Permafrost Quality Metal: Smelting Chain and Uses
Updated:
Quick answer: quality metal doesn't spawn in the world — you smelt it from iron and scrap. The reported recipes: a makeshift smelter turns 5 iron + 5 scrap into 1 quality metal (20s); the professional smelter does 2 iron ingots + 2 scrap → 1 (10s). It's the gate for military-tier gear and the lunar/"Permafrost" set.
The full chain
- Iron ore: mine iron boulders (reported yield 8–12 ore per node) south/east of house camp, in the Solar Fields caves, and around Sonnenberg's Clinic. Iron requires at least the scrap or copper pickaxe — flint won't cut it.
- Iron ingots: 3 iron ore + 3 coal in the stone furnace (reported).
- Scrap: chop wrecked cars and machinery (1–5 per vehicle) or run metal junk through a dismantling bench — there's one in the house-camp church, and Eric Hirsch at the Technocrats Colony sells metal junk.
- Quality metal: combine at a smelter per the recipes above. The makeshift smelter itself costs 5 scrap to build; the professional smelter costs 5 iron ingots.
What to spend it on
| Use | Why |
|---|---|
| Military clothing set | Big cold-resistance jump; needs quality metal |
| Quality pickaxe (2 QM reported) | Mines moon rock — see the caveat below |
| Lunar / "Permafrost" set | Moonrock ingots + quality metal; the endgame clothing |
| Weapon bench ammo chain | 7.62 ammo needs quality metal + gunpowder (gunpowder needs sulfur + scrap) |
Moonstone / moon rock
The glowing fragments of the shattered moon are the rarest material: moon-rock boulders appear at meteorite impact sites and glow at night (also reported in the Crater and near Sonnenberg's Clinic). Mining them requires the quality iron pickaxe — the ordinary iron pickaxe's tooltip wrongly claims otherwise (a known bug). Moonrock ingots reportedly come only from the professional smelter, and some of the chain may be quest-gated in the current build.
Planning advice
- Coal is the bottleneck for everything smelted — on Survival difficulty, convert wood to coal at the furnace (5 wood → 2 coal) and smelt deliberately.
- Iron nodes cluster near the Solar Fields — that's the same trip as the mid-game loot run.
- Don't mass-produce quality metal before you know what you're building; both inputs have heavy competition from repairs and renovations.
FAQ
Can I find quality metal as loot? No confirmed fixed world pickup — plan on smelting.
Why won't my iron pickaxe mine moonstone? Known tooltip bug; you need the quality iron pickaxe.
Related: Copper & smelting basics · Pickaxe tiers · Workbench & stations
Related guides
- Permafrost Copper: Mining, Smelting and WireCopper boulders need a flint pickaxe. Smelt 3 ore + 5 coal into an ingot, turn ingots into wire, and build the radio station to progress the story.
- Permafrost Flint Pickaxe: Recipe and Pickaxe TiersCraft the flint pickaxe at a workbench (2 flint + 4 wood) to unlock copper, coal and sulfur mining. Here is the whole pickaxe ladder.
- Permafrost Workbench: How to Build and Use ItBuild a workbench for 10 wood under a roof. It crafts flint tools, wire, bandages and heaters — but items land on the bench and chests don't count.
- Permafrost Walkthrough: Main Quest Route (Early Access)The full main quest route through the Early Access region — Horizon, the bone cave, New Home, Hunter's Glade, House Camp and the Solar Fields — with quest-gating gotchas.