Conan Exiles Hardened Steel Guide

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Sara, also known on Youtube as Wild Jester, is a certified expert in the world of Conan Exiles. From the Isle of Siptah to new expansions like Age of Sorcery. Jester has played every aspect of the game at length and is here to give you all the necessary tools to become a survival expert!

TL;DR – Summary

The Hardened Steel Bar is a high-grade material used for crafting several items such as gear, saddles, crafting stations, decorations, and kits. Here’s the Hardened Steel crafting process:

Iron Bars: Loot chests or enemies for these, or mine Ironstones from grey rocks through the map and smelt them in a Furnace with fuel.
Steelfire: Mix Tar and Brimstone inside a Firebowl Cauldron. Mine Brimstone from yellow rocks (found in caves) or stalagmites (located in the Exiled Lands by the Shattered Springs or near the Isle of Siptah Vaults or lakes). A simple way of getting Tar is as a byproduct by turning any hide into leather in a Tannery with Bark.
Steel Bars: Transfer the Iron Bars with the Steelfire into a Furnace with fuel.
Black Ice: Find and mine Black Ice from nodes located up north on the snowy area of the Exiled Lands (at the Frozen Slopes and Temple of Frost, for example) or nearby Vaults on the Isle of Siptah map.
Add the Black Ice and Steel Bars to a Furnace with fuel to make Hardened Steel Bars.

What is a Hardened Steel Bar?

Hardened Steel Bars result from the fusion between a Steel Bar and Black Ice. This high-quality material is a crafting ingredient like any other metallic ingot you can obtain in Conan Exiles, weighing less than Steel and Iron Bars (a Hardened Steel Bar only weighs 0.13 kg).

Unlocking the Furnace at level 10 will allow you to start crafting any type of metal ingot available in the game, as long as you own the required resources to make it happen!

Hardened Steel Bar Uses

You can use Hardened Steel Bars to craft several items in Conan Exiles. Unlocking the Hardened Steel Tools Knowledge at level 50 is recommended if you want to upgrade your tools without skipping the Hardened Steel step and using other kinds of metal tools instead (such as Star Metal or Eldarium, for example).

You can craft these advanced tools with this material at any Blacksmith’s Bench as soon as you have the required resources.

Everything You can Craft Using Hardened Steel Bars

Tools. Examples: any Hardened Steel and Acheronian tool, Heavy-weight Truncheon;
Weapons and shields. Examples: any Hardened Steel and Acheronian weapon or shield, some dungeons weapons (like the Telith’s swords and the Ancient Lemurian armory);
Projectiles. Example: Hardened Steel Arrow;
Gear kits. Examples: Balanced Weapon Fitting, Master Armor Patch Kit;
War Saddles. Examples: Warhorse Saddle Heavy, Rhino War Saddle, Poitain Warhorse Saddle;
Armor pieces. Examples: Cimmerian Steel set, Heavy Plated Helmet, Epic Barachan Reiver set, Epic heavy armor sets from DLCs;
Focus Altars by the Leyshrines of Isle of Siptah DLC map;
Decorations. Examples: Hardened Steel Cages, Decorative Metal Skull;
Crafting stations and containers. Examples: Preservation Box, Precision and Giant’s Firebowl Cauldrons, Garrison and Campaign Blacksmith’s Benches.

How to Get Hardened Steel Bars

Like many other crafting resources in Conan Exiles, Hardened Steel Bars require you to carefully follow some steps if you wish to succeed in getting a proper amount of this item to make sure you won’t run out of it when you most need it! Collecting enough Black Ice and Steel Bars ahead of time is also a good idea.

Here’s the Whole Crafting Process of a Hardened Steel Bar

The ingredients:

1x Steel Bar
1x Black Ice

How to get a Steel Bar:

1x Steel fire
5x Iron Bars

Do you wish to learn more about Steel Bars? A deeper look into this metal can be read in this guide instead – Conan Exiles Steel Bar Guide.

Steelfire:

A short explanation to make this ingredient to help you craft Steel Bars is shown below. However, if you wish a more detailed explanation about Steelfire, it is recommended to read this in-depth guide instead – Conan Exiles Steelfire Guide.

This resource results from mixing 2 Tar units and 1 Brimstone inside a Firebowl Cauldron. There are many ways of getting Tar. One of the most common is by placing Hide and Bark inside a Tannery and letting it turn into Leather, and you’ll get Tar as a byproduct from that easily.

Conan Exiles - firebowl cauldron and tannery — Image by Wild Jester

Get Brimstone by mining yellow rocks (commonly found in some caves) or pointy stalagmites (found at Shattered Springs or nearby Vaults or lakes), or even by looting points of interest.

Conan Exiles - brimstone nodes — Image by Wild Jester

Iron Bars:

Placing 2 Ironstones inside a Furnace with fuel will give you one Iron Bar. Get Ironstones by mining grey rock nodes found through the map or by looting enemies or chests.

Place the Steelfire with the Iron Bars in any Furnace to craft Steel Bars.

1 Black Ice:

This resource can be mined from nodes up north by the snowy area in the Exiled Lands, make sure you dress for the weather by using cold-resistant armor pieces or use consumables that warm you up (such as Firewater) before venturing yourself up there.

Conan Exiles - black ice — Image by Wild Jester

Conan Exiles process of a hardened steel bar — Image by Wild Jester

If you’re playing in the Isle of Siptah DLC map, you can mine Black Ice nearby the Vaults entrances instead.

Conan Exiles - steel bars and black ice — Image by Wild Jester

Once you have collected enough Steel Bars and Black Ice, place them in any Furnace with fuel inside and start making Hardened Steel Bars.

Furnaces and Hardened Steel Bars Crafting Performance

After some testing, the speed of crafting Hardened Steel Bars by each type of furnace with the regular server settings (default multipliers: crafting speed and fuel burn time at 1.0) and without Smelter thralls inside them, it was concluded that:

The Fuel-Efficient Furnace (Tier 3) is the most balanced station related to the crafting time of the Hardened Steel Bars and the fuel burn time, as it will save up a lot of fuel if you don’t have much with you. Also, waiting for a certain amount of bars to smelt is not as time-consuming as it would be with the lowest-tier furnaces.
The Heat-Efficient Furnace (Tier 3) has the best crafting performance to smelt Hardened Steel bars since it crafts them faster than any other available furnace. However, it burns fuel faster (as an example, it has burnt 2-3 coal units while smelting 5 Hardened Steel Bars). This furnace is still a great choice if you wish to obtain advanced materials quickly. By experience, using Heat-Efficient Furnaces to obtain materials such as Hardened Bricks can be a great time saver if you plan to build big bases in Tier 3 pieces, but make sure to load your furnace with lots of fuel.
One furnace that doesn’t burn plenty of fuel but is slower crafting Hardened Steel Bars is the Improved Furnace (Kiln). The difference between the regular Improved Furnace (Tier 2) and the Kiln when it comes to performance, is that the Improved Furnace (Tier 2) is slightly slower than the Improved Furnace (Kiln) itself. As an example, smelting 5 Hardened Steel Bars on the Improved Furnace (Tier 2) will make you spend more than one unit of Coal, while on the Kiln you will spend a little less than that. These are still better options than the Furnace (Tier 1).
The Furnace (Tier 1) is the worst choice to save fuel and time for crafting Hardened Steel Bars and other materials, but still the cheapest station you can build on the go or as a last resort. One Hardened Steel Bar is cheap to craft, and you can leave the resources inside the station while doing something else in the meantime – if you have enough fuel to burn, go for it!

Note: Depending on which server settings you’re playing with, the crafting cost and fuel burn time may vary. Thralls from different tiers can also help with the crafting speed.

FAQs

Question: Is there a Different Way of Getting Hardened Steel Bars than by Crafting?

Answer: Yes, there is. You can randomly get Hardened Steel Bars by killing enemies or looting chests in points of interest through the game map, but these aren’t very reliable ways of getting this material, at least in the amount to fulfill your needs in the long run. Crafting it should always be a priority.

Question: Considering I only Need Hardened Steel Bars Later in My Gameplay due to the Level Requirements of the Items I can Craft with them, should I Start Making these Bars as soon as I have Resources for them?

Answer: It’s a good idea to start collecting resources ahead for anything you’ll need later in your gameplay if you wish to make new items once you have leveled up enough.
Like this, you’re likely to have enough ingredients to craft at least the first batch of items without needing to harvest those resources at the last minute.

Question: Can I Get Armor and Weapons better than those Made with Hardened Steel Bars?

Answer: Hardened Steel is a high-quality metal, and the gear made with it is a better alternative to the one that is not made of a reinforced type of metal like this kind of steel.
However, you can still find some things that are stronger and more durable than the ones made with Hardened Steel Bars, such as gear made with Star Metal or even Composite Obsidian. Examples: Obsidian and Star Metal tools and weapons, Silent Legion armor, Rusted armor, Primeval armor.