(1.5 spoilers) Deconstructors more useful than I realized. (Possible exploit?)

[I Kinda Fail]

I thought originally that deconstructors only gave you 1 item back. Like a crystalarium would give 1 iridium bar back, even though it needed 2 and other stuff to craft it. Nope. It gives back the full amount of that item. So I glanced through the wiki and this is the possible "exploits" I've found with it, which potentially might be patched in the future.

Disclaimer: This might be obvious to everyone, but I just now found out how the machine actually works and how useful it is, months after it came out. Some of these tips are really only useful for challenge runs of the game, such as those that avoid Farming, or have a heavy Mining or Fishing focus.

1. For 300g, you can buy a cherry bomb, and turn it into 4 copper ore. If you're trying to craft a bunch of furnaces, rather than buy the ore from Clint, you can "buy" a furnace for 1500g rather than Clint's 3000g.

2. For those who hate casks, the 33 casks you get from unlocking the basement can be turned into 660 wood, to turn into 21 glorious kegs instead.

3. For those unlucky few who get the ancient seed packets via seed maker or other source, but can't find the artifact, the deconstructor will generate the artifact for you.

4. Pierre sells grass starters for 100g, and these can be turned into 10 fiber. So you can now essentially buy fiber for 10g a piece, where before you had to grow it or gather it yourself.

5. (This one is very niche, and probably only useful for certain types of challenge runs.) With the new source of fiber, you can now turn your fiber, wood, and seasonal seeds into tea saplings for a decent profit. Each sapling sells for 500g, so for those who grow forage instead of crops, this can be a sneaky way to up your profit.

6. You can now buy metal bars for VERY cheap. Willy's shop sells fishing tackle, which can be turned into metal bars. The Treasure Hunter tackle costs 750g, and turns into TWO gold bars. The Spinner, costing 500g, turns into two iron bars. Crab pots, worth 1500g, turn into two copper bars, while Trap Bobbers, costing 500g, turn into one copper bar.

7. Not nearly as useful, but the Cork Bobber, which costs 750g, can be turned into a source of 5 buyable hardwood. Likewise, the Dressed Spinner can be turned into cloth. Both of these can be obtained easily without ever Farming, though, so this isn't even that useful for challenge runs. However, it IS a buyable source of these materials.

8. Rain totems, sometimes found in Skull Cavern chests, can be turned into truffle oil to complete a quest with Mayor Lewis. Jack o' lanterns can be bought and turned into pumpkins for a Caroline quest, or to befriend various NPCs.

9. Staircases turn into 99 stone! So if you're like me, and have your crystalariums pumping out jade for staircases faster than you can use them, then this means every crystalarium now produces nearly 100 stone every 2-3 days. This, in turn, makes gathering stone for fish ponds, preserves jars and crystalariums MUCH easier.

That's all I've found out so far. Maybe I'm missing a huge one. But "free" sources of stone, and buyable sources of fiber and cloth seem pretty handy in some situations. Cheaper sources of metal bars is also great. I'll definitely be using these a lot on my challenge playthrough where I avoid Farming. I need a LOT of stone for all the fish ponds and crystalariums.