Iron Ore

Iron Ore sits on the ground in the Forest, in plain sight, as rust brown boulders along the paths and against the rock walls. No cave, no vein and no quest stands between you and the first one.

Three things make it awkward anyway. The boulders ask Smithing mastery three, they do not grow back, and no bench you own can smelt the ore until Furnace II is standing in the yard.

The first rock you carry home is worth more on the study table than in any furnace, which is the one part of this worth planning.

Where to find Iron Ore

Walk into the Forest and watch the ground rather than the trees. The boulders are waist high, a warmer brown than the grey stone around them, and they cluster along the dirt paths and against the cliff faces where the ground steps up.

They are scattered rather than gathered, so a run through the Forest turns up several without any of them being a landmark. The Forest is the middle of the map, between the Inquisition Base to the north and the Village away to the east.

A boulder is two rocks, and neither comes back

Each boulder takes five hits at 2 a swing and then breaks into a smaller rock, which takes another five at the same price. Both halves drop three Iron Ore, one more with the Miner perk, and both pay 3.

Twenty energy and ten swings is the price of one full boulder, and six Iron Ore is the return. What separates iron from everything else you mine is what happens next, which is nothing.

Smithing three, and your pickaxe is no help at all

The boulders ask for three in Smithing, the red track, one rung above the copper veins you have been working. The pickaxe you mine with is a Building tool, so it adds nothing to that number and neither does upgrading it.

A Bronze Pickaxe is worth two and an Iron Pickaxe four, and both of those count toward Building rather than the Smithing number the boulder is reading. Swinging a better pickaxe at iron changes nothing.

What raises Smithing is a hammer or a set of small tools. A Bronze Hammer is worth two, so one Smithing level beside it opens the Forest. An Iron Hammer is worth four and clears the requirement on its own, which is a fine plan for your second run and no use at all for your first.

The mastery guide has the full ladder of tool ratings. The short version is that rusty tools are worth one, bronze two, iron four and steel six, and that each family feeds one track: axes and pickaxes raise Building, hammers and small tools raise Smithing, shovels and rods raise Farming.

Study the first one before you smelt anything

One Iron Ore, one Faith and three Science on the study table returns 30 and 15. That is the price of the Bronze Polishing node out of a single rock, and Bronze Polishing is on the road to the furnace that smelts the rest of them.

It only works once, so the choice is which ore goes on the table rather than how many. Spend the first one there and the rest in the furnace.

Smelting it needs Furnace II, and Furnace II needs bronze

Furnace I will not touch iron. Iron Ingot is a Furnace II recipe, at three Iron Ore and thirty Fuel for three ingots, four with the Fireman perk, over twelve seconds. The automated Smithy smelts it later on Coal instead of Fuel, and there is nothing in between.

Iron Forge is the technology, at 35, and it sits directly behind Bronze Polishing. Reaching it means 130 spent along the Metallurgy line, and the node hands over the Iron Ingot recipe, the Supply: Iron crate and the Furnace II blueprint together.

Then there is the building itself, at six Polished Stone, two Polished Bronze and twelve Brick. Both polished items want Sand from Riverside, so the road to your first iron ingot runs through the river bank whether you planned it that way or not.

What the ingots buy is worth the trip. One ingot at an Iron Anvil becomes twelve Iron Nails or six Iron Detail, and the whole zombie automation line is built out of those two parts.

What to do when the Forest runs dry

The Zombie Miner is the answer, and it is the reason the finite boulders are survivable. Two Wooden Plank and four Brick build it, and every eight seconds it returns one Iron Ore and two Coal without inputs, energy or a mastery check.

Zombie Mining unlocks it at 60 and 10, behind Iron Smithing. With the Magpie’s Eye perk on the zombie working it, the same shift also turns up the occasional Gem.

The Trademaster in town carries ten Iron Ore as well, which covers a recipe or two while the mine is still an ambition. Buying is the sensible stopgap, and it is a poor plan for the hundreds of ingots the late game wants.