Smelting Process

Main article: Guide

Smelting Process
Levels:	1-60
Author:	Joschilein8343389

Introduction

This Guide gives you an overview over Furnaces and their use.

Furnace Strategy

• You can use a  Furnace, an  Improved Furnace and  Improved Furnace (Kiln)
• Recipes, burn times and Thrall Benefits are the same in every type of furnace, the only thing that differs is the number of slots in its inventory.
• A bigger inventory is better to reduce a possible downtime of the furnace because you can put more stacks of stuff into it. But if you struggle in early and mid game to upgrade to Improved Furnaces, then better stay with standard Furnaces and just build more of them.
• At least one furnace must have a  Glass Flask Mold to be able to produce  Glass Flasks. Put every  Glass and  Crystal into it to collect a suply of Glass Flasks (for  Water Orb/Orbs and  Purified Water/Food).
  • Crystals could also be a source for  Salt/Food, but Salt could also be made from  Stone which is easier to collect in masses.
• This furnace could also be the Multi-Purpose-Furnace, where you also put in other stuff like  Silverstone or  Goldstone or  Star Metal Ore.
• For a long time you might have more furnaces than Smelter-Thralls. As you get your Thralls put them in order of their level into the furnaces, the same order you want to fill your furnaces with ressources. Then you get your products faster and with a lower amount of burned fuel. In times with a high demand you can also let the empty or low level thralled furnaces run, if fuel or ressources are low you just use the most efficient thralled furnaces.
• Don't put every possible ressource into a furnace because you might not get out the product you want the most. Candidates for this unwanted use are  Steelfire (turns  Ironstone into  Steel Bar instead of just  Iron Bar),  Brimstone (turns  Ironstone or  Iron Bar into  Hardened Steel Bar instead of just  Steel Bar) and  Stone Consolidant (turns  Stone into  Hardened Brick instead of just  Brick).
• It is up to you if you use only a specific recipe for a specific furnace or if you switch recipes according to your demand.
•  Composite Obsidian can only be made in the Volcanic Forge, which only exists once on the whole map and has no slot for a thrall. If you want to make it, you have to take at least a lot  Steel Bar with you and collect  Obsidian on the way or take it with you from previous Volcano-Trips. 10  Obsidian and 1  Steel Bar take 10 seconds to make 1  Composite Obsidian.

Fuel Strategy

• In the beginning every fuel is good enough. Most likely you have to use  Wood.
• Put only one type of fuel into one furnace. One type of fuel is picked and the furnace will stop after it is consumed without continuing with the next type of fuel. You then would have to press start again. Therefore additional types of fuel only take away the slots in the furnace. If you have a mixed supply of fuels then put one type in the first furnace, the next type into the next etc.
• Some fuels have higher priorities and should not be used as fuel in the furnace:
  • Only  Bark can be used as fuel in the  Tannery /  Improved Tannery (to make  Hide) and in the  Dryer (to make  Dry Wood). It would be a waste to use it for other purposes.
  •  Branches is used in a lot of recipes. Some have a high demand of it like  Spike and various types of Arrows. Better save the Branches for theses things. It also has a very bad burntime.
  •  Plant Fiber is used in a lot of recipes and will go in masses into  Twines,  Gruel,  Spice or  Compost. It also has a very bad burntime.
  •  Wood is a acceptable but possibly lacking fuel for the first steps into the game. Most of the first building blocks (like  Sandstone Foundation or  Wooden Box - until you can make  Large Chests) and the workstations need relatively huge chunks of wood. Later a lot of it will go into  Dry Wood and  Shaped Wood.
• Some fuels are better to use for smelting:
  •  Coal: In the Beginning Coal is not as present as you would need it and with bad tools you would have trouble to make it your primary fuel. Later it can be collected in larger quantities and is a possible fuel. A possible bottleneck could be  Tar. If your playstyle involves the constant use of Skinning Knifes you might not have trouble making Tar. But if you have trouble, you could use Coal with a bad 25:1-Ratio to make Tar.
  •  Dry Wood: It is used to make  Insulated Wood, but what is left could be used as an excellent fuel.
  •  Oil: It is recomended to have some Oil left for other purposes (like  Weapon Damage Kit), but that could stay in a  Fluid Press. Every additional Oil could be used as fuel. Oil can be massproduced with  Fish Traps. For one Oil you need 1  Unappetizing Fish or 5  Savory Fish or 10  Exotic Fish. One Fish Trap won't bring you very far, but what about 10, 50 or 100 Traps? You don't have to run around the world to collect stuff, just collect the slowly but automaticly catched fishs, put them into an array of Fluid Presses and have as much Oil as you want. These three types of Fish can also be cooked into  Fish Strips, as food for yourself and your Thralls, which allows you to constantly use a Skinning Knife instead of a Cleaver on animal corps.

Possible Fuels

Fuel

Fuel	Burn Time (in seconds)
	No Thrall	T1 & T2	T3 & T4
1 Bark	20.0	25.0	30.0
1 Branch	5.0	6.25	7.5
1 Coal	35.0	43.75	52.5
1 Dry Wood	48.0	60.0	72.0
1 Oil	48.0	60.0	72.0
1 Plant Fiber	2.0	2.5	3.0
1 Wood	10.0	12.5	15.0

Chest Organization

At first storage space is rare and ressources will be stored everywhere, sometimes even furnaces and other workstations can be used as a temporarly storage. Later storage rooms can be a valid strategy where you have a lot of chests to store everything. To reduce travel time and distance a few chests around your smelting area can save you a lot of time. It is worth to place furnaces and chests early on in an organized way,  Wall Signs can help.

n	Content	I/I/O	for Recipe(s)	Comment
1	Fuel (like  Oil)	Input	-	Designated items for the Smelting Process according to the fuel strategy (see above).
2	Stone	Input	10  Stone -> 1  Brick	Stone has other purposes too. Split them and put every stone in here that can be smelted without further thinking.
3	Ironstone	Input	2  Ironstone -> 1  Iron Bar	Every  Ironstone one time has to be smelted into an  Iron Bar. A large supply of Iron Stone reduces downtime.
4	Stone Consolidant	Input	1  Stone Consolidant + 1  Brick -> 1  Hardened Brick	Can also be a designated  Firebowl Cauldron/ Improved Firebowl Cauldron, otherwise a chest to keep them empty.
5	Steelfire	Input	1  Steelfire + 5  Iron Bar -> 1  Steel Bar	Steelfire is needed for  Steel Bar but also for  Dragonpowder. One chest can supply both stations. Chest will most likely never be full.
6	Crystal	Input	6  Crystal -> 3  Glass -> 1  Glass Flask1	Crystals collect in small quantities by looting or in big quantities from caves. Part of it can be used for  Salt.
7	Brimstone	Input	see  Star Metal Ore and  Steel Bar	Brimstone is a bottleneck. In addition to the Smelting Process it is also needed in huge quantities to make  Steelfire in the  Firebowl Cauldron /  Improved Firebowl Cauldron
8	Star Metal Ore	Input	2  Star Metal Ore + 1  Brimstone + 1  Black Ice ->  Star Metal Bar	To reduce number of chests, it could be merged with chest for  Star Metal Bar. To separate Input/Output use two chests. Will most likely never be full.
9	Black Ice	Input	see  Star Metal Ore	With the right Tool Black Ice usually comes in big quantities
10	Brick	Intermediate / Output	see  Stone Consolidant
11	Hardened Brick	Output	-
12	Iron Bar	Intermediate / Output	see  Steelfire
13	Steel Bar	Intermediate / Output	2  Steel Bar + 1  Brimstone -> 1  Hardened Steel Bar
14	Hardened Steel Bar	Output	-
15	Glass Flask	Output	-
16	Star Metal Bar	Output	-

¹ If a  Glass Flask Mold is present in the Furnace

Contributors

• User:Joschilein8343389