Smelting Process

Smelting Process
Levels:	1-60
Author:	Joschilein8343389

Main article: Guide

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)
Fuel	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	-