Ore Properties
Hardness, Density, Energy, Reactivity and Combustion. Each one decides something different about whatever you make from the ore.
The same ore can make a great battery and a terrible plate. Whatever you make keeps the properties of the ore it came from, so a drill is as good as its bar and a battery holds what its ingot can. Sorting what you dig into piles is the real game here.
| Property | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Hardness | Anvil strikes per stage, Drill power, melee damage, Metal Duct speed (7 to 14), Wind Rotor output |
| Density | Insulated Suit protection (30% to 90%). A Containment Shell needs 85+. |
| Energy | Fuel Rod burn time and output, drill power, weapon damage, thruster push. A Warp Coil needs 80+. |
| Reactivity | How much Wire a bar draws (2 to 14), Battery capacity, Solar Panel output. A Coolant Jacket needs 80+. |
| Combustion | How long and hard it burns as fuel, how many plates an ingot gives, Ember Torch brightness. An Ignition Charge needs 85+. |
Fuel or metal?
Combustion splits ores in two. At 55 or more, an ore is fuel: it smelts to Coal and is no use on an anvil. Below that it's a metal, and the lower its Combustion the better it casts:
| Combustion | Plates per ingot | The game calls it |
|---|---|---|
| Very low | 5 | Inert: the best plate there is, and no use as fuel |
| Low | 4 | Steady: good plate, poor fuel |
| Middling | 3 | Lively: middling either way |
| High | 2 | Volatile: burns hard, casts badly |
Hover an ore in-game and its tooltip sums it up in words: "burns hot", "conducts well", "barely conducts" and so on.