If you played the demo and are searching "sandustry spores", here is the answer nobody states plainly: spores were renamed and simplified out of the game. The Early Access material list has no Spore and no Wet Spore — the Kinetic Press now produces Seeds directly, and the whole farming loop got one step shorter. Old guides describing spore washing are describing the demo.
Demo chain vs. Early Access chain
| Demo | Early Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Press output | Burnt Slag → 1 Gold + 1 Spore | Burnt Residue → 1 Gold + 1 Seed |
| Hydration | 1 Spore + 1 Water = 1 Wet Spore | 1 Seed + 1 Water = 1 Wet Seed |
| Planting | Wet Spore on Planter Box → Seed → Flower | Wet Seed touching Planter Box → Flower |
(Slag and Burnt Slag were likewise renamed to Residue and Burnt Residue — see the slag guide for that half of the pipeline.)
Seed hydration, and the floating problem
The numbers are exact and the water is consumed: 1 Seed + 1 Water = 1 Wet Seed. Budget your farming line against the water loop accordingly.
The demo's infamous "spore washing" difficulty survives in a gentler form. A Wet Seed has the same density as water (100), so it floats; a dry Seed (density 150) sinks. That gives you both the problem and the tool:
- The problem: wet seeds drift at the waterline instead of falling out of your dunk tank.
- The tool: mixed piles self-separate — dry seeds sink through water and wet ones ride the surface, so gravity itself sorts hydrated from unhydrated.
- The intended fix: the Clearing Frame research exists precisely to push floating Wet Seeds out of the water and onward to the planters.
Drip-hydration designs from the demo era (a conveyor of dry seeds under a slow water drip, so no pool ever forms) still work and still avoid the whole floating question.
Why you farm instead of dumping
Seeds are not waste to eliminate — they are one of the three gold engines. Every Wet Seed that touches a Planter Box becomes a Flower carrying 4 Amethelis and 1 Gold, and Amethelis is the sole feedstock for both the Energy chain and the fluxite chain. The surplus that piles up beside your press is unplanted income; the planter guide covers turning it into a farm.
Moss is not spores
The other green thing people mean by this search: Moss, the growth in underground caves. It is unrelated to farming — 1 HP, dies to any tool, burns away to nothing (its cousin the Vine burns considerably faster), drops nothing. Whether moss regrows over time is unconfirmed; no official source documents it.