum Pump is the part that turns your base from a pile of chests into something that runs itself. It costs 20 Metal Block Level 1, 1 Component Kit, 1 Circuit Board and 3 Glue, and takes 30 seconds. It is a large part, 3 by 4 by 3 blocks, so leave room for it.

Its own description lists what it does: suck water into a water container, pick plants into a chest, and shoot items back out of a chest. It has one input like a piston. While that input is active the pump runs.

Which direction it moves items depends on how you plumb it, not on a setting. A pump pointed at the world with a chest behind it collects. A pump fed from a chest fires items out in front of it. The same part does both jobs.

Pipes

Pipes carry what the pump moves, so the pump does not have to sit where the items are. The plain Vacuum Pipe is 2 Metal Block Level 1 and 5 Glass Blocks, five seconds, and there is a family of shapes on the same recipe:

Part	Footprint	Recipe
Vacuum Pipe	3 by 3 by 3	2 Metal Block Level 1, 5 Glass Block
Vacuum Pipe Corner	3 by 3 by 3	2 Metal Block Level 1, 5 Glass Block
Vacuum Pipe T	3 by 3 by 3	3 Metal Block Level 1, 5 Glass Block

Those three are the only pipe pieces with a recipe. The straight pipe is extendable, which is why the item list also shows one block, two block, four block and five block versions of it: those are the shapes a placed pipe takes when you stretch it, not separate things to craft. The plain Vacuum Pipe is the three block one. Stretch a section to five rather than placing five singles and you spend the same materials on fewer joints.

The T piece is the one that makes sorting possible, because it splits a run into two paths. Every piece is three blocks across in cross section, corners included, so plan the route before you build walls around it.

A collection loop worth copying

This layout is a suggestion, not a rule. It is the arrangement most self running farms end up at.

1. Put the Vacuum Pump where it can see the crops, facing them.
2. Run pipe from the back of the pump to a Chest at your base.
3. Wire a Switch to the pump so you can leave it running while you are away.

Everything the pump picks up travels down the pipe and lands in the chest. Add a Sensor instead of a Switch and the pump only runs when something is in front of it, which stops it running dry all day.

To go the other way, feed the pump from a chest and point it where you want the items delivered. That is how the shooting builds work, and it is also how you refill a Growbed without walking the seeds over yourself.

Piston and pump questions

How do I get a Piston Level 5?

By upgrading. Only Piston Level 1 has a recipe, at 10 Metal Block Level 2, 1 Component Kit and 1 Circuit Board. Every level above it is reached by upgrading the level below, so there is no way to build a high level piston directly.

What does upgrading a piston change?

Its durability, which runs 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 across the five levels. Flammability does not follow the same curve: levels 1 and 3 burn, levels 2, 4 and 5 do not, so level 3 is flammable again after level 2 was not. How far and how fast a piston moves are settings on the individual piston rather than properties of its level.

How do I make a piston retract on its own?

You do not need a second signal. A piston extends while its input is active and retracts when the input goes away, so a Button gives you extend and retract with one press and release. For an automatic cycle, drive the piston from a Timer loop instead of from a button.

Can a Controller run a sequence of pistons?

Yes. Each recorded step stores a position for every connected part, an angle for a bearing and an extension for a piston, so one Controller can drive arms and rams through the same routine. Use Timers instead when you need the rhythm to be adjustable rather than recorded.

How do I move items from a farm to a chest?

Vacuum Pump facing the crops, pipe from the pump to a Chest, and a trigger on the pump. The pump costs 20 Metal Block Level 1, 1 Component Kit, 1 Circuit Board and 3 Glue, and each pipe section is 2 Metal Block Level 1 and 5 Glass Blocks.

Which pipe pieces do I actually need?

Three: the straight Vacuum Pipe, the Corner, and the T where a run has to split. Those are the only pipe pieces with recipes. The one, two, four and five block pipes in the item list are the shapes the straight piece takes when you stretch it, so stretch a section instead of stacking short ones. Every piece is three blocks across, corners included.