Finding iron to mine in Going Medieval is important if you want to craft advanced gear. This is the first metal that you’re likely to find and be able to use. You’ll need it for new weapons and armor such as Short Swords, Mail Armor, and more. Continue reading our guide below for how to get Iron and to smelt too.
How to Find Iron in Going Medieval
This elusive metal can be difficult to find depending on the starting region you chose. For example, if you picked the Valley, you won’t have as much Iron available as the Mountains. There’s a trade-off between fertile soil and materials for each region type. With that said, you can still find some regardless of where you chose.
The main method for finding iron is to look around your map for a rocky floor tile that has a dark orange color. Afterward, hover your mouse over it and check the bottom left corner for stats that will say what type of floor it is. This is important to do because Salt has a very similar color. And you don’t want to end up with Salt when you’re trying to make new armor.
Once you’ve found a deposit of Iron, all you need to do is use the pickaxe mining order at the bottom right corner. Click that and then click where you want your settlers to mine. If the ore deposit is unreachable by your settlers, you’ll need to create stairs down to it. Otherwise, they won’t be able to mine the Iron and haul it back to base.
If you can’t find any on the top layer, you’ll need to start mining underground. This can be a little annoying since there’s no guaranteed way to find Iron while mining. This is why it doesn’t hurt to come up with a useful plan for the space your mining, such as an underground base. Or even creating an empty moat around your base to deter enemies.
How to Create Iron Bars
Once you’ve mined some Iron Nuggets, you’ll need to smelt them before they’re usable. This requires the Smelting research which takes 30 Chronicles to unlock. If you’re not sure how research works in Going Medieval, visit our research guide here. After unlocking Smelting, build a Smelting Furnace where you can smelt Iron Nuggets into Ingots.
Under the production queue, you can see that it takes 30 Iron Nuggets and 25 Fuel to produce 30 Iron Ingots. You’ll also get a side product of 100 Ash which can be used for making Coal. While you may not need Coal now, it comes in handy later for making Steel. For those wondering what Fuel specifically is, this includes Sticks, Wood, and Coal.
Even though it can be a little annoying to need 30 Iron Nuggets before you can make a single bar, you’ll still get 30 Iron Bars afterward. So, fortunately, you’re not losing anything in the process aside from some Fuel.
If you have any other Going Medieval questions for us, feel free to comment below the article. We’re here to try and teach you something new while answering questions you may have. For more guides be sure to visit our guide hub or one of the many tips and tricks filled guides below.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.