A Stone Press that ignores perfectly good Dust and Moon Sand capsules is almost always a wiring problem, not a broken machine. The press has two separate inputs, and each one is meant for one ingredient: one is marked for Dust and the other for Sand. If the belts reach the wrong ports, the capsules sit at the machine and nothing happens. Players have spent a long time rebuilding belts and moving foundations before noticing that the two feeds were simply swapped.
Work through the checks in this order, because each one is cheaper than the next:
- Confirm the Dust belt reaches the Dust input and the Sand belt reaches the Sand input.
- Confirm the Sand really is Moon Sand from a Pressure Chamber, and that some raw Dust bypasses the chamber.
- Confirm the press has power. The Stone Press needs 18 kW, far more than a Pressure Chamber.
- Confirm the finished Moonstone has an output belt that leads somewhere.
These checks reflect the game at version 1.0.3, the latest patch confirmed in our research. That patch fixed splitters and mergers built by crewmates and let machines stand across several foundations, so some older advice about the Stone Press no longer applies.
What the Stone Press Actually Needs
The in-game build menu describes the Stone Press as a machine that takes 1 kg of Dust and 1 kg of Moon Sand and turns them into a 2 kg Moonstone block every 6 seconds. Moonstone sells for seven times the value of Dust. The machine costs $1,000 and needs 18 kW of power.
That recipe explains most failures. The press cannot work with only one ingredient. It needs both at the same time, at the correct ports, with power available, and with room to push Moonstone out.
| Requirement | What the press expects | What failure looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Dust input | Raw Moon Dust capsules | Dust waits at the wrong port or never arrives |
| Sand input | Moon Sand made by a Pressure Chamber | Sand port stays empty while Dust piles up |
| Power | 18 kW from the connected grid | Slow or stopped production, often at night |
| Output | A belt leading to the Depot or another machine | Press fills up and stops accepting new capsules |
Check the Dust In and Sand In Labels First
The most common cause is a swapped feed. One player building a two-press line had power, a full Dust belt and a full Sand belt, yet nothing was running. On closer inspection the machine showed which side was "sand in" and which was "dust in", and the belts had been connected the wrong way round. Swapping the two belts was the whole fix.
Another player ran into the same trap more than once while expanding: a new branch ended up carrying Dust toward the Sand side, and the line had to be rebuilt so that Dust went through the Pressure Chamber first. The lesson from both reports is that you cannot assume either side accepts either ingredient.
The placement preview shows where the press cuts into the belt before you confirm it.
To check your press:
- Walk up to the Stone Press and look at each input for its label.
- Follow the belt arriving at the Dust input back to its source. It should come from raw Dust, such as a Packager, Robot Vacuum dock, garage silo or Capsule Catcher.
- Follow the belt arriving at the Sand input back to its source. It should come from a Pressure Chamber output.
- If the two are crossed, reconnect them rather than adding more machines.
When you place a new press, read the port labels in the placement preview before confirming. Rotating a machine after it is built is not a reliable option based on current reports, and demolishing it returns only part of the cost. Players at launch reported getting about 75% back, so a misplaced $1,000 press is an expensive mistake.
Keep the final approach to each port simple
Belts that climb, cross over each other and drop down right beside the machine make it hard to see which belt ends where. Raised belts do not join the belt beneath them, so a crossing can look connected when it is not. Bring each ingredient in on a short, straight final run so you can see at a glance which capsules enter which port.
Build Two Separate Feeds From One Dust Line
The second most common cause is a missing ingredient. Moon Sand only comes from a Pressure Chamber. If every Dust capsule is sent through the chamber, the press receives Sand but no raw Dust, and it waits forever.
The working layout splits the Dust first:
- Place a Splitter on the incoming Dust conveyor, before the Pressure Chamber.
- Send one branch straight to the Stone Press Dust input.
- Send the other branch into the Pressure Chamber input.
- Connect the Pressure Chamber output to the Stone Press Sand input.
- Connect the Stone Press output to a belt that leads to the Depot intake.
The Pressure Chamber has its own direction rule. Its input is on the side without the handle. If the chamber is reversed, it never makes Sand, and the Stone Press looks like the broken machine when it is really starved. Check that Sand capsules are actually leaving the chamber before you troubleshoot the press.
Watch for one ingredient running out
Even a correctly wired press stops when one ingredient runs dry. A streamer who doubled their Dust use noticed they had run out of Sand while Dust was still arriving. If you see Dust capsules lined up at the press and no Sand behind them, the press is not refusing Dust. It is waiting for its second ingredient.
The Pressure Chamber also needs power. It needs 10 kW, so a press and a chamber together need 28 kW before you count anything else on the same grid.
Give the Stone Press Enough Power
A press with both ingredients at the correct ports can still look dead if the grid cannot supply it. Power is the reason many players see a factory that works in daylight and stops after sunset.
Known generation values from guides and the build menu:
| Machine or generator | Listed figure |
|---|---|
| Stone Press | Needs 18 kW |
| Pressure Chamber | Needs 10 kW |
| Solar Post | Provides 3 kW |
| Solar Twin (M) | Provides 7.5 kW |
Low power does not always mean a full stop. One player's machines showed a low power warning and were running at 52% until a large solar panel was added, after which they ran at 100%. A press that is slowly accepting capsules may simply be underpowered.
Check these points on the power readout:
- Generation compared with demand. If demand is higher, add solar before adding machines.
- Stored charge at night. Solar output can fall to zero after sunset, and machines then run only on what is stored.
- Range. A streamer placed a new press out of reach of the existing solar panels and had to add panels near it. Make sure the press is actually inside a powered area.
If the press starts working again when the sun comes up, your wiring is fine and the fix is more generation or more stored charge, not a rebuild.
Clear the Output Before Blaming the Inputs
A Stone Press whose Moonstone has nowhere to go will eventually stop taking new capsules, which looks exactly like it is refusing Dust and Sand.
- Make sure a belt starts at the press output, not at one of its inputs.
- Follow that belt to the Depot intake or the next machine and check that it actually connects.
- If you merge several press outputs together, check that the Merger faces the right way and that every branch truly joins the shared belt.
Since patch 1.0.3, the deposit intake pays exactly what its screen shows, and Dust and stone arriving by belt are paid as they come in. If Moonstone reaches the intake but the payout looks wrong on an older version, update before rebuilding anything.
Separate a Wiring Mistake From a Real Bug
Most "not accepting" reports turn out to be a swapped feed, a missing ingredient, low power or a blocked output. Some reports are harder to explain. One player wrote that both Dust and Sand were reaching the press, power was connected, and the game only reported that capsules were on the belt, without production starting. That thread did not include a confirmed cause, so treat it as an open report rather than a known rule.
Use this table to decide what you are looking at:
| What you see | Likely cause | First action |
|---|---|---|
| Capsules stop right at the press, both belts full | Belts on the wrong ports | Read the port labels and swap the belts |
| Dust waits, no Sand arriving | Pressure Chamber reversed, unpowered or starved | Check the chamber input side and its power |
| Sand waits, no Dust arriving | All Dust routed into the chamber | Add a Splitter before the chamber |
| Works by day, stops at night | Not enough stored charge | Add generation, check stored power |
| Machine shows reduced percentage | Grid demand above generation | Add solar near the press |
| Inputs fill, nothing leaves | Output belt missing or blocked | Rebuild or reconnect the output route |
| Line built by a crewmate never moves | Pre-1.0.3 splitter or merger bug | Make sure every player is on 1.0.3 |
Crewmate-built splitters and mergers
Before 1.0.3, splitters and mergers built by crewmates could fail to work. The patch notes say those now work. In co-op, every crewmate must be on version 1.0.3 to play together, so if your group is on the current version and the line still does not move, the old bug is not the explanation.
When to report it
If you have confirmed the labels, both ingredients, power, the output and the patch version, and the press still will not accept capsules, record what you see: which port each belt reaches, the power readout, and any message on the machine. That information is what the developers need, and it stops you from spending more money on rebuilds that will not help.
Test One Batch Before Expanding
After any fix, let a small amount of material run through the whole line before adding more machines:
- Send a few Dust capsules into the split.
- Watch Sand leave the Pressure Chamber and reach the Sand input.
- Watch raw Dust reach the Dust input at the same time.
- Wait for a Moonstone block to leave the press.
- Follow it to the Depot and confirm the payout.
If that batch completes, the press is accepting both ingredients correctly. Only then is it worth adding a second press, and when you do, label each branch in your head as Dust or Sand before you place the belts, because a second press can be swapped just as easily as the first.