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A Simple How-To Guide for Constructing Esher Waterfalls


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If you want to move liquids rapidly, at no power, then learning to construct escher waterfalls is a crucial game-changer. The original discovery happened here, with lots of improvements since. I give all credit to @asveron, and the many others who have contributed to the development. This guide shows how to easily make one, and even make one underwater at the bottom of a huge reservoir if you want. I have never seen a guide for building one underwater. (I'm sure it's not new to many veterans, but figured I'd share.)  

If you are not sure what an escher waterfall is, here is an example that I'll show how to make in this guide.

2131457103_Screenshotfrom2020-07-1111-34-07.png.1bc24f306f7978715ef68e3c8cf1367b.png 

The escher waterfall above I use for infinite liquid compression, but the uses are much more than just that. Both @Zarquan and I used these recently to construct 90kg/s (or greater) crude to petro boilers. (And yes, I use the MaterialColor mod by @Swistak. I love it.) I even created an alternate mini-guide for making escher waterfalls in that  post. 

image.thumb.png.b607f016424f3db7e9fe190017d85323.png image.thumb.png.7ea209757e9c52de9261059a9d07be04.png

You can use these to pump magma up to the surface without power, cycle large amounts of coolant from hot to cold areas, and so much more. The only limiting factor on the flow rate is the viscosity rating, as flow is capped at 5 times this value (see @f4rtux's https://oni-db.com/ to obtain that value).  This let's you pump crude oil at 250kg/s, water at 625kg/s, etc.

How to make an escher waterfall, while being completely submerged in the liquid

  1. Create the surrounding structure, with a bridge leading into the two spots you want air (and a single pipe segment ready to receive gas). 
    ew-initial.png.014b925076eb04b34a1000c3f2b4c0ed.png
  2. Pipe in two gasses (heavy gas needs to be piped into the bottom, and lighter gas to the top). A bridge connecting to a single pipe segment guarantees you will only get one pipe segment worth in the needed spot. You can pipe away all other unneeded gas, and remove the pipes that brought you to this point. 
    ew-2.png.6cae9413e48e5ef901bfb8e1e20d521d.png
  3. Notice BELOW that I have added one more insulated tile to the right on the top of the structure. This tile is needed to prevent the diagonal bypass pump from sucking out gas. You can make this tile at the start, or later on, but it is required to prevent the bypass pump from ruining things. 
    ew-2b.png.6c789b78889727b5cf3c7cae14636bfb.png
  4. Now deconstruct the TOP gas pipe first. The water gets displaced and the top gas occupies the top region. Then deconstruct the BOTTOM gas pipe second. If you deconstruct the bottom pipe first, then the gas moves upwards and upon deconstructing the top pipe you get mass deletion. 
    ew-4.png.526fc638cf94356efe54187df36e31b2.png 
  5. That's it.  Your escher waterfall is ready to go. Wait a few moments, and any liquid above will pass through the fall (625kg/s for water). You can drain the entire subsurface ocean biome very quickly. 
    2131457103_Screenshotfrom2020-07-1111-34-07.png.1bc24f306f7978715ef68e3c8cf1367b.png

Can I build this NOT underwater?

Of course. Build the solid tiles as before, and bring one pipe segment of gasses to the appropriate spots. Before deconstructing the two gas pipes, put liquid in the two needed spots (a bottle emptier makes this really easy).  Then build solid tiles over the gas pipes and deconstruct them (to make the middle vacuum).  Then deconstruct the pipe segments.  You can also use bleach stone and polluted dirt or oxylite to bring the needed gasses to the middle room.  There are tons of possible options. If you're lucky, you can trap the gasses from the surrounding environment (when not underwater), and just build the thing without any piping. You can also use a gas dispenser. 

You can instead use airflow tiles (provided you are underwater or in vacuum) where the gas pipe segments are, and then deconstruct the gas pipes in any order. The waterfall won't start working till you destroy both airflow tiles. This provides a way to setup the thing before you let it start. 

Essentials to keep in mind (for any build)

  1. Flow is determined by top/bottom. This flows right-to-left since the higher liquid is on the right side. The upper right liquid drips through two gasses, and appears in the lower left. 
     image.png.6f6cf4e8f84a81e8ebba39bd75fedc8c.png
  2. You need 2 different gasses in the middle region. The waterfall works because of the one-element-per-tile mechanics in the game. 
    image.png.5b9a9f4d8dc1d3d2f802041e53ad576e.png
  3. Keeping gasses trapped requires solid tiles or liquid remaining on all sides. Insulated tiles are not required. You can use any you want, provided they do not allow gas to move through. 
    image.png.0e1bac1e7719ce09f58a759440915930.png
  4. Make sure something holds up the water below the left water blob (I use a door here, but anything works, even a heavier liquid). In addition, prevent water from entering the cell above the right water blob (I have an insulated tile), as this prevents diagonal bypass mechanics.
    image.png.f5930aa0dd9c0d29d537cfe11b2c7f6e.png
  5. For infinite liquid storage, or if you cannot move the lower liquid away fast enough, then the lower liquid will rapidly increase in mass. If your use case requires it, then prepare appropriately to prevent overpressure damage.  I use doors for this. 
    image.png.4c0752c08686c34d154fb630af92daa2.png
  6. These two tiles serve no purpose. They can be whatever. 
    image.png.4a1d2ecc3dd8a0e854263550e08a8396.png
  7. The design can be mirrored to get left-to-right flow. 

Enjoy your high flow devices. 

 

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4 minutes ago, TheMule said:

I forgot to mention, this is great because escher waterfalls of course are not limited to infinite storage. You can move liquids from the bottom to the top of the map at very high rate.

And without using extra energy. And depending on the material, eshers are quite a beautiful sight.

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Stay tuned for an update coming. 

"Old Faithful ONIstone Dining Accommodations - Dinner in Nature."  

Got my old faithful geyser running nicely. It erupts about once every minute, showering whoever is eating with nice warm water (my son wants me to change it to crude oil....) Don't worry, when we get it finished, we'll make a video of it. 

image.png.d022392519ef65037f5466680cc24883.png

Now I just need to beautify it, add some critters, maybe some fish, a few plants, get the nature buff, and go from there.  I think I'll make one of these in my survival game this week (maybe a few, and one with magma for whoever pees in the public clean water tank). 

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On 7/11/2020 at 12:57 PM, mathmanican said:

Now deconstruct the TOP gas pipe first. The water gets displaced and the top gas occupies the top region. Then deconstruct the BOTTOM gas pipe second.

I feel like an idiot.  This is so simple.  I've done things like waiting for the mix of gasses to be right, then build the last block when all I had to do was use a stupid flipping pipe.  *sigh* Clearly there was a short in my brain somewhere.  Thanks for this... it changes everything.

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33 minutes ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

Polluted water

Absolutely true.  However, the two tiles of liquid that maintain the escher fall will not offgas if you have solid tiles above them.  One caveat, found through trial and error.  DO NOT PLACE a liquid pump venting polluted water in the top tile. Polluted water tends to off-gas as it comes out of the vent, regardless of whether or not there is a solid above it. You can put an incoming water vent for every other substance in the top liquid spot.  For polluted water, just place the vent one tile further to the side. 

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2 hours ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

I feel like an idiot.  This is so simple.  I've done things like waiting for the mix of gasses to be right, then build the last block when all I had to do was use a stupid flipping pipe.  *sigh* Clearly there was a short in my brain somewhere.  Thanks for this... it changes everything.

Heh. Know the feeling. I've been struggling with balancing low liquid volume with storage containers with 1kg og oxylite then bleach stone. A gas pipe is so much simpler than even my way... 

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10 minutes ago, bobe17 said:

Can't figure out what you were trying to do. :confused:

The escher waterfall is a mechanism to have high liquid flow where, under real life physics, it should be impossible.  They are used for high flow applications, infinite compression of liquids, and simply making liquids flow upwards.

Basically, as far as the liquid is concerned, there is no liquid in the area it is trying to go.  This means that it flows as though there isn't anything there.  So the water flows down and tries to either make a new tile or join another water tile.  Since the gases can't be moved due to lack of space, it joins the liquid tile.  Since the liquid has nowhere to go, it keeps building up in the 2x2 space. 

In the original post's pictures, you can see this in action.  The water starts about 2 tiles tall, but it is almost all compressed in to the pump room by the escher waterfall.

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1 hour ago, bobe17 said:

I was asking for the problem exposed by beowulf.

You can get the gasses in place using oxylite and bleach stone, but then this doesn't work well if you have too much liquid in the room already. Deconstructing a pipe fixes the problem.  I'm guessing you may have already figured this all out, but I'll give an answer for someone who stumbles upon this thread in 6 months. 

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