Editing v0.34:Melt item

{{quality|Exceptional|18:12, 28 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

You can '''melt''' items at a [[smelter]], using the [[furnace operator]] labor, to recover some of the [[metal]] they were made of.  [[Decoration]]s in a different metal are not recovered or considered; the metal recovered is the specific metal that basic item was listed as being made from. The % return is predictable and consistent for each item type, and ranges from 10%-60%, depending on the item. Higher skill levels in furnace operator speed up the process, but have no effect on the % return.

So, it's recommended that you designate one smelter as your "melting" smelter (or one/metal type), to guarantee that fractions will add up effectively.

To bring up a individual object description screen when the object is:

However, this only marks which items you want to be melted - you still have to place the job-order in a smelter...

For every unit of [[material size]] an item has, 1/10th of a bar of that item's metal type will be recovered. These fractional bars are "stored" at the specific smelter where the item was melted; when a full bar's worth of one type of metal has been melted, one bar will be produced. Therefore, you should do all your melting at one smelter, at least for each different type of metal or [[alloy]] melted.

Melting objects nets you fewer bars of metal than were required to make them, although for some objects this loss is much greater than for others.  Some items are available cheap from traders, or are otherwise refuse, so melting is a distinct option.  An entire suit of chain armor, including shield, consumes 7 bars to make - melted (and with ''high'' boots) it yields only 2.1.

 

 

 

::{|cellpadding="2" border="1" class="sortable"

! Armor <br />Item <br /> melted!! Percent <br />Return !! Absolute<br /> Return<br /> (in bars)

| [[Armor#Headgear|cap]] || 10% || .1

| [[Armor#Headgear|helm]] || 20% || .2

| [[Armor#Upper Body|chain armor]] || 30% || .6*

| [[Armor#Upper Body|plate armor]] || 30% || .9*

| [[Armor#Hands|gauntlet]] || 20% || .2

| [[Armor#Lower Body|leggings]] || 50% || .5

| [[Armor#Lower Body|greaves]]  || 30% || .6*

| [[Armor#Foot Protection|high boot]]  || 20% || .2

| [[Armor#Foot Protection|low boot]]  || 10% || .1

| [[Armor#Shield|shield]]  || 40% || .4

| [[Armor#Shield|buckler]]  || 20% || .2

|}

:''(* Note that these items take more than 1 bar to make initially.)''

::{|cellpadding="2" border="1" class="sortable"

| large dagger, whip  || .1

| blowgun, scourge || .2

| bow, crossbow,  mace, scimitar,<br /> short sword, spear, war hammer  || .3

| battle axe, flail, longsword,<br /> pick, pike || .4

| great axe, halberd, <br />two-handed sword || .5

| stack of # arrows, bolts || # /100, rounded up*

|}

:''(* Round up to nearest 1/10th. A stack of 1-10 bolts or arrows produces .1 bars, 11-20 produces .2, 21-30 = .3, and 31+ = .4.  A weaponsmith can produce a stack of 25 metal bolts, which produces 0.3 bars.  You could "create" metal this way, if you could reliably collect individual metal bolts after they were shot (and unbroken).)''  

 

Due to the low return, many players opt to install weapons into [[weapon trap]]s instead, especially if the weapon is of any [[quality]].''

 

 

:''(* Upwards of 1,000 bars to train from unskilled to Legendary+5, the highest skill level.)

 

 

 

| [[weaponsmith]] || 50%¹ || [[Trap component|enormous corkscrew]]s,<br />[[Trap component|giant axe blade]]s,<br />[[Trap component|menacing spike]]s

 

| [[armorsmith]] || 50% ||[[Armor|leggings]]

 

| [[metal crafter]] || 60% <br />(2/10 each)² || [[goblet]]

 

| [[metal crafter]] || 50% || [[chain]]

 

| [[metalsmith]] || 100% || [[Road|Metal buildings]] {{bug|4899}} <br /> (Requires no melt job)

|}

 

::1) Some [[other weapon]]s have a better return/weapon, but cannot be manufactured by dwarves, negating their value for training purposes.

::2) Goblets are produced in threes, and have an individual item size of 2; 2/10 x 3 = 60% recovery/bar.

 

One alternative to the production/melting process is to train many dwarves up to novice in the skill you need by lowering the maximum skill level in the workshop profiles to dabbling. Once that is done wait for a [[Strange mood]]. The artifact produced will bump the lucky dwarf up to legendary +1, potentially saving you lots of time and resources. You will still need to melt down the low quality items produced by the dabbling masses. This works for other skills as well.

 

The downsides of this is that it may take very long depending on the number of dwarves, available workshops as well as the random onset of strange moods.

 

===Buying items to melt===

[[Merchant]]s will often offer metal items, metals that you might want but can't find or produce.  This chart shows the [[Value#Items_with_both_material_and_quality|base value]] of a given item, without [[Value#Material_multipliers|material multiplier]], and then a "cost" relative to its yield, so you know what the "best buys" are if you want (or are forced) to go down this road.

 

For instance, a [[cap]] has a base value of 10*, and produces .1 bars when melted. That means you would need to buy 10 caps to make 1 bar, and so a cap that has a "relative cost" of 100, since it costs 100* (10 caps at value 10*) to produce 1 bar. ''(And it turns out, that's a pretty poor return on investment!)''

 

:<nowiki>*</nowiki> ''The Base Value is then multiplied by the Material Multiplier (how valuable the material is), but the ''relative'' cost/yield of each item remains constant. ''

 

:''In practice, these values are then all multiplied by the material, but all are multiplied equally for any one metal.  For example, a helmet has a Base Value of 15, before material multipliers, and greaves 30, twice that of a helmet. So a [[copper]] (MM x2) helmet would have a base value of 30 and copper greaves would have 60, while a [[steel]] (MM x30) helmet would have a base value of 450 and steel greaves 900 - so both would have the same ''relative'' value compared to any other item of the same metal - more than a low boot, and less than a weapon.''

 

 

::{|cellpadding="2" border="1" class="sortable"

! Item <br /> Bought !! Base <br />Value !! Absolute <br /> Return !! Relative <br /> Cost/Bar¹

| [[cap]] || 10 || .1 || 100

| [[helm]] || 15 || .2 || 75

| chain armor || 60 || .6 || 100

| plate armor || 100 || .9 || 111

| [[gauntlets|gauntlet]] || 15 || .2 || 75

| [[leggings]] || 15 || .5 || 30

| [[greaves]]  || 30 || .6 || 50

| high [[boot]]  || 15 || .2 || 75

| low [[boot]]  || 15 || .1 || 150

| [[shield]]  || 15 || .4 || 37.5

| [[buckler]]  || 10 || .2 || 50

| bow, crossbow,  mace,<br /> scimitar, short sword,<br /> spear, war hammer || 10 || .3 || 33.3

| battle axe, flail, <br />longsword, pick, pike || 10 || .4 || 25

| great axe, halberd, <br />two-handed sword <br /> [[trap weapon]]s || 10 || .5 || 20

| stack of 25 bolts, arrows || 25 || .3 || 83.3

| [[cage]]² || 10 || 1.0 || 10

| [[anvil]]³  || 100 || 1.0 || 100

|-  

| [[craft]]s || || || (poor, tbd)

|-  

:::1) You're ''buying'', so you want a ''low'' cost/bar.

:::2) Cages are offered in only [[copper]], [[lead]], [[nickel]], [[tin]], or [[zinc]]. All [[furniture]] returns 1 bar for each item melted, but only cages are offered for trade.

:::3) Anvils are offered in only [[iron]] or [[steel]].

Your top "best buys" for melting objects down for the metal are '''cages''', '''weapons''', and '''leggings''', in roughly that order, followed by '''helms''' and '''shields''', and then on up from there. Stay away from chain and plate armours, and anvils, unless you have trade items to burn. What is "too expensive" is up to you and how badly you need that metal, and how much how fast.