The SteamWorld Build DLC does not extend the game. It replaces the ratio.
Reviews of Mechanized describe the base game as roughly 50/50 town and mine across 6-10 hours, and the DLC version as roughly 20/80 across 15+ hours. That is not a marketing line — it is the single most useful thing to know before buying, because it tells you whether you are the target audience in one sentence.
One player put it plainly: by hour six to eight the town was finished and they were swimming in resources, and the second half of the run was almost pure mining.
If you wanted more SteamWorld Dig in your city builder, this is exactly what you asked for. If you wanted more city builder, it is not.
The four mechs, and the one thing they cannot do
Mechs are buried in every layer of the mine. You dig them out with Miners, the same way you dig out Rocket Parts — four in total, one per layer.
The critical detail most players get wrong: mechs cannot mine. Not slowly, not with an upgrade. They cannot break blocks at all. What they do is pick blocks up and put them down somewhere else, and that is the entire puzzle vocabulary of the DLC.
What they do get for free:
- They automatically attack nearby enemies and fight until defeated or until you order them elsewhere.
- They cannot be permanently killed. They break down, and repair themselves after a while. Losing a mech costs you time, not the mech.
Upgrades come from the Mech Center, a new town building, and they are bought with Mechanite — a resource that exists only for this and has no other use. That makes Mech Center investment a closed loop: you cannot accidentally starve your town economy by spending on mechs.
The new blocks are the whole DLC
There are 26 new mine features, blocks, machine objects and items in total — officially 8 mine features, 10 blocks with unique functions, 6 machine objects and 2 non-block items. The ones that change how you play:
| Block | What it does | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Containers | Metal blocks with a large X on top. Place three or more wall-to-wall and they burst, paying out resources | Two is worth nothing. You are rearranging a cluster, not collecting single crates |
| Batteries | Constantly electrify a surrounding area, damaging any steambot or enemy in range | They are also the key — carry one to a Vault to power a generator and open the door |
| Laser Blocks | Reflect and redirect laser beams | You arrange several to route a beam into a Vault lock |
| Aura Crystals | Three colours, each buffing nearby machines: Damagite (red, turrets and workers deal extra damage), Healite (green, passively heals machines, workers and mechs), Resourcite (purple, Prospectors and Extractors yield more) | The buff only applies nearby, so where you drag them is the whole decision |
| Crystal Bedrock | Crystallised bedrock that is destroyed by proximity to one of the three crystal blocks | This is your only way through several walls |
The Healite crystal is quietly the most important one. Because mechs self-repair and Healite heals machines and workers, a Healite dragged to the front of a defensive line converts an expensive wall of turrets into something that survives things it should not.
The new enemy that invalidates your base-game defences
The Abomination is a large Crackling Depths enemy assembled from different Vectron creatures. It does two things that no base-game enemy does:
- Summons lesser enemies, so the fight grows while you are in it.
- Disables multiple machines at once with a laser.
It appears repeatedly — one review counted 8-10 times on the third floor at normal difficulty — and the wiki is blunt that it can cause havoc for unprepared defences. A player who triggered one while accidentally uncovering a spawn area described things going “from absolutely no problems to a complete and utter disaster in mere seconds.”
Upgraded mechs are the intended counter, not turrets. That is the design shift: the mine has its own combat unit now, and it is the one you have to invest in.
Burrows: the second spawn route you cannot wall off
Base game, enemies come from Hives and you defend the approaches. Mechanized adds Burrows on the second and third floors — enemies surface from a new element, anywhere.
Three counters, and only one of them actually stops it:
- Radars detect burrows before they open, giving warning.
- Guards can be alerted and positioned.
- A Mech sitting on the burrow suppresses it entirely.
Turrets are not on that list. A player who builds more turrets in response to burrow spawns is spending resources on a problem they are not solving.
What actually changes in practice
- The caverns are deliberately scrambled into a maze. One review describes the maps as feeling four times larger, one big maze with many small puzzles. Rushing the mine is described as much harder, possibly impossible now.
- The underground threat is one-and-done per location rather than respawning like the base game’s worms — a change that makes each fight a set-piece instead of a chore.
- The town is unchanged, and that is the honest summary of the DLC’s scope.
Who should buy it
Buy it if: you played the base game, found the mines shallow and easy, wanted puzzles and a combat threat underground, and are happy to spend most of a run below ground.
Skip it if: the town layer is why you are here, you liked the relaxed pace, or you have not finished the base game — Mechanized assumes you already know the surface economy and gives you nothing new there.
There is one more case for waiting: the base game already gives you 6-10 hours. At 15+, the DLC roughly doubles a game you may not have finished. Play the base game first.
The short version
- Mechanized inverts the ratio — 20/80 mining, ~15 hours, town done by hour eight.
- Four mechs, one per layer, dug out like Rocket Parts, and they cannot mine — only lift and place.
- Mechs break down instead of dying, and self-repair. Mech upgrades cost Mechanite only.
- Containers need three or more wall-to-wall to pay out.
- Batteries are both a hazard and a key — carry them to Vaults.
- Abomination ignores turrets; mechs are the answer. Burrows are stopped by a mech sitting on them, not by more guns.
- The town is untouched. That is the whole pitch and the whole caveat.
Related guides
- SteamWorld Build guide — the base-game loop this modifies
- SteamWorld Build milestones — what unlocks when
- SteamWorld Build worms — base-game underground threats
- SteamWorld Build granite — the mine-side resource walls
- SteamWorld Build tools — the workforce bottleneck that also gates mechs
- Series order guide — where Build sits in the franchise