Harriet Wetton
When you reach a certain level in Conan Exiles, you have to get steel and search for items to make steel bars. Understanding how the crafting loop connects is what separates a fresh exile from a true conqueror of the Exiled Lands. The transition from iron to steel is the most significant leap a player makes, marking the shift from a struggling exile to a dominant force. However, figuring out Conan exiles how to make steel, the various methods to make weapons, building the workshops, and stockpiling the supplies to produce it can be tough. Knowing how to get steel and how to make it requires a lot of effort and deep knowledge of the land.
Conan Exiles is a world loaded with both treasure and terror. Resources can be abundant while navigating the harsh landscape, but getting these items does not come without danger. In the beginning, mastering Conan exiles how to make steel is a distant goal while you focus on staying alive, building a tiny sandstone shelter, and avoiding local monsters. When starting, you will have no difficulty picking up basic things to help out your character. Simple hand picked stones and loose branches make it easier to cut down trees for wood to be used as fuel or raw crafting material.
But moving ahead gets a little trickier once you are past the initial search for items and are more established in the world. With steel, you can make powerful weapons, heavy armor, and advanced building structures. You can even use it later to make a hardened steel bar. To make this leap smoothly, you must transform your casual survival camp into an automated resource processing hub. This requires setting up a dedicated infrastructure that includes tanneries, cauldrons, and high efficiency furnaces.
Understanding the Importance of Steel in the Exiled Lands
As you start out in Conan Exiles, gathering resources for survival is relatively straightforward. You will find stones and wood that help you build basic tools and shelters. However, as you progress, crafting steel becomes a vital part of your advancement.
Steel enables the creation of more durable weapons, stronger armor, and more sophisticated structures, including the powerful hardened steel bars. It represents your entry ticket into mid game and late game content, allowing you to explore dangerous biomes without breaking your tools every five minutes.
But mastering Conan exiles how to make steel is not as simple as stumbling upon it in the wild. Unlike basic resources like stone or wood, steel must be crafted using specific ingredients and processes. You cannot simply mine a steel node with a pickaxe.
Instead, you must become a chemist and a blacksmith simultaneously. If you want to survive the tougher purges, explore the frozen north, or clear high level dungeons, steel is your absolute foundation. Without it, your character remains stuck in the primitive age, unable to damage heavily armored enemies effectively.
The journey to steel production is also about efficiency and system management. While you can find small amounts of steel by looting hostile NPCs in higher level camps, such as New Asagarth or the Black Galleon, relying on random enemy drops is slow and unreliable.
To truly excel, you need to understand the alchemy of Conan exiles how to make steel at scale. This means automating your collection of animal hides, mastering the placement of your crafting thralls, and finding the most efficient way to stockpile the necessary catalysts without wasting valuable gaming time.
Conan exiles how to make steel: How to get Tar
By using a tannery, you can produce tar. A tannery is one of the essential game workshops which you will unlock in your character’s skill menu under the survival and crafting feats.
To produce tar with a tannery, you have to convert the hides and skins you gather from creatures, animals, or human enemies into leather. The tannery will generate tar spontaneously as a liquid byproduct whenever you convert skin into leather. It is an automatic process, meaning as long as the tannery has fuel like bark and raw hides inside, it will keep dripping out tar.
Tar is a messy but essential byproduct for your metalworking empire. In the early game, you might find yourself throwing it away because it is heavy and seemingly useless for basic stone tools. Do not make this mistake.
Every single piece of leather you produce for your armor should be seen as an opportunity to bank tar for your future steel empire. Store it in dedicated chests near your alchemy area so you do not run out when production scales up.
If you find yourself running low on tar, go on a hunting trip around the river areas where crocodiles, hyenas, and gazelles are plentiful. Their thick hides provide excellent raw yields. Using a highly efficient approach to resource management will ensure your tannery never sits idle.
Bring a skinning knife rather than an axe when harvesting dead animals, as this tool maximizes the amount of hide you get per creature, directly doubling your tar production speed over time.
Remember that different tiers of tanneries work at different speeds. As you progress, upgrading to an Improved Tannery or a Grandmaster Tannery will allow you to process hides much faster, which in turn accelerates your tar production.
This is a crucial step in the roadmap of Conan exiles how to make steel because tar represents exactly fifty percent of the alchemical equation needed to create your metal catalyst.
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Managing an online store or a digital project requires the same step by step resource management that you use to run a virtual fortress in Conan Exiles.
Where to collect brimstone
There are specific places in parts of the world map from where you can collect brimstone. The area is explored mainly by people in the desert to the west, which is universally considered one of the wealthiest zones for raw brimstone harvesting.
This location, known as the Shattered Springs, is filled with large, glowing yellow, toxic pillars of brimstone. Be warned that the air here is highly poisonous. You will need a Sandstorm Mask to survive the toxic fumes while you mine the pillars with your pickaxe.
If you are not ready to face the toxic gas of the springs or lack the materials to craft a protective mask, you can find smaller, safer deposits of brimstone in various caves across the map.
Sinner’s Refuge is a incredibly popular spot for early game players because it contains several brimstone nodes along the walls, alongside high level thralls that you can capture for your base workshops. Gallaman’s Tomb is another excellent cave option packed with crocodile monsters and harvestable yellow rocks.
Another great source is located underwater in the eastern tropical regions and jungle biomes, where you can harvest brimstone from glowing aquatic vents. However, for a massive, heavy haul, the western desert remains the absolute king of locations.
When you have obtained both tar and brimstone, the game’s crafting system is used to build the fire bowl cauldron, where you will put your tar and brimstone together to produce steel fire.
Steel fire is the magical alchemical glue that turns ordinary iron into something much stronger. Without this catalyst, your furnace will just keep spitting out iron bars, leaving you highly vulnerable to the many threats of the wasteland.
To make a steel fire, the combination ratio required is one piece of brimstone and two pieces of tar, along with a consistent fuel source from wood, coal, or tree branches inside the cauldron.
If you have a taskmaster or a professional alchemist thrall stationed at your fire bowl cauldron, the speed of this production increases significantly. Higher tier thralls can also decrease the material cost, allowing you to stretch your hard earned tar and brimstone much further. This optimization is what lets top players mass produce gear for their entire clan without spending hours grinding for raw ingredients.
Conan exiles how to make steel Tablet
When you have prepared your steel fire catalyst, put it directly into your furnace or kiln alongside your raw iron rods, and use wood or coal as fuel. The standard furnace will take around 20 seconds to make a single steel bar. The exact recipe requires 1 unit of steel fire and 5 iron bars to craft 1 steel bar.
This 5:1 ratio means you need a massive amount of base iron ore to produce a full set of high tier steel gear and weapons.
For many players, the primary bottleneck in Conan exiles how to make steel isn’t actually the alchemical steel fire, but the sheer volume of raw iron ore required to feed the furnaces.
To maximize your overall output and cut down on travel time, consider setting up a secondary mining base near iron rich zones, such as the Tower of Bats, the black chasm areas, or the heavy iron veins surrounding the Great Dam. This reduces travel time, protects your character from being encumbered across long distances, and allows you to keep your furnaces running 24/7.
Using a skilled thrall like a Smelter inside your furnace slot will speed up the conversion of raw iron ore into iron bars, making the entire process feel less like a tedious chore and more like a well oiled industrial machine. If you are also interested in gaming efficiency and industrial mechanics across other survival games, you might want to learn how to use microforge techniques in other crafting contexts to stay ahead of the curve.
Efficiency is the absolute name of the game here. While the standard stone furnace works fine for a beginner, the Improved Furnace or the Heat Efficient Furnace are much better choices for a serious wasteland blacksmith.
These advanced workstations burn through fuel much slower and process raw materials at a rapid pace. When you are trying to forge hundreds of bars to secure your outer walls, saving those seconds per bar can save you hours of real time play. Planning your base layout so that your iron storage chests sit right next to your smelting furnaces will save you countless minutes of walking slowly while overencumbered with heavy metal bars.
Conan exiles how to make steel: Toughened Steel
Let it be known that from the basic steel bars, you can make even more powerful items, specifically the hardened steel bar. This advanced tier alloy can be made in your furnace by combining two regular steel bars with a single piece of raw brimstone.
In older versions of the game, the recipe involved black ice from the frozen mountain peaks, but the modern development process focuses on enriching your existing steel with even more brimstone to create an alloy of incredible strength.
The toughened steel bar is a strong ingot of unbreakable forte, and this strong steel bar will give you access to even more powerful endgame gear and weapons in Conan Exiles. Ultra tough armor sets, highly destructive warhammers, sharp longswords, efficient tools, and master tier building parts can all be created once you have a steady supply of hardened steel bars flowing from your base.
This material is the golden standard for mid to late game play. If you plan on raiding ancient ruins, clearing deep vaults, or taking on massive world bosses like the Giant Spider, the Elephant King, or the Undead Dragon, hardened steel is the minimum baseline requirement for your weaponry. Trying to fight these late game threats with simple iron or base steel will result in your weapons breaking mid fight, leaving you helpless against the environment.
The transition to hardened steel also requires you to completely rethink your brimstone collection strategy. Since you now need brimstone for both the initial steel fire creation and the final hardening process, your daily demand for this yellow mineral will triple.
This is why mastering the exact location and harvesting methods of brimstone is just as important as the smithing process itself. For players looking to optimize their digital life outside of the game and share this deep knowledge, you can check out how to earn with Google AdSense to turn your gaming expertise into a profitable side project or gaming blog.
Advanced Forging Tips for Experts
Once you have completely mastered the basics of Conan exiles how to make steel, your next logical step is to hunt down and capture named thralls. A Tier 4 Smelter, often referred to as a named thrall due to their unique personal names, provides massive, game changing bonuses to your crafting speed, fuel consumption, and resource efficiency.
Some specific named smelters can even unlock secret regional recipes or allow you to craft advanced alloys using far fewer base materials. Finding these rare thralls requires raiding large, dangerous NPC camps like the Mounds of the Dead or the sprawling desert capital city of Sepermeru.
Another excellent tip for veteran blacksmiths is to diversify your fuel sources. While regular wood is incredibly easy to find near any river bed, coal is much more efficient for long term smelting operations because it burns significantly longer.
If you are based in the desert or jungle biomes, dried wood, which is created by putting regular wood into a dryer workshop tool, burns even longer than standard coal blocks. Keeping your metal furnaces fueled is a constant, demanding task, so having a dedicated storage chest filled with high quality fuel will keep your production line from stalling unexpectedly in the middle of a heavy crafting session.
Finally, always keep a watchful eye on your neighbors. On public PvP servers, the dark smoke pouring out from a high tier furnace is a giant, glowing sign that says raid me to enemy clans. If you are smelting large amounts of valuable steel, try to hide your active furnaces behind thick stone walls, false rooms, or deep inside a hidden mountain base away from main pathways.
The loud crackling sound of a working furnace can also be easily heard through thin walls, so clever structural placement is key if you want to keep your hard earned steel bars safe from sneaky thieves and midnight raiders.
For players who deeply enjoy the technical side of modern survival games, understanding the exact math behind your resource loops is incredibly satisfying. You might even find that applying a systematic business intelligence approach to your in game economy helps you reach the ultimate endgame items faster than anyone else on your server. It is all about working smarter, minimizing your travel times, and maximizing your output per mining trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is steel used for in Conan Exiles?
Steel is used to craft high tier weapons, durable armor sets, efficient harvesting tools, and reinforced building components. It serves as the primary material that bridges the gap between early game iron tools and late game legendary gear like obsidian or star metal.
Without a steady supply of steel, your character cannot easily progress into the colder, more dangerous northern biomes or survive high level world boss fights.
How do I make steel fire in Conan Exiles?
You make steel fire by combining tar and brimstone together inside a fire bowl cauldron with a steady fuel source like coal, wood, or dried wood. The default crafting recipe requires 2 units of tar and 1 unit of brimstone for every single unit of steel fire produced.
This yellow liquid catalyst is completely essential for the smelting process inside your furnace to turn iron into steel.
Where can I find brimstone in Conan Exiles?
Brimstone can be found in several distinct locations across the map, but the most abundant source by far is the Shattered Springs located in the western desert biome. You can also harvest smaller quantities safely inside caves like Sinner’s Refuge and Gallaman’s Tomb, or collect it from glowing underwater vents in the eastern jungle biome.
Always bring a protective mask when visiting the desert springs to avoid dying from toxic gas.
How many iron bars do I need to craft one steel bar?
You need exactly 5 iron bars and 1 unit of steel fire catalyst to craft a single steel bar inside a standard furnace. Because of this high 5:1 material cost, players often focus on massive, dedicated iron mining trips to ensure their base has enough raw metal bars to forge entire armor sets or build fortified structures.
What is the difference between steel and hardened steel?
Hardened steel is a significantly stronger, higher tier version of regular steel. While standard steel is crafted using iron bars and steel fire, hardened steel is made by combining regular steel bars with extra brimstone inside a furnace.
Tools made from hardened steel possess much higher durability, hit harder, and harvest raw world resources at a much faster rate than regular steel variants.
Can I make steel bars faster using thralls?
Yes, placing a Smelter thrall into the dedicated thrall slot of your furnace or kiln will significantly increase the smelting speed. Higher tier thralls, such as Tier 3 or Named Tier 4 thralls, not only speed up the conversion process dramatically but also reduce the total fuel required to keep the furnace running, making your entire crafting operation highly resource efficient.
Conclusion
Mastering the detailed process of Conan exiles how to make steel is the absolute key to advancing your character and dominating the land. As you systematically collect tar from your tanneries, mine brimstone from the desert, and smelt iron ore from the hills, learning to craft steel bars and hardened steel will unlock your true survival potential.
It allows you to create top tier gear and build highly durable structures that can withstand aggressive purges and enemy player raids.
The heavy effort involved in gathering these materials and managing the multi step crafting system pays off massively. Steel quickly becomes the true structural backbone of your survival, base building, and combat progression in the challenging world of Conan Exiles.
With the steps laid out in this guide, you now possess the complete tools and knowledge to conquer the wasteland and stand tall against any enemy that crosses your path.
The rewarding journey from a naked, struggling exile to a legendary master smith is what makes the game so compelling. By understanding the perfect synergy between hunting animals for hides, mining poisonous pillars for brimstone, and keeping your furnaces burning efficiently, you completely transform the way you play.
No longer will you fear the wild wolves of the north, the corrupted monsters in the ruins, or the frost giants of the mountains.
Armed with a reliable sword of forged steel, you are no longer just a simple survivor trying to get by; you become an absolute conqueror. Take what you have learned today, fire up your cauldrons, organize your storage chests, and begin your journey toward total domination of the Exiled Lands.
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