Craftomation 101 Cargo Mate: Box Hauling and Logistics

A normal CraftoMate crafts, feeds, and delivers one item pair at a time. A Cargo Mate exists for a different job: carry storage boxes so your production yards stop commuting across half the ice every cycle. This guide explains how Cargo Mate differs from a standard mate, how to craft Cargo Body and Cargo Head, how to program box logistics, and when the upgrade is worth the expensive parts.

Craftomation 101 left Early Access on 2026-09-14 after launching into Early Access on 2024-02-19. It is a single-player Steam title from Luden.io for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Every hungry cargo chassis is still your problem — there is no multiplayer warehouse crew.

Before you chase cargo, keep one reliable CraftoMate on heat and fuel. Re-read Feed Robots and the part chains on Recipes. Progression order lives under Upgrade Path.

CraftoMate vs Cargo Mate

Role	Assembly	Strength
CraftoMate	Body + Head	Craft, combine, feed, short deliveries
Cargo Mate	Cargo Head + Cargo Body	Haul Storage boxes; let other bots pick from the box it carries

Ordinary mates remain your crafters and nurses. Cargo mates are mobile shelves. Community and in-game behavior agree on the split: the cargo unit carries a box of items; normal mates can take items from the box that the cargo unit is holding. That pattern turns “everyone Find and pick Coal Brick from a distant pile” into “stand near the courier and Pick from the carried Storage.”

Do not replace your only Heat1 with a Cargo Mate. Specialize: crafters stay crafters; add cargo when the walk time between stockpiles is the real bottleneck.

Craftomation 101 Cargo Mate overview

Recipes: Cargo Body, Cargo Head, Cargo Mate

Cargo sits on the Green robotics row. You must already craft normal bodies and heads, plus Steam Batteries.

Prerequisite spine

1. Battery = Charged Steelplate + Water and Radiolamp = Charged Steelplate + Glass
2. Body = Battery + Steel and Head = Radiolamp + Steel
3. CraftoMate = Body + Head (prove feeding works first)
4. Copper = Copper Ore + Fire, Tank = Copper + Steel Plate, Steam Battery = Tank + Water

Cargo crafts

• Cargo Body = Body + Steam Battery
• Cargo Head = Head + Copper Ore
• Cargo Mate = Cargo Head + Cargo Body

Those recipes spend mid-game trophies. A Steam Battery is also your volcano tool — see Steam Battery before you burn every Tank into chassis upgrades. Copper Ore on the head means your copper smelt line must already exist; do not invent cargo while Copper Ore is still a rare Find and pick across unthawed ice.

Cross-check the tables anytime on Recipes and sequence the spend with Upgrade Path.

What Cargo Mate is for

Typical logistics wins:

• Brick lunch trucks — fill a Storage with Coal Bricks near the brick yard, then walk that box to distant Heat, grower, or steel bots so they Eat without hiking home.
• Steam Battery expeditions — ferry tanks or finished Steam Batteries toward the volcano corridor while crafters stay at the workshop (Wake Volcano).
• Yard reshuffles — move a Storage of Steel Plates or Copper next to the Tank combiner instead of rebuilding the whole factory when the thaw frontier moves.
• Seed-aware shortcuts — procedural planets put coal, ice, and copper in awkward belts; cargo turns bad seeds into solvable commute problems.

If your base still fits inside one bonfire cluster, cargo is optional. When you maintain two or three heat lobes, cargo becomes cheaper than a third generalist that spends half its battery walking.

Programming patterns for box hauling

Keep cargo graphs boring. A good first courier:

1. Pick from brick (or product) Storage A — or Find and pick an empty Storage, then fill it with a short load loop if you prefer packed departures
2. Go to point / path toward work site B
3. Hold position so consumers Pick from the carried box (or Drop to a pad Storage if you prefer parked depots)
4. Compare energy → fetch fuel → Eat (Cargo Mates still starve)
5. Return to Idle and repeat the shuttle

Prefer Pick from / Drop to coordinates over blind Find and pick once boxes exist. Find and pick will happily send your expensive cargo chassis to the wrong Storage on the far side of the map.

Extract shared fuel logic as a function — the same discipline taught in Visual Programming. When crews grow, advanced tools like arrays help track multiple depot coordinates; that depth lives in Arrays and Functions.

Name the robot after the route (BrickBus, VolcanoHaul). When logistics fail, you open the right graph instead of guessing which mate is holding the only full box.

Layout tips that make cargo worth it

• Place loading docks next to producers (brick, tank, plate).
• Place drop pads next to consumers (heat line, brewery inputs, volcano staging).
• Keep fuel on both ends so the courier never crosses the seed at 8% battery.
• Use short, thawed corridors; cargo does not forgive ice mazes.
• One cargo route per robot beats one mega-route that visits every chest “just in case.”

Tie route priority to Automation Priority: feed and fire first, then move the buffers those loops already create.

When to build your first Cargo Mate

Build cargo when all of these are true:

1. Coal Brick income stays in surplus under the current crew (Feed Robots).
2. You can spare a Body, a Head, a Steam Battery, and Copper Ore without stalling CraftoMate replacement parts.
3. At least one commute regularly wastes more time than crafting the cargo parts.
4. You have a named job (brick bus, metal bus, volcano bus) — not “maybe useful.”

If brick production is flat, invest in fuel automation before logistics chrome. An empty cargo box is just a heavier tourist.

Common cargo failures

• Starved courier — no energy branch; chassis dies holding the only brick box.
• Wrong Find target — grabs a decorative Storage across the map; fix Pick from coordinates.
• Cannibalized Steam Batteries — spent every Tank on Cargo Body before a volcano stockpile existed.
• Cargo as crafter — overstuffed combine graph on a hauler; split roles.
• No consumer contract — box arrives but line workers still Find and pick ground piles; teach Pick from the carried Storage.

Suggested next reads

• Steam Battery — the part Cargo Body spends, and the volcano fuel
• Wake Volcano — why long hauls matter
• Visual Programming and Arrays and Functions — cleaner shuttle code
• Automation Priority and Upgrade Path — when cargo outranks another crafter
• Recipes — exact Green-row inputs

Cargo Mate is how a frozen seed starts feeling like a supply chain instead of a hiking club. Craft it late enough that the parts are spare, program it narrowly, and let ordinary CraftoMates keep combining while the boxes walk themselves.