Copper Ingots are one of the earliest and most important refined materials in Windrose. You cannot find them lying around the world — they must be smelted from raw Copper Ore using Charcoal as fuel. The game's tutorial quest, "Islander," walks you through the process, but the recipe and workstation requirements are easy to forget once you're exploring on your own.
Quick answer: Smelt 6 Copper Ore and 1 Charcoal in a Smelting Furnace to produce 1 Copper Ingot. You'll need a Stone Pickaxe to mine ore and a Charcoal Kiln to make fuel first.
Craft a Stone Pickaxe
Before you can harvest any Copper Ore, you need a Stone Pickaxe. Build a workbench first (costs 5 Wood), then craft the pickaxe itself.
| Item | Materials |
|---|---|
| Workbench | 5 Wood |
| Stone Pickaxe | 3 Wood, 3 Stone |
With the pickaxe equipped, you're ready to head underground.
Where to find Copper Ore
Copper Ore deposits appear inside caves and rocky areas on the islands. When you get close enough, a pickaxe icon marks mineable spots on your map. Head inside a cave and look for stone walls with a bluish-white tint — strike them with your Stone Pickaxe, and Copper Ore will drop into your inventory.
Mine more than you think you need. A single Copper Ingot costs six ore, and you'll burn through ingots quickly once you start building weapons and crafting stations. Gathering a large batch in one trip saves repeated runs back to the cave.
Build a Charcoal Kiln
Smelting requires Charcoal as fuel, and Charcoal comes from a dedicated workstation called the Charcoal Kiln. The construction cost is relatively steep on Clay, so gather that material before you start building.
| Workstation | Materials |
|---|---|
| Charcoal Kiln | 25 Wood, 20 Clay |
Once the Kiln is placed, feed Wood into it at a 1-to-1 conversion rate — every piece of Wood becomes one Charcoal. Since you likely have a large stockpile of Wood by this point in the game, producing Charcoal in bulk is straightforward. The Kiln also produces Ash as a byproduct.
Build a Smelting Furnace
The Smelting Furnace is the final workstation in the chain. It turns raw Copper Ore into usable Copper Ingots.
| Workstation | Materials |
|---|---|
| Smelting Furnace | 30 Stone, 15 Clay |
Place the furnace at your base camp. It does not require a roof to function, unlike some other crafting stations in Windrose.
Smelting Copper Ore into Copper Ingots
Step 1: Interact with the Smelting Furnace and load Copper Ore and Charcoal into it. The exact ratio is 6 Copper Ore + 1 Charcoal = 1 Copper Ingot.
Step 2: Wait a few seconds for the furnace to finish processing. The Copper Ingot will appear in the furnace's output slot, ready to collect.
You'll know it worked when the ingot icon appears in the output, and your ore count drops accordingly. If nothing happens, double-check that you have both Charcoal and enough Copper Ore loaded — the furnace won't start without both ingredients present.
What Copper Ingots are used for
Copper Ingots feed into a wide range of early- and mid-game recipes. The "Islander" tutorial alone requires you to smelt at least two ingots, but real demand ramps up fast once you unlock additional crafting stations.
| Recipe / Use | Copper Ingots Required | Other Materials |
|---|---|---|
| Weaponsmith Workbench | 5 | 10 Wood |
| Club | 5 | 10 Wood |
| Rapier | 7 | 2 Rough Hide |
| Saber | 7 | 2 Rough Hide |
| Fast Travel Bell | Varies | Crafted at workbench |
| "I Need a Bigger Boat" quest | Multiple | Additional ship materials |
The Weaponsmith Workbench is especially important because it unlocks your first real melee weapons — the Club, Rapier, and Saber — all of which require Copper Ingots. The workbench itself also needs a roof or a Stick Foundation placed over it before it will function.
Beyond weapons, Copper Ingots are used for structural components, the Copper Pickaxe upgrade, Copper Bullets, and various quest objectives. Stockpiling early prevents bottlenecks later when multiple recipes compete for the same material.
Full resource chain at a glance
| Stage | Input | Output | Station |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining | Copper Ore nodes | Copper Ore | Stone Pickaxe |
| Charcoal production | 1 Wood | 1 Charcoal | Charcoal Kiln |
| Smelting | 6 Copper Ore + 1 Charcoal | 1 Copper Ingot | Smelting Furnace |
Copper Ingots sit at the center of nearly every meaningful upgrade in the early hours of Windrose. Getting the production pipeline running — pickaxe, kiln, furnace — should be your top priority after setting up camp. Once all three stations are in place, converting ore to ingots takes only seconds, and you can focus on exploring caves, fighting pirates, and building toward your first real ship.