Aluminum (or aluminium in the developer's British English) is one of the six most common minerals found in The Planet Crafter. But while players can easily come across deposits of iron, cobalt, silicon, magnesium, and titanium in just about every corner of the map, aluminum is harder to find.
Luckily, while aluminum doesn't show up in every location of The Planet Crafter's map, there are a number of spots where players can stumble across this element, and one in particular where Ore Extractors can give players an unlimited supply. So while aluminum can cause issues for players who want to build the tier 2 machines or create more super alloy, players who know where to look can gather as much aluminum as they need.
The Aluminum Hills
The Aluminum Hills are the best place to find a large supply of aluminum. Players will know they've found them because the soil is black, the rock formations are shiny, and the sky is always dark no matter what terraformation stage the game is on.
Players can get here from the standard Planet Crafter start location by turning right, going up the hill, and then turning right again and following the cliff edge. Aluminum deposits are also easy to spot: the ore doesn't glow like iridium or uranium, and it's shinier and more vertical than iron. In fact, it's so shiny that the flashlight can help players spot the mineral.
Another benefit of the Aluminum Hills is that players can build Ore Extractors in this area to get unlimited aluminum. Any kind of Ore Extractor will collect aluminum here, but the better tiers will collect a higher percentage.
Other Locations
Aside from the Aluminum Hills, players can find aluminum deposits in several specific regions:
- The Iridium Mine
- The Sulfur Fields
- The Zeolite Cave
- The Labyrinth Canyons
- The Meteor Field
Meteor Showers
The regular meteor shower events are dangerous if a player gets caught outside, but each meteor also drops several deposits of common minerals. This includes aluminum, but players who want this supply should act fast. Minerals dropped by meteors may stick around for a few minutes, but if players don't collect them, they'll eventually despawn.
Random Wrecks and Crates
Like many other materials, players can find aluminum in the crates and shipwrecks found throughout The Planet Crafter map. Since aluminum is so useful during the early stages of the game, players are most likely to find this element in the first few crates they open, and it becomes less common in later stages. However, one guaranteed way to get aluminum is to deconstruct a golden crate. Instead of turning into a lump of iron, golden crates become one aluminum and one super alloy.
The Planet Crafter is available now in early access on PC.