Characteristics
Overview
A naturally occurring rock containing metal and metal compounds. You can extract this metal using a furnace.
Every frag you spend this wipe starts as a lump of this, and on its own it does nothing. You hit metal nodes, carry the ore home and smelt it into metal fragments. On a fresh wipe that turns into a race: whoever reaches the nearest field of nodes first puts down a bench first.
Your tool sets the pace. Everyone starts on a stone pick, the metal pickaxe gets noticeably more per node, and the salvaged icepick and the jackhammer go further still. A mining quarry digs ore out of the ground without you swinging at all, if you ever get your hands on one.
Then the bottleneck moves to the furnace. It burns wood, and the burnt wood leaves charcoal behind, which you will want later for gunpowder. You come home with a full bag, the small furnaces are stuffed, half the ore waits in a box. That is the moment for a large furnace: it takes far more at once, but it needs a Level 2 bench and has to stand on terrain, so it is hard to keep safe.
Tip
Spread the ore over several slots instead of one big stack, and keep the wood topped up. A furnace that runs dry at night is ore you will be smelting tomorrow.
