Basic information[]
Iron Ore is a valuable raw material that can be extracted from Iron Nodes in significant amounts or collected from Treasure Chests, as well as rarely be obtained from Hot Feet or Warmworms (in very small quantities), and can then be smelted into Iron Bars to be used for crafting.
How to obtain[]
Obtaining Iron Ore from Iron Nodes[]
Iron Ore can mainly be extracted from Iron Nodes that often come in patches of 2-4 Node-blocks embedded in other rocks all over the Stalactite layer underground that spans the whole game world and is accessible through occasional large Caves.
Iron Nodes are only rarely visible in walls, floors and/or ceilings of Stalactite layer Caves (the kind that also often has lakes of healing Mineral Water in them), so most of the existent Iron Nodes can only be discovered by digging mine shafts every 3 blocks, which will require at least an Obsidian Mining Cell or better.
Rarely, a few patches of Iron Nodes can be discovered on the bottom levels of the Fossil layer and on the topmost levels of the Lava layer. On older game worlds, the Fossil layer and Lava layer both feature a lot more Iron Nodes, but it is said that there are less Iron Nodes in total, so they are more rare in the Stalactite layer.
In the dark, Iron Nodes can now be spotted by a very faint wine red shimmer even from a distance since update R44 on June 22nd 2017.
Obtaining Iron Ore from Treasure Chests[]
10-20 pieces of Iron Ore each can also often be discovered in Iron Treasure Chests that spawn in darkness during day and night on Lava layer rocks and in Diamond Treasure Chests that spawn in darkness during day and night on Corrupted Blocks.
"Farming" Treasure Chests can provide you with more Iron Ore in a shorter time than mining. This will be even much safer when building artificial biomes for this purpose from any kind of corrupted blocks or rocks that the Lava layer is made of. Treasure Chests will spawn in darkness (either at night or also during the day if you add a roof and walls) whenever you enter the area after staying away for a while.
Obtaining Iron Ore from Creatures[]
Additionally to that, Hot Feet or Warmworms that spawn on the Lava layer (or also on artificial biomes created from lava layer blocks) may yield a very small "pocket change" amount of Iron Ore when being killed by players occasionally.
To be precisely, both Warmworms and Hot Feet will rather rarely drop only 1 piece of Iron Ore in their Loot Bag/s, also when being dismissed after being tamed. Hot Feet seem to drop Iron Ore slightly more often than Warmworms.
Extracting Iron Ore from Nodes[]
Iron Ore - like all Ores - cannot be pulled from Nodes with your arctek-gauntlet nor any Power Cells equipped, instead Extractors of any kind are required to harvest the Ore from Iron Nodes. You can even use low-tier Extractors on Iron Nodes, however it's recommended to use the best Extractors that you can craft.
- Basic Extractors will extract 5 Iron Ore from 1 Iron Node within ca. 5 minutes (since launch update)
- Advanced Extractors will extract 10 Iron Ore from 1 Iron Node within ca. 2:30 minutes (since launch update)
- Super Extractors will extract 18 Iron Ore from 1 Iron Node within ca. 1:30 minutes (since launch update)
Extractors are single-use items; they will be used up when they have completed their work, and they cannot be removed from the Node before they have finished extracting all of the Ore. The permission setting of Extractors is "just me" by default (different from most other activatable objects and storage containers) and can be changed manually by clicking on the padlock symbol in order to let other players take the Ore as well. Extractors will start their extraction process immediately when placed on a Node, they cannot be wired to be activated at a later time.
After placing an Extractor, you can check how long the extraction is going to take by looking at it with your cursor and either clicking your right mouse button or typing "f" as the default key.
You can take any amount of Ore that has already been processed at that time from the lower slot of the Extractor. You cannot remove the Extractor itself though before it has completed it's work.
When the Extractor is done, it will stop "singing" and "fold up" with a loud click. You can take all the (remaining) Ore at once by typing "f" again (as the default key). This will then remove the Node and use up the Extractor too. Sometimes Extractors that still have Ore inside will repeat the clicking sound when players get close as a reminder to collect the remaining Ore.
Destroying Iron Nodes[]
Iron Nodes cannot be taken nor destroyed. Even the strongest types of TNT and Excavators will leave them intact. Ore also cannot be pulled from Nodes with Power Cells (gauntlets). There is also no known way to transform Iron Nodes (different from Coal Nodes).
Instead single-use Extractors must be placed on Ore Nodes to extract the Ore inside. An Iron Node will only vanish when the Extractor that has been placed on it is emptied after it has finished extracting all of the Iron Ore.
Using TNT-type Explosives or Excavators are faster ways to dig through the Stalactite layer in order to find more Iron Nodes more frequently.
TNT of any kind used on or close to Iron Nodes will not destroy the Nodes nor will they remove any Ore. Strong TNT will damage the surrounding though and will remove a certain amount of blocks up to the hardness of Stalactite or Siltstone plus any crafted objects and items in the proximity of the explosion center - except for objects that can store other items inside.
Using TNT might also destroy patches of Magnetite, Tourmaline, Glowing Mushrooms, Mold and Mud without saving any. Better TNT-types (Advanced TNT, Super TNT) can destroy even harder rocks, but will also not affect Iron Nodes.
Excavators should not be mistaken with Extractors. If you use Advanced Excavators on or next to Iron Ore Nodes, then they will remove all surrounding natural and crafted blocks, rocks and items up to the hardness of Stalactite or Siltstone in a range of 7x7x7 blocks; but they will leave all types of Nodes with their Ore inside intact. Different from TNT, Excavators will save half of the removed rocks, items and blocks in Loot Bags.
However, Advanced Excavators require Iron Rods and Diamond to be crafted, which is rather "expensive". It might not even be very efficient to clear large areas of the Stalactite layer in order to find the rather widely scattered small patches of Iron Nodes anyways. Digging Mineshafts or even better "farming" Iron Treasure Chests and Diamond Treasure Chests can be more economical strategies to collect Iron Ore.
Super Excavators can remove (and collect half of) even harder rocks and materials; but will also leave Iron Nodes unscathed.
Iron Nodes cannot be frozen, burnt nor transformed by cold or fire, they cannot be poisoned nor corrupted either.
Smelting Iron Ore in a Forge[]
Iron Ore can't be used for any crafting-recipes in its raw form, instead it has to be smelted into Iron Bars first by putting the Iron Ore into a Forge together with some Fuel.
No crafting recipe is required for this.
The type of Fuel that you choose will determine how long it will take for Iron Ore to be smelted into Iron Bars in the Forge.
- Tier 1 Fuel will smelt one Iron Ore into an Iron Bar in 20 seconds.
Examples of Level 1 Fuel: 2x Wood blocks of most types, 4x Leaves blocks of most types, 8x Wood Rods, many plants like Tallgrass, and several crafted wooden items or blocks
- Tier 2 Fuel will smelt one Iron Ore into an Iron Bar in 10 seconds.
Examples of Level 2 Fuel: 1x Coal, 4x Hardened Lava blocks or 1x Sulfur block
- Tier 3 Fuel will smelt one one Iron Ore into an Iron Bar in 6 seconds.
Examples of Level 3 Fuel: 2x Corrupted Wood blocks of any kind, 4x Corrupted Leaves blocks of any kind
- Tier 10 Fuel will smelt one one Iron Ore into an Iron Bar in 2 seconds.
Examples of Level 10 Fuel: 1x Tar Bread, 1x Tar Soup, 1x Tar Sandwich
Crafting with Iron[]
Iron Bars can be hardened in a Forge once more into Tempered Iron Bars (a useful crafting ingredient for Diamond Armor and a few other high-tier crafting recipes).
Again, this does not require any crafting recipe.
Iron Bars can also be cut into Iron Slabs or Iron Rods in a Processor, both of which are ingredients in many crafting recipes.
This also does not require any crafting recipe.
Iron in its processed form as Iron Bars is required to craft Iron Mining Cells and Diamond Mining Cells (Iron Slabs), Iron armor and Diamond armor (Tempered Iron Bars), Iron Swords and Diamond Swords (Iron Rods), Healing Beacons (Iron Rods), Excavators and many other useful items.
Iron on older game worlds[]
Template worlds RW1-4 are said to feature a smaller number of Iron Nodes than the current worlds RW5-8. In return you can find Iron Nodes on RW1-4 worlds on the Lava layer underground and on deepest levels of the Fossil layer additionally to those on the Stalactite layer, while on the recently available template worlds RW5-8 Iron Nodes only extend over the Stalactite layer alone.
For further explanations about template worlds you might want to refer to the article Worlds.
Trivia[]
Iron Ore cannot be placed into the game world, cannot be moved into any quickslots, and also cannot be displayed on Placemats, Stone Wall Shelves or Hidden Temple Altars, nor in Wood Planters or Flower Pots.
There have been rumors saying that Iron Nodes can more often be found close to blocks of Mud and/or Mold on the Stalactite layer, but this rumor is actually absolutely not true at all.