Just entered iron age. What to build first?

[sneakyweazel]

An axe
perhaps a mace
or atgeir
a bow would be nice
so would nails... as in bigger ship
2 shield to choose from
pickaxe is a no-go due to good positioning of repairbench and antlers

What would be your choice?
Going to repack my ship and teleport back to swamps in the meantime

[Happy]

In no particular order, Iron Banded shield, Iron Cooking station if you have unlocked Serpent meat yet, Iron Pickaxe is a straight upgrade if you have enough iron, otherwise keep using your old pick axe until you have enough....Forge upgrades wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[Requimatic]

Messaggio originale di Happy:

In no particular order, Iron Banded shield, Iron Cooking station if you have unlocked Serpent meat yet, Iron Pickaxe is a straight upgrade if you have enough iron, otherwise keep using your old pick axe until you have enough....Forge upgrades wouldn't be a bad idea either.

+1 to the Shield; make it your FIRST item created and fully upgraded. It will make life in the Swamp that much easier.

The order I always go for is:

1. Shield - Obvious reasons; Parry is paramount and things start getting dangerous in the Swamp, especially if you're caught out at night.

2. Tools - Have to have the Iron to fully upgrade them, otherwise fully upgraded Bronze has more durability until Iron is at.. level 3? I think. As far as tools are concerned: Pickaxe > Axe > anything else.

3. Workstations - Upgrade any existing station and craft any new ones you can. This may change on the priority list based on required station level to repair things, I forget.

4. Supporting items - This includes things like Ships, Chests, etc. This is also dependent on whether you have a "Swamp Base" near by, or if you're sailing to get to your Swamp. If you're sailing, a Ship goes way higher on the priority list; likely to the number one spot next to your shield.

5. Weapons - I always go for my main weapons later because Bronze aren't terrible when fully upgraded, and much like tools, they have higher durability until Iron is at a certain level anyway. Once fully upgraded, though, Iron are vastly better due to the sheer amount of damage they have over Bronze. (And higher durability by a bit, too.)

SIDE NOTE: absolutely get the recipe and make an Iron Sledge, and fully upgrade it. While you may not like that weapon type, the Sledge offers a great amount of utility in the sense that you can later use it to sequence break and find Silver without having beat Bonemass, get rid of groups of Wolves without trouble (Atgeir is good for this also), and remove large amounts of Sapling trees instantly for a lot of quick wood and resin. You can also use it (and an Atgeir) to harvest fully-grown crops in large amounts at once. I recommend the Atgeir over the Sledge for this, though, as the Sledge can easily damage structures unintentionally.

6. Armor - The Iron set is leaps and bounds better than the Bronze and Troll Leather set, so much so that it's worth using even with the movement speed penalty; especially if you're not so good at Parry yet. You can absolutely get through the Swamp, and Mountains, without it, but you have to be very good at keeping your food and rested buffs up at all times because missing a Parry or dodge could mean instant death.

[Bobucles]

For the most part, the swamp is extremely dangerous in bronze gear. Focus on staying in the sewers, they're far less dangerous and have most of the iron.

The very first upgrade is the boat. It's faster, tougher and has an excellent cargo capacity. Boats can be safely dismantled and hauled through portals. So find a good swamp load and haul the ore, then portal back with the boat.

Bring back a full haul of iron ore and craft the rest. Order doesn't really matter, but prioritize the iron mace over other weapons and get all the armor pieces.

[warrenchmobile]

Messaggio originale di sneakyweazel:

An axe
perhaps a mace
or atgeir
a bow would be nice
so would nails... as in bigger ship
2 shield to choose from
pickaxe is a no-go due to good positioning of repairbench and antlers

What would be your choice?
Going to repack my ship and teleport back to swamps in the meantime

"An axe" Not my first choice. I usually make a banded shield or iron mace for survival in combat. That depends on the quality of one's bronze level shield and mace. A bronze axe will chop any wood currently in the game.

"perhaps a mace or atgeir" Definitely a mace early. I find it the most effective means of beating Bonemass.

"a bow would be nice" Just that, nice but not really a priority. An upgraded finewood bow coupled with fire arrows handles just about anything a bow can handle until a viking deals with the Mountain boss, Modor.

"so would nails... as in bigger ship" Definitely early, in my case. I tend to transport ores and metals back to a main base. The long ship is faster and carries a lot more than the karve.

"2 shield to choose from" Banded shield early. Not really needed for the Swamp but needed for forays into the Moutain biome in search of obsidian.

"pickaxe is a no-go due to good positioning of repairbench and antlers" I will craft an iron pickaxe very early. I make forays into the Mountain biome long before completing the Swamp. I want obsidian for the workbench tool shelf. An antler or bronze pickaxe will not dent an obsidian deposit but will attract Mountain enemies I don't want to deal with at this point.

My priorities are pretty much driven by my aversion to heavy armor. The added protection is not worth the price one pays in mobility. Bronze or iron armor? Not worth the materials used in their construction. I wouldn't make wolf armor if it were not for the protection from frost and the fact that barley and flax require cultivation in the Plains.

[OctoberSky]

In my first visit to the swamp, I try to get 20 iron plus some turnip seeds so I can get the spice rack for the cauldron. Make a level 2 banded shield first then make a pick and head up into the mountains with a frost potion to find obsidian. Upgrade your workbench to get level 4 troll armor. For some players, that level 4 troll armor can actually get them all the way to the Plains for padded armor.

[Eightball]

My two cents:

Workstations - over all they add far more value per ingot than pretty much any other choice.

Shield - (optional) Depending of your play-style you can, as @OctoberSky mentions, get to the Plains in upgraded Troll / Huntsman Bow, but if you are melee then make a shield.

Nails - better ship just helps in general, from exploring to exploiting.

After that it really depends on how you play and how comfortable you are in certain biomes. I say that because you can easily locate silver nodes with the Stagbreaker and build yourself a Frostner and a silver shield usually with just one node mined. So you don't need to go hog wild mining iron if you are not risk adverse.

Frost potions, a good eye for your surroundings and an escape route will keep you alive in the mountains more than long enough to mine all the silver you need.

[Cobretti]

Nails, Ategir and workstations. Everything after that depends how bad you are at dodging, you don't need shield and armor if you never get hit.

[blprice61]

If you go the light armor route, I highly recommend the iron helmet; fully upgraded iron helm, troll top & bottom, deer hide cape = armor 48, which works for me along with atgier and bow.

[Husker_85]

Hands down it's gotto be the ship. Once you have the bigger ship you can build a little portal near the swamp you want to mine at and clear the entire thing before sailing it all home.

[The Big Brzezinski]

A longship isn't as important at first. A karve will carry your first hundred and twenty hunks of scrap iron. To fill a longship takes a lot of swamping, and a good shield will help ensure you live through it.

You can put ten iron bars into a longship once you feel you've outgrown the karve. You will definitely do this once you're clearing out entire swamps-worth of crypts without issue, and piling up a dozen or more stacks of scrap at once at a shoreline portal camp.

[Mastermind]

Iron Pick
Since it's (currently) the highest grade pick in the game, I find it a good idea to invest in it. And also, I tend to skip the bronze one

Iron Buckler
Because I'm a buckler addict

Iron mace
Mostly because it's bonemass' weakness.

That's pretty much my shopping list (as far as gear goes) for the iron age. I tend to stick to troll armour until I get the wolf(silver) one. I use dagger a lot, but that tier is the abyssal razor, so no iron required.

I get most building (stone cutter, iron cooking station, etc). But the heaviest investment being the gears, it's not all that worth mentioning.

As for the longboat... You are going to want to make one anyway. "When" depends on you, and probably the specific map you are on.

As for what order to do it... Doing the pick speeds up the mining, which speeds up getting everything else. But the mace is also good against everything in the swamp. The buckler can wait, the bronze one do fine in the swamp. Iron is mostly just required for the mountain.

[Vinylic_Jester]

I upgraded from bone shield to banded shield it gives better block than bone and better mobility than iron tower shield also cheap to upgrade to lvl2 shield giving 48 block.
Then get stone cutter to make a sharpening wheel to upgrade forge.
After that prob mace and then pickaxe (to get obsidian)