How to Get Iron Ore in Once Human?
Once Human is the latest sensation in the survival-crafting genre, and we are definitely loving every bit of it. From the beautiful post-apocalyptic world to the detailed crafting mechanics, everything in this game is worthy of obsessing over. While the first few gameplay hours are easy, as you only need to find common materials and craft basic gadgets, things start getting serious pretty fast. As you progress through the story, you must face higher-tier enemies and craft sturdier weapons and armor to withstand these foes; well, you need iron ores for all that.
Furthermore, you must also craft your own vehicles and upgrade them with better parts, all of which require iron ores and steel ingot. So, if you have just reached character levels 18 to 30, you must be desperately searching for this rare material without any obvious clues. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss how to get iron ore in Once Human and use it in your crafting projects, let’s get started:
Table Contents
How to Get Iron Ore in Once Human?
Players typically start looking for iron ores and steel ingots around character levels 18 to 30. That’s mainly when you unlock the tier-3 weapon and armor upgrades. From this point on, you will need these rare resources for most buildings, vehicle upgrades, and exotic recipes. The only problem is that the game doesn’t really tell you where to get iron ores or even unlock the Iron Age technologies. That’s why we are here to help you find the best iron ore farming locations in Once Human:
Prepare your Tools
While you may spot several iron nodes during your travels through the highlands, you can’t really harvest them right away. That’s mainly because you don’t have the necessary tools to break those sturdy rocks. So, the first thing you must do is unlock the recipe for Bronze Pickaxe from the Memetics menu under the Bronze Casting Tree. Once you get the blueprints, head to your workbench and craft a Bronze Pickaxe using the following ingredients:
- x7 Bronze Ingot
- x5 Log
- x1 Hide
We recommend that you craft at least 2 to 3 Bronze Pickaxes at a time so that you don’t have to return to your base camp mid-mining. Basically, the Bronze Pickaxe isn’t very durable against iron nodes, so either you must constantly repair it or bring out your spare axe whenever you feel like it.
Best Iron Ore Farming Location
The game will lead you to the Iron River region in Once Human, which is basically a resource haven for all midgame and endgame materials. As the name suggests, you are bound to find unlimited iron nodes in this locality, but that’s not really the case. While you can find some nodes in the main region, they aren’t really enough to satisfy your iron ore needs. Instead, if you start at the Iron River and go northwest towards the highlands, that’s the real iron ore farm location in Once Human.
Once you arrive at this farm location, the next challenge is to locate all nearby iron ore nodes. These nodes are basically like Sulphur rocks but a bit less yellowish and more on the reddish side. In other words, you must try your luck on all large boulders with a brown tint on either side. Finally, go near the iron node, take out your Bronze Pickaxe, and start hitting the boulder to harvest up to 30 iron ores from each node. If you keep up your pace, you can harvest up to 1000 iron ores from each visit to the highlands in the Iron River.
Beware, there are high level wild boars in the highlands of Iron River, so you must come well-prepared for some heat. These boars will attack you on sight and won’t stop until one of you dies. The best strategy is to scan the area with a trusty sniper rifle and clear the surroundings before going near the iron nodes.
How to Make Steel Ingots?
Next up, we will discuss how to use iron ores in your Once Human recipes. The catch is that even if you gather thousands of iron ores using our farming strategies, you can’t use them directly in your recipes. Instead, you must convert the raw ores into steel ingots to craft tier-3 weapons, equipment, and armor sets.
First, you must unlock Forging Techniques under the Infrastructure Memetics menu. Next, build a furnace in your base camp and make sure to place it in a well-ventilated area. Once you have the furnace, use firewood and logs to get charcoal. You will only need 1x charcoal for each ingot, so make sure you have enough resources. Finally, interact with the electric furnace and use iron ores to craft steel ingots. Here is the complete recipe to craft 1x steel ingot:
- 5x iron ores
- 1x charcoal
Oh, and don’t forget to unlock the teleporting tower northwest of the Iron River highlands. This will make it easy to travel back and forth from the base camp to the iron ore farming location.
Some Tips for Harvesting Iron Ores
While harvesting the iron ores in Once Human isn’t really rocket science, you are bound to run into trouble on your way to the farm and back to the base camp. Moreover, there are high-level wild boars and enemy troops in the highlands, so it would be best to come up with a defensive strategy as well. Here are a few tips that greatly helped us during our steel age progression:
- Always carry a trusty sniper rifle to scan the area and eliminate any nearby enemies before you start mining.
- Bring an upgraded shotgun to deal with any Wild Boars that ambush you without any warning and it’s really helpful for close encounters too.
- Recruit more Digby Boy Deviants to automate the iron ore mining.
- Don’t move around the highlands on your vehicle, as it will destroy the iron nodes without yielding anything.
- Throw away the residual gravels to make room for more iron ores in your inventory.
- Activate the nearby teleporting tower (northwest of the highlands) to easily go back to your base camp without wasting time.
- Consume Roasted Meat and other Stamina boosting foods before you start mining to maximize your efficiency.
- You can also eat Beacon Burger to double your iron mining speed for a while.
Conclusion
That’s it! You have just learned how to farm iron ores in Once Human and process them at the electric furnace to get steel ingots. You will need an unlimited supply of steel ingots to survive during character levels 18 to 30, so make sure to include iron ore farming in your daily gaming routine. Hopefully, you won’t ever run out of this rare resource if you keep up with our strategies. If you have any questions or would like more such content, make sure to add ByteMag.co to your bookmarks, Happy Gaming!
