Stonewards Ammo and Crafting

Running out of ammunition mid-horn is one of the most embarrassing ways to lose a Stonewards run because it is entirely preventable. Banana Tiger Studio ties combat directly to mined ore—you cannot shoot what you did not craft. This page covers crafting camp priorities, arrow stockpiles, recycling trade-offs, and how ammo planning interacts with forge upgrades and wall repair.

Read Forge Upgrades for the full spend picture. This page zooms in on the combat sustain bucket.

Crafting Camp Basics

Between waves, the crafting camp converts ore and related materials into practical combat goods—most visibly arrows and similar ranged consumables depending on your weapon and patch state. Crafting is not instant DPS; it consumes inter-wave time you could spend mining or repairing. That trade is worth it because defenders without ammo become decorative wall ornaments while monsters walk toward the King.

Craft speed upgrades—from forge rolls or rings documented in Rings and Relics—multiply value here. One co-op player with craft speed assigned to camp duty often outperforms four players crafting slowly without coordination.

Minimum Stockpile Rule

Before spending ore on luxury forge upgrades, define a minimum stockpile for the next wave tier. Demo squads commonly use this mental rule:

• Early waves (1–3): Enough ammo to fire continuously through one full horn without recycling weapons.
• Mid waves (4–7): One horn of ammo plus a partial buffer for unexpected breach time.
• Late spikes: Two horns of baseline ammo if lobby rewards did not grant damage or wall help.

Tune thresholds with Wave Prep Planner once you know your mission’s pace.

Ore Types for Crafting

Not every mined node feeds the crafting camp equally. Metals from procedural caves fund ammunition; stone-heavy hauls skew toward wall repair instead. Ores and Materials lists node priorities.

Common early mistake: miners return with pretty rare ore while crafting camp lacks basic metal for arrows. Call out “need craft metal” in co-op the same way you call “need stone.”

Crafting vs Forge Upgrades

When ore is limited, choose crafting when:

• Any defender reported empty or low ammo last wave.
• Next wave adds ranged-heavy enemy types from Monster Types.
• You skipped crafting last cycle to chase an upgrade and barely survived.

Choose upgrades when:

• Stockpile exceeds your minimum threshold.
• Primary lane repairs are caught up.
• The offered upgrade fixes craft speed or damage bottlenecks—not before.

Resource Priority Checklist encodes this decision tree.

Recycling Camp Trade-offs

The recycling camp returns a portion of resources from gear you no longer need. Use it to fund crafting when inventory clogs with obsolete weapons after forge upgrades or chest drops.

Do not recycle actively equipped defender gear mid-run without a replacement ready. Recycling shines after chest opener rewards or blacksmith swaps leave duplicate tier weapons in someone’s bag.

Details on weapon tiers sit in Weapons and Gear.

Chest Opener and Team Ammo

Chests hauled from mines and opened at the bastion can grant shared buffs or items. Some rewards indirectly reduce ammo pressure—team damage buffs shorten horn duration. Others add consumables that stack with crafted arrows.

Assign who opens chests during forge phase so defenders keep repairing while crafters distribute loot. How to Play Stonewards places chests in the wider loop.

Solo Crafting Workflow

Solo players craft for themselves only, which simplifies math but removes slack:

1. Mine until craft metal + stone thresholds met.
2. Repair primary lane.
3. Craft to minimum stockpile.
4. Take one upgrade if time remains before horn telegraph.
5. Reload and position before audio ramps.

Solo should bias craft speed and armor upgrades per Best Early Builds because nobody else covers crafting while you mine.

Co-op Crafting Workflow

Assign one primary crafter per run when possible. Others deposit ore and resume mining or repairing. Flex crafters switch to walls if horns start early.

Communication lines that prevent ammo wipes:

• “Crafting now—need thirty seconds.”
• “Ammo red—hold upgrades this cycle.”
• “Deposit metal at camp, not forge gamble.”

See How to Co-op in Stonewards for role stability.

Crafting Under Time Pressure

When horn telegraphs begin early:

• Stop non-essential upgrades immediately.
• Finish in-progress crafts if abort wastes ore.
• Surface defenders preload weapons while crafter completes batch.

Partial craft beats perfect craft if perfect arrives mid-horn.

Interaction With Combat Guides

Crafted ammo means nothing without Wave Defense discipline—spraying arrows into side lanes while elites walk the King path still loses runs. Crafting also supports fallback fights in Bastion Fallback where consumables burn faster.

Advanced: Specialty Ammunition

Some missions or upgrades enable specialized ammunition—explosive or armor-piercing variants in marketing materials and demo footage. Treat specialty ammo as situational spend after baseline stockpiles. Burning rare ore on novelty arrows while basic stock is empty repeats the same failure mode.

Related Pages

• Builds hub — Full loadout planning.
• Items hub — Ore and weapon categories.
• Controls — Fast station interaction bindings.

Staying Current

Recipe costs and ammo types may expand in Early Access. Crafting philosophy stays fixed: horns start loaded.