How to get Steel in RimWorld

Steel is a material required to make various objects in RimWorld, so you must gather a lot of it to survive. Luckily, getting Steel is not hard, and there are quite a few methods that you can employ to get Steel in RimWorld. The following are some of the best methods players can employ to get their hands on Steel and use it to make items such as crafting stations, turrets, and armor. 

How to mine Steel in RimWorld

The first method for getting Steel is to mine it from ore deposits you can find in hills or mountains. You can find these ore deposits in the form of Compacted Steel deposits, as shown below. To mine Steel from Compacted Steel Deposits, you must highlight the Steel deposit using the Mining order. That said, you can use the Mining order by first clicking the Orders option on the left side of your screen. 

Under Orders, select Mining, then highlight the Compacted Steel Deposit. However, doing all this won't be enough, as you must assign one of your colonists to Mining. Luckily you can assign a colonist to Mining by opening the Work menu tab. Under the Work tab, we recommend assigning any colonists that have skills in Mining by checking Mine under the Work Priority list. Once you have colonists assigned to Mining, they will start mining the Steel deposit. But to make your Miner colonists mine quicker, we recommend setting the Work Priority to 1. 

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How to change Work Priority in RimWorld

To change work priority in RimWorld, you must turn on Manual Priority inside the Work tab. As shown below, you can turn on Manual Priority by clicking the X symbol next to Manual Priority. Clicking the X symbol will change the X into a checkmark and will turn on Manual Priority. 

When Manual Priority is on, you can change work priorities by clicking the number under a type of work. For example, in our image above, you can see there is a number 1 under Mine. The number 1 symbolizes when a work type is set to top priority, so if you want your works to mine first in Rim World, you must set Work Priority for mining to 1. 

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Other methods for getting Steel in RimWorld

Beyond Mining Steel Deposits, you can get Steel from trading with bulk resource Traders when they pass by your Colony in caravans. You can also trade with other factions to get Steel if you send caravans to their settlements. Another excellent method for getting Steel is deconstructing Steel ruins that can spawn in your starting region. For example, in the image below, we have a ruined Steel wall that we can use the Deconstruct order on to dismantle the wall to get Steel.

The Deconstruct order can also be used to get Steel from Steel Chunks that fall from the sky during events. You can use the Deconstruct order under the Order options tab if you want to dismantle Steel Chunks or Ruins. Another option is to click on a Steel Chunk or Ruin and manually select it to be deconstructed. However, selecting Steel Chunks this way will not highlight all other Chunks and Ruins near it, and you will need to manually mark each one to be deconstructed.

For more on RimWorld, we at Pro Game Guides have you covered with guides like Rimworld: Tips for New Players and How to Get Components in RimWorld.