Alchemy Factory Catapults, Cannons & Arcane Fountain

What they are for

The tutorial’s closing hint is to “prioritize researching catapults and automatic cashier upgrades to free yourself from the grind of restocking.” A catapult pointed at a shelf restocks it; a catapult pointed at a hopper crosses a room without a belt. Since 1.0 catapults are unlocked at the Workbench under the logistics category rather than in the research tree, which is why launch-week players reported them missing.

Valid targets, from a player’s list on the Steam board: hoppers, all store stands, trash cans, cauldrons (including stacked ones), and smelters, with the question of what else left open. The relic guide adds kilns and cauldron stacks fed by cannon “rather than trying to get belts up into this area,” and a priority filter at the end of a cannon-fed line so the far cauldrons fill first.

Speed and skill

• The catapult’s initial speed was set to 60 items per minute in v0.4.2.3924 (January 2026), with the in-game description updated to match.
• Throwing Efficiency raises cannon and catapult speed, but the March 2026 skill guide calls it skippable “as long as you keep your logistics efficiency at four points or less because that keeps your belts and your cannons at 120 items per minute.”
• Blueprints save catapult and cannon targets if the target is inside the blueprint (December 2025), and a quick action clears a target.

Through walls

Catapults can throw through walls with one ordering rule from the tips video: place the catapult and set its target first, then build the wall. A wall that is already there blocks the throw. The 1 x 1 block pieces work as walls for the same purpose and keep the shot hidden.

What 1.0 changed

• “Adjusted target selection for Cannons and Catapults. Targets that are too high or too low can no longer be selected.”
• “Added range indicators when building throwing devices.”
• The Arcane Fountain: “Automatically searches for suitable targets to throw at.”
• Trash Barrels have accepted direct throws since April 2026, so a catapult into a barrel is a valid overflow sink.

Hoppers show throw-input prompts on hover (December 2025), and the three Hopper Conveyor variants from January 2026 plus the 1.0 Advanced Hopper are the receiving side of most throws.

Two cautions from the boards

A player rebuilt a shop after finding customers would not buy from shelves the catapult had filled while they stood outside in the dirt: shelves must be inside the shop and reachable, whatever fills them. And catapulting yourself while shrunk by the Transmuter could break a multiplayer client’s ability to rejoin in an August 2026 report; the 1.0 height limits on targets may or may not cover it.

Sources: MonkeyNutz Gaming beginner guide (11 December 2025, transcript); v0.4.2.3924 notes (13 January 2026); Update v0.4.1.3754 (20 December 2025); v0.4.4.4298 notes (15 April 2026); 1.0 Patch Notes; Uglarvisk, skill tree and relics guides (February and March 2026, transcripts); Timm Plays Games, 50 tips (5 January 2026, transcript); Steam Discussions “Which machines can be targeted by catapults/cannons?” (10 August 2026) and “Multiplayer can’t join game bug” (24 August 2026).