Discussion: What is your first tool? :)

[DarkLadyPhoenix 62]

Actually, hammer is usually my next tool. Start with chisel of course, but not for any burning need for a bloomery but for creeper resistant blocks to build my workspace out of. After losing my anvil twice to a creeper in the earlier days, I go for those blocks first.

[X-Heiko 11]

definitely only you. Metal hammers are only useful to make the next stage of anvil, or swords. (and if you can find one of the minerals that crafts directly to flux, you don't even need it)

Am I getting something wrong? I've never found borax before, but often enough, a rock layer that provided me with enough flux for a lifetime, provided I had a metal hammer. Why should I look for borax everywhere if I can just make a tin hammer and build that anvil?

[psychotimo 5]

Am I getting something wrong? I've never found borax before, but often enough, a rock layer that provided me with enough flux for a lifetime, provided I had a metal hammer. Why should I look for borax everywhere if I can just make a tin hammer and build that anvil?

well i never found borax either but i'm still not making a hammer as my first tool

if you already have your chisel, pick and propick you can go mining,dump the ore you get into the bloomery and then make a hammer, making a hammer first sounds quite useless to me since you'll need a pickaxe and propick to get sufficient ores anyway , and you'll need to start out with tier one tools anyway since you'll need to make a hammer in a tier 1 material to make flux (if you don't have any of the minerals that craft directly into flux which is only borax right now and borax needs to be mined) to make a better anvil which you can then use to form the tier 2 metals. just think about how much time it'll take to gather up all the ores for the anvil, 14 ingots are needed to make an anvil and you'll need about 16 (?) small ores to make 1 ingot so that would be 224 small ores to make 1 anvil and then you'll need another 16 to make your first tool. and after you gathered them... don't forget the crapload of time it'll take to melt them all in a firepit since you don't have a chisel yet.

as opposed to finding 16 small ores to make a pick and then, if you don't have any surface ore, another 16 for a propick and for some peeps another 16 small ones for a chisel so in most cases you'd need 32-48 small ores to be able to make your bloomery and/or start mining to gather more ores.

meaning that if you find a decent deposit of copper you'll spend a lot less time to get a hammer and an anvil to start using tier 2 materials.

i really just can't see a decent reason why anyone would choose to make a hammer first.

[Carthang 11]

I've only played one map so far, in which I made a pickaxe first. This was due to a clearly visible copper vein about 40 blocks from my house. Next tool was a chisel so that I could make a bloomery. With the hammer as the third one to get flux and get the copper anvil in place.

The next time, I will probably get the chisel first, then a pick and a propick. When I first started out, I had absolutely no idea how the propick worked, or that it even existed. Next time I will get it sooner than I did this time around.

[X-Heiko 11]

Hehe, I think nobody will argue with the pickaxe if you have a clearly visible copper vein