How to Unlock Grinder in Lightyear Frontier

Lightyear Frontier is an easy-going, intergalactic farming sim that puts you in the boots of a space farmer who needs to start a new life on an alien planet. Your goal is to build a sustainable farm using the land’s resources, and to do that you need to craft machines that help you create new ones, such as the Grinder. This machine is pivotal to making some higher-end materials, and if you’re wondering how to get one for your farm, here is how to unlock the Grinder in Lightyear Frontier.

How to Unlock & Build the Grinder in Lightyear Frontier

The Grinder is a windmill-shaped machine that you’ll be able to build fairly early on in the game, and you’ll want to the moment you unlock it. To do that, however, you’ll first need to successfully restore the Edge Cliffs region of the map, which is directly south of The Meadows. Note that you don’t need to upgrade any tools to get rid of the Noxious Slimes in this area.

The day after restoration, the Edge Cliffs will reveal new resources to you, including Caroot plants and Copper Ore. The Copper Ore in particular is what you need in order to unlock the Grinder. However, to be able to gather it, you will need to improve your Spike Saw with the Damage I upgrade at the Upgrade Depot.

Once you’ve done so, head over to the Edge Cliffs and gather as much Copper Ore as you can carry. The recipe for the Grinder will then unlock, as you need that Copper to build it. Head back to your farm and pull up the Build Menu. For the Grinder you’ll need the following:

• 12 x Stone
• 4 x Copper Wire (made via the Assembler)
• 4 x Aluminum Rod (found in Pine Heights and The Meadows)

Choose the spot you want to place it, and you can then start grinding down resources into new materials.

How to Use the Grinder in Lightyear Frontier

The Grinder is not just a statement piece for your farm, it’s a very important machine for you to build because of the materials it provides. They contribute to a variety of crucial upgrades for your Mech, which you will need to successfully restore the rest of the areas on the map and be able to gather every resource the game has to offer.

Not only that, those materials also contribute to building other new constructs for your farm, such as the Furnace. You’ll need that to be able to make various metal bars (e.g. Iron, Steel, Fractalite) and various colors of glass.

Altogether, the Grinder can produce the following materials:

• Stone Dust (makes Clear Glass and Clay)
• Noxious Spores (makes Power Cores)
• Red Crystal Dust (makes Red Glass)
• Blue Crystal Dust (makes Blue Glass)
• Yellow Crystal Dust (makes Yellow Glass)

Once you have your first Grinder, you’ll likely find yourself wanting to build at least a second one, for all of the help it provides. They’re not bad-looking either, so we’d say to go for it.

That concludes our guide for how to unlock the Grinder in Lightyear Frontier. We hope you found this helpful, and let us know how you’re enjoying the game and its farming mechanics so far.

Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Lightyear Frontier, including our official review of the game.