Moonlight Peaks Guide: How to Craft Charcoal for Smelting Bars
In Moonlight Peaks, Charcoal is a key smelting ingredient. By burning the right kind of wood in a furnace, you can turn ores such as copper, iron, and gold into bars, which then serve as upgrade materials for better Tools. Charcoal is also used in a handful of other crafting recipes, so it’s worth setting up a steady supply. This guide walks you through exactly how to get it, step by step.
Before you’re able to fully progress through the game’s broader systems (including the Barn and farm animals), there are a few early tasks you’ll need to complete. The steps below focus specifically on obtaining Charcoal, but they also tie into the milestones that unlock key crafting options.
How to Get Charcoal in Moonlight Peaks
To make Charcoal in Moonlight Peaks, you’ll need to burn Wood at the Furnace. Not every wood-type item works: Light Wood and Dark Wood cannot be converted into Charcoal. Only the item simply named “Wood” can be used for this process.
You can acquire “Wood” by cutting down several tree types, including Pine Trees, Ash Trees, Beech Trees, Plum Trees, and Blue Willows. You can also find small logs scattered around the map, which will count as sources for wood when gathered.
The game visually distinguishes these trees by leaf color and bark tone. For example, one category is cone-shaped trees with green foliage and brown bark.
Another type shows purple leaves paired with light brown bark.
You’ll also encounter trees with multicolored leaves—such as blue, cyan, and purple—along with light brown bark.
Smaller overturned logs tend to be located near other trees and are typically easier to spot while moving through wooded areas.
There are also trees with red leaves and dark brown bark that looks nearly black.
Finally, the largest trees with multicolored leaves, hanging vines, and gnarled brown bark are exclusive to Moonlit Pines.
How to Get a Furnace to Make Charcoal
Charcoal production depends on having a Furnace, since that’s the machine used to burn Wood into the final material. The Furnace recipe isn’t something you find right away through exploration; instead, you receive it via a letter delivered by mail from Ridge. This happens the day after you finish the “A Bridge Too Far” quest, where you repair the broken bridge that leads into Misty Shores.
Your exact timing can vary based on how quickly you progress, but for one playthrough it was Night 4 of Spring, Year 1.
Once the Furnace recipe is unlocked, you can build it at a Workbench, using Copper Ore x15 and Refined Stone x5.
- Copper Ore: Copper Ore can be mined with the Rusty Pickaxe tool in the Cave of Echoes, which is in Misty Shores (the bottom-left portion of the map).
- Refined Stone: Refined Stone is made by processing raw Stone at a Refiner. You’ll learn the recipe for the Refiner on the same day you obtain the Furnace recipe.
After you have a Furnace constructed, start the production by clicking Charcoal in the top-left of the furnace interface. Choose the quantity you want to craft, then press Confirm. The furnace will begin processing, and once the progress bar completes, you’ll get a Charcoal pop-up icon. Interact with that icon to move the finished Charcoal into your inventory.
If you want even more guidance for Moonlight Peaks, there are also walkthroughs covering all magic spells (including how to learn them) and a rundown of romanceable characters.
