The yard fills up with hardware faster than the tutorial explains it. This page is the reference: one device per row, what it does, and the failure mode you will actually meet.
The devices
| Device | Job | Failure mode | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crank Peel Machine | Removes skin in bulk; three levels | Cut potatoes stuck in the hopper; unpeeled ones roll back out (1.0.1) | Do not overfill; finish spots by hand |
| Machine hopper | Buffers input | Loses potatoes on save/load before 1.0.2 | Update to 1.0.2; hoppers now keep contents |
| Water channel | Moves peeled potatoes away | Jams late game, causes slowdown (1.0.2) | Buy channel speed levels |
| Potato Vacuum | Stores potatoes | Did not persist in saves before 1.0.2 | Update; the tank now saves |
| Claw Crane | Moves the pile in bulk | Pile forms arches that refuse to collapse (1.0.1) | Autopilot restacks every 3 minutes |
| Crane Autopilot | Runs the crane unattended | Recount every 2.5 min, loudspeaker every other one | Normal; it is the game narrating itself |
| Wheelbarrow | Carries a large batch | Description did not match behaviour before 1.0.1 | Read the updated card |
| Sacks | Pour potatoes into a hopper | Tore where they were caught (1.0.2) | Sacks now pour into the hopper centre |
| Villager crate | Delivers a loaded crate | Holding E sacked potatoes instead of sending (1.0.2) | Hold E to send the crate |
| Supply drop | Delivers equipment | Caught on the crane (1.0.2) | Update; drops land on ground or snow |
| Loudspeaker | Announces recounts and events | Interrupts you every other recount | Part of the fiction; no toggle documented |
| Flamethrower | Storm gift | Appeared early on old saves (1.0.2) | Update; it is scripted to the storm |
All failure modes and fixes are quoted from the 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 patch notes.
Feeding a machine is a job
A machine does not remove work; it moves work. The Crank Peel Machine removes the knife stroke and adds loading, monitoring and a finishing pass. If you do not staff those three, the machine is slower than your hands.
- Loading. Sacks and hoppers exist because loading by hand one potato at a time defeats the point. Fill the buffer, then do something else.
- Monitoring. A jam is silent until the pile backs up. Check the outlet whenever the quota counter stops moving.
- Finishing. Machine-peeled potatoes need a hand pass for spots. Budget it, or your quota will stall on quality checks.
Power, chill and the storm
The storm brings cold and, with it, a free flamethrower. The 1.0.2 notes treat “the storm's chill” as a state that can persist incorrectly on old saves, which means it is a scripted modifier rather than a random weather cycle.
If a machine behaves differently after the storm — slower, stuck, or refusing input — check the save state first. Loading a pre-storm save on 1.0.2 is the documented fix for early storm effects.
What to build first, in one line
Peeling machine → hopper feeding → channel speed → vacuum storage → crane → autopilot. Each step removes the queue created by the previous one. Skipping a step creates a queue you cannot see until the yard is full.
The crane deserves its own page; it changes the pile from a queue into a resource. That is the crane and vacuum guide.