Sluices and screen

Sluices and screen

Water is the first efficient way to separate ore from its host material. The water must flow through the sluice rather than merely stand in the same block; IME then moves muck layers downstream at intervals of roughly 5 to 15 seconds. Heavier and finer material behaves differently in the stream, creating the separation that the baffles collect.

Stick sluice: the early build

The early Stick Sluice Baffles recipe uses four sticks and one soil block. Place it under a flowing water path near the copper deposit and leave a clear downstream tailings area.

The stick version:

• stores raw and fine muck separately;
• holds up to 400 total concentration;
• captures ore at roughly half the rate of the proper baffles; and
• cannot process coarse muck.

Use a shovel to extract raw or fine ore muck from the sluice. When the readout reaches 100 concentration, shovel the collected ore out.

Simple early layout

Build the line in the direction of the water flow:

[muck input] -> [flowing water] -> [stick sluice baffles] -> [tailings]

The input can be a small muck pile in the channel or a player depositing from a bag. Keep the baffle reachable from the side and leave room below or beyond it for the material that is not captured.

Proper sluice baffles

The bronze-scale Sluice Baffles recipe uses planks and metal nails or strips. The handbook gives the exact grid for the installed metal tier; the important upgrade is the baffle itself, not a new water mechanic.

The proper version:

• stores up to 800 total concentration;
• captures fine muck at about 60%;
• captures raw muck at about 35%; and
• cannot process coarse muck.

The baffle stores raw and fine muck separately as deposited. Right-click it with a normal shovel or muck shovel to extract up to 100 concentration of one ore type at a time. Empty it before mixing a new ore into the line.

Screen: size separation

A Screen accepts raw muck from the block above it and separates it into approximately 75% coarse muck and 25% fine muck. The coarse fraction exits through the back; the fine fraction exits through the bottom.

The screen recipe uses support beams, planks, and seven tin-bronze rods. It is a late copper or bronze workshop project and should be placed where both outputs can be collected.

                 [raw muck]
                     |
                     v
              +---------------+
              |    SCREEN     | ---> coarse muck: crusher or hammer to
              +---------------+                    turn into fine muck
                     |
                     v
                fine muck: ready to process

The screen does not turn coarse muck into a usable sluice input. Send coarse muck to a bronze hammer for now, or to the powered jaw crusher once you reach the Iron Age. The hammer turns the coarse muck into fine muck. The crusher returns approximately 75% fine muck and 25% raw muck; screen or buffer those outputs before returning the fine fraction to water processing.

Sieve and non-metallic muck

A Sieve is useful to gather iron before the first bloomery. Put muck on top of the sieve. Ore muck yields only one nugget per layer, which makes it an emergency copper or iron bootstrap rather than a production method. Stone muck produces host-rock materials such as stone, sand, and gravel according to its grade.