Dwarf Fortress Tier List: All Metals Ranked!

[@SSBURD]

@19:05, if you only want to hear the summary results!

[@voidseeker4394]

Fun fact: IRL rose gold is widely used to make jewelry nowadays. All that yellow-ish rings and earrings that we call gold, are in fact rose gold. Why dilute pure gold with copper? First reason is cost, of course. Second reason, gold is really, realy soft. Make a ring out of pure gold, and it will bend, get scratched, and wear out without real efford. Rose gold is a different story. It is almost as tough as bronze, while maintaining very high corrosion resistance. You can even make a tool out of it that would perform better than copper one (if you have enough gold, ofc), close to bronze one. Not sure, why it is not an option in the game. Imagine the flex - expedition leader shows up to work wielding rose gold pickaxe.

[@redchief94]

Im modding my game now.

[@johnokeefe7489]

Billon and electrum are profitable because tetrahedrite/galena can be used as the silver ore. Bismuth should be up with pig iron, with lead as the only garbage metal. Silver should also get credit for the fact that it makes excellent hammers and maces.

[@SSBURD]

Good notes! Thank you! I'm seeing this video continue to draw interest. Maybe I should revisit the tier lists and make some corrections...

[@kupazsokiem]

​ @SSBURD ya it's more specialized area of DF that no-one want to touch in tutorials because... "it depends" etc

[@BullMcCloud]

Huh and here I've just been sitting on a mountain of copper because I never considered using it for tools and furniture

[@SSBURD]

copper is a sleeper great in general!

[@303Thatoneguy]

Copper from what I’ve noticed sells the cheapest tho.

[@petergraphix6740]

Shift everything down one tier and put cotton candy and angel metals in S tier. Course steel still has to come up to S tier.

[@SSBURD]

Absolutely! Your comment is the official "spoilers included" answer.

[@sald4971]

I'll put angel metals to S tier over cady metal because Toady doesn't fix melting duplication. But candy is too good to turn everthing into a butter.

[@DavidHughey-xu2ce]

Actually over heard candy is also duplicate-able it’s just harder, either: make candy bolts and shoot them to split the stack, remelt. Or make coins, put a goblin in a blocked off area, and have the goblin start tantruming to keep the coin stacks in order to split them for remelting, goblin as they won’t die from age/thirst/starvation

[@natewoods4566]

Making a tier list video in GIMP is wild

[@SSBURD]

Thanks bruv, lol. Pleased you recognized GIMP! (There are literally dozens of us out there.)

[@RokkBeard]

@@SSBURD Gimp is great, but a legit tier website would have been better, and easier

[@voidseeker4394]

Afaik werewolves are vulnerable to one random metal depending on the world, that might or might not be silver. Also, you can't make platinum armor and weapons unless strange mood. And even if it appears, it is not that good. Blunt damage is highest, but swing time too high, resulting in DPS a bit lower than silver and steel.

[@SSBURD]

I meant to thank you for this info earlier! Very informative; I had no idea!

[@kupazsokiem]

how d u even calculate swing time ? ffs DF is mindblowing

[@oathkeeperofoblivion972]

​@@kupazsokiemI assume it has to do with weapon weight relative to strength of the creature

[@SWA81]

Copper, S tier? Oh boy OP. You're on the bath Salts.

[@SSBURD]

No?? Do tell!

[@SWA81]

@SSBU Replay Depository copper should be used as a last resort OR if you do not have any other of the main military metals. You could also use leather armor instead.

[@SWA81]

@@SSBURD I would put it in the A tier, but who am I to challenge the great malinko!

[@SSBURD]

@@SWA81 I need to learn more about leatherworks. I definitely underutilize on my maps.

[@SWA81]

@SSBU Replay Depository as far as I know, and I have put into practice; Leather hits with less mass, but dwarfs tire far less with it. Leather is also lighter, allowing for better blocking. BUT I enjoy pain, so I give my dwarfs metal shields because it is far more awesome 👌🏽 👏 👍🏽

[@Eurynomos326]

IRL, electrum is naturally occuring. It has been produced and used for coins because its a bit tougher than pure gold. In Dungeons and Dragons, and I suspect historically, electrum coins are somewhat useful as they sit between gold and silver in value. I suppose at some point DF will have an economy model where it'll make more sense to mint and trade coins, and electrum will perhaps become quite useful. I hope not though, I like my dwarves communist.

[@SSBURD]

That is awesome context info! And it makes sense, in societies where gold and silver are the primary ways to trading, that electrum would serve a distinct pursue due to intermediate value. Fascinating, thanks for the share!

[@Alldur]

It used to but they removed it. I don't know if there are any plans to re-implement it.

[@hendrikvanleeuwen9110]

Generally adding silver to coins was done to enable the government to mint more currency but the face value was meant to stay the same. Early method of quantitative easing.

[@guimaciel7457]

​@@Alldurthere is plans to add it back but it might never get implemented considering how much stuff they have planned to begin with

[@mnbgt101]

I kinda hope we get a world-based economy, where coins serve primarily as a means of tracking trade debts between civilizations. A bit like how metal currency was used historically

[@SWA81]

8:40 no platinum armor in 47.5, unless they made a huge change. Doesn't exclude artifacts armor.

[@SSBURD]

This makes sense. Thanks for the correction!

[@catscrath25alpha83]

In DF, blunt weapons are only effected by the weight of the material making heavy but soft metals like gold and lead actually perfect use cases for them.

[@coreyfro]

Electrum is great if you want lots of high value items but not SUPER high value items. It stretches gold.

[@SSBURD]

ah interesting! right, that makes sense!

[@coreyfro]

@@SSBURD also, because you can smelt it from ore, you can get more material from the same input

[@Rzynweg]

@@coreyfro Adding to those correct comments I would state that additional matal means additional posibility to increase dedicated furnitures/goods value by studding.

[@PerfectDeath4]

The number of times I've started a fort with the idea that I'll make a metallurgic super power and there's only Galena and Tetra... I got used to making everything out of copper, silver, and lead. xD Silver maces for everyone! Lead floor fall traps (fall dmg is calculated inversely, the floor "falls" to you) and non-moving items Copper containers.

[@SSBURD]

"When life gives you only heavy metals, make a pulping fortress!"

[@immulti2691]

you can't make platinum armor / weapons BUT you can via strange moods, this way you can get one of the best weapons if youre lucky: the platinum war hammer, i had one once, gave it to my champion and he proceeded to become the scariest dwarf in the fort, giving all his enemies severe brain damage after a single whack

[@SSBURD]

woo incredible. I do forget about those lucky "strange moods" that make something amazing.

[@mithranruwodoalvisbeseitri9811]

I honestly wish we could make black bronze armor, I mean the color is just nice even if the stats are bad, also.. whatever happened to "stuttered with gold" option?

[@SSBURD]

Did you use to be able to stud with gold in old versions? Interesting; I didn't know that!

[@mithranruwodoalvisbeseitri9811]

@@SSBURD yea, you could stud furniture with almost any metal, I remember doing that in 47.01 I think it was with rings or spikes of gems and bones ofc, maaaaany bones(usually those of Goblins or Elves I killed or Forgotten beasts)

[@john11i]

silver is S tier silver warhammers / maces.

[@SSBURD]

Fair point!

[@MisterUnlikely]

It should be noted that unlike silver (great for warhammers) and copper (good for basic versions of anything!), billon cannot be used in weapons.

[@SSBURD]

Thanks for this. I really need to do a redux version of this video

[@viktorkolaric4156]

Gold is great because it's valuable, and really abundant on lower levels. True it only has one real use, but it's really good at what it does.

[@SSBURD]

Very true! Yeah, just like in real life -- there's a value there that refuses to fade. In DF specifically, I do wish my traders could carry more weight away, because I often have more gold bars then they can actually transport!

[@viktorkolaric4156]

@@SSBURD Try turning it into crafts and encrusting with gems, it should make them exponentially more valuable, much more so than just selling gold bars.

[@SSBURD]

@@viktorkolaric4156 Ah very clever. Thanks!

[@Sercer25]

@@viktorkolaric4156is there a way to specifically target crafts and pick which gems to use? DF noob here.

[@viktorkolaric4156]

@@Sercer25 You can pick a gem and the way to use it(using magnifying glass next to the job, make sure you pause first because it dissappears once the job gets accepted), as for crafts, you can set up a special stockpile that only allows the craft you want, set it to pull from the stockpile where the craft currently is and set your workshop to only take items from that stockpile. Be careful you enable everything you need, sometimes you enable the craft but forget to enable quality so nothing happens.

[@SuperHansburger93]

I wonder if dwarves would become poisoned from using lead tools and armor :)

[@Nacalal]

I still think gold is A tier, just for the fact that minting gold coins is my goto strat for getting whatever I can't make locally from trading. If you aren't turning your pricey metals into coins (IE: platinum, gold, silver, etc) then you're missing out on a good chunk of wealth as it basically doubles the value.

[@SSBURD]

Is that right?? I didn't realize this re: the value increase for coinage. Cool, good to know!

[@MajSmerkol]

Black bronze is kinda shit - can only be used for building if i remember correctly.

[@SSBURD]

This is good info I didn't know! If I'd realized, I might have ranked it lower. Thanks for your comment!

[@iniudan]

But always good to have some bar around, if you are stuck with only access to copper, silver, and gold and no trade. As make better armor then copper, if one get inspired, so in a fortress with access to those metal, you want a lot of armorsmith in hope to at least getting some black bronze helm, greave, or breastplate.

[@nicholaswhitman4620]

Aluminum has the same value as Platinum. Don't waste your aluminum on barrels and wheelbarrows. That's statue/ chest/ cabinet/ throne/ coffin metal right there.

[@youtubeletmeintoyoutube4580]

@18:19😂

[@SWA81]

(ROLLING TOUNGE) BLAHBLAHBALHBLAH

[@Torriotorres]

You rushed this list. I was expecting to have specifications for each. You were vauge.

[@SSBURD]

Sorry I'm amateur lol. Original name for this whole series was "Dwarf Fortress Explained Poorly"