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Conan Exiles’s motto is simple. Survive, Build, Dominate. The latter means different things for different folks, but for the PvP crowd, domination often involves copious amounts of explosives.
One of the favorites in that arsenal of armageddon is the Explosive Jar, a vital component of any good raid. Today, I will teach you all you need to know about Explosive Jars and how best to craft them. Grab your best tools; there is a lot to cover. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
What Are Explosive Jars?
Explosive jars are a placeable item in Conan Exiles. Unlocked through the Explosive feat at level 35, these jars have a simple purpose: make things go boom. They’re filled with a volatile mixture of tar and dragon powder, and sealed tightly against the air.
The explosive compound is sensitive, and each jar comes equipped with a fuse, giving you enough time to flee the scene before the ensuing eruption of fire and debris.
What Are Explosive Jars Used for?
Perhaps one of the most valuable items in the PvP economy, Explosive Jars are crucial for raiding enemy players. They are a consistent source of insurmountable damage, but not as simple as they may seem. Enemy bases often require multiple Explosive Jars to breach, thus making the component ingredients highly sought after.
PvP vs PvE
Conan Exiles has two main game modes, Player vs Player and Player vs Environment. PvE is likely the most popular of the two, allowing Exiles to tackle the challenges offered by The Isle of Siptah or The Exiled Lands without worrying about fighting off their fellow survivors. PvP is entirely different, however, as Exiles can fight each other and even raid bases.
PvP is not a game mode for the faint of heart. As with most PvP games, Conan’s take on the mode is brutal, efficient, and unforgiving. It takes hundreds, if not thousands of hours to become proficient at PvP, during which time you’ll doubtless lose everything you own over and over again.
Explosive Jars see most of their use in the PvP mode, where they have become an integral part of the battle for supremacy. You’ll likely find little use for Explosive Jars in PvE, though that may change soon with the addition of PvE raids in The Age of War: Chapter 3.
How Do I Make Explosive Jars?
Explosive Jars are locked to the Explosives feat, unlocked at character level 35, costing eight feat points. These jars use a single Earthenware Jug, five tar, and a single dragonpowder. Explosive Jars must be crafted by hand, meaning the resource cost is unaffected by end-game workbenches. Gathering the items needed to create Explosive Jars can be an arduous task, so we must first understand how to gather them.
Check our complete Crafting guide here!
Prerequisites
Aside from the Explosives feat, there are a few more prerequisites. You must learn the following feats:
- Firebowl Cauldron (Level 15, 3 feat points)
- Apprentice Potter (Level 15, 1 feat point)
- Iron Tools (Level 10, 3 feat points)
You can begin pre-gathering ingredients for Explosive Jars at any point past these level requirements. However, you won’t be able to craft these jars until level 35. So, how do we gather these ingredients?
Earthenware Jugs
Each Earthenware Jug requires 125 stones and is crafted at the artisan table. They cannot benefit from cost reduction or speed increase from high-end benches. Unlocked at level 15 with the Apprentice Potter feat, the jugs take 5 seconds to craft, granting 250 experience for each jug created. Stone is effortless to attain in large quantities, with iron or steel tools offering a welcome boost to your harvesting capability. This is the easiest step in the process and one you can achieve quickly.
Tar
Tar is a byproduct of the tanning process. As you cure hides in the tannery, dry-heated bark leeches this substance. Tar is commonplace in plenty of crafting recipes, making this a material of high demand.
We already have a full guide on gathering tar here, but for the simple guide, you’ll want to do the following:
Gather as much hide as possible. For maximum efficiency, strip thick hides down into regular hides.
Gather as much bark as possible. The best approach is to use a pick on trees. The bark is plentiful and easy to gather.
Throw both bark and hides into your tannery. Tar is somewhat time-gated by the crafting time of hides, so use this downtime wisely and gather other resources.
It’s best to remember that you’ll need five tar for every Explosive Jar. If you want to craft 100 jars, you’ll need a sizable 500 tar, so ensure you account for that difference in your crafting costs.
Further reading: Conan Exiles Tar Farming Guide
Dragon Powder
Dragon powder is the most valuable ingredient in this mixture, yet the most costly. Each unit of Dragonpowder costs 2 demon blood, 10 brimstone, 50 crystal, and 100 steelfire. Yeah, the resource requirement is steep. Let’s see the best methods to gather those ingredients. For expediency, we’ll keep things short and sweet, but I’ll also link our full guides where applicable.
Demon blood isn’t too hard to come across. Bat demons within The Unnamed City are consistent, alongside the Children of Jhil in the highlands. Kappas, corrupted creatures, and demon spiders are other options, though may not be as consistent as the former. Demon blood is highly regarded in Conan Exiles, and thus spots like The Unnamed City are often hotly contested. Make sure to harvest Demon Blood with a good quality skinning knife, as you’ll see a boost to success rate and harvest quantity. Check out our guide on all types of blood here.
Brimstone is a mineral found in a few different spots. The de-facto best area is Shattered Springs, where you can gather thousands of brimstone with little effort. They appear as tall, rocky pillar-like deposits of sulfur with a black oxidized exterior. Another option for Brimstone farming is in the waters of Buccaneer Bay, where the Brimstone deposits bubble underwater. Harvest Brimstone nodes with a good quality pick for the best yield. Check out our complete guide on farming brimstone here.
Crystal is easy to come across, found in clusters of crystalline deposits. The best spot is Scuttler’s Shortcut, where you can gather thousands of crystals in a few minutes. For the best experience, use the Mass Cull sorcery to harvest multiple nodes at once. This spell hits your performance hard, but it’s worth it for the thousands of crystals gathered in one cast. Check out our comprehensive guide on farming crystal here.
Steelfire is a pricey ingredient, used frequently throughout the game. Steelfire requires a combination of two tar and one piece of brimstone within a firebowl cauldron. Considering we also use brimstone and tar in the procedure of crafting Explosive Jars, steelfire is the obvious bottleneck.
However, tar and brimstone are easy to farm, so the creation process isn’t overly difficult. However, as you’ll need 100 steelfire for each unit of dragon powder, the costs involved are staggeringly high. Creating Steelfire can be streamlined by using upgraded firebowl cauldrons, which will either speed the process up or reduce the resource cost. Check out our complete guide on farming Steelfire here.
Further reading: Conan Exiles Dragonpowder Guide
Final Crafting
To bring our prior information together, Explosive Jars require one earthenware jug, four tar, and one dragon powder. However, the base resource cost is as follows:
- 125 Stone
- 5 Tar
- 2 Demon Blood
- 10 Brimstone
- 50 Crystals
- 100 Steelfire (100 Brimstone, 200 Tar)
These costs ramp up quickly. If you wanted to craft ten Explosive Jars, you need ten jugs, fifty tar, and 10 Dragon Powder. Dragon powder is the limiting factor, requiring 200 Demon Blood, 100 Brimstone, 500 Crystals, and a staggering 1000 Steelfire. Given that all these materials have important alternative uses, the cost of creating bombs becomes prohibitive and shows why these jars are valued so highly in the Conan PvP economy.
While Explosive Jars are a vital tool, avoid over-prioritizing them. You will often save time by investing these ingredients into upgrading your base or workstations, so it is sometimes worth doing that to improve your production in the future.
Once you have gathered enough dragon powder, tar, and earthenware jugs, you are ready to craft your Explosive Jars. These bombs are hand-crafted, so you must create them in your inventory. Unfortunately, this means that the crafting cost cannot be reduced by improved crafting benches. Explosive Jars are incredibly fast to craft, and give you a whopping 1440 experience for each jar, a good reward for the valuable resources spent.
If you have enough resources, you can create as many Explosive Jars as your heart desires. However, it’s worth noting that each of these jars weighs five units. If you carry them around, you’ll quickly tip the scales, so store them safely in a chest or vault.
How Do I Use Explosive Jars?
You can place Explosive jars by using them from your hotbar, similar to decorative placeables. They’ll sit idly by until you interact with them, lighting a fuse that gives you a brief window to escape before they explode.
Explosive Jars detonate in a spherical radius, covering roughly 8 tiles in all directions. The explosion itself deals about 8,000 damage to nearby tiles, incrementally dropping off based on distance from the epicenter.
Additionally, it seems that explosion damage is reduced through building layers, dampening the structural damage done by these jars. The explosion is followed by a fire that burns for exactly 30 seconds, adding a small amount of damage over time, alongside creating a ground hazard for players.
If you’re looking for the most efficient way to bomb structures, it seems there are many approaches. Some people prefer to explode one or two jars at a time, whereas others opt for larger clusters. However, it’s generally the best idea to target a particular section of the enemy base.
Explosive Jars are ideal for granting access to a building’s interior, and thus concentrating the damage on an area leading to said interior provides the best results.
Given their significant damage, Explosive Jars can kill anyone caught in the blast. Keep your distance from the jars when ignited, as you could accidentally fall victim to your bomb, potentially scuppering your raid plans. Explosive Jars are a powerful tool in PvP raiding, but take care and attention when using them to ensure you get the best results and stay alive to plunder the loot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Do Explosive Jars have any use in PvE?
Answer: No, though that may change soon. The Age of War: Chapter 3 will introduce PvE raids, where Exiles must raid enemy bases. PvP-focused tools like Explosive Jars or Trebuchets will likely prove invaluable in this endeavor, so the demand for these explosives may increase even more soon.
Question: Should I stockpile ingredients for Explosive Jars as early as possible?
Answer: It depends on your playstyle. Conan Exiles PvP is a dangerous game, and you can easily lose your resources in only a few minutes, potentially ruining days or weeks of preparation. However, with a well-hidden base, you could keep your loot safe for a long time. If you’re confident you can avoid enemies, stockpiling can be a safe bet if you plan to raid.
Question: Can I farm any ingredients from enemies rather than making them myself?
Answer: In the Age of War: Chapter 2, loot got reworked, and enemies will now drop more valuable resources. You may indeed find tar, steelfire, or even dragon powder whilst killing enemies or tackling dungeons. However, this is far from ideal. The frequency and quantity of these drops still pale in comparison to focused farming, so if you want to produce bombs effectively, farm the resources yourself.
Conclusion
And there we have it; all you need to know about producing and using Explosive Jars in Conan Exiles. PvP is not for the faint of heart, it is instead a constant battle where loot can be won or lost within an instant. Explosive Jars are a key part of any PvP raid, and with this knowledge, you’re ready to fire up the bomb factory and start preparing your arsenal of base-rupturing devices.
Take care out there, Exile, and remember: Survive. Build. Dominate. As always, don’t forget to stay tuned into ConanFanatics for all the Conan Exiles news, guides, and tips.
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