So you’re playing Planet Crafter, and you’re in the early stages of the game. You’re going around gathering supplies but then find out you need some Iridium. You’ve got to have Iridium because you need to make a Heater. After all, this planet is really cold, and you need to warm it up a bit. Apparently, Iridium is really useful for doing that. While Iridium is needed for quite a few things through the game, in the beginning you are really going to just need it for the T1 and T2 Heaters. So where exactly do you find this SPICY RED ORE?
Test Your Luck with the Crates
One place you can find this ore is in the Blue Crates scattered around the landscape or inside wrecks. You can even find it in the Golden Crates. Really though, it will be hit or miss if you get some Iridium this way. It depends on both how high your Terraformation Index is at the time you access a crate and how lucky you are with the RNG. There are also some wrecks where you will find fully constructed Heaters in them that you can deconstruct them to get the supplies. Personally I recommend waiting to deconstruct these until you are able to build the same tier Heater. In other words, leave that T2 Heater alone until you unlock it as a buildable.
Iridium Mine (934 : 38 : 919)
If you start in the default location, you will be in the Starting Valley. This puts you downhill from the Steep Hill Wreck and South of where the Iridium Mine is located. Head North in the direction of the Plateaus area. You will find another large shipwreck and to the left before the wreck is a large cave opening with sand falling from above it. This is the Iridium Mine. This is the original place to get Iridium. The big place to get Iridium. And as of the Caves & Crater update, this is still the largest cave in the game in terms of height. This cave also includes many of the base resources as well as Aluminium. To find the Iridium, just look for the glowing red spots all around the cave. With the available Aluminium, you could choose to put your first Ore Extractor in this cave to start mining more Iridium. A T1 Ore Extractor is all that is needed to start mining out tons of this glowing red material.
Grand Rift Cave (2024 : 3 : -33)
Maybe you didn’t start in the default location so you could have more of a challenge. So you’re not really that close to the Iridium Mine as a result. In the Grand Rift, which is the large canyon area, there is another Iridium Cave. This cave is along the Northeastern side of the Grand Rift, or if you are coming from the Gate Desert it will be along the right-side path. It is behind one of the leaning pillars, and you’ll know you are in the right place because you will see all the glowing Iridium Ore inside. This cave is also mineable so you can place down a T1 or T2 Ore Extractor to get a steady supply of Iridium. However, there are no loose materials inside the cave other than the Iridium itself. There is also a blue crate in the very back but don’t hold your breath hoping it will yield some Iridium.
Cracked Spires Cave (327 : 4 : -182)
That just leaves the third cave which is the tunnel cave connecting the Cracked Spires and the Wasteland. While this cave has Iridium, it is not actually an Iridium Cave. This is an Osmium Cave, but the front section has several pieces of Iridium. This cave will also be blocked off by Ice in the early stages so it is not a good one to rely on for Iridium at the start. Once the Ice melts enough, you will be able to reach the main section of the cave where you can place down Ore Extractors. This is the Osmium Cave section so if you place down a T1 Ore Extractor, the focal resource will be Iron. If you place down a T2 Ore Extractor, the focal resource will be Osmium.
Iridium Meteors
The last way to get plenty of Iridium is through Iridium Meteor Storms. While you can get this through randomly triggered storms, the best ones are those you trigger yourself through the Launch Platform. When you reach the top of the Launch Platform and access the control panel, you will see multiple Rocket Options. The second rocket is the Magnetic Field Protection Rocket. This sounds like it is going to do something really helpful like protecting you from Electromagnetic Fields, but really the actual use is to bring down an Iridium Meteor Storm and to give you a Pressure Multiplier to boost Atmospheric Pressure value. This does require the construction of a Rocket Engine and Super Alloy, with the Rocket Engine being the harder component to produce early in the game.
For me, I would honestly rather just set up multiple Ore Extractors in the Iridium Mine and let them produce a ton of Iridium rather than relying on the rockets. I treat the rockets as being much more useful for getting the Pressure Multiplier rather than a good source of Iridium.
