7 Days to Die Brass Guide: Salvaging, Smelting, and Ammo Recipes

If you plan on using firearms in 7 Days to Die, brass is the single material that decides how often you can pull the trigger. No brass means no bullet casings, and no casings means no bullets. Below is a clean breakdown of where brass comes from, which method pays out more, and every ammo recipe that eventually needs it.

Two Ways to Pull Brass Out of Junk

Brass comes from two main sources: salvaging brass items with a disassembly tool, or melting them down at a Forge. Both have their place, but they don't pay out the same.

Salvaging With a Disassembly Tool

Equip a Ratchet, Wrench, or Impact Driver, then take apart any brass-bearing object you find while looting. Useful targets and their salvage yields:

• Brass Radiator: 187 brass
• Brass Faucet: 12 brass
• Bullet Casing: 1 brass

Salvaging is fast, portable, and works wherever you happen to be. The tradeoff is that you leave a meaningful amount of metal on the table.

Smelting at a Forge

A Forge takes a small upfront investment, but it pulls noticeably more brass out of the same items. To craft one, you'll need:

• 50x Cobblestone Rocks
• 1x Wood Log
• 10x Leather
• 3x Duct Tape
• 3x Short Iron Pipe

You also need to read 5x Forge Ahead magazines before the recipe unlocks. Once the Forge is up, drop brass items in and wait. For comparison, smelting a Brass Radiator yields 250 brass instead of the 187 you'd get from salvage. Worth the extra step if you're loading up on ammo.

Heads up: after the Alpha 21 update, Brass Trophies, Brass Candlesticks, and Brass Doorknobs no longer smelt into brass. Don't haul them home expecting a payout.

Trading With Duke Coins

Traders will swap Duke Coins for brass, but the math rarely beats just smelting the coins yourself. One Duke Coin melts down into roughly one brass, and the trade ratio is usually worse than that. Save the coins for things you can't make.

Brass Crafting Recipes

Brass on its own does nothing useful. Its real job is feeding the Bullet Casing recipe, which in turn feeds every firearm in the game.

Bullet Casing

Crafted at the Workbench with 1x Clay Soil and:

• Levels 0 to 2 Advanced Engineering: 6x Brass
• Levels 3 to 5 Advanced Engineering: 5x Brass

Higher skill levels save brass per casing, which adds up fast across a horde night.

Ammunition Recipes

Each of the rounds below also requires 1x Bullet Casing, plus the listed components, all crafted at the Workbench:

• .44 Magnum: 1x Bullet Tip, 2x Gun Powder
• .44 Magnum (AP): 2x Bullet Tip, 3x Gun Powder
• .44 Magnum (HP): 2x Bullet Tip, 2x Gun Powder
• 7.62mm: 1x Bullet Tip, 3x Gun Powder
• 7.62mm (AP): 2x Bullet Tip, 5x Gun Powder
• 7.62mm (HP): 2x Bullet Tip, 3x Gun Powder
• 9mm: 1x Bullet Tip, 1x Gun Powder
• 9mm (AP): 2x Bullet Tip, 2x Gun Powder
• 9mm (HP): 2x Bullet Tip, 1x Gun Powder

Stockpile brass before day seven and your Forge, and your trigger finger, will both thank you.