When you first spawn into Palworld, you’ll likely spend your first few hours chasing cute Pals, slapping together a basic wooden base, and stockpiling enough berries to keep your new companions fed. But it won’t take long before you hit a wall: every useful upgrade, from stronger Pal Spheres to reinforced base walls to high-tier weapons, requires ingots to craft. If you’ve been stuck trying to figure out how to make ingots in Palworld, you’re not alone—this core crafting mechanic is poorly explained in the game’s basic tutorial, and a lot of new players waste hours making avoidable mistakes.
How to Make Ingots in Palworld: Core Crafting Requirements
Before you can start pumping out ingots, you’ll need to unlock and build a few key items first. The most important piece of equipment here is the Primitive Furnace, which you’ll unlock in your Technology Tree once you hit player level 10. It costs 20 pieces of wood, 10 stones, and 3 Flame Organs to craft, so you’ll need to hunt down a few fire-type Pals first to get those organs. Foxparks are the easiest option for new players—they spawn all over the starting island, and you can catch them as early as level 2 if you have a few basic Pal Spheres handy.
Once your furnace is built, you’ll need two more things: fuel and iron ore. The Primitive Furnace runs on wood, so keep at least 50 pieces in the furnace’s storage slot at all times to avoid unexpected shutdowns. You’ll need 2 pieces of iron ore to craft 1 standard iron ingot, which is the most common ingot type used for 90% of early and mid-game upgrades. If you’re crafting higher-tier ingots like copper or refined metal later on, the recipe will adjust, but the core process of using a furnace stays the same.
You don’t have to tend to the furnace yourself, either. Assign any fire-type Pal with the Kindling work suitability to your base, and they’ll automatically keep the furnace running as long as you have enough ore and fuel stocked. That means you can spend your time exploring or catching more Pals instead of standing around waiting for ingots to finish crafting.
Best Locations to Farm Iron Ore for Ingots
You can’t make ingots without ore, so picking the right spot to farm iron ore will make your entire production process way faster. The starting island has plenty of small ore veins scattered around, but if you want to stockpile hundreds of ore in an hour, you’ll want to head to the northwestern section of the initial spawn zone. That area has flat, open ground dotted with large iron ore veins, and it’s full of Digtoise, the best mining Pal you can get early in the game.
I used to wander around random hills looking for ore veins during my first playthrough, and I’d only get 30 or so ore every hour. Once I found this northwestern spot, I was pulling 200+ ore per hour with no extra effort. If you’re further into the game, you can also find higher-density ore spots on the second and third islands, but the starting island spot is more than enough for all your early and mid-game ingot needs.
If you want to cut down on your mining time even more, follow these simple tips:
- Catch at least 2 level 10+ Digtoise for your mining team—they can clear an entire ore vein in under 30 seconds with no input from you, thanks to their high Digtoise mining efficiency.
- Prioritize veins on flat, open ground so your Pals don't get stuck on cliffs or trees while transporting ore back to base. Even the best mining Pal is useless if they keep getting caught on terrain.
- Build a small chest right next to high-yield mining spots to cut down on travel time for your transport Pals. They can drop ore off in the nearby chest instead of running all the way back to your main base storage every time their inventory fills up.
Tips to Speed Up Your Ingot Production Rates
Once you have a steady supply of ore coming in, you can tweak your base setup to make ingots way faster than the default speed. The biggest factor here is the Kindling work suitability of the Pals you assign to run your furnaces. A Pal with Kindling level 2 will produce ingots 50% faster than a Pal with Kindling level 1, and a Kindling level 3 Pal is twice as fast as a level 1. Early on, Foxparks work fine, but once you can catch higher-level fire Pals like Blazamut, swap them in to cut production time in half.
Next, make sure you have enough furnaces to match your ore supply. If your mining team is pulling in 100 ore every 30 minutes, one furnace will never be able to keep up. I recommend building at least 3 Primitive Furnaces for your early game base, and 5+ once you unlock the upgraded furnace later on. Place them right next to your main storage chests so transport Pals don’t have to walk far to drop off ore and pick up finished ingots.
You also don’t want to forget to assign enough transport Pals to your base. If you have 5 furnaces running and only one Pal with Transport suitability, your furnaces will sit empty half the time because no one is bringing ore from the storage chests to the furnaces. I usually have 2 transport Pals for every 3 furnaces to keep the ingot production queue moving nonstop. It’s also a good idea to keep a dedicated storage chest just for ingots right next to the furnaces, so your Pals don’t have to mix ingots with other resources in your general storage.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Ingots
Even if you have all the right equipment, it’s easy to make small mistakes that kill your ingot production speed. The most common mistake I see new players make is using regular Pals instead of mining-specialized Pals like Digtoise to farm ore. A regular Pal with level 1 Mining will take 3 times longer to break an ore vein than a Digtoise with level 3 Mining, so you’re just wasting time if you’re not using the right Pals for the job.
Another big mistake is building your furnaces too far away from your mining spots or your storage. If your transport Pals have to walk 30 seconds every time they need to drop off ore, your production rate will drop by 40% or more. Spend 10 minutes planning your base layout for crafting before you build anything, and you’ll save hours of waiting later on. You should also make sure you don’t build your furnaces too close to walls or other structures, because Pals can get stuck trying to reach the input slots.
Finally, don’t waste high-level fire Pals on running basic furnaces early on. Pals with high Kindling levels are needed for other crafting tasks like cooking high-tier food or refining advanced materials later on. Use low-level Foxparks for your basic ingot furnaces, and save your higher-level fire Pals for jobs that actually require their higher Kindling stat. You’ll also want to check your furnaces every hour or so to make sure they haven’t run out of fuel or ore—even the best setup will stop working if you forget to restock supplies.
Ingots are the backbone of almost every meaningful upgrade in Palworld, so getting your production line set up correctly will make every part of the game easier. Whether you’re trying to build a better set of armor to take on tough Alpha Pals, craft more powerful Pal Spheres to catch rare companions, or reinforce your base to survive raids, knowing how to make ingots in Palworld is one of the most important skills you can learn. Follow the tips we’ve laid out here, and you’ll never find yourself short on ingots when you need them most.