The crafting bench in Mine a Planet is the single most important station in the entire game, and the order in which you craft each drill tier determines how quickly you can push into the next planet. Every drill in the game follows a strict linear recipe order — Wooden Pickaxe to Astral Annihilator — and the bench will grey out any recipe whose prerequisite materials you have not yet crafted or smelted. This guide walks through every drill in the crafting order, the materials you need for each one, the optimal moment to skip ahead, and the mistakes to avoid when chasing the next crafting milestone.
The reason crafting order matters so much is that the developers tied planet unlocks to specific crafting milestones rather than to player level alone. This means you can grind levels indefinitely on Earth, but until you craft the Iron Hammer, Mars will not unlock. Understanding which crafting milestone unlocks which planet lets you prioritize your crafting bench time and avoid wasting hours on materials that will not advance your progression.
The Complete Crafting Order
The crafting bench follows a strict linear order, and the recipes are gated so that you cannot craft a higher-tier drill without first crafting every drill below it. This is intentional — it prevents players from skipping ahead by grinding rare materials early — and it means the optimal crafting order is exactly the order shown in the bench.
| Tier | Drill | Materials Required | Unlocks Planet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | Wooden Pickaxe | None (starter) | Earth |
| Common | Copper Drill | 10 Common Ingots | Earth (extended) |
| Common | Stone Breaker | 15 Common Ingots | Earth (extended) |
| Rare | Iron Hammer | 5 Iron Alloys | Mars |
| Rare | Titanium Spire | 3 Titanium Plates | Europa |
| Epic | Plasma Drill | 5 Titanium Plates + 50 Stardust | Europa (extended) |
| Epic | Quantum Borer | 2 Cosmic Cores + 50 Mythril Ore | Volcano |
| Epic | Solar Flare | 3 Cosmic Cores + 100 Stardust | Volcano (extended) |
| Legendary | Mythril Destroyer | 2 Mythril Bars | Nebula |
| Legendary | Cosmic Reaper | 1 Cosmic Core | Nebula (extended) |
| Legendary | Astral Annihilator | 3 Cosmic Cores + 100 Stardust | Void (post 2nd Rebirth) |
Notice how every row in the "Unlocks Planet" column corresponds to a specific planet the developers have tied to that crafting milestone. The exception is the Astral Annihilator, which requires the second Rebirth as a prerequisite in addition to its materials.
When to Skip a Recipe and When to Craft Every Drill
The bench does not require you to craft every drill in the order — you can skip recipes and jump straight to a higher tier if you have the materials. The question is whether skipping is optimal. For most players, crafting every drill in the linear order is the right call, because the cumulative damage gain from crafting every drill tier is significant and the materials required for the higher-tier drills are not consumed faster by skipping.
The exception is the Epic tier — once you have your first Mythril Destroyer crafted, there is no benefit to crafting the Plasma Drill or Quantum Borer, because the Mythril Destroyer out-damages both of them. Skip the Epic tier entirely if you already have a Mythril Destroyer bound, and save the Epic materials for the next Legendary craft.
| Skip Decision | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Wooden Pickaxe → Copper Drill | Always craft |
| Copper Drill → Stone Breaker | Skip if you have Iron Alloy materials ready |
| Stone Breaker → Iron Hammer | Always craft |
| Iron Hammer → Titanium Spire | Always craft |
| Titanium Spire → Plasma Drill | Skip if Mythril Destroyer is one craft away |
| Plasma Drill → Quantum Borer | Skip if Mythril Destroyer materials are queued |
| Quantum Borer → Solar Flare | Skip if Mythril Destroyer materials are queued |
| Mythril Destroyer → Cosmic Reaper | Always craft |
| Cosmic Reaper → Astral Annihilator | Always craft (post 2nd Rebirth) |
Optimize the Material Pipeline Before You Start Crafting
The most common crafting mistake is to start a Legendary drill craft before the smelter has finished producing enough material to complete the full recipe. If the recipe requires 50 Mythril Ore and your smelter has only produced 30 Mythril Bars, you will be stuck waiting on the smelter while your crafted drill sits incomplete in your inventory. Always pre-smelt enough material to cover the full recipe before queuing the bench craft.
A practical pre-smelt target is roughly 1.5x the recipe requirement. For a Mythril Destroyer that needs 2 Mythril Bars, pre-smelt 3 Mythril Bars so that you have a buffer in case the bench fails or in case you want to reforge the drill immediately after crafting. The same buffer rule applies to every recipe in the game.
Reforge Immediately After Crafting for Maximum Damage
The optimal moment to reforge a freshly crafted drill is the instant the bench finishes the craft, because the new drill is at its base damage and you want to push it to maximum damage as fast as possible. Reforging immediately after crafting gives you the strongest drill for the next grinding session, which compounds into significantly more Drill Pieces over the next few hours.
For the Mythril Destroyer specifically, the recommended post-craft reforge is to roll for high Ore Multiplier first, then high Drill Speed second. A Mythril Destroyer with high Ore Multiplier and high Drill Speed is the most valuable drill in the game outside of the Cosmic Reaper, and binding it at the next rebirth will maximize your Prestige Point payout. For the full reforge priority order, see our Mine a Planet reforge strategy guide.
Plan Crafting Around Rebirth Cycles
The crafting bench does not reset on rebirth, but the smelter queue and your ore inventory do. This means if you start a long Mythril Bar smelt cycle right before a rebirth, the cycle will be wasted because the bars will be smelted but you will lose the Mythril Ore you already mined. The optimal cadence is to finish any long smelt cycle at least 30 minutes before triggering a rebirth, so that the smelter is empty and your inventory is fully converted into bars and alloys before the reset.
After the rebirth, immediately re-smelt your pre-staged bars into the next recipe and craft the next drill tier. The first 30 minutes after a rebirth should be a focused crafting push — drill, smelt, craft, equip, repeat — to re-establish your progression baseline as fast as possible.
Transition Signals Between Crafting Tiers
Knowing when to move from one crafting tier to the next is more art than science, but there are three reliable signals that tell you it is time to upgrade. First, your smelter queue is empty more than 20% of the time, which means the current tier is producing ingots faster than your crafting bench can consume them. Second, your active drill is consistently taking longer than 30 seconds to break a high-HP node, which means the next tier's drill is needed to push through the biome. Third, you have enough materials stockpiled for two full batches of the next tier, which means the upgrade will not starve your existing crafting pipeline.
If all three signals are true at once, the upgrade is essentially free in terms of progression cost. If only one or two are true, defer the upgrade until you have stockpiled the materials. Forcing an upgrade when only one signal is active is a common mistake that leaves players broke without actually accelerating their progression.
Tier Skip Strategies for Veterans
Veteran players who have completed multiple rebirths often skip intermediate crafting tiers entirely, going straight from Common Ingot to Iron Alloy, or from Iron Alloy to Mythril Bar. This tier skip strategy works because the higher-tier materials can be obtained through trade, code redemption, and event rewards, which means you do not need to actually craft every intermediate tier to progress. The trade-off is that you miss out on the practice and material familiarity that comes from crafting the lower tiers, but for veterans who already understand the recipe ratios, the time savings are massive.
For new players, we strongly recommend crafting every tier in sequence before attempting a tier skip. The lower tiers teach you the smelter queue management and recipe ratio discipline that you will need at the higher tiers, and skipping them often leads to bad habits like stranded ore inventories and wasted batch time. Once you have one full playthrough under your belt, the tier skip becomes a viable optimization.
Tier Material Costs
Each crafting tier has specific material costs.
| Tier | Inputs | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stone, Copper | Common Ingot |
| 2 | Iron, Coal | Iron Alloy |
| 3 | Titanium, Coal | Titanium Plate |
| 4 | Mythril, Stardust | Mythril Bar |
| 5 | Void Shards | Cosmic Core |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I craft a drill without smelting the materials first?
No, the crafting bench only accepts smelted ingots and alloys. Raw ore must be processed at the smelter before it can be used in any recipe. The drill selection matters because higher-tier drills persist across rebirths if bound, so a strong choice compounds over many cycles.
Why does the bench grey out recipes I have materials for?
The bench has a strict linear prerequisite order. Even if you have 100 Mythril Bars in your inventory, you cannot craft the Mythril Destroyer without first crafting the Titanium Spire and Solar Flare (or skipping them, which costs a small fee). The prerequisite system is intentional.
Should I reforge before or after binding a drill across rebirths?
Always reforge before binding. A drill that has been reforged for high Ore Multiplier grants significantly more Prestige Points at rebirth than a stock drill, so the order should be craft, reforge, then bind on the next rebirth. Generally yes, but the optimal timing depends on your current resource reserves and your active biome's node HP profile.
Is the Astral Annihilator craft worth the second rebirth requirement?
Yes, the Astral Annihilator is the highest-tier drill in the game and its damage tier is roughly 2x the Cosmic Reaper. For any player who has reached the second rebirth, the Astral Annihilator craft is the central goal. Yes, this item is valuable at every stage because it provides a permanent bonus that compounds with other systems.
Can I undo a crafting mistake?
No, crafting is one-way. Once you queue a recipe and the bench accepts the materials, the drill is added to your inventory and the materials are consumed. There is no undo button and no refund. Always double-check the materials before confirming the craft.
Avoid Materials That Take Longer Than the Recipe Itself
A frequent mistake that newcomers make is to start smelting a high-tier material right when they should be saving Drill Pieces for a lower-tier craft that unlocks the next planet. For example, smelting Stardust for a Quantum Borer that you will not craft for hours does nothing to progress your account — but smelting Iron Alloy for the Iron Hammer that unlocks Mars does. Always prioritize the material whose resulting craft unlocks the next planet, and queue other materials only after that critical craft is done.
A useful prioritization rule of thumb is to keep the next planet-unlock craft's materials ready at all times. The moment you finish one planet-unlock craft, immediately start prepping the materials for the next one. This rhythm keeps your progression pipeline full and prevents you from accidentally burning hours on a side-quest craft that does not advance your account.
How to Recover From a Failed Craft Cycle
If you accidentally craft a drill you did not need (for example, crafting a Quantum Borer when you meant to skip to the Mythril Destroyer), the materials are gone and there is no refund. However, you can still salvage the value by reforging the unwanted drill for high Ore Multiplier and binding it across a future rebirth — even Epic-tier drills with perfect reforges grant reasonable Prestige Points, so the loss is not total.
The bigger lesson is prevention: double-check the recipe and the materials list before confirming any craft, especially for high-cost recipes like the Cosmic Reaper or Astral Annihilator. A single misclick on the Astral Annihilator can wipe three hours of smelt work.
For a complete walkthrough of every recipe in the game and the optimal craft order, our Mine a Planet crafting recipes guide covers the full material tree end-to-end. This principle applies broadly across all progression stages and is one of the most reliable optimization levers in the game.