Where to get iron, stone and wooden parts
Logs and mushrooms are all around your first settlement; iron, stone and wooden parts are not. Iron ore comes mainly from traders on the world map, stone from a mine that only appears once dynamite clears the rocks in Dust Creek, and wooden parts from the Carpenter’s Workshop, a Level II idea.
Where each one comes from
| Material | Where it comes from | Unlock or catch |
|---|---|---|
| Iron ore | Traders you discover on the world map. | Trading has to be opened once from the world map; after that a scale icon on the left of the screen lets you trade from anywhere. A player reports dynamite turning up some iron at home. |
| Stone | A stone mine in Dust Creek. | The mine spot is hidden under rocks you have to blow up with dynamite first. |
| Wooden parts | The Carpenter’s Workshop. | A Level II idea, so it waits until the Ideas tree reaches its second tier. |
| Cattle | A cattle ranch working with a cattle barn. | The ranch is its own idea, pens are added by clicking the ranch, and it must sit in the barn’s range. |
| Gold ore | River panning in Dust Creek at first, then a gold vein in Sand Storm. | The debt quest sends you there; gold and the debt has the details. |
Iron: buy it from traders
Iron trips people up because the canning facility needs it and canned food is what your scouts carry. A player who went looking for iron on the first map came up empty, and the publisher’s answer was trade: “You can get the iron ore from the Traders that you discover in the World Map. Once you start trading, then the scale icon becomes visible on the left side of the screen regardless of where you are and you can trade from there”. (Said by the publisher in Canning facility thread (Steam Community))
An order works like the manifest above: pick the goods and set the amount with the slider, and the manifest shows what you will pay and how long delivery takes. Budget for the wait as well as the cash. Another player in the same thread found iron at home too: “Blasting the medium-sized rocks with dynamite on the capital city map also reveals iron.” (Posted in Canning facility thread (Steam Community)) Scout supplies are covered on scouts and expeditions.
Stone: dynamite first
Nothing on the map shows a stone deposit at the start, which sent one player off looking for a third settlement to build a quarry in. The answer from an official forum account: “in Dust Creek there are stones you can blow up with dynamite. Once they're gone, a spot for a stone mine appears there.” (Posted in Pinned thread: How to settle a 3rd settlement? (Steam Community)) A player gave the same advice in a separate thread. (Posted in Stone Mines? thread (Steam Community))
Dynamite comes from its own workshop, and a big rock can take more than one: in a pre-launch build a large rock asked for 3, and the warning said to make more with saltpeter at the dynamite workshop. (Shown, in Spanish, in Fundamos nuestro segundo asentamiento, Wild West Pioneers #4 (Entre Gameplays, YouTube)) The same idea runs through Sand Storm, where the debt objective in the launch build is to find a gold vein under the rocks.
Wooden parts and cattle
Neither appears in the build menu until you unlock it. For wooden parts the publisher’s answer was one line: “The Carpenter's Workshop, it's a Level II Idea unlock”. (Said by the publisher in Wooden Parts thread (Steam Community)) Cows trip people up because the barn does nothing on its own: “once it's built you have to click on it to add the cattle pens, similar to adding the potato fields. The ranch needs to be in range of the barn.” (Said by the publisher in How to build a cattle ranch? (Steam Community)) The same rule applies to anything missing from your build list, the Scouts’ Cabin included: “You have to unlock it first in the ideas tab and it will then be added to your buildables”. (Said by the publisher in Scout cabin? thread (Steam Community)) What each idea costs is on journey points and ideas.
There is no third settlement yet
Everything above has to come from two places. “Right now Early Access has 2 settlements, Dust Creek and Sand Storm”, and the maps are the same for everyone. (Posted in Pinned thread: How to settle a 3rd settlement? (Steam Community)) A settler sent out to found a third town will not find a spot, so plan the stone mine and the dynamite for Dust Creek rather than hoping for a better map further out.
Related: food chains for the production lines that feed your town, Moonshine Scandal if you are running stills, and crashes and bugs if a workshop stops producing.