Iron Axe

Overview

An iron axe, tough enough to bite into the Foothills' hardwood.

Iron Axe is the Foothills-tier chopping tool in Windrose. Unlike the Stone Axe and Copper Axe, it is the first axe the game considers tough enough to bite into Hardwood. Because Hardwood gates several mid-game carpentry and shipyard recipes, the Iron Axe is one of the real progression milestones on the way from the starting beach toward the full open archipelago.

Item Info

Crafting

Loot Sources

In addition to the recipe, one Iron Axe is handed to players as a guaranteed drop from the Highlands Start Chest equip slot. It is a scripted starter cache for players arriving in the Highlands rather than a reliable farming target, but it means a player whose Copper chain was skipped still has a valid Hardwood-capable axe on arrival.

Vendor Availability

The Iron Axe is not bought or sold by any vendor. The tool is either crafted at a Workbench Lvl 2 or recovered from the Highlands Start Chest.

Uses

• Chop Hardwood from Foothills and jungle hardwood trees, which no earlier axe can harvest. Hardwood is required for carpentry-tier station upgrades, reinforced furniture, ship keels, and the Simple Fishing Rod.

• Continue to chop soft Wood faster than the Stone or Copper axe, thanks to the higher 200 Durability pool and slightly better swing economy per tool.

• Break reinforced wooden crates and barricades at higher-level Points of Interest.

• Emergency melee fallback with 255 Crude ATK, identical to the Copper and Swamp axes. The durability jump to 200 makes it safer to draw in an emergency without breaking mid-fight.

Progression Notes

Crafting an Iron Axe requires two upstream investments: a Workbench upgraded to Lvl 2, and a working Foothills iron chain. Foothills Iron Ore mined with a Copper Pickaxe is smelted into Foothills Iron Ingot at the Smelting Furnace. Most players reach this point around the time they unlock the Foothills biome and start building a Lvl 2 Workbench at their main camp. Once both are ready, five ingots and five Wood produce the axe in a single craft.

After the Iron Axe, there is no further ATK improvement on axes. The Swamp Axe raises Durability from 200 to 300 but keeps the same 255 Crude damage, so the decision to craft one is entirely about how much time you plan to spend in the Arborum biome chopping cursed trees.

Tips

• Craft the Iron Axe and the Iron Pickaxe together at the first Foothills smelting batch. The 200 Durability on both tools means a single pair can power a full Foothills excursion.

• Keep a Copper Axe in a backup chest for tasks that do not need Hardwood. Iron Axe swings through soft Wood slightly faster, but the Copper Axe spares iron supply for weapons and armor.

• The Highlands Start Chest Equip version is typically found on arrival in the Highlands zone. Check the chest before farming Foothills iron if you are racing toward Hardwood.

See Also

• Tools

• Copper Axe

• Iron Pickaxe

• Swamp Axe

• Hardwood

• Foothills Iron Ingot

• Workbench

Details

Properties

Crafted By

Crafted at: Workbench

Unlocked By

• Discovery: Iron tools, crafting station upgrades and larger ship cannons

• Foothills

• Foothills Iron Ore

Disassembles Into