are metal bars and pipes good for anything

[Kerous]

are metal bars and pipes good for anything
also concrete powder good for anything?

[Nordil(Hun)]

Metalworking and weapons.
Concrete powder i think currently is not useful. Allthough might be it is required to plaster the wall, i never bother with it so no clue.:)

[Chris!!]

If you're an engineer you can make pipebombs with the metal pipe. Otherwise you can use them for metal working: metal bars for barricading, and pipes for fences and ♥♥♥♥.

Concrete has no use yet.

[Kerous]

Originally posted by Chris!!:

If you're an engineer you can make pipebombs with the metal pipe. Otherwise you can use them for metal working: metal bars for barricading, and pipes for fences and ♥♥♥♥.

can you not just read books to improve to make pipe bombs

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Kerous:

Originally posted by Chris!!:

If you're an engineer you can make pipebombs with the metal pipe. Otherwise you can use them for metal working: metal bars for barricading, and pipes for fences and ♥♥♥♥.

can you not just read books to improve to make pipe bombs

No certain crafting recipes are restricted to engineer. Pipe bomb is one of those. Rarely you can find pipe bombs here and there though.

[Auxilar]

Metal Pipes and Bars (Metal weapons) are required for 90% of Metalworking recipes. They are also relatively abundant and can be recovered on mass from car wrecks in car pile-ups. Other than that they are pretty useless on short-run or even medium-run playthroughs because you'll mainly be focusing on dedicated weapons and firearms to fight the hordes and you won't be doing much of Metalworking.

The long-run playthrough is, however, an entirely different story. During the early days of the run you should prioritize using Metal Weapons to level Short Blunt and Maintenence because, if you survive long enough and start raiding more extensively, you'll be carrying a Hammer and a Wrench on your belt at all times to demolish doors, dismantle furniture, dismount sinks, maintain cars, barricade doors and windows etc. Even though they are exclusively one-handed weapons, Metal Weapons are equipped on the Primary weapon slot (1), meaning they do not compete with other one-hand weapons (such as the Hammer and the Wrench) for Secondary weapon slots on your belt (2 and 3).

A hammer and a wrench on your belt can serve as excellent back-up weapons once you establish a decent supply of ammo and start using firearms extensively, allowing you to bash quite a lot of Zombies in when needed without becoming exhausted in the process, but only if you invested enough time in the Short Blunt and Maintenance leveling to get both of them at least up to 5.

[WillieSea]

There is a mod that allows you to learn bomb making via magazines you must find.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2876376628