Iron Age Questions

[SuperDave]

First off, I finally survived my first winter (woot). Man, I thought firewood was a pita during the winter but you need it for coal, the forge, and the furnace and not just a little. Any tips for sustainable flowing firewood would be great!

The Bloomery doesn't seem very intuitive to me. I decided to assign a worker to it instead. Here's the thing, he's gone through 3 batches of coal and dozens of iron ore and there is 'nothing' to show for it - nothing in the basket, nothing on the forge itself. I think he burned up 3 trips from the cave so far. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Is this something that should be done manually and if so any tips?

When it comes to the metal working workshop, I can't do anything without an iron bloom correct? So if I can't get my Bloomery working correctly, I'm not going to be able to make any metal gear? Just looking for some pointers to make sure I don't waste material while I rush to prepare for an invasion that came out of nowhere (another topic for another post).

I love the game so far, even with the grindyness and I'm sure the product team will adjust in due time. It is a bit overwhelming how much there is to do and the micromanagement but conceptually and visually it's off to a great start. Thanks for any help!

[Faerlynn]

For the bloomery, you put iron ore or metal scraps along with coal in and then use the bellows to fan the flames. You will see a temperature indicator with 2 notches on it, you must use the bellows in such a way that the temperature reaches the segment between the two notches and stays there. Any lower or higher than that range will damage the ore and turn it into slag.

After a short while the ore you put into the furnace will start turning into blooms. I like putting 3 chunks of ore and filling the rest of the slots with coal, I have a feeling temperature rises more quickly the more coal there is in the furnace. Once all chunks of ore have turned into blooms, you leave the bellows and turn the furnace off to save on coal.

Next you'll have to hammer the bloom to remove the remaining coal chunks on it, you just hold the button until the hammer starts making a whiffing sound instead of hitting the bloom, at that point you turn the bloom and continue hammering until all 6 faces are free of coal residue. Then you finally have your iron bloom ready to be transformed into iron items.

The thing with NPC working at the bloomery is that the process is very time-sensitive so if the NPC leaves for any reason (work hours are over or anything else happens), that wastes the iron they were working on. You need to assign 2 NPCs and make sure they work in overlapping shifts, one during the day, the other during the night, that way you minimize the chances they will ruin the ore.

[SuperDave]

Thank you Faerlynn. I'm not good with scheduling shift changes yet, but I think I'll give manual work another go.

Second question, what are Metal Scraps used for? I sometimes get these from Skeletons. I don't seem to be able to add them to forge/furnace.

[Balthazaar]

You can do 5 iron in the bloomery at once. Just make sure to put in 15 pieces of coal so it’s full. More efficient to do more at once.

The devs are working still on crafting, warehouse and iron workers. I found that my character being the blacksmith and crafter worked best for my village. I only have 10 villagers though, but I like to micromanage them so it works.

I found best to use basic tools because sometimes a tribe member drops the iron parts after a tool breaks on the ground.

This is early start advice. Hope it’s helpful. I love this game and the slow burn. It’s just great.

[Balthazaar]

Metal scraps are the same as raw iron. They go into the bloomer to turn into iron blooms.