Ore and scrap in, metal out: the metal refinery
Published
In short: a metal refinery turns ore and salvage into metal, working on whatever is in the hold of the bunker or ship it’s fitted to. Your starting bunker has one. Metal buys nothing yet: recipes still cost ore. For now it’s a good you can store and haul. Numbers are placeholders.
At a glance
| Ore | 2 m³ makes 1 m³ of metal |
| Salvage | 1 m³ makes 1 m³ of metal, and goes first |
| Rate at Mk1 | 0.2 m³ of input a second |
| Stops at | 200 m³ of metal in the hold, or the hold’s metal target |
| Takes from | its own host’s hold only |
| Switches | each input and the whole chain, on the production screen (F12) |
| At the start | one Mk1, on your bunker |
How it works
- Only its own hold. Unlike a machine shop, it never draws on a carrier in reach, so you decide what it gets.
- Salvage first. With both in the hold and both allowed, it takes salvage before ore.
- It knows when to stop. At 200 m³ of metal it waits, so it doesn’t eat all the ore. A stock target for metal on that hold sets the number instead.
- You can see it work. On a bunker it’s a furnace hall with two tall stacks, its furnace lit while it runs.
Switching it
On the production screen (F12), click an input to allow or stop it, or click the refinery to turn the whole chain on or off. Everything starts on.
- Salvage only. Switch ore off, and the refinery uses only salvage, leaving the ore in the hold. With none left it says “no salvage in its hold”.
- All inputs off: it says “no inputs allowed”.
- Chain off: it says “switched off”.
- One setting per carrier or bunker, not per module: two refineries in one bunker follow the same setting.
- Storage settings still apply. The switches only say what the refinery may use.
Feeding it
Set the carrier’s ore to Clear and the bunker’s ore to Collect, and a Prospector on Haul carries the ore across. Clear empties all of it, and repairs in the carrier’s hangar need ore in its hold, so don’t leave it on for long. More: storage and hauling.
More: metal refinery module, salvage, bunkers.