Plasteel in RimWorld: Where to Find It and What It Builds

Plasteel sits near the top of RimWorld's material food chain. It is rare, stubborn to mine, and demanded by almost every late-game blueprint worth chasing. If you plan to launch a starship, kit out a Marine squad, or build mechanoids of your own, you will need a lot of it.

This guide covers the three reliable ways to source Plasteel, the research and gear that make mining viable, and every recipe in the base game and DLCs that calls for it by the unit.

Where Plasteel Comes From

Three pipelines feed Plasteel into your stockpile, and each one fits a different stage of the colony.

1. Surface deposits. Some maps spawn rare Plasteel nodes you can mine directly. Drop one near your base on day one and you have a serious head start. They are uncommon, and the rock is hard enough that you really want a colonist with strong Mining skill swinging the pickaxe.

2. Trading. Mining Goods caravans, Exotic Goods caravans, and offers through the Comms Console will occasionally list Plasteel by the stack. Prices run high early on, so this works best once you have silver to burn. Watch the shipments anyway: a cheap pile at the right moment can save you several days of research.

3. Mechanoid corpses. Shredding Centipedes, Diaboli, Termites, War Queens, Centurions, and Tunnelers yields Plasteel directly. This is one reason mech raids stop feeling like a death sentence and start feeling like a delivery service, assuming you survive the part where they shoot at you.

Mining With the Right Tech

Hunting surface deposits is fine, but the reliable answer is to push your research toward subterranean mining. Two structures matter here:

• Deep Drill: 100 Steel, 2 Components
• Ground-Penetrating Scanner: 150 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Advanced Component

The scanner identifies underground veins. The drill extracts them. Together they turn Plasteel from a lucky find into a steady supply line. Until you have both, treat any Plasteel you collect as a bonus rather than a budget item.

Full Crafting List

Plasteel feeds into a huge number of recipes, most of them end-game gear, ship hulls, mechanoid frames, and bionics. It can also serve as generic Metallic Stuff for many other items, but the entries below are the ones that demand Plasteel by the unit.

Crafted Resources

• Advanced Component: 10 Plasteel, 20 Steel, 3 Gold, 1 Component

Buildings (Misc.)

• Multi-Analyzer: 50 Plasteel, 40 Steel, 20 Gold, 8 Components
• Crashed Mechanitor Ship: 70 Plasteel, 40 Steel, 10 Components

Buildings (Security)

• Autocannon Turret: 40 Plasteel, 350 Steel, 6 Components
• Rocketswarm Launcher: 20 Plasteel, 200 Steel, 180 Chemfuel, 2 Components
• Uranium Slug Turret: 30 Plasteel, 300 Steel, 60 Uranium, 6 Components

Buildings (Ship)

• Ship Engine: 140 Plasteel, 260 Steel, 70 Uranium, 6 Components
• Ship Reactor: 280 Plasteel, 350 Steel, 70 Uranium, 8 Components
• Ship Structural Beam: 40 Plasteel, 200 Steel, 3 Components, 1 Advanced Component

Buildings (Structure)

• Security Door: 50 Plasteel, 2 Components

Buildings (Biotech)

• Gene Processor: 25 Plasteel, 100 Steel, 2 Components
• Mechband Dish: 25 Plasteel, 75 Steel, 2 Advanced Components
• Psychofluid Pump: 100 Plasteel, 50 Steel, 5 Hemogen Packs, 6 Components
• Subcore Ripscanner: 150 Plasteel, 200 Steel, 6 Components
• Subcore Softscanner: 50 Plasteel, 200 Steel, 4 Components
• Wastepack Atomizer: 50 Plasteel, 200 Steel, 1 Nano Structuring Chip

Weapons

• Charge Rifle: 50 Plasteel, 2 Advanced Components
• Charge Lance: 60 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components

Armor and Helmets

• Flak Helmet: 40 Metallic Stuff (or 400 Stuff for SVMs), 10 Plasteel, 2 Components
• Integrator Headset: 50 Plasteel, 4 Components, 4 Advanced Components, 1 Powerfocus Chip
• Recon Armor: 80 Plasteel, 10 Uranium, 3 Advanced Components
• Recon Helmet: 30 Plasteel, 1 Advanced Component
• Marine Armor: 100 Plasteel, 20 Uranium, 4 Advanced Components
• Marine Helmet: 40 Plasteel, 1 Advanced Component
• Mechcommander Helmet: 60 Plasteel, 6 Components, 1 Signal Chip
• Mechlord Helmet: 120 Plasteel, 6 Components, 2 Nano Structuring Chips
• Mechlord Suit: 120 Plasteel, 8 Advanced Components, 2 Nano Structuring Chips, 1 Powerfocus Chip
• Cataphract Armor: 150 Plasteel, 50 Uranium, 6 Advanced Components
• Cataphract Helmet: 50 Plasteel, 1 Advanced Component
• Grenadier Armor: 100 Plasteel, 75 Steel, 20 Uranium, 4 Components, 4 Advanced Components
• Gunlink: 10 Plasteel, 1 Advanced Component
• Locust Armor: 120 Plasteel, 10 Uranium, 3 Components, 3 Advanced Components, 100 Chemfuel
• Phoenix Armor: 150 Plasteel, 75 Steel, 50 Uranium, 4 Components, 6 Advanced Components, 40 Chemfuel
• Prestige Cataphract Armor: 190 Plasteel, 50 Uranium, 180 Gold, 6 Advanced Components
• Prestige Cataphract Helmet: 75 Plasteel, 90 Gold, 1 Advanced Component
• Prestige Marine Armor: 120 Plasteel, 20 Uranium, 100 Gold, 4 Advanced Components
• Prestige Marine Helmet: 50 Plasteel, 50 Gold, 1 Advanced Component
• Prestige Recon Armor: 100 Plasteel, 10 Uranium, 90 Gold, 3 Advanced Components
• Prestige Recon Helmet: 40 Plasteel, 40 Gold, 1 Advanced Component

Utility Gear

• Shield Belt: 20 Plasteel, 50 Steel, 2 Components
• Jump Pack: 30 Plasteel, 3 Components, 100 Chemfuel

Mechanoid Construction

• Scyther: 75 Plasteel, 75 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Standard Subcore
• Pikeman: 40 Plasteel, 100 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Standard Subcore
• Lancer: 75 Plasteel, 75 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Standard Subcore
• Centipede Gunner: 255 Plasteel, 255 Steel, 8 Components, 1 High Subcore
• Centipede Burner: 255 Plasteel, 255 Steel, 8 Components, 1 High Subcore
• Centipede Blaster: 355 Plasteel, 255 Steel, 8 Components, 1 High Subcore
• Centurion: 200 Plasteel, 300 Steel, 2 Advanced Components, 1 Powerfocus Chip, 1 High Subcore
• Diabolus: 300 Plasteel, 300 Steel, 2 Signal Chips, 1 High Subcore
• Legionary: 100 Plasteel, 6 Components, 1 High Subcore
• Scorcher: 32 Plasteel, 80 Steel, 3 Components, 1 Standard Subcore
• Tesseron: 110 Plasteel, 7 Components, 1 High Subcore
• Tunneler: 75 Plasteel, 150 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Standard Subcore
• War Queen: 300 Plasteel, 600 Steel, 3 Advanced Components, 1 Nano Structuring Chip, 1 High Subcore

Bionics and Body Parts

• Bionic Arm: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Bionic Ear: 10 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components
• Bionic Eye: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Bionic Heart: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Bionic Jaw: 10 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components
• Bionic Leg: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Bionic Spine: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Bionic Stomach: 10 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components
• Bionic Tongue: 8 Plasteel, 2 Advanced Components
• Detoxifier Kidney: 15 Plasteel, 2 Advanced Components
• Detoxifier Lung: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Aesthetic Nose: 10 Plasteel, 2 Advanced Components
• Aesthetic Shaper: 15 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components
• Armorskin Gland: 20 Plasteel, 6 Advanced Components
• Circadian Assistant: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Circadian Half-cycler: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Coagulator: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Gastro-Analyzer: 15 Plasteel, 3 Advanced Components
• Healing Enhancer: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Immunoenhancer: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Learning Assistant: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Love Enhancer: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Neurocalculator: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Nuclear Stomach: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Reprocessor Stomach: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Sterilizing Stomach: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components
• Stoneskin Gland: 25 Plasteel, 8 Advanced Components
• Toughskin Gland: 15 Plasteel, 4 Advanced Components

Quick Strategy Notes

A few rules of thumb hold up across most colonies:

• Do not waste your first stack of Plasteel on Flak Helmets. Save it for Marine gear, where the upgrade matters far more.
• Components are often the real bottleneck before Plasteel is. Plan production accordingly.
• If a Mining Goods caravan rolls through and your stockpile is low, buy. The next one may take a long time to arrive.

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