Unrailed! 2 Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the update it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Bosses
#Dynamite and torpedoes deal zero damage to tentacles
Reaching for the explosives is the single most common way this fight falls apart. Any tool works instead, and so does simply dropping a bridge on top of one. A levelled Turret Wagon shreds them almost instantly and is the strongest answer available.
Verified on 1.0
Enemies
#Disguised trees strike when you walk in front, not when you chop
Three tells give them away: a circular top, darker leaves, and a dark arrow on top pointing the way they will hit. They have 8 hit points and cannot move, so the whole threat is walking through a lane you had no reason to check.
Verified on 1.0
Brake Tracks
#A brake track is worse than plain track below about 1.0 m/s
Its effect scales inversely with the speed you already carry, and it lasts about three seconds after the first wagon rolls over. At 0.4 m/s it takes off roughly half your speed, at 1.0 m/s about 30 percent, and at a crawl it does essentially nothing. Save them for a genuinely fast train.
Verified on 1.0
Speed
#Racing ahead with track is what accelerates the train chasing you
The speedometer only changes at stations, rising per station connected, per player, and per biome revisit. The speed you actually travel at is a separate thing that tracks how much rail sits ahead of the engine. Keep the queue short, and loop the line back on itself to buy time.
Verified on 1.0
Bosses
#The Sandworm's safe path is decided when the level generates
Walking somewhere does not make it safe. Send a scout ahead on foot and retreat the instant the ground rumbles under them. Ten seconds later that tile is gone, anyone standing on it dies outright, and anyone further out on unsafe ground gets teleported to solid tiles.
Verified on 1.0
Extensions
#Three extension pairings are blocked outright, so do not plan them
Hydrocharge does not fit the Storage wagon, Range-Extension does not fit the Ghost wagon, and Storage-Push does not fit the Crafter. Ghost range comes from the wagon's level and nothing else, and Push works on the Collector, Compactor, Conveyor-Belt-Transporter, Transformer, and Mimic.
Verified on 1.0
#Leave the Crafter's pre-installed Storage-Pull exactly where it is
You can strip it at a Blacksmith, but the wagon then stops feeding itself. Fill the other two slots with Hydrocharge, since a Hydrocharged Crafter only heats while it is actively crafting, and at high levels it works fast enough that it barely touches its water.
Verified on 1.0
Wagons
#The Milk Wagon keeps buffs running after the animals come off
It holds six units, extracts on a timer, and combines the effects of every animal roped to it. Those effects continue as long as milk remains even once the animals are gone. What you are buying is uptime rather than a bigger payout, since the durations themselves stay short.
Verified on 1.0
#The Collector inserts 30 per station at every single level
The budget never grows, which is exactly why upgrading pays: a better rate against a fixed cap is straight profit. It also means dumping all your overflow into it is not a plan. Never fit Storage-Pull here or it drains your buffer, and use Magnet-Pick instead.
Verified on 1.0
Stations
#Difficulty is a per-level property, and it sets the bolt payout
Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme pay 2, 3, 4, and 5 bolts, shown by an icon under the station. Your cartridges influence which rating a level rolls, and the first level of any biome is always Easy, so the biome you are in tells you nothing about what the next station pays.
Verified on 1.0
#The Slot Machine station guarantees a reward by the fourth roll
Rolls cost 4 bolts each, so this is not a gamble at all. Rolls one through three are simply a 12-bolt purchase with a guaranteed payout waiting at the end of them, which makes budgeting for it a fixed cost rather than a matter of luck.
Verified on 1.0
Wagons
#Dynamite output is stuck at one stick per 40 seconds until level 6
Levelling the wagon does not speed that up, so a second Dynamite wagon is the only way to raise throughput before then. Running two in later biomes is a real strategy rather than a luxury. Skip Hydrocharge on this one, or it catches fire roughly every stick and a bit.
Verified on 1.0
Biome Order
#Selecting a Biome Junction costs 10 bolts and starts the boss fight
There is no browsing it first. The junction only opens after 2 stations in a biome on a first visit, or 4 plus one more per repeat if you have been there before. Endless runs on layers rather than a fixed order, and two of those layers make you pick one biome of a pair.
Verified on 1.0
Collectibles
#A level that looks short a bolt is usually hiding a cassette
Two per biome occupy bolt slots, so the thing you are hunting for may not be a bolt at all. Collecting the full set unlocks Felix and Mathilde's Biggest Fan, held by 0.7 percent of players, and the soundtrack behind it runs to 51 tracks.
Verified on 1.0
Tasks
#The no-tools task counts the bucket, and that is what fails it
Hold no axe, pickaxe, or bucket for 20 seconds. Dynamite is not a tool and does not count. The kill-no-animals task fails just as quietly, since a spider dies in the act of cocooning you, and one bucket of water on the Sandworm's nest destroys it.
Verified on 1.0
Upgrades
#A wagon's base color tells you its level at a glance
Grey, green, blue, purple, yellow, red runs level 1 to 6. The ladder costs 3, 4, 6, 12, and 24 bolts, so 49 to max one wagon, or 42 with a Sale modifier. Extensions are not a way around the cap either, they stack on top of it.
Verified on 1.0
Biomes
#Carrying a Crab turns the water around it into sand
That exposes iron you otherwise cannot reach, and it is the only counter to the water the Octoboss leaves behind. It is the most useful thing you can have in your hands in this biome. Whether the sand survives a tide flip is undocumented, so do not bet a route on it.
Verified on 1.0
#The Torch will not burn a web while you hold a mining tool
The tooltip never mentions the condition. Put the axe or pickaxe down, stand still on the web for a couple of seconds, and it goes up. Doing it once also hands you the Watch the World Burn achievement on the way past.
Verified on 1.0
Cartridges
#Milking an animal grants a countdown, not a cartridge you keep
You get temporary copies that expire in about 12 seconds drinking straight from the animal, or 15 to 25 from a Milk Wagon depending on its level. Watch them grey out on your player card. It buffs only the player who drank, so it is a burst you time rather than a supply you bank.
Verified on 1.0
Underground Unit
#A tree standing in a laser beam is doing you a favour
The beams do not pulse and there is no rhythm to time. They stream from 15 hit point Laser Turrets that an axe or pickaxe destroys, and mountains, trees, rocks, other turrets, and the puzzle box all block them. Clearing every resource blindly can genuinely soft-lock a level.
Verified on 1.0
What to Read Next
- Wagons and Upgrades. Every wagon and extension, the level ladder, and which combinations are blocked.
- Biomes and Boss Strategies. The layer system, each boss, and the secret Underground Unit.
- Getting Started. Cartridges, the speedometer, and the tasks that fail without telling you.
- Co-op and Strategy. Role splits, crossplay setup, and how boss prep changes with team size.
- Achievement Guide. All 60, including the three locked behind the secret biome.