Iron ore

[The Dark Lord]

Why not incorporate iron and some iron tools and weapons into the game like hamlet? It should make the game have more variety but only on some geodes. 

[Radicaljoe]

I feel like that's what scrap was supposed to be, but klei never went anywhere with it.

[Cheggf]

Hamlet does not have iron tools and weapons. It has new items that do new things that are made with iron. Shears are for using on multiple items, none of which are in DST. Ball pein hammer is for things not in DST. Gold pan is for things not in DST. Magnifying glass is for things not in DST. Disarming tools are for things not in DST.

Of all the things made of iron, the only ones comparable to existing items are all only good in Hamlet because it's harder to get resources there. They're not good in Reign of Giants. Cork candle hat is essentially just a really bad mining helmet. The halberd is essentially a flint axe that's slightly stronger than a spear instead of slightly weaker (44 damage, comparable to bat bat's 43). The fancy helmet and tin suit are essentially football helmets and log suits with more durability that slow you down.

DST is way closer to the "new tier of items" thing with the rift items such as the brightshade shoevel, brightshade smasher, shadow reaper, and shadow maul. 

[ZeRoboButler]

If for some reason we could refine gears and scrap into a new material that is iron adjacent, It would be cool to have new tools using said material. 

In-game the only reason we have the Nauto-pilot and the beacon are because of Wilson's experiments, I would not be shocked if at some point more items were added to the game in a similar fashion. In this case it would be amusing to make some sort of device or furnace based off Winona's designs and Wx's influence or style, like a place to craft more Wagstaff-esc Items or more likely items that require scrap, doo-dads or anything associated with machinery. 

also, I went back a played a bit of hamlet recently while waiting for the next beta patch and wow, DS really shows it's age when you play hamlet. Both from the bugs and areas where stuff feels like its missing or incomplete.

A lot of stuff was neat but it was clearly something of a testing ground for future more developed ideas and implementations. 

[Cheggf]

3 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

If for some reason we could refine gears and scrap into a new material that is iron adjacent, It would be cool to have new tools using said material. 

In-game the only reason we have the Nauto-pilot and the beacon are because of Wilson's experiments, I would not be shocked if at some point more items were added to the game in a similar fashion. In this case it would be amusing to make some sort of device or furnace based off Winona's designs and Wx's influence or style, like a place to craft more Wagstaff-esc Items or more likely items that require scrap, doo-dads or anything associated with machinery. 

also, I went back a played a bit of hamlet recently while waiting for the next beta patch and wow, DS really shows it's age when you play hamlet. Both from the bugs and areas where stuff feels like its missing or incomplete.

A lot of stuff was neat but it was clearly something of a testing ground for future more developed ideas and implementations. 

I think they accidentally gave Hamlet away, said it was on purpose, then cancelled development of it because it wasn't profitable due to giving it away to every single person. It's clearly unfinished.

[JazzyGames]

3 hours ago, Cheggf said:

I think they accidentally gave Hamlet away, said it was on purpose, then cancelled development of it because it wasn't profitable due to giving it away to every single person. It's clearly unfinished.

My impression was that they never intended to monetize on Hamlet. The sense from the devs was that it was a labor of love that they had been wanting to make for a while.

I do wonder sometimes if that attitude was in any way detrimental to their incentive to continue developing, but honestly at that point I got the sense that they were ready to transition away from DS development. At least we got a few nice updates with Aporkalypse/new characters/Ancient Hulk.

[user1464576869]

This isn't the same subject that OP posted but vaguely related; It has always irked me that everything that seems like it should be iron turns into rocks when hammered or is crafted out of rocks. From strictly an aesthetic viewpoint that is, I guess.

I can't vouch for any action on that, seems like it would be terrible for gameplay if we had another item that does nothing but act as an intermediate crafting step, again. Maybe I just have to reframe it in my mind? Maybe you could interpret rocks as being ore anyway, and somehow iron is being squeezed out of them when crafting those.. plate metal structures etc. And.. somehow it turns back into ore when uncrafted..?

[Swiyss]

It definitely feels really bad to go from a literal meat stick that packs a punch to a God-like lunar energy infused biological sword that does a little bit more damage.

DST characters didn't even have the opportunity to play with metal alloys until they were twisting the fabric of physics themselves.

[Cheggf]

5 hours ago, user1464576869 said:

This isn't the same subject that OP posted but vaguely related; It has always irked me that everything that seems like it should be iron turns into rocks when hammered or is crafted out of rocks. From strictly an aesthetic viewpoint that is, I guess.

I can't vouch for any action on that, seems like it would be terrible for gameplay if we had another item that does nothing but act as an intermediate crafting step, again. Maybe I just have to reframe it in my mind? Maybe you could interpret rocks as being ore anyway, and somehow iron is being squeezed out of them when crafting those.. plate metal structures etc. And.. somehow it turns back into ore when uncrafted..?

The only metal recipes that use rocks also use gold. Frankly rocks combining with gold to turn into metal is one of the least ridiculous recipes. If you take a pile of four gears, a pelt of fur, and a single diode, you somehow make this 

If you take those gears and instead combine them with a horn and 10 feathers, you somehow get this

All of the electrical components that WX makes are just combining pieces of paper (that manifest out of nothing) with something like a gland or a fang. And that's not even getting into the crockpot or the intentionally ridiculous recipes.

[user1464576869]

12 hours ago, Cheggf said:

The only metal recipes that use rocks also use gold. Frankly rocks combining with gold to turn into metal is one of the least ridiculous recipes. If you take a pile of four gears, a pelt of fur, and a single diode, you somehow make this 

If you take those gears and instead combine them with a horn and 10 feathers, you somehow get this

All of the electrical components that WX makes are just combining pieces of paper (that manifest out of nothing) with something like a gland or a fang. And that's not even getting into the crockpot or the intentionally ridiculous recipes.

Pfft. I see the pelt, I see the horn. I think those make more sense yet. Meanwhile rocks and cut rocks imply by themselves to be a basic material foundation, dead structural matter- which all gold electronics and gears is put into. Yet the shell appear as metal. I think that implication brings more attention to itself.

[Cheggf]

3 minutes ago, user1464576869 said:

Pfft. I see the pelt, I see the horn. I think those make more sense yet.

Where are the feathers in the weather vain? They just disappear completely. Where did the metal come from? Where did the entire body of the insulated pack come from? Why do you think turning rocks & gold into metal is weird but manifesting metal out of literally nothing isn't? 

[user1464576869]

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

Where are the feathers in the weather vain? They just disappear completely. Where did the metal come from? Where did the entire body of the insulated pack come from? Why do you think turning rocks & gold into metal is weird but manifesting metal out of literally nothing isn't? 

I don't know what to tell you, it's easier to assume the gears are the stray metal bits, the feathers charged the tool like static electricity or just has something to do with the projectiles rather than the tool itself, the insulated pack's body is mostly the pelt, clearly.

Even if you can't think of the doodads and gears as the contributing factor towards the metal bits I just don't find tiny "metal bandages" like nails and such as prominent to things' design as how Rocks implied to be vital for structural integrity to house all functional electronics as irksome when the structural housing then ends up being made out of plated iron. And I have no issue with minute detail bandages magically appearing from nothing as such, yes.

It's no big deal, I just think it brings a lot more attention to itself through it's implied purpose.

Edited April 2 by user1464576869

[Captain_Rage]

On 4/1/2026 at 1:36 AM, Radicaljoe said:

I feel like that's what scrap was supposed to be, but klei never went anywhere with it.

Ironic.