If you’ve ever stood in front of a broken workbench 10 minutes into a boss fight because you ran out of metal to repair your gear, you already know how critical this resource is. Figuring out how to get ingot in Palworld isn’t just a nice-to-have skill—it’s the foundation of every upgrade, base defense, and high-tier weapon you’ll ever make. I’ve spent over 80 hours testing different farming routes and crafting setups, so I’m breaking down every method that actually works, no fluff or untested hacks. You’ll be able to pick the right strategy for your current level, whether you’re still sleeping in a straw hut or running a fully automated industrial base.
How to get ingot in Palworld for early game players (level 1-15)
Before you can make a single ingot, you need to unlock two core items first: the pickaxe for mining ore, and the primitive furnace for smelting. You’ll get the pickaxe recipe at level 2, and the primitive furnace unlocks at level 3, so you can start making ingots within your first hour of play if you prioritize the right resources.
For early game farming, stick to the small ore deposits scattered around the starting plateau near the Plateau of Beginnings fast travel point. These deposits only drop 1-2 ore each, but they respawn every 3-4 minutes, so you can loop a small route without wandering too far from your first base. You’ll need 2 ore to make 1 ingot, so keep that ratio in mind when you’re planning how much to farm.
You don’t need fancy Pals to smelt early on either. Any Pal with the Kindling work suitability trait can operate the furnace. Foxparks are the easiest to catch early, and one Foxparks can keep a single primitive furnace running nonstop if you keep their hunger bar filled with berries. Just make sure you don’t assign them to other tasks like watering crops, or they’ll abandon the furnace mid-smelt.
One common mistake new players make here is smelting one stack of ore at a time and leaving the furnace idle. If you stockpile 100-200 ore first before you start smelting, you can go off and do other tasks like base building or catching Pals while the furnace runs, instead of checking back every 2 minutes. That cuts down the time you spend waiting for ingots by 70% in my experience.
Mid-game ingot farming: Scale your supply without grinding manually
Once you hit level 15, you’ll start needing hundreds of ingots for metal armor, better weapons, and upgraded base structures. If you’re still stuck wondering how to get ingot in Palworld fast once you hit this stage, this mid-game setup will cut your grind time by 80%.
First, craft a metal pickaxe as soon as you unlock it at level 11. It doubles the amount of ore you get per deposit, so you don’t have to hit each rock 4 times anymore, and it lasts 10x longer than the stone pickaxe. Next, head to the forest biome south of the starting plateau, where you’ll find large ore deposits that drop 5-8 ore each, with far fewer aggressive wild Pals to interrupt your farming.
The biggest upgrade you can make at this stage is setting up a dedicated mining outpost near a cluster of large ore deposits. You’ll want to assign specific Pals to each part of the production line to avoid bottlenecks. My go-to mid-game team for ingot production is:
- Tombat: Unlocked around level 18, has level 2 mining and can carry 10 items per stack, so it doesn’t run back to storage as often as lower level mining Pals
- Arsox: Has level 2 kindling, so it can run two primitive furnaces at once, cutting smelting time in half compared to a Foxparks
- Broncherry: Not a mining or kindling Pal, but has a 30 item carry capacity, so you can assign it to transport ore from the mining spot to the furnace and ingots to storage without slowdowns
This simple setup will produce 50-70 ingots per hour completely automatically, so you don’t have to spend any time swinging a pickaxe yourself anymore. Just make sure you build a low wall around the outpost, because wild Pals like to attack mining Pals if they’re left unprotected, and that will stop your entire production line dead.
Late-game automated ingot production for mass crafting
Once you hit level 30, you’ll need thousands of ingots for legendary weapons, heavy metal base defenses, and high-tier Pal gear. Manual farming or small outposts won’t cut it anymore, so you’ll need to scale up to a fully industrial production line.
First, unlock the industrial furnace at level 31. It smelts ore 3x faster than the primitive furnace, and uses 75% less fuel, so you won’t have to stockpile piles of wood to keep it running. For fuel, switch to coal instead of wood at this stage—you can mine coal from the same deposits as ore in mountain biomes, and one piece of coal lasts 10x longer than a piece of wood. That means you only have to refill your furnaces once every few hours instead of every 20 minutes.
The best late-game mining spot is the snowy mountain biome west of the starting area. It has massive ore deposits that drop 15-20 ore each, clustered in groups of 5-10, so you can set up a huge outpost that covers multiple deposits at once. Use Digtoise for mining here—they have level 3 mining, and can clear an entire large deposit in 2 hits, which is 3x faster than Tombat. Pair them with Blazehowl for kindling, which has level 3 kindling and can run 4 industrial furnaces at the same time.
I once tried to run a late-game outpost without transport Pals, and my mining Pals were dropping ore on the ground instead of taking it to the furnace, so I lost over 200 ore in an hour before I noticed. Don’t make that mistake—always assign 2-3 high capacity transport Pals like Wumpo Botan to any large mining outpost, even if you think you don’t need them. You can also add cooling Pals like Pengullet to your outpost if you’re running multiple industrial furnaces, because they keep the area temperature down so your kindling Pals don’t get overheated and stop working. That’s a small detail most guides skip, but it increases your total ingot output by around 20% in hot biomes or if you’re running more than 4 furnaces at once.
Common mistakes that slow down your ingot production
Even with the right setup, small mistakes can cut your ingot output in half without you noticing. The most common one I see is mismatching Pal work suitability to the task. If you put a Pal with only level 1 kindling on an industrial furnace, it will work 50% slower than a Pal with level 3 kindling, so you’re wasting half your production capacity for no reason. Always check the work suitability tab before assigning Pals to furnace or mining tasks.
Another mistake is building your furnaces too far from your mining deposits. If transport Pals have to walk more than 10 foundations to get from the mining spot to the furnace, you’ll get bottlenecks where ore piles up at the mining site and furnaces sit idle. Keep your entire production line as compact as possible to avoid this. You can even build your furnaces directly next to the ore deposits if the terrain allows it.
Many new players also make the mistake of selling excess ingots to merchants for gold early on. That might seem like a fast way to make money, but you’ll always need more ingots later for upgrades, and you’ll end up spending twice as long farming it back. Only sell ingots if you have over 500 stockpiled and you’re certain you don’t need it for any upcoming builds or repairs.
At the end of the day, the right way to farm this resource depends entirely on how far you are in the game and how much you need. You don’t need a massive automated outpost if you only need 20 ingots to build a new workbench, but you will need that setup if you’re gearing up to take on the endgame bosses. No matter what stage you’re at, the tips we covered will help you figure out how to get ingot in Palworld without wasting hours on inefficient grinding. Test out the methods that fit your playstyle, adjust as you unlock new recipes, and you’ll never run out of ingots mid-fight again.