Asciilands Smithing: Ores, Ingots & Forging

Metal is how you move past stone tools. This page follows the chain from ore to finished tool: where each ore comes from, the smelter recipes, how the forging minigame grades your work, and the stats of every tool tier.

The metal ladder

1. Charcoal. Burn logs at a campfire. You need it for nearly every smelt.
2. Copper. Mine copper ore with a stone pickaxe (copper seams are in the Highlands).
3. Tin. Pan for tin grains at water edges with a Panning Tray, or find tin ore in Limestone Karst. See panning.
4. Bronze. Alloy copper and tin at a smelter, then forge a bronze pickaxe.
5. Iron. A bronze pickaxe or better mines iron ore (Highlands) and bog iron (Cypress Swamp).
6. Steel. Smelt iron ingots with extra charcoal.
7. Star Iron. Meteorites fall in the wilderness days apart. Each glowing crater holds 3 Star Iron and is gone once mined. It needs a steel pickaxe.

Smelter recipes

Build a Smelter (16× Stone Chunk + 6× Wood Log). Each smelt takes time and fuel; the fuel column shows the alternatives the game accepts.

Forging heads and blades

Every metal head and blade is made at a Forge (10× Cut Stone + 4× Charcoal). Forging is a short minigame:

• Heat the metal until the marker reaches the gold band.
• Shape it to match the dashed outline with light or heavy blows, Draw to narrow and Widen to spread.
• Overworking adds stress marks. At gold heat, a light blow removes one stress mark. Cool lowers the heat.
• Practice is free and your name is stamped on every head you forge. There is a "Try smithing practice" button in the Help entry for forging.

Star Iron only reaches its full durability at Masterwork.

Ingots per head

"—" means the current build has no head of that kind in that metal. Swords and spears use blades; the game calls them heads in recipes.

Armour at the forge

Iron Armor blocks 20% and the Iron Helmet 8% of damage, by the game's own protection values. The leather versions from the workbench give 10% (tunic) and 4% (hood).

Assembling a tool

At a Workbench, open Assemble tool and combine a head, a handle and an optional binding.

• Wooden Handle: made and fitted from 2 sticks in one step.
• Reinforced Handle (+10% durability) and Antler Handle (+15% durability, 1 less gathering stamina, +1 melee damage) are crafted at the workbench first.
• Bindings: leather +5% durability, sinew +10%.

Tool stats by tier

Base values for a Standard tool as the game defines them. Swing time is the cooldown between swings.

"Fine Steel" tools appear in the data as their own items. Gathering stamina and swing time are shown only for gathering tools.

Repairs and sharpening

• Every tool has a wear bar. Repair a worn-out tool before using it again.
• Open an Anvil (5× Iron Ingot + 4× Cut Stone + 2× Wood Log) with F, choose Repair and drag the tool in. Repair costs half of the head material for the wear, at least 1.
• Make a Whetstone at a stonecutter from 2 stone chunks. In your Pack select a tool and choose Sharpen: each sharpening adds 20 uses with 10% more melee damage and less stamina. A whetstone lasts 5 sharpenings.
• Bows and fishing rods have 120 uses when new.

Star Iron can also be smelted: 1 Star Iron with 1 charcoal makes 2 steel ingots.