Conan Exiles Survival Guide: How to Make Steel

There will come a point in Conan Exiles when iron gear will no longer be enough.

Steel weapons hit harder, gather resources faster, and reinforcements unlock much stronger base builds. The gameplay truly evolves once you start producing steel regularly.

The catch, however, is that the game doesn’t explain the process clearly. You need multiple crafting stations, several resources, and one strange material called Steelfire before you can even smelt your first Steel Bar.

What You Need to Make Steel

Before crafting steel, gather these materials and stations:

• Requirement: Furnace
  Purpose: Smelts Steel Bars
• Requirement: Firebowl Cauldron
  Purpose: Crafts Steelfire
• Requirement: Iron Bars
  Purpose: Main steel ingredient
• Requirement: Tar
  Purpose: Used for Steelfire
• Requirement: Brimstone
  Purpose: Used for Steelfire
• Requirement: Fuel (Wood/Coal)
  Purpose: Powers the furnace

According to the in-game crafting chain, Steel Bars are made by combining Iron Bars and Steelfire inside a Furnace.

Step 1: Make Iron Bars

First, mine Ironstone from iron nodes around the map. Smelt the Ironstone inside a Furnace using Wood or Coal as fuel.

Basic ratio:

Material: 2 Ironstone
Result: 1 Iron Bar

You’ll need a decent amount because steel crafting burns through iron quickly in the mid-game.

Step 2: Farm Tar

Tar is the part that usually confuses new players.

You get Tar as a byproduct when tanning hides into Leather inside a Tannery.

To make Leather efficiently:

• Gather animal hides with a Skinning Knife
• Collect Bark by hitting trees with a Pick
• Place Hide + Bark inside a Tannery

While the leather crafts, Tar will slowly build up alongside it.

A small tip many players miss: Thick Hide gives better Tar value than regular Hide. Rhino, elephant, and bear hides are especially useful if you process them properly first.

Step 3: Gather Brimstone

Brimstone is much easier to farm than Tar once you know where to look.

Good Brimstone locations include:

• Shattered Springs
• Sinner’s Refuge
• Gallaman’s Tomb
• Executioner’s Entrance

Shattered Springs is considered one of the best farming spots because of the massive amount of Brimstone nodes there.

Just be careful. Some areas have toxic gas, so bringing a Sandstorm Mask helps a lot.

Step 4: Craft Steelfire

Now head to your Firebowl Cauldron.

Combine:

• 1 Tar
• 1 Brimstone

This creates Steelfire, the catalyst needed for steel production.

Steelfire crafting is slow at first, so don’t be surprised if this becomes your main bottleneck early on.

Step 5: Smelt Steel Bars

Once you have Iron Bars and Steelfire ready, place them into your Furnace with fuel.

The standard recipe is:

Material: 5 Iron Bars + 1 Steelfire
Result: 1 Steel Bar

After a short smelting time, your Steel Bars will be ready.

That’s it. You’re officially in the steel tier now.

Best Uses for Steel

Almost everything important can be crafted using steel, making it an essential resource during the mid-game.

You can use it for:

• Steel weapons
• Heavy armor
• Steel tools
• Reinforcements
• Building stations
• Sandstorm masks
• Advanced crafting benches

Steel reinforcements become especially important when upgrading your base to stronger tiers.

This is also the stage where the game changes quite a bit. Weapons do more damage, tools work faster, and your base can actually survive heavier attacks once you start producing Steel Bars consistently.

While smelting is not the difficult part, keeping a steady supply of Tar and Brimstone is. Once that problem is solved, steel production becomes routine.