Lead

Lead is a fundamental raw material in Mindustry used across early and midgame construction and manufacturing. It appears as a common ore and refined item on many maps and is required for building transportation and power-related structures, producing batteries, crafting tier-1 units, and as an input for several intermediate materials. Lead is relatively soft and non-reactive within the game: it has no explosion, burn, radiation, or discharge properties and a hardness of 1.

Lead is mined by primary drills and processed sources including Mechanical Drill, Pneumatic Drill, Laser Drill, Airblast Drill and the Separator. It occurs on a wide range of planets and cores such as Mono, Poly, Mega, Pulsar, Quasar, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. In-game metadata lists Lead with item ID #1, a color of #8C7FA9, and a build time cost of 0.7.

Practical usage and notes:

• Lead is used to construct many transport and electricity-related buildings and is a common component for turret construction and early units.
• It is an input to produce Surge Alloy, Metaglass, and Pyratite, making it important for midgame progression into higher-tier materials.
• Lead is used in manufacturing Battery components, reflecting its role in power storage and distribution chains.
• Lead is available from basic drills and the Separator; early-game strategy prioritizes securing steady lead production because consumption grows substantially later in a match or campaign.
• The material is relatively abundant on starter planets; players will first encounter Lead and Copper on campaign maps.
• In lore and real-world correspondence, lead is a dense, inert metal with known biological toxicity; the game notes this property but treats Lead as a standard industrial resource without special gameplay hazards.

Quick reference:

• Sources: Mechanical Drill, Pneumatic Drill, Laser Drill, Airblast Drill, Separator.
• Used to build or craft: transport buildings, power buildings, turrets, tier-1 units, Batteries, Surge Alloy, Metaglass, Pyratite.
• Item properties: explosive 0%, burning 0%, radioactive 0%, discharge 0%, hardness 1, item ID #1, build time 0.7, color #8C7FA9.

Early PvP and competitive matches often experience lead shortages during initial expansion, so securing multiple lead extraction lines and buffering supply with cores is recommended to avoid production stalls.