How to Get Copper in Windrose: A Mining and Smelting Guide

If you are tired of swinging a rock tied to a stick, you are going to need copper.

Copper is the first real progression wall in Windrose. You need it for practically everything. Better weapons, improved tools, critical base building upgrades, and ship modifications all require massive amounts of copper ingots.

The game tasks you with finding copper as part of the Islander Tutorial, but it does not exactly hold your hand when it comes to actually finding the stuff. If you are running around the beach aimlessly hitting random boulders with your stone pickaxe, you are wasting your time. Here is how to actually locate the copper deposits and get your first smelting operation running. Once you have this sorted, you can check out my beginner's survival guide for tips on what to build next.

Where to Find Copper Deposit Caves

Copper does not just sit out in the open waiting for you to pick it up. You have to go underground.

You need to look for specific Copper Deposit Caves scattered around the Coastal Jungle biome. On your starting island, there is usually at least one cave guaranteed to spawn. Before you have discovered it, it might just appear as a vague question mark on your map. Once you are close, it updates to a distinct pickaxe icon.

The entrance to these caves can be incredibly easy to miss. You are not looking for a massive cavern mouth, you are looking for a subtle crack or slit in a stone cliff face. When you approach the crack, the game will prompt you to press E to actually transition into the cave instance.

Cave Navigation and Lighting

Do not just run in blindly. These caves are pitch black, especially if you enter during the afternoon or night. The environment itself is usually safe from enemies, but you cannot mine what you cannot see.

I highly recommend crafting an Oil Lamp before you go spelunking. If you do not have the materials for a lamp yet, at least bring a stack of wood and plant fiber so you can build temporary floor torches to light your path. Need help managing your inventory space for all this mining gear? Look into some early storage upgrades.

How to Mine Copper Ore

Before you leave your base, craft a Stone Pickaxe at your Workbench. You need 3 Wood and 3 Stone. Ensure your inventory is completely empty except for your pickaxe, your light source, and some food. Ore is heavy and takes up slots quickly.

Once inside the cave, you will see chunks of rock with distinct copper-colored veins running through them.

Here is the secret to maximizing your yield: do not stop hitting the rocks just because you hit a dead end. The cave paths are often blocked by "Waste Rocks." You have to smash your way through these useless grey boulders to uncover hidden chambers that are absolutely loaded with fresh Copper Ore nodes. If you diligently clear the entire cave, including the hidden paths behind the waste rocks, you can easily walk out with over 400 Copper Ores in a single run.

If you completely strip a cave bare, do not panic. The ore nodes will eventually respawn, or you can simply sail to another island to find a fresh cave.

Smelting Copper Ingots

Raw ore is useless. You have to smelt it into ingots. This requires building a small industrial complex at your base.

You need two specific crafting stations from the Refining section of your Build menu:

1. Charcoal Kiln: Requires 25 Wood and 20 Clay.

2. Smelting Furnace: Requires 15 Clay and 30 Stone.

If you are struggling to find the clay required for these structures, I have a separate guide detailing the best clay farming locations.

Once both stations are built, the process works in a two-step assembly line. First, stuff wood into the Charcoal Kiln to produce Charcoal. Then, take that Charcoal and combine it with your raw Copper Ores inside the Smelting Furnace.

The exchange rate is brutal. It takes 6 Copper Ores and 1 Charcoal to produce a single Copper Ingot. Because both the kiln and the furnace take time to process materials, I highly recommend building at least two of each station right next to each other so you are not standing around waiting for a single bar to finish baking.

What to Craft First

Once you have a stack of shiny new ingots, you need to prioritize your upgrades. Do not waste your first batch on decorative items.

Best Early Copper Upgrades

Stop using stone. These are the tools and weapons you should build the moment your furnace finishes its first run.

Item	Cost and Benefit
Copper Pickaxe	5 Ingots, 5 Wood. Your absolute first priority. It mines ore significantly faster and has much better durability than stone.
Copper Axe	5 Ingots, 5 Wood. Same as above, but for chopping trees. You are going to need thousands of logs for your kilns, so upgrade this immediately.
Fast Travel Bell	10 Ingots, 3 Rope. Allows you to set custom fast travel points. Essential for connecting your main base to resource outposts.
Pistol	5 Ingots, 10 Wood. The simplest firearm. It requires Copper Bullets to fire, but gives you a massive advantage over early game melee enemies.

If you want to put that new pistol to use, you can check out our weapons and armor guide to see what else you can craft.