Permafrost How to Mine Moonrock
Moonrock appears surprisingly early in Permafrost, including around Bone Cave, but the boulders are several tool tiers ahead of you when you first encounter them. You do not need to wait for a Moonrock Pickaxe to start gathering it, though, and once you reach the right tool tier there are much better places to farm Moon Rock than the first deposits you find.
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How to Mine Moonrock
Which Pickaxe You Need
Best Moonrock Locations
Early Moonrock Farming Route
Why You Cannot Mine Moonrock
How to Make Moonrock Ingots
How to Mine Moonrock in Permafrost
Equip an Iron Pickaxe or better, find a Moonrock Boulder, and mine it like the other ore deposits in Permafrost. The basic Iron Pickaxe is already strong enough to break Moonrock, so you do not need to craft a Moonrock Pickaxe first.
Resource: Moon Rock
Node: Moonrock Boulder
Minimum confirmed tool: Iron Pickaxe
Typical boulder yield: 2–4 Moon Rock
Also works: Refined Iron, Quality, Moonrock, and stronger Pickaxes
This is why the Moonrock deposits you see near the start can be misleading. Permafrost lets you discover the resource before your current pickaxe is capable of harvesting it.
Which Pickaxe Do You Need for Moonrock?
The important breakpoint is the Iron Pickaxe.
A Flint Pickaxe cannot mine Moonrock. Once you reach Iron tools, the normal Iron Pickaxe can mine Moonrock alongside Iron, Copper, Sulfur, Flint, Coal, and Stone.
You can craft an Iron Pickaxe at a Workbench using 2 Iron Ingots and 4 Wood. Iron itself sits further down the mining chain, so if you are still using Stone or Flint tools, continue advancing through the earlier ores rather than repeatedly returning to a Moonrock deposit you cannot break yet.
The Refined Iron Pickaxe also mines Moonrock and gives you more durability, while a Quality Pickaxe can mine every resource type. Those are useful upgrades, but neither is required just to start collecting Moon Rock.
Stone Pickaxe: Too weak
Flint Pickaxe: Too weak
Iron Pickaxe: Mines Moonrock
Refined Iron Pickaxe: Mines Moonrock with better durability
Quality Pickaxe: Mines everything
Best Moonrock Locations in Permafrost
Moonrock is not limited to one cave or meteor event. There are dozens of fixed Moonrock Boulder locations across the current map, with the largest known concentrations around Sonnenberg's Clinic and the Crater.
Sonnenberg's Clinic: 16 Moonrock Boulder spots
Crater: 13 spots
Shallow Rift: 7 spots
Bunker Checkpoint: 5 spots
Military Area: 3 spots
Bone Cave: 2 spots
There are currently 54 mapped Moonrock Boulder spots in total, so once you reach Iron tools, Moon Rock becomes much less of a one-location resource than it first appears.
If you need a large amount for Moonrock tools or later crafting, prioritize an area with a dense cluster instead of traveling across the map to mine isolated deposits one at a time.
Best Early Moonrock Route Near Horizon
For your first Moon Rock, you do not need to immediately travel to one of the largest late-game clusters.
Bone Cave, the Military Area, and Bunker Checkpoint form a useful group of Moonrock locations around Horizon. Together, those three named areas account for 10 mapped Moonrock Boulder spots and are close enough that they can be worked into the same resource trip.
Bone Cave is particularly useful as a landmark because the main story already takes you through it. You may have noticed the Moonrock there long before you could actually mine it. Once you have an Iron Pickaxe, returning to that same area gives you an immediate place to test the new tool.
A practical first route is to start around Horizon, check Bone Cave, continue through the nearby Military Area and Bunker Checkpoint, then return once your inventory, temperature, or tool durability makes continuing inefficient.
If you have already unlocked convenient travel points, our Permafrost fast travel guide covers how to cut down the return trip.
Why You Cannot Mine Moonrock Yet
If you hit a Moonrock Boulder and nothing happens, check the pickaxe in your hand before assuming the node is bugged.
When you aim at a resource boulder, Permafrost shows its resource name and a pickaxe indicator. A red crossed-out pickaxe means the currently equipped tool cannot harvest that deposit.
This happens commonly with the early Moonrock deposits because players can reach Bone Cave while they are still carrying Stone or Flint tools.
Moonrock is visible but will not break: Upgrade to an Iron Pickaxe
Red crossed pickaxe icon: Your equipped tool tier is too low
Iron Pickaxe equipped: The boulder should be mineable
Already mined the deposit: Move to another Moonrock Boulder location
This also clears up some early guides that reported Moonrock as currently unmineable. Those guides were written while progressing through the opening tool tiers and had not yet reached the pickaxe required to harvest it. Current game data confirms Iron Pickaxes can mine Moonrock.
Do Not Craft a Moonrock Pickaxe Just to Mine More Moonrock
Once Moon Rock starts entering your inventory, there is an obvious temptation to immediately turn it into Moonrock tools.
That is not necessary for continued Moonrock farming. Your Iron Pickaxe already does the job, so crafting a Moonrock Pickaxe is an upgrade rather than a requirement for accessing more ore.
This matters because Moonrock Ingots consume three pieces of Moon Rock each. Spending your first supply on a new pickaxe simply to mine a resource your current tool already handles can delay whatever recipe you originally went out to gather Moon Rock for.
Use the Iron Pickaxe until its durability or general tool performance gives you a reason to move up rather than treating the Moonrock tool tier as another mining gate.
How to Make Moonrock Ingots
Raw Moon Rock is useful by itself for several recipes and repairs, but Moonrock tools require Moonrock Ingots.
Moonrock Ingots are made at a Professional Smelter rather than the early Stone Furnace. Each ingot requires 3 Moon Rock and 5 Coal.
Moonrock Ingot: 3 Moon Rock + 5 Coal
Station: Professional Smelter
Professional Smelter build cost: 5 Iron Ingots
This creates a useful farming target. If you need two Moonrock Ingots for a tool, you need at least 6 raw Moon Rock plus 10 Coal before returning to the smelter.
Since a Moonrock Boulder can provide 2–4 Moon Rock, a small cluster can already be enough for your first Moonrock craft. Larger areas such as the Crater or Sonnenberg's Clinic are more useful once you are stockpiling the material for several tools, repairs, or building pieces.
The Fastest Way to Start Mining Moonrock
If you found Moonrock early and only want to know what you are missing, do not search for a hidden quest or wait for a meteor. Advance your mining tools until you can make or obtain an Iron Pickaxe, then return to any Moonrock Boulder you previously marked.
For a small first batch, the Horizon, Bone Cave, Military Area, and Bunker Checkpoint area is convenient because you have likely already explored it. For sustained farming, move to one of the larger Moonrock clusters instead of repeatedly crossing the world for two isolated deposits.
The important breakpoint is the tool, not the discovery of the resource: once you have an Iron Pickaxe, the Moonrock deposits that looked unusable earlier become normal mineable ore nodes.
