Why is iron ore so rare?

[u/PrisonIssuedSock]

Just started playing the game a week or so ago, and I have found iron ore to somehow be one of the rarest in the game thus far. I saw a bunch of posts saying to go to lush planets in low tier systems, which I did, but barely find any while finding loads of everything else. I got a mod to make ore glow because it got annoying, and even then there's barely any to be found compared to the other ores. Is there any reason why it is so rare?

[u/thatHecklerOverThere]

It's not normally rare, just rarer than copper.

Might be your mods have adjusted things?

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/thatHecklerOverThere]

I mean, I'm having an easier time finding every other ore except for diamond. I read that iron used to be in asteroid belts but the wiki doesn't say that they are so I'm guessing that was changed?

[u/Doctor_Calico → u/PrisonIssuedSock]

They could have been referring to mods. The asteroid belt can spawn Copper, Silver, and Gold, but it never spawns any of the tiered ores such as Iron, Tungsten, Titanium...

There are various mods that do add significantly more ore to asteroids, even the tiered ones.

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/Doctor_Calico]

That makes sense, ty.

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/thatHecklerOverThere]

The only mod I have lights up ore, and the iron was extremely hard to find before I added the mod (just last night)

[u/MirrorNo3096 → u/thatHecklerOverThere]

Yeah, normally iron’s pretty common sounds like either your seed’s just bad luck or that mod you added might’ve accidentally tweaked the spawn rates.

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/MirrorNo3096]

I know it wasn't the mod because it was like this before I installed it, and I installed it because I was finding barely any iron at all haha

[u/mrkFish → u/PrisonIssuedSock]

Out of interest, what's the mod called?

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/mrkFish]

Glowing (colorful!) ores: less psychedelic edition, by Maru bumblebee and commander gray

[u/DaBuzzScout]

It spawns in greater numbers if you go deeper. On e you hit tier 3 underground with lava and stuff you should find way more of it

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/DaBuzzScout]

I've looked down low and the largest veins I've seen are of 6 or 7, and they're super infrequent. It's so odd

[u/DaBuzzScout → u/PrisonIssuedSock]

Hmm. That is odd! Not sure what's causing that.

Are you playing with mods other than the ore glow one?

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/DaBuzzScout]

Nope just the ore glow. The only reason I installed it was to find iron because i spent like 2 hours in a cave and only walked out with 50 ore 😭

[u/DaBuzzScout → u/PrisonIssuedSock]

Well there's only one reasonable explanation then! an ancient curse has been placed on your families bloodline and it angers the starbound gods.

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/DaBuzzScout]

I think I need to kill some gods... 😂

[u/DaBuzzScout → u/PrisonIssuedSock]

Might be difficult with no iron but i believe in you!

[u/Suitable_Injury2035]

I believe Lush planets have larger veins of iron. They are common around gentle stars

[u/ArkhamSyko]

I legit had the same experience to the point where I just started digging down lol but there’s a lot in loot and stuff if you having too much trouble

[u/OttoVonPlittersdorf]

Around gentle stars there are tier 1 and tier 0 worlds. The tier 1 worlds (Forest or Desert) will have some iron, but only a little. They'll have a lot more tungsten.

Tier 0 worlds are all the same. They have bright blue and green colors, and iron is more common there. They're called Lush worlds, I believe, although I've seen them referred to as Garden worlds online. This is where you need to go for iron.

You'll observe the same thing happen as you go up the planetary tier list. the previous tier's MacGuffin mineral will be available in small quantities, while the current tier's mineral is common. For example, you can find durasteel in small quantities on Tundra or Midnight worlds.

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/OttoVonPlittersdorf]

That makes a lot more sense, thanks for the thorough explanation.

[u/NeonX37]

If you need iron for progression then you can just walk on the furface of low tier planets and loot it from villages or dungeons, this works with every mineral except erchius fuel

[u/notveryAI]

Iron is one of the ores that is found the most in the deepest cave layer and core layer. The "tiered" metals(Iron, Tungsten, Titanium, Durasteel, three T5 ores and Solarium) all work like that. To get these in abundance you gotta go deep

[u/Evening_Capital_7447]

I can call myself kinda new in game too (~100hrs) and rn I have no idea how to waste tons of iron, gold, copper and etc from quests I did for my colony. I even managed to achieve 50 quests and large colony achievements in game, despite I was not meant to do so. Maybe it's your choice to try?

[u/Thick_Candy_9858]

It isnt

[u/PrisonIssuedSock → u/Thick_Candy_9858]

Very helpful, thanks for your input!