Pyro Dispenser
Automated flame turret for Sandustry flower farms: Tier 3 Research for 2,000 Gold, firing 3-second bursts on Thermal Buffer heat to keep Planter Boxes clear.
Stats
- Function
- Auto-fires flame bursts every 3 seconds while fueled by an adjacent Thermal Buffer
- Unlocked by
- Research Tier 3 — 2,000 Gold
The Pyro Dispenser is Sandustry's answer to unattended burning: a building that spits bursts of fire by itself, as long as a neighboring Thermal Buffer is supplying heat. Each burst lands on a fixed 3-second rhythm and sets fire to any flammable pixel it touches. That makes the machine the standard counter to overgrown flower patches — the growth that otherwise clogs a Planter Box farm until the Amethelis harvest stops flowing.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26）
Pyro Dispenser stats
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Research tier | Tier 3（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Unlock cost | 2,000 Gold（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Fire cycle | One burst every 3 seconds while fueled（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Fuel | Heat from an adjacent Thermal Buffer（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| What it ignites | Any flammable pixel it touches（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Blocks liquids | Yes（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Blocks gas | Yes（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Blocks the player | Yes（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Range | "Several blocks" per stream (no exact figure published)（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
Note the tier-3 price tag with care: the official Research page documenting 2,000 Gold was last edited before the v0.5.7 release, so treat the figure as current-official-wiki rather than a version-verified in-game reading.（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26）
How to unlock the Pyro Dispenser
The dispenser sits in the Tier 3 band of the Research tree, and it costs 2,000 Gold to research.（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） The same section holds Planter Box at 1,250 Gold and Clearing Frame at 1,000 Gold.（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） A chronological achievement route lists the dispenser right after Planter Box and Fluids. Research those first if you want the watering loop running before you automate the burning side.（来源 2，核查 2026-09-26）
Saving up is the real gate. The episode that introduces the dispenser shows the player earning enough money to unlock it.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26） That run also treats a batch of sand-driven tech unlocks as the on-ramp to Tier 3. Same video, same player: read it as one playthrough's pacing rather than independent confirmation of costs.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26）
How the Pyro Dispenser works
- A fixed rhythm. The dispenser fires one flame burst every 3 seconds. The official Research entry spells this out, and the v0.5.7 gameplay footage shows the same cadence. The two sources agree.（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26）（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26）
- Heat-gated. It only runs while fed by an adjacent Thermal Buffer. Without heat, the dispenser turns off and stops emitting fire, exactly as the official page documents.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）
- Contact ignition. Anything flammable that the flames touch catches fire. The official page keeps the target list deliberately broad.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）
- Solid to everything. The building blocks liquids and gases alike, and the player cannot walk through it either, so it doubles as a wall piece where your layout needs one.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）
One boundary worth respecting: the official description says it works "like a Flamethrower," but the page only promises ignition of flammable pixels. Treat that line as a functional analogy rather than a transfer of every tool behavior. Melting Ice or vaporizing Water, for instance, stays outside what the page documents for the dispenser.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）
Feeding it: Thermal Buffer heat supply
A Thermal Buffer absorbs heat from two sources, and they are not equal. Lava in direct contact dumps 250 heat units into the buffer in one transfer, and the Lava is consumed in the process. Fire passing nearby only adds heat indirectly, with a 40% chance per contact to add a single unit. That fire is not used up.（来源 5，核查 2026-09-26）
The flower-farm layout from the source episode leans on this. The closed growing area pairs the dispenser with a set of Thermal Buffers, and the player adds one more buffer purely so stray flames have maximum heated surface to hit.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26） That is one player's build choice in a single layout. It is a useful pattern to copy, not a published optimal rule.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26） The same closed chamber receives its seeds through a Conveyor Portal, the episode's answer to getting seeds into a closed environment.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26）
Common problems and fixes
It never fires at all. Check the heat line first. With no Thermal Buffer heat available, the dispenser turns off and stops emitting fire. This is documented behavior, not a bug.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）
"It only shoots once in a while." That is the design, not a malfunction: one burst per 3-second cycle, confirmed by the official Research entry and matching the in-game footage.（来源 4，核查 2026-09-26） When you would rather aim the fire yourself, the Flamethrower is the manual route, a player-operated tool rather than an automated building.（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26）（来源 8，核查 2026-09-26）
If the flowers still win, check whether the flames are landing on the plants at all. In the source episode, the pain point was plants that "are unable to be burnt" piling up until the boxes jammed, which is exactly the workload the dispenser was bought for.（来源 1，核查 2026-09-26） If clogs persist, widen the burn zone or add a second dispenser. Note that per-burst heat cost is unpublished, so each extra unit adds an unquantified draw on your buffer network.（来源 5，核查 2026-09-26）
Alternatives: other ways to burn things
| Option | Mode | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Pyro Dispenser | Automated, ranged bursts | Unattended flower farms and burn zones（来源 3，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Flamethrower | Manual, player-held | Spot cleanup and ignition on demand（来源 8，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Lava trapped in Filters | Automated, contact | Official alternative to the Burner Belt; named for Residue and Flower auto-burners（来源 7，核查 2026-09-26） |
| Burner Belt | Automated, contact | Belt-integrated burning along transport lines（来源 7，核查 2026-09-26） |
The official wiki's Burnt Residue entry credits the dispenser as one of the standard ways to automate Burnt Residue production. The same entry notes that running Residue over Lava trapped in Filters does the identical ignition duty, so the choice between them is layout-driven rather than ability-driven.（来源 8，核查 2026-09-26）
Related pages
- Planter Box: the farm this dispenser defends, including the sealed-chamber layout that pairs them.
- Amethelis: the Flower-to-Gold loop the burning protects.
- Burner Belt guide: the contact-burning alternative for belt lines.
- Lava: the heat source that keeps a Thermal Buffer stocked.
Video reference
- The Ultimate in seed wetting tech is a simple 3x3 | Sandustry Ep2 (source episode, checked 2026-09-26)
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