Tinkers’ Construct Materials & Alloys Guide

Tinkers' Construct turns every tool and weapon into a set of swappable parts, and the material each part is cast from decides how that part performs. A Pickaxe head made of Cobalt mines faster and lasts longer than one made of Iron, and every material carries a passive trait on top of its raw numbers.

The rare materials, Steel, Cobalt, Manyullyn, Hepatizon, and the slime alloys, are the payoff for building a full Smeltery and pushing into the Nether. Each one is either mined, dropped by a mob, or alloyed from molten metals poured together at the right temperature.

The Smeltery is the gateway to all of it. Once molten metals can be poured together, alloys like Bronze and Manyullyn become available, and the only real limits are the ores gathered and the fuel keeping the tank hot enough to combine them.

How Materials and Alloys Work

Every tool part in Tinkers' Construct is cast from a single material, and that material sets four core head numbers: durability, mining level, mining speed, and attack. Two identical Pickaxes made from different metals can have wildly different lifespans and speeds, which is the whole point of the system.

On top of the raw numbers, each material grants a trait. Traits are passive abilities baked into the part, such as Manyullyn ramping up damage during a fight or Bronze mining faster while its durability stays high. Mixing materials across the head, handle, and binding lets a single tool stack several traits at once.

Reading Mining Levels

Mining level controls what a tool head is allowed to break, and it follows the vanilla tier ladder. A Diamond level head mines Obsidian and Ancient Debris, while a Netherite level head breaks everything in the game. A Gold level head, like Rose Gold, is fast but cannot mine Obsidian or Diamond Ore at all.

Mining speed is separate from mining level. Rose Gold has the highest mining speed of any base material yet the lowest mining level, so it rips through soft blocks but stalls completely on hard ones. Hepatizon is the sweet spot for hard mining, pairing a Netherite level with the fastest speed among the top metals.

Alloying in the Smeltery

Alloys are made by melting two or more metals into the Smeltery at the same time. When the correct fluids are present together and the tank is hot enough, they automatically combine into the alloy. The heat comes from the fuel, and each alloy has a minimum temperature it will not form below.

Solid fuel like Coal burns at 800 degrees, Lava reaches 1000 degrees, and Blazing Blood burns hottest at 1500 degrees. Bronze and Rose Gold form on Coal alone, most mid alloys need Lava, and the strongest metals, Manyullyn, Hepatizon, and Queen's Slime, only combine once Blazing Blood is fueling the tank.

Getting Started: Building Toward Alloys

No alloys are possible until a Smeltery exists, so the first goal in any Tinkers' world is turning Clay, Sand, and Gravel into the multiblock forge. Combining those three in a Crafting Table makes Grout, and smelting Grout in a Furnace produces Seared Brick, the backbone of every Smeltery block.

The early Melter handles basic melting, but real alloying wants a full Smeltery: a Controller, a Seared Tank for fuel, a Seared Drain, and a Faucet feeding a Casting Table and Casting Basin. Two Buckets of Lava in the tank light the forge and unlock every mid tier alloy.

How to Alloy a Metal

Once the Smeltery is lit, alloying follows the same loop every time. The steps below turn raw ores into finished alloy ingots ready for the Casting Table.

Drop the component ores or ingots into the Smeltery and let them melt into fluid. Bronze needs molten Copper and Tin, while Manyullyn needs molten Cobalt and Netherite Scrap sitting in the tank together.

Fuel the tank to the alloy's heat requirement. Low alloys form on Coal or Lava, but anything above 1000 degrees needs Blazing Blood in the fuel tank before the metals will combine.

When both fluids and the correct heat are present, the Smeltery merges them into the alloy on its own. The recipe uses fixed ratios, so keeping inputs balanced avoids leftover molten metal cluttering the tank.

Drain the finished alloy through a Faucet onto a Casting Table holding an Ingot Cast, or pour it straight onto a part cast to skip the ingot entirely. Cooling takes a moment, then the part is ready for the Tinker Station.

Steel

Steel is one of the most searched materials because it is not an alloy and there is no Steel Ore to mine. In this version of Tinkers' Construct there are two dependable routes to it: melting Iron in the Smeltery, which drips out molten Steel as a free byproduct, and killing the metal Sky Slimes that bounce around the floating Slime Islands. What throws players off is the missing alloy recipe, since no combination of two metals ever produces Steel in the tank.

How to Get Steel

The simplest and most scalable route never leaves the Smeltery. Melting Raw Iron or Iron Ore produces molten Iron plus an equal amount of molten Steel as a byproduct, so a single Iron Ore block yields two ingots of each. Anyone who routes their Iron through the Smeltery ends up with a stockpile of Steel almost by accident, no slime hunting required.

The other route is the Sky Slimes. A share of them spawn as metal variants, and it is these that drop Steel Shards when killed, up to two shards each with Looting adding more. They bounce around the floating Slime Islands alongside the regular Sky Slimes, and Steel Shards also turn up occasionally inside Sky Slime and Earthslime geodes, though those deposits do not regrow.

Smelting or blasting Steel Shards in a Furnace turns them into Steel Nuggets, and nine nuggets craft into a single Steel Ingot. From there, melting Steel Ingots in the Smeltery gives molten Steel for casting tool parts directly, the same as any other metal.

Steel Ingot

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Any Steel from other mods works interchangeably here. Molten Steel or Steel Ingots produced by industrial and tech mods pour into the same casts and make identical parts, so a modpack often has a faster Steel route than farming Sky Slimes by hand.

Steel is a clean, well rounded upgrade with the Ductile trait, which makes the whole tool longer lasting, harder hitting, and tougher at once. It will not out mine Cobalt or out damage Manyullyn, but it needs no Nether trip and gives strong armor plating with high durability and toughness.

Cobalt

Cobalt is the signature Tinkers' ore of the Nether and the base for the strongest alloys in the mod. It spawns as a bright blue ore scattered through the Nether, and unlike the old versions of Tinkers', there is no Ardite to hunt alongside it anymore.

How to Mine Cobalt

Cobalt Ore generates throughout the Nether in two forms. Small veins appear at any height, five clusters per chunk, while larger, denser veins concentrate between Y8 and Y32, three per chunk. Mining toward the Nether floor turns up the biggest deposits fastest.

Breaking the ore with a Pickaxe drops Raw Cobalt, which can be melted or smelted into a Cobalt Ingot. The efficient route is dropping the whole ore block into the Smeltery, since melting Cobalt Ore yields two ingots of molten Cobalt plus a small amount of molten Diamond as a bonus.

Cobalt's Lightweight trait makes tools attack, mine, and fire projectiles faster, and its armor version adds Melee Protection against direct hits. On its own it is a solid Diamond level workhorse, but its real value is as the feedstock for Manyullyn, Hepatizon, and Queen's Slime.

Manyullyn and Blazing Blood

Manyullyn is the classic endgame metal, and reaching it means first solving the heat problem. Its recipe runs at 1200 degrees, far past what Lava can provide, so a supply of Blazing Blood has to be running in the fuel tank before the alloy will form.

Making Blazing Blood

Blazing Blood is the Smeltery's hottest fuel, burning at 1500 degrees, and it is made by melting Blazes themselves inside the Smeltery, not by melting Blaze Rods (Blaze Rods are cast from Blazing Blood, not melted into it). Pouring that molten Blazing Blood into the Seared Tank replaces Lava as the fuel and unlocks every high temperature alloy in one step.

Blazing Blood is dangerous as a fluid. Standing in it or being struck by it deals fire damage, sets the target alight, and applies Glowing, so it is worth keeping the fuel tank sealed and away from the working area of the forge.

Alloying Manyullyn

Manyullyn combines three parts molten Cobalt with one part molten Netherite Scrap, producing four Manyullyn for every batch. The Scrap comes from melting Ancient Debris in the Smeltery, so a single Nether trip can supply both halves of the recipe at once.

Manyullyn has the highest attack of any base material and a Netherite mining level that breaks every block in the game. Its Insatiable trait raises damage further with each hit landed during a fight, making it the default choice for a dedicated weapon head.

The Copper Alloys: Bronze, Rose Gold, and Hepatizon

Copper is the busiest metal in the Smeltery, feeding three very different alloys. Two of them form on cheap fuel early on, while the third is a late game mining specialist that needs the same Blazing Blood as Manyullyn.

Bronze

Bronze combines three parts molten Copper with one part molten Tin, yielding four Bronze per batch at just 700 degrees, which Coal fuel can reach. Its Maintained trait makes tools mine faster while their durability stays high, rewarding regular repairs.

Bronze is a strong first alloy with a Diamond mining level, 760 head durability, and knockback resistance on its armor plating. The one catch is Tin, which is not a vanilla metal, so Bronze depends on another mod adding Tin Ore to the world.

Rose Gold

Rose Gold combines one part molten Copper with one part molten Gold, making two Rose Gold at a low 550 degrees. It has the highest mining speed in the mod at 9.0, but only a Gold mining level and a fragile 175 durability, so it shatters if used as a serious head.

The real draw of Rose Gold is its Enhanced trait, which adds a bonus upgrade slot to the tool. Players usually cast a single Rose Gold part, often a binding or an extra plate, purely to bank that free modifier slot rather than for combat.

Hepatizon

Hepatizon is the mining counterpart to Manyullyn, combining two parts molten Copper, one part molten Cobalt, and one part molten Nether Quartz into two Hepatizon. It runs at a scorching 1400 degrees, so Blazing Blood is mandatory before it will combine.

Hepatizon carries a Netherite mining level and the fastest mining speed of any top metal at 8.0, which makes it the best pure digging head in the mod. Its Momentum trait keeps building speed as long as mining or firing continues, so it never wants to stop moving.

Slime and Specialty Alloys

The slime alloys blend metal with slime to create tools that repair or protect themselves, and two of the strangest alloys use food and Amethyst instead of pure metal. These fill niches that the standard metals cannot reach.

Pig Iron

Pig Iron combines molten Iron with Meat Soup and Honey to make two Pig Iron at 811 degrees. Meat Soup is produced by melting food inside the Smeltery, which turns spare meat into a usable tool metal instead of wasting it.

Pig Iron is a Diamond level metal with a middling 580 durability, but its Tasty trait is the fun part. A hungry player can literally take bites out of the tool to restore hunger, making it a quirky survival pick for long expeditions.

Ichor

Ichor is a red slime harvested from Ichor Slime, and unlike the other materials it is only used for arrows. An Ichor arrow head carries the Rebound and Bounce traits, causing arrows to ricochet off blocks and grow more powerful with every bounce.

Because Ichor is limited to ammo, it never appears on a Pickaxe or Sword head. It is a trick shot specialist for bows and crossbows rather than a general purpose metal, so it sits apart from the main material ladder.

Material Traits at a Glance

Traits are what separate two materials that share a mining level, and knowing them decides which metal belongs on which part. Combat traits push damage, while utility traits handle mining, durability, and protection.

Combat Traits

Manyullyn's Insatiable ramps damage up as a fight drags on, rewarding players who commit to a target rather than trading hits. On armor, Manyullyn instead grants Kinetic, which raises damage each time the wearer is hit, turning incoming punishment into extra output.

Steel's Ductile boosts durability, damage, and toughness together for an all round profile, while Bronze's Maintained ties mining speed to staying near full durability. Cobalt's Lightweight speeds up every action, and it is one of the few traits that helps mining, melee, and ranged at the same time.

Utility and Slime Traits

Hepatizon's Momentum builds mining and firing speed the longer the action continues, pairing perfectly with its high base speed. The slime metals lean on Overslime, a bonus durability layer that absorbs wear before the tool itself takes damage, with Overcast, Overlord, and Overslime stacking that buffer even higher.

Rose Gold's Enhanced is the odd one out, granting a spare upgrade slot instead of a combat or mining bonus. Amethyst Bronze covers three roles at once, with Crumbling for off type mining, Crystalstrike on armor for attack speed, and Crystalbound on bows for extra projectile power.

Even the starter materials carry a trait worth knowing. Stone heads come with Stonebound, a classic Tinkers' Construct trait that speeds up mining as the tool wears down, trading a little attack damage for that extra pace. It is the mirror image of Bronze's Maintained, which instead rewards keeping a tool near full durability.

Best Material for the Job

There is no single best material, only the best material for a specific part and playstyle. The comparison below lines up the four strongest tool metals so their trade offs are easy to see side by side.

Best for Weapons and Mining

For a Sword or Cleaver, Manyullyn is the clear winner thanks to the highest attack in the mod and the Insatiable ramp. For a Pickaxe meant to tunnel through Obsidian and Ancient Debris, Hepatizon wins on raw speed, while Manyullyn is the pick if durability and combat matter more than digging pace.

Queen's Slime suits a tool that should never break, since its enormous durability and Overslime layer shrug off heavy use. Slimesteel is the budget self repairing option at a Diamond mining level, ideal before a full Nether excursion is realistic.

Best for Armor and Early Game

Early on, Bronze and Amethyst Bronze give a Diamond mining level long before the Nether is safe, and Steel offers strong armor plating from Sky Slime farming alone. Cobalt bridges into the late game, since it both performs well and feeds the strongest alloys once Blazing Blood is flowing.

Troubleshooting

Most alloy problems come down to heat or a missing input. A tank holding two molten metals that refuse to merge is almost always too cold, so upgrading the fuel from Coal to Lava, or Lava to Blazing Blood, fixes the majority of stuck alloys.

Common Problems

If Bronze will not form, the tank is likely missing Tin, which no vanilla ore provides. If Manyullyn or Hepatizon do nothing, the fuel is still Lava rather than Blazing Blood, and the tank cannot reach their 1200 and 1400 degree thresholds.

When Steel seems impossible, the fix is remembering it is not an alloy, so no recipe combines two metals into it. It still comes out of the Smeltery as a byproduct of melting Iron Ore, and it also arrives as Steel Shards from metal Sky Slimes or as Steel added by another mod. Searching the alloy list for a Steel recipe is the only thing that never turns anything up.

Ratios also matter, since pouring uneven amounts leaves orphaned molten metal behind. Melting inputs in the recipe proportions, such as three Cobalt for every one Netherite Scrap, keeps the tank clean and avoids wasting rare ingredients on partial batches.

Frequently Asked Questions