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The eight ages: Kindling to Nova.
Your world grows older as you make and dig things. Each age opens new benches, machines and weapons, and none of them ever close again.
How ages work
An age begins when your world has made or dug enough of a key material, not merely found one. The game counts pieces smelted, mixed or reacted, and blocks dug. Everything you could already build stays buildable: the ages only ever open more. If you reach a later age early, every age before it counts as reached.
A recipe that is still waiting for an age shows the note "The world is not old enough yet for this" in the recipe book. The ages are long on purpose, so there is always a next goal.
The ages have their own names, and a familiar name they stand for:
| # | Age | Stands for | It begins |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Kindling Age | Stone | with the first flint and fire |
| 1 | Tinmelt Age | Bronze | when your world has made 80 bronze |
| 2 | Anvil Age | Iron | when your world has smelted 300 iron |
| 3 | Temper Age | Steel | when your world has made 500 steel |
| 4 | Gearturn Age | Industrial | when a generator runs and your world has made 800 steel |
| 5 | Corelight Age | Atomic | when your world has dug 60 blocks of uranium or thorium |
| 6 | Voidward Age | Space | when a rocket has left the sky and your world has made 600 titanium alloy |
| 7 | Nova Age | Stellar | when your world has made 40 Nova Alloy |
For the Corelight Age, blocks of Uranium, Thorium, Uraninite or Monazite all count towards the 60.
What each age brings
Kindling Age: hand tools and fire
You start here. Hand tools, the Workbench, fire, the Furnace, crates, beds and the benches are all open. Campfire, Lamp and Crate need no bench to build.
Tinmelt Age: bronze
Bronze tools, and pressure suits for the deep. The Gun Bench look of the Forge Bench opens: it assembles guns from parts and makes cartridges, shells and bolts.
Anvil Age: iron
Iron tools and fittings. The Rocket Bench look of the Forge Bench opens: it makes hand rockets, grenades, mines and fireworks.
Temper Age: steel and power
Power arrives. These blocks wait for it:
- Generator, Solar Panel, Wind Turbine, Battery and Switch.
Also open: the Laser Pistol, Steel Arrows, Steel Bolts, Armour-Piercing Cartridges, Energy Cells and Dart Rockets.
Gearturn Age: machines
Machines for the works and the sea:
- Powered Drill, Electric Smelter, Pump, Refinery and Conveyor.
- Sorting Chest.
- Propeller, Ship Engine, Gun Turret, Fire Control Director and Ballast Tank.
Corelight Age: the reactor and rockets
- Reactor.
- Rocket Engine, Fuel Tank, Landing Leg and Missile Launcher.
- Grav Lift.
- The Plasma Rifle, Plasma Cells and Heavy Rockets.
Voidward Age: the Star Chart
The Star Chart opens, with the moons and the other worlds of your home star.
Nova Age: the Vector Drive
The Vector Drive: a rocket fitted with one travels by wormhole, to other stars too. Nova hull plating for the capital ships is made from the same Nova Alloy.
Recipe gating at a glance
| Age needed | Things it opens |
|---|---|
| Tinmelt | Gun Bench |
| Anvil | Rocket Bench |
| Temper | Generator, Solar Panel, Wind Turbine, Battery, Switch, Laser Pistol, Steel Arrows, Steel Bolts, Armour-Piercing Cartridges, Energy Cells, Dart Rockets |
| Gearturn | Powered Drill, Electric Smelter, Pump, Refinery, Conveyor, Sorting Chest, Propeller, Ship Engine, Gun Turret, Fire Control Director, Ballast Tank |
| Corelight | Reactor, Missile Launcher, Rocket Engine, Fuel Tank, Landing Leg, Grav Lift, Plasma Rifle, Plasma Cells, Heavy Rockets |
| Nova | Vector Drive |
Some of the Temper and Gearturn blueprints are also kept back by the research tree, so you need the age and either the research or a recipe scroll found in the world. See Research and the Lab Bench.
Racing through the ages
- Bronze: melt 7 Copper and 1 Tin at a Forge Bench. Each batch makes 8 pieces, so ten batches reach 80. See Alloys and the Forge.
- Iron: smelt Hematite or Magnetite. You need a furnace hot enough: see Smelting and fuel.
- Steel: 31 Iron and 1 Charcoal make 32 steel at once, so 500 is about sixteen batches.
- Uranium or thorium: they lie in the Upper Mantle; see Ores and where to find them.
- Titanium alloy: 14 Titanium, 1 Aluminium and 1 Vanadium make 16.
- Nova Alloy: needs Stellarite from the inner core: see Going deep.
The tallies belong to the world, not to a single player, so anything made or dug in your world counts towards the next age.
← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.