Beyond These Stars By-Products Guide

By-products are real outputs in Beyond These Stars. When a building’s Soot, Slag, Sludge, Goo, Organic Waste, Wood Waste, or other secondary output has nowhere to go, the primary process can stop. The cure is a planned sink, storage buffer, or production pause—not simply adding more input.

Understand why the line stopped

Many buildings create more than one resource per task. The Woodcutter’s main purpose is Wood, but it also creates Wood Waste. A Burner Generator supplies Power while creating Soot. Smelting and advanced industry introduce more secondary materials. These outputs are part of the recipe even when the current objective only asks for the primary item.

Select the stalled building and inspect all output slots. A full by-product slot can look like an input or staffing failure from the wider view because the animation and main output cease together. Check the connected storage rules and whether a worker is actually available to move the material.

Power deserves special attention. A generator can be ready to burn its input yet stop because its by-product cannot leave. The resulting blackout then stops the powered factory intended to consume or process another resource, creating a circular deadlock.

Give each by-product a role

Use the current building tooltip and technology tree to verify recipes in your build. A resource may be a nuisance in one era and a valuable input later. That does not mean you should hoard unlimited amounts; set a buffer based on the next known consumer and available space.

Build buffers without creating a labor trap

A By-Product Yard offers an early dedicated location, while later storage can be filtered for a broader logistics plan. Put the buffer near major producers without blocking their roads, Power Lines, or pollution-control space. Ensure its worker can be recruited from nearby accommodation.

One large, deliberate buffer is usually easier to manage than many distant sheds. Extra storage creates capacity but also job slots and hauling. If workers spend an entire shift moving waste across the settlement, the factory may still starve or the homes may miss deliveries.

Keep some empty capacity during expansion. When a new smelter or generator comes online, watch the first several cycles and measure which output rises. Configure the buffer from observed flow rather than filling every category preemptively.

Turn waste into a stabilizing loop

Good by-product design connects environmental control with production. Soot from necessary early industry can support Cleaners. Wood Waste can feed Compost, which supports fertile ground and forests; forests then suppress pollution and expand breathable territory. A chain that appears to generate waste can therefore fund the systems that limit its damage.

But never make the cleanup chain depend on a polluter running continuously just to generate its supply. Hold a reserve, and pause demand or production before either side reaches zero or full. Advanced power is especially vulnerable because its inputs may themselves require electricity. Maintain a restart path that does not depend on the failed loop.

For planet imports and exports, remember that the Space Port is also a buffer. Configure requested stacks, leave unloading room, and verify ships are moving the resource you intend rather than an abundant low-priority surplus.

Clear a by-product deadlock

Use this order:

1. Pause the blocked producer so it stops competing for labor and inputs.
2. Select it and identify the exact full secondary output.
3. Enable a valid nearby store or consumer for that resource and staff the transport step.
4. If the power grid is down, restore an open-loop generator path before restarting dependent processors.
5. Move enough material to create several cycles of headroom, not just one empty slot.
6. Resume one producer and watch both outputs through a full shift.

If the buffer immediately refills, production rate exceeds consumption. Pause or reduce the producer until a lasting sink exists. The Production Chains page covers whole-line diagnosis, while Pollution explains the environmental cost of letting hazardous industry run unchecked.

References checked for this route

• Official Resources page for named by-products and the multi-output rule.
• Official Power page for generator by-products, wasted power, and startup dependencies.
• Official Pollution page for Soot-fed Cleaners and forest mitigation.
• Official Terraforming page for the Wood Waste-to-Compost-to-fertile-ground connection.
• Walkthrough Forge by-products guide used to cross-check common release-day deadlocks; the task order and prose here are original.