Factorio Forums

There are two recipes for Tungsten Carbide Plate. One uses Tungsten Oxide, the other Powdered Tungsten. Oddly, the one using Oxide is faster, despite Powdered already being refined from Oxide. I'm not sure of the actual metallurgy here. Is this a typo/mixup?

Nope, Realism! it's easier to make tungsten carbide by substituting oxygen for carbon than it is to try and form a new bond with pure tungsten powder. The main reason the second recipe exists is because for some reason I got the crazy idea people would stockpile tungsten powder and not the oxide, and might need a break in point to make tungsten carbide...

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll definitely take the easier route, since I'm making all my nickel and tungsten based metals in the same place, so I've got tungsten oxide right there to use.