Do Shale and Nickel have any special uses?

[mitboy]

Or are they basically just a recolour for Garden biome? 

If we compare the common metals, some seem to not have even a niche physical property use cases.

So like, Gold - has high decor, high overheat temperature (for gold almagam), and low thermal capacity (useful for early game when you can't deal with heat from metal refinery). Technically can be replaced for decor with Niobium but you typically will not use it like that. 

Tungsten - highest melting point and thermium production

Aluminium - good conductivity but outclassed by thermium.

Lead - radiation protection, suits and low melting point for liquid lead based temperature conduction. 

Iron - Steel production.

Cinnabar - Melts into mercury (mercury is niche so it kinda makes this one worse of a metal even)

Copper, Cobalt and Nickel do not seem to have any serious special properties, and I tend to use them as throwaway metals for stuff like wires, powerbanks and plug slug food. 

Or maybe I am missing something and they have a use that can't easily be replicated with other metals? 

Edited July 4, 2025 by mitboy

[Kderosa]

28 minutes ago, mitboy said:

Or are they basically just a recolour for Garden biome? 

If we compare the common metals, some seem to not have even a niche physical property use cases.

So like, Gold - has high decor, high overheat temperature (for gold almagam), and low thermal capacity (useful for early game when you can't deal with heat from metal refinery). Technically can be replaced for decor with Niobium but you typically will not use it like that. 

Tungsten - highest melting point and thermium production

Aluminium - good conductivity but outclassed by thermium.

Lead - radiation protection, suits and low melting point for liquid lead based temperature conduction. 

Iron - Steel production.

Cinnabar - Melts into mercury (mercury is niche so it kinda makes this one worse of a metal even)

Copper, Cobalt and Nickel do not seem to have any serious special properties, and I tend to use them as throwaway metals for stuff like wires, powerbanks and plug slug food. 

Or maybe I am missing something and they have a use that can't easily be replicated with other metals? 

Cinnabar can be refined into mercury. It doesn’t melt into mercury.

tungsten is a refined metal, not an ore  

Copper ore, cobalt ore, aluminum, ore nickel ore, wolfamite, gold amalgam, iron ore, and cinnabar are all fairly similar early game metal ores that are mostly interchangeable. Copper has higher decor. Aluminum fabulous thermals. Iron ore has crappy thermals, but you need it for steel production. Cobalt and wolfamite decent thermals. Gold amalgam has a higher melting point and gold is used in quite a few industrial processes. 
.

There’s also the best refined metal in the game - niobium  high decor and properties like steel  

 

[Bzhydack]

59 minutes ago, mitboy said:

Or are they basically just a recolour for Garden biome? 

If we compare the common metals, some seem to not have even a niche physical property use cases.

So like, Gold - has high decor, high overheat temperature (for gold almagam), and low thermal capacity (useful for early game when you can't deal with heat from metal refinery). Technically can be replaced for decor with Niobium but you typically will not use it like that. 

Tungsten - highest melting point and thermium production

Aluminium - good conductivity but outclassed by thermium.

Lead - radiation protection, suits and low melting point for liquid lead based temperature conduction. 

Iron - Steel production.

Cinnabar - Melts into mercury (mercury is niche so it kinda makes this one worse of a metal even)

Copper, Cobalt and Nickel do not seem to have any serious special properties, and I tend to use them as throwaway metals for stuff like wires, powerbanks and plug slug food. 

Or maybe I am missing something and they have a use that can't easily be replicated with other metals? 

Cobalt has second best Thermal Conductivity, after Aluminium (I dont count Thermium), and melting point basicly like Iron. Nickel is very similar (has only slightly smaller Conductivity). Good for some high temperature heat transfer, and also because you want Iron for Steel.

Copper is somewhat "poor man's Gold" in my opinion - also increases Decor, so for Utility Buildings, if you dont have Gold.

Edited July 4, 2025 by Bzhydack

[mitboy]

5 hours ago, Bzhydack said:

Cobalt has second best Thermal Conductivity, after Aluminium (I dont count Thermium), and melting point basicly like Iron. Nickel is very similar (has only slightly smaller Conductivity). Good for some high temperature heat transfer, and also because you want Iron for Steel.

Copper is somewhat "poor man's Gold" in my opinion - also increases Decor, so for Utility Buildings, if you dont have Gold.

Are there any builds where you need higher melting temp of cobalt or nickel compared to aluminium, but at the point of where you still don't have access to tungsten or niobium though?

[Gurgel]

I think it just adds variety. Now, if you do Demolier and let it crash (the lab or regular), you get Iridium which is a somewhat reduced-capability Thermium. 

[Bzhydack]

14 hours ago, mitboy said:

Are there any builds where you need higher melting temp of cobalt or nickel compared to aluminium, but at the point of where you still don't have access to tungsten or niobium though?

Probably not... Also because steel will cover those aplications....

[asurendra]

19 hours ago, mitboy said:

Are there any builds where you need higher melting temp of cobalt or nickel compared to aluminium, but at the point of where you still don't have access to tungsten or niobium though?

I once used corner tempshift plate trick to heat water on frozen forest with magma biome. Aluminum isnt safe here while cobalt works good. And luckily Metallic swampy TP planetoid is frozen forest indeed. 

[Tranoze]

On 7/4/2025 at 9:20 PM, mitboy said:

Cinnabar - Melts into mercury (mercury is niche so it kinda makes this one worse of a metal even)

I kinda like mecury a lot. It make a good liquid lock early game. It make a good fish tank where you can control temperature easily. It is the only metal you can make strength gym out of at room temperature because auto sweeper can deliver it as it is still a liquid metal.
My fish tank:

My mini strength gym inside rocket:

[blakemw]

On 7/4/2025 at 4:20 PM, mitboy said:

Or are they basically just a recolour for Garden biome? 

I was actually wondering why Nickel and Shale even exist, just shows I don't think in terms of aesthetics like at all lol.

Anyway I mostly use Copper, Cobalt and Nickel for atmosuits and random refined metal purposes like wires.

[asurendra]

I use different metal ores for different power circuits. Its much easier to understand 

[6Havok9]

On 7/4/2025 at 4:20 PM, mitboy said:

Or maybe I am missing something and they have a use that can't easily be replicated with other metals? 

The obvious answer is True Tiles, when it will be updated