The Planet Crafter Ore Extractor Guide

In this The Planet Crafter Ore Extractor Guide, I'll tell you how you can use this machine to automatically mine resources and the best ways to use it.

How The Planet Crafter Ore Extractor Works

The Planet Crafter Ore Extractor automatically mines certain resources over time. The type of ore mined depends on where you place the Ore Extractor -- check out our Ore Guides for specific locations with coordinates!

What Can You Mine With an Ore Extractor?

You can mine the following resources with an Ore Extractor:

• Iron
• Titanium
• Cobalt
• Silicon
• Magnesium
• Aluminum
• Iridium
• Uranium
• Obsidian
• Osmium
• Super Alloy
• Zeolite

Take note that you cannot mine Obsidian, Osmium, Super Alloy, Uranium, or Zeolite with the first Ore Extractor. You'll need an Ore Extractor T2 or Ore Extractor T3 for those ores.

Additionally, the first two tiers of Ore Extractors will not only mine a specific resource. If you place an Ore Extractor in an area with Iridium, it will also mine Iron, Titanium, Cobalt, Silicon, and Magnesium as well. You will always get some amount of the five basic resources. This changes when you unlock Ore Extractor T3; it allows you to mine a single, specific resource. Certain resources (such as Uranium or Super Alloy) can only be mined in specific locations.

How to Set Up an Ore Extractor

Setting up an Ore Extractor in The Planet Crafter is fairly straightforward — all you need to do is Build it in the correct location to get the specific ore that you want. If you're getting Iron instead, you're either not in the right spot or the ore you're trying to mine requires a higher-tier Ore Extractor.

It's a very good idea to also build a Foundation Grid and put a Shredder on top of it. This lets you destroy any unwanted Ore so you can focus on collecting the good stuff.

Eventually, you'll be able to unlock the Ore Extractor T3. This is a significant improvement over previous versions — it allows you to mine a specific resource and only that resource.

There's another layer of convenience here, too — you can also build Auto-Crafters that will allow you to make Rods right away. (Bear in mind that Super Alloy requires Aluminum, so you'll have to dedicate at least one Ore Extractor T3 to gathering Aluminum in order to make Super Alloy Rods.)

Finally, you'll probably end up having to build Ore Extractors far away from your main base no matter where you decide to settle. It's a good idea to build small outposts near Ore Extractors so you can refill your Oxygen, Water, and Food — at least until you get access to Teleporters.

How Many Ore Extractors Should You Build?

The number of Ore Extractors you should build depends on the resource you're trying to get.

First, you should prioritize Iridium — you'll need it to make Iridium Rods for more Ore Extractors. Once you have at least two or three Iridium Rods, you should build a second Ore Extractor for Aluminum to fuel your mid-game Crafting.

After those two are established, you should build one for Osmium next so you can Build a bunch of Drill T4s -- you'll need to increase Pressure to unlock the Ore Extractor T2. Ore Extractors use a lot of Power, so you'll want to be able to build more Nuclear Generators as fast as possible so that you can build even more Ore Extractors.

When all is said and done, these are the minimum number of Ore Extractors T3 I recommend for each resource:

• Aluminum: 3
• Iron: 1
• Titanium: 1
• Cobalt: 1
• Silicon: 1
• Magnesium: 1
• Iridium: 3
• Osmium: 3
• Sulfur: 3
• Super Alloy: 3
  • If you intend to automatically make Super Alloy Rods with an Auto-Crafter, you will need an additional Ore Extractor T3 dedicated to Aluminum  -- a Super Alloy Rod costs 8 Super Alloy and 1 Aluminum.
• Uranium: 5

Iron (and the base materials) are always useful. Iridium is needed for building more Heating objects. Sulfer and Super Alloy are heavily used in the late game for increasing Biomass. Uranium is perhaps one of the most important -- it will allow you to build as many Nuclear Reactors as you might need in order to power your base.

Getting Ore Extractors online as soon as possible is the quickest way to improve and expand your base. Don't worry about the cost of building these, either — you can always dismantle them to recover the resources you invested.

We're all done with our The Planet Crafter Ore Extractor Guide, but there's still plenty more to learn -- read the rest of our guides to learn more about the game!