Refractory Bricks Questions

[Koda Passero]

I'm working on building a cementation furnace and I already have a beehive kiln, but I'm curious about a couple things - first, the refractory bricks for my kiln just never seem to get damaged, no matter how much I use them. Have I just gotten extremely lucky, or does the kiln not break down the same way as cementation furnaces do? Second, can I use different tiers of bricks in the same furnace? I have some crushed chromite to make tier 3 bricks with, but not quite enough for the whole furnace, so I'd love to finish it up with some low tier ones to get some steel going while I go looking for a new chromite vein (I felt very clever getting chromite before getting steel - I have a decent supply of ore blasting bombs that I used to blast the vein I found while hounding for olivine).

[Never Jhonsen]

Chromite also requires Steel to crush, so you won't be able to use it quite yet

53 minutes ago, Koda Passero said:

I have some crushed chromite to make tier 3 bricks with

It's Ilmenite (Titanium) that's used in Tier 3 Refractory bricks, not Chromite. That also requires a Steel pickaxe and Steel Pounder Caps to process.

54 minutes ago, Koda Passero said:

[C]an I use different tiers of bricks in the same furnace?

Yes I actually wasn't sure myself, but I loaded up a creative world and made a furnace with all three brick blocks, all three grate types, and (this one I've already done before in survival) all 4 coffin types, and it's processing right now

58 minutes ago, Koda Passero said:

[T]he refractory bricks for my kiln just never seem to get damaged, no matter how much I use them. Have I just gotten extremely lucky, or does the kiln not break down the same way as cementation furnaces do?

I'm under the impression they don't break down on a beehive kiln, but I've not made one myself yet, so I'm not sure

[Koda Passero]

Hm, maybe it's a mod I'm using, but I was able to use chromite to make tier 3 bricks - and, chromite bits (not chunks) only required tier 2 pounder caps, meaning I could do it with bronze (but I have iron for the olivine). But thank you for testing out the refractory bricks! I'm probably gonna switch out all of my refractory bricks for my beehive kiln in favor of plain fire bricks then, to save on resources.

[Koda Passero]

9 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said:

...I loaded up a creative world and made a furnace with ... all 4 coffin types, and it's processing right now

Wait, can you use multiple stone coffins in a single furnace? I thought you could only do the two halves of one coffin?

[Never Jhonsen]

According to the handbook, there is a chance of them breaking after several cycles, so you may have been lucky

6 minutes ago, Koda Passero said:

chromite bits (not chunks) only required tier 2 pounder caps

I hate to break it to you, fellow Vintarian, , but that's also your mod allowing you to use bronze pounder caps

Just now, Koda Passero said:

Wait, can you use multiple stone coffins in a single furnace?

Not quite what I meant, sorry about the confusion. This is what I was talking about ->

All 4 types for one coffin, they don't have to fully match on stone

[Koda Passero]

Ah, well, I'll certainly take advantage of whatever mod's making me able to skip steps of this journey! And thank you for the explanation - I've certainly wasted resources doing things multiple times that I could have done once in bulk, so I was ready for it to happen again LOL. Thanks!

[Krougal]

You normally can't mine chromite or ilmenite without a steel pickaxe.

[Koda Passero]

7 minutes ago, Krougal said:

You normally can't mine chromite or ilmenite without a steel pickaxe.

Ore blasting bombs blast any kind of ore, so you don't need a high-tier pickaxe if you only use the bombs

[Krougal]

14 minutes ago, Koda Passero said:

Ore blasting bombs blast any kind of ore, so you don't need a high-tier pickaxe if you only use the bombs

Ahhh! Yeah, I always forget that, there is no problem that can't be solved with enough explosives.

I wonder if it is viable to go right to T3 refractory bricks. While the chances are low of them breaking, I have never had to replace any.

T2, typically 1 or 2 per cycle, which is still not bad really.

Edited August 5, 2025 by Krougal

[Koda Passero]

My experience with T2 on my last world was replacing about 4 or 5 of them each go, and often struggling to find which one was even making the structure register as damaged. Every time I make a new world I'm always trying to find a new way to skip steps, just to challenge myself and keep it interesting. For me, it's worth it just to be trying out something new and feeling clever, even if it's from one or more of my mods letting me cheat a little bit haha