水车

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.22.2.

Small water wheel

A water wheel is a mechanical power generator that draws torque from fast-flowing water. It is an alternative to the windmill for driving a mechanical power network, and was introduced in version 1.22 along with the small 4-way hub and rapidly flowing water blocks.

The wheel is built in two phases. First the small water wheel block is crafted and placed next to suitable flowing water. Then the spokes, rims, braces, paddles, and metal hardware are added stage by stage with right-click interactions on the placed block.

Placement

Example of a fully constructed water wheel above rapidly flowing water.

The wheel only spins when its paddles touch one or more rapidly flowing water blocks.

These water blocks generate rarely at world generation, in stream channels at higher altitudes. They appear only in chunks generated from version 1.22 onward.

Players cannot place or create rapidly flowing water directly. Channelling an existing stream by digging or reshaping the surrounding ground can sometimes route the flow toward a chosen wheel location.

For best output, the wheel sits so that water flows vertically down one side and horizontally across the bottom, keeping as many paddles in moving water as possible.

Each rapidly flowing water block can only be claimed by one wheel at a time, and the wheel closest to the source of the stream wins. Adding a second wheel further upstream than an existing one takes ownership of the shared flow blocks. The downstream wheel then loses its power source, stops spinning, and its tooltip reports zero suitable power source blocks nearby.

Powering several machines from a single stream requires routing the wheel's output through the wider mechanical power network rather than adding more wheels on the same flow.

While looking at the placed wheel during construction, the tooltip shows the current construction step. Once the wheel is fully assembled, the tooltip instead shows the count of suitable power source blocks detected nearby.

Obtaining

A water wheel exists in two forms in-game: the small water wheel, the starter block crafted in the player's crafting grid, and the full assembled wheel built up around the small water wheel in stages. The small water wheel can be picked back up freely. Breaking a fully built wheel returns the small water wheel intact along with about 80% of the wood, metal, and resin added during construction. Counts are rounded per material, so the exact recovery varies by a few items in either direction.

Smithing the small 4-way hub

Each small 4-way hub is anvil-smithed from three ingots of iron, meteoric iron, or steel. Two hubs are needed per water wheel, so set aside six ingots before starting. See the smithing page for the general anvil process.

Crafting the small water wheel

The small water wheel is assembled in the player's 3×3 crafting grid from two small 4-way hubs and a wooden axle .

材料	合成表
1x hammer (any) 2x small 4-way hub (iron, meteoric iron, or steel) 1x wooden axle

The hammer loses 10 points of durability each time this recipe is run.

Construction stages

After the small water wheel is placed against rapidly flowing water, the player completes it by using on the block.

The materials for each stage must be present in the player's hotbar. Items elsewhere in the main inventory are not counted toward the stage requirement, even if the totals would otherwise be sufficient.

The first stage sets the wood type for the beams and planks used throughout the rest of the build. Only dense woods are accepted: oak, maple, kapok, redwood, ebony, walnut, or purpleheart.

各个阶段依次为：

1. Spokes: 16x support beam .
2. Rims: 48x planks and 4x resin .
3. Braces: 16x support beam and 4x resin .
4. Nails and strips: 8x metal nails and strips (any metal type).
5. Paddles: 48x planks and 4x resin .
6. Launch: no materials. This step activates the finished wheel.

Total materials for one complete wheel, on top of the small water wheel itself:

• 32 support beams
• 96 planks
• 8 metal nails and strips (any metal)
• 12 resin

Small water wheel

Constructing a water wheel is a multistep process. You will first smith two small 4-way hubs (they must be iron or better) and fit them to a regular axle to create the basic waterwheel axle-block. Place that in the world, above or beside fast-flowing water. From there, follow the tooltips to build the full wheel around the axle-block (Block Interaction Help must be on). You will need many support beams, boards, nails and strips, and resin. All wooden parts must be of the same type of wood, and only certain stronger wood types will suffice.

Where to Place

Water wheels must be placed directly above, or next to, specific rapidly flowing water blocks, so that the wheel's paddles will be in the water. These rapid flowing water blocks are in streams created (rarely) at world generation at higher altitudes (areas generated from game version 1.22+ only). Rapid flowing water cannot be placed or created by the player, but with some hillside engineering you might be able to channel an existing stream.

Power

The water wheel generates mechanical power on its own as long as its paddles are in rapidly flowing water. Output is delivered through the hub at the wheel's centre, which connects to the wider network via wooden axles and angled gears .

Once power is reaching the rest of the network, it can drive any of the standard mechanical power machines, including the grinding wheel , quern , helve hammer , pulveriser , and gear-driven workshops. A brake placed on the same network can stop the rotation when needed.

The wheel does not require sails, fuel, or maintenance to keep running, and it is unaffected by daylight or weather. Its only requirement is continued contact between its paddles and rapidly flowing water.

注意

• The wheel is made entirely of wood and metal hardware. The placed block is flammable; treat it like other planks blocks when building near forges or campfires.
• The small water wheel has a stack size of 4 and can be carried in inventory like any item until placement.
• Once placed, the wheel is locked in its facing direction. It cannot be chiseled, wrenched, or otherwise rotated. To change the facing, the wheel must be broken and replaced, with the matching loss of stage-2 through stage-5 materials.

画廊

• 
  Item form of the small water wheel
• 
  Assembled form of the water wheel
• 
  In-world example near rapidly flowing water

历史

• Water wheels were teased 1 December 2025 in the devlog channel of the official Discord server.
• They were introduced in game version 1.22 alongside rapidly flowing water blocks, the small 4-way hub, and a wider set of mechanical power additions.

另请参阅

• Mechanical power
• 风车
• Wooden axle
• Angled gear
• Grinding wheel