Starbound
Starbound

Crafting Stations & Recipes — Starbound Guide

Grind the right way with Starbound crafting stations and recipes. This reference covers early game crafting essentials and advanced schematics.

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Crafting Stations & Recipes

Crafting is the backbone of survival and progression in Starbound. From basic tools to advanced weaponry and ship upgrades, nearly everything you need will pass through a crafting station. Understanding how to acquire and utilize these stations, along with their associated recipes, is crucial for any aspiring spacefarer.

Early Game Crafting: The Essentials

Your journey begins with fundamental crafting stations that will serve you well through the initial quests and planetary explorations.

  • Crafting Table: This is your very first crafting station, accessible directly from your inventory (press 'C'). It allows you to craft basic tools, weapons, and the components for more advanced stations.
    • Key Early Recipes:
      • Stone Axe: Requires 10x Stone, 5x Wood. Essential for faster wood gathering.
      • Stone Pickaxe: Requires 10x Stone, 5x Wood. Crucial for mining ores and stone.
      • Wooden Door: Requires 6x Wood. For basic shelter.
      • Wooden Platform: Requires 1x Wood. For vertical movement and building.
  • Wooden Workbench: Your first dedicated crafting station.
    • Acquisition: Craftable at your Crafting Table using 10x Wood.
    • Purpose: Unlocks a wider range of basic items, including more advanced tools, furniture, and components for your first furnace.
    • Key Recipes:
      • Wooden Chest: Requires 15x Wood. Provides much-needed storage.
      • Campfire: Requires 3x Wood. Essential for cooking raw food to improve its hunger restoration and remove negative effects.
      • Stone Furnace: Requires 20x Stone, 10x Wood. This is your next critical step.

Smelting & Metalworking: The Stone Furnace

The Stone Furnace is your gateway to metalworking, allowing you to smelt raw ores into usable bars. These bars are vital for crafting stronger tools, armor, and weapons.

  • Acquisition: Craftable at the Wooden Workbench using 20x Stone and 10x Wood.
  • Operation: Place raw ores (like Copper Ore, Iron Ore) and a fuel source (such as Coal or Wood) into the furnace's inventory. The furnace will automatically begin smelting.
  • Key Recipes (Smelting):

Advanced Crafting Stations

As you progress, you'll discover and craft more specialized stations, each opening up new tiers of items and capabilities.

  • Anvil: Your primary station for crafting metal tools, weapons, and armor.
    • Acquisition: Craftable at the Wooden Workbench using 20x Iron Bar.
    • Purpose: Utilizes metal bars to forge stronger equipment. This is where you'll craft your first set of metal armor and upgraded pickaxes.
    • Key Recipes (Early Anvil):
      • Copper Pickaxe: Requires 8x Copper Bar, 3x Wood. Significantly faster than stone.
      • Iron Broadsword: Requires 10x Iron Bar, 5x Wood. A solid early-game weapon.
      • Iron Armor Set: Various Iron Bar and Fabric requirements for head, chest, and leg pieces.
  • Spinning Wheel: Essential for processing plant fibers into usable fabric.
    • Acquisition: Craftable at the Wooden Workbench using 15x Wood, 5x Plant Fibre.
    • Purpose: Converts Plant Fibre (found by harvesting plants) into Fabric, which is used in many armor and decorative recipes.
    • Key Recipes:
  • Basic Chemistry Lab: For crafting potions, medical supplies, and some unique materials.
    • Acquisition: Craftable at the Anvil using 10x Glass, 10x Silver Bar, 5x Copper Bar.
    • Purpose: Unlocks a range of consumables that can provide buffs, healing, or other beneficial effects.
    • Key Recipes:

Unlocking New Recipes

Recipes in Starbound are primarily unlocked through several methods:

  1. Crafting Station Placement: Simply placing a new crafting station will often reveal a host of new recipes in its interface.
  2. Material Discovery: Picking up a new material for the first time (e.g., a new ore, plant, or monster drop) can automatically unlock recipes that utilize that material.
  3. Scanning Objects: Using your Matter Manipulator's scan mode on various objects in the environment (furniture, machinery, unique structures) can sometimes yield new recipes.
  4. Quest Rewards: Completing certain quests, particularly those from the Outpost or your ship's AI, will often grant new crafting schematics.
  5. Buying Schematics: Merchants at the Outpost or in various settlements may sell crafting schematics for pixels.

Always keep an eye out for new materials and scan everything you encounter! Your crafting potential is directly tied to your exploration and resourcefulness.