Where to Find Copper in Permafrost: Map & First Location
Find your first Copper Boulder in Permafrost beyond the repaired road bridge. See the world map, mining tool requirements and Copper Ingot recipes.
Short answer: the easiest early Copper Boulders sit in the ravine just beyond the repaired road bridge near your first base. Cross the bridge, take the downhill path to the right, and search the rock face and the frozen creek bed. Bring a Flint Pickaxe — a Stone Pickaxe cannot mine Copper.
The real in-game world map texture from the PC Early Access build. This is the genuine map background, not a screenshot with Copper markers drawn on it. Open the interactive Permafrost map to see every Copper Boulder plotted onto it.
The fastest early-game Copper route
- Craft a Flint Pickaxe first. Carry food and leave free space in your inventory before you set out.
- Start from your first shelter in the Woods. Look for the road bridge that gets repaired during the early story.
- Cross the repaired bridge. Once you are across, take the downhill path on your right into the ravine.
- Follow the cliff and the frozen creek bed. Aim at the rocks until the on-screen name Copper Boulder appears.
- Mine with the Flint Pickaxe. Keep working along the chasm toward Solar Fields if you still need Copper and Coal.
The first Copper Boulder in the ravine beyond the repaired road bridge. The on-screen "Copper Boulder" prompt and the equipped Flint Pickaxe confirm both the target and the tool. Screenshot: SpaceRocket Games gameplay via MissPinkPlays.
Visual check: the screenshot above shows the crosshair identifying the rock as a Copper Boulder, with the Flint Pickaxe equipped. It confirms the target object, but it is not a map pin for the whole bridge-to-ravine route.
This is a landmark-based route, not a coordinate track. The unmarked world map does not publish exact ore-node coordinates, so treat direction and distance as the precision the sources actually support. 待确认.
Best Copper farming locations
| Area | Copper Boulder markers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge ravine (Woods) | Not individually counted | Your first Copper for New Home |
| Rift Cave | 17 | A concentrated mining run |
| Landscar Cave | 13 | Mining on the way to Solar Fields |
| Crater | 11 | Later exploration |
Counts come from the same mirrored map dataset as our interactive Permafrost map, re-counted by layer rather than copied from a summary.
What Copper mining looks like near Landscar Cave
Mining Copper in the Landscar Cave area. The "+3 Copper" pickup confirms a successful break. Screenshot: SpaceRocket Games gameplay via MissPinkPlays.
Why can't I mine Copper?
You need a Flint Pickaxe. A Stone Pickaxe only breaks Stone and Flint boulders. If a red crossed-out pickaxe icon appears while you aim at an ore node, the equipped tool is too weak.
To craft the Flint Pickaxe:
- Mine Flint with a Stone Pickaxe. Bone Cave is an early source along the main quest.
- Build a Workbench (10 Wood).
- Craft the Flint Pickaxe from 2 Flint + 4 Wood.
- Equip it and return to the Copper Boulder.
How to turn Copper into Copper Ingots
Unlock and build a Stone Furnace (around 40 Stone; the blueprint cost roughly 2 points in the build referenced here). Its Copper Ingot recipe uses:
| Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|
| 1 Copper Ingot | 3 Copper + 5 Coal |
| 2 Coal | 5 Wood (alternative recipe) |
Coal also appears in Bone Cave, around Horizon, and in the ravine toward Solar Fields, and Coal Boulders need a Flint Pickaxe too. Recipe values come from the referenced Early Access build and can change in later patches. 待确认
How much Copper do I need for New Home?
The Radio Station Bench costs 3 Wire + 10 Wood. Each Wire uses 1 Copper Ingot, so three Wire means 9 Copper + 15 Coal if you craft every ingot yourself. Smelt the ingots in the furnace, turn them into Wire at the Workbench, then place the radio bench.
What else is near the Copper caves
Copper is one link in a chain the early game keeps pushing you along: Flint tools gather Copper, Copper smelts into Ingots, and Copper tools are then needed to collect Iron, which appears south and east of House Camp.
Other early materials sit in the same loop. Metal junk and oil come mainly from damaged cars, with the biggest concentration around House Camp, where a Dismantle Bench turns metal junk into scrap. Plastic junk is mined from trash piles with a pickaxe and processed at the Dismantle Bench in the church at House Camp. Sulfur, which shares areas with Iron, feeds gunpowder and therefore ammunition. 待确认
Two rarer cave materials are worth knowing while you are underground. Gold is rare and sits in the same areas as Iron, but no clear use for it was found in the pre-release Early Access build. Moonstone appears in the very first cave you enter after the first town, and large deposits can also fall from the sky as meteors, but no mining method was confirmed — it may be gated behind quest progress. 待确认
FAQs
Where is the first Copper in Permafrost?
Beyond the repaired road bridge near your first shelter. Cross it, go down to the right into the ravine, and inspect the boulders along the rocky cliff and the frozen creek.
Can I mine Copper with the Stone Pickaxe?
No. Make a Flint Pickaxe at the Workbench first, using 2 Flint + 4 Wood.
Where can I see every Copper spot?
Our interactive Permafrost map plots all 136 Copper Boulder markers. Switch on the Copper run preset to see them alongside fast-travel posts, caves and workbenches, or turn on Ores & mining to compare Copper with Iron, Coal and Sulfur.
Which areas have the most Copper?
The marked clusters sit around Rift Cave (17), Landscar Cave (13) and Crater (11).
How do I make Copper Ingots?
Use a Stone Furnace. In the referenced Early Access build each Copper Ingot costs 3 Copper and 5 Coal.
Do Copper nodes respawn?
Not confirmed. No source checked here states a respawn rule or a fixed yield per node. 待确认
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