Creality Sprite extruder: Pro vs SE, fit and settings

The Sprite extruder upgrade for an Ender-3, Ender-3 Pro or Ender-3 V2 is the extruder-only Creality Sprite Extruder SE ($18.00 at Creality’s US store on November 4, 2026) or the Sprite Extruder Pro Kit, which adds its own 300 °C all-metal hotend but has no current US listing. On an Ender-3 S1, the upgrade is the 300 °C Sprite Extruder Pro head plus Creality’s 300 °C firmware. Start every Sprite at about 424.9 E-steps and roughly 1 mm of retraction.

What is the difference between the Sprite Extruder Pro and SE?

The Sprite Extruder Pro is a complete print head: the dual gear extruder plus a 300 °C all-metal hotend with a titanium throat. The Sprite Extruder SE is the extruder alone, so the printer’s existing hotend sets its temperature limit. Both use 3.5:1 dual gears; 3DJake lists the Pro at 288 g and the SE at 210 g.

The Sprite’s 260 °C rating belongs to a third part: the standard Sprite extruder that ships on the Ender-3 S1, whose heat break is PTFE-lined. The table’s weights, sizes and 80 N force are from 3DJake’s listings; the SE’s parts are from Creality Experts’ install guide. Columns run lightest to heaviest:

The SE’s dual gear unit sits on the carriage above the stock hotend, a little further from it than on a full Sprite head. Creality Experts’ SE install guide says this costs some of the direct-drive benefit, though its authors noticed no significant difference in performance. The Pro Kit is a direct drive conversion and a hotend upgrade in one. On November 4, 2026, its old listing on Creality’s US store redirected to the accessories page. Creality’s own product page still showed the kit at $109.99, with no way to buy it there.

Which printers can take a Creality Sprite extruder?

Creality lists the Sprite Extruder SE for the Ender-3, Ender-3 Pro, Ender-3 V2, Ender-5, 5 Pro, 5 Plus and CR-10, and the SE-Neo for the Neo models and Ender-2 Pro. Its 300 °C Pro Kit was listed for the Ender-3, Pro, V2 and Max. The Sprite Extruder Pro replaces the head on the Ender-3 S1 series and CR-10 Smart Pro.

Printers missing from these lists have no Creality-listed Sprite kit. Other Ender 3 kits are compared in Ender 3 extruder upgrade; every extruder type is in extruder upgrades.

What comes in the Sprite direct drive extruder Pro kit?

Creality’s Pro Kit manual lists five items: the Sprite Extruder Pro with its adapter board, a mounting backplate kit for the X-axis profile, a 1.3 m flat cable to the mainboard (with a CR Touch plug), five M3 × 6 screws and a spare 0.4 mm copper alloy nozzle. Creality Experts’ install guide shows the SE kit with the extruder, a metal carriage adapter plate, hotend spacers, a PTFE tube, an extension cable, screws and zip ties, but no hotend.

The physical swap follows how to add direct drive to an Ender 3. What differs for a Sprite kit:

• Wiring. The Pro Kit’s flat cable plugs into the mainboard by its labels; unlabeled leads are spares and stay unplugged. If the printer restarts while the hotend heats, Creality says to swap the two heater connectors on the mainboard. The SE reconnects one cable: the old extruder motor lead, through the included extension.
• Firmware. The Pro Kit needs Creality’s SpritExt firmware for your printer and mainboard (see the table above). The SE runs on the printer’s existing firmware.
• After fitting. Re-level the bed, as Creality’s manual says. The side screw on the Sprite sets gear pressure on the filament: clockwise tightens, counterclockwise loosens.

Sprite E-steps and Klipper rotation distance

Set 424.9 steps/mm, the value in Creality’s Pro Kit manual and in Creality Experts’ SE install guide. In Marlin, send M92 E424.9 then M500. If the menu will not accept the value, Creality’s manual puts those two lines in a G-code file and prints it from the SD card. Marlin’s own Ender-3 S1 example config uses 430.

In Klipper, set rotation_distance: 7.531, from Klipper’s formula 200 full steps × 16 microsteps ÷ 424.9. Klipper’s Ender-3 S1 example writes the same gearing this way:

[extruder]
microsteps: 16
gear_ratio: 42:12
rotation_distance: 26.359   # 26.359 × 12 ÷ 42 = 7.531

Then calibrate your own extruder as in the Ender 3 direct drive steps.

Can you upgrade the hotend on a Sprite extruder?

Yes. The standard Sprite on an Ender-3 S1 stops at 260 °C. Two routes raise that limit:

1. Fit the Sprite Extruder Pro. Creality lists this 300 °C all-metal head as the Ender-3 S1 series replacement. Its Ender-3 S1 300 °C firmware has mainboard files for STM32F1 and STM32F4 chips plus screen firmware. The Pro was $35.99 and sold out at Creality’s US store on November 4, 2026.
2. Fit an E3D Revo Creality Sprite. E3D’s Revo hotend for the Sprite on the Ender-3 S1 is rated to 300 °C on a Creality thermistor, but E3D notes the stock firmware holds it at 260 °C. Fit, nozzles and flow are on the E3D Revo page.

Either way, the firmware cap must rise before the nozzle passes 260 °C. Marlin’s Ender-3 S1 example sets HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 275 with a 15 °C margin, so 260 °C is the highest target it accepts. Klipper’s Ender-3 S1 example sets max_temp: 260 with the note “Set to 300 for S1 Pro”. Raise it only when every hot part is rated for the new limit (firmware temperature limits).

The Sprite Extruder SE has no hotend to upgrade: replace the printer’s own hotend instead, as in Ender 3 hotend upgrade.

What retraction settings work with the Sprite extruder?

Start the Sprite at 0.8 to 1.2 mm of retraction at 40 mm/s for PLA, PETG and ABS, and 2 mm for TPU 95A. Those are Creality’s own figures, from its Sprite Extruder Pro Kit manual and its Creality Print profiles for the Ender-3 S1 series. The manual caps retraction below 3 mm, at 35 to 45 mm/s.

Sorted by distance:

The PLA, PETG and ABS values sit inside the 0.8 to 1.5 mm direct-drive range on how to add direct drive to an Ender 3. Creality’s 2 mm for soft TPU sits above that range.

For the SE on a stock Ender hotend, Creality publishes no figure. Creality Experts’ SE install guide uses 1.5 mm at 85 mm/s, faster than the Pro Kit manual’s 35 to 45 mm/s.

If strings remain, print a retraction tower that stays under the manual’s 3 mm cap. For the Pro’s all-metal hotend, see all-metal hotend retraction. Then retune pressure advance in Klipper or linear advance in Marlin, as in how to add direct drive to an Ender 3.