How to Get Silicon in Solarpunk
Quartz!
Silicon is one of the most crucial resources in advancing past tier 1 with the Traderbot in Solarpunk. Finding Silicon and unlocking the upgrades that come along with it brings a lot of cool tools to play around with.
However, there are some requirements before you can even get them, and here’s a quick guide showing you where to get Silicon and everything you need before finding one in Solarpunk.
Where to Get Quartz and Get Silicon in Solarpunk
To get Silicon, you must first find Quartz Ores because these are the resources processed in the Furnace to produce Silicon. Quartz is found on the islands in the northeast and northwest after expanding the range or distance of your Airship by getting the Level 2 Airship Research Upgrade from the Traderbot. You’ll have to complete the first five trades:
- 4x Watermelon
- 12x Cotton
- 20x Beeswax
- 10x Watermelon
- 32x Copper (Airship Research Upgrade Level 2)
Once you have unlocked the Level 2 Airship upgrade, go to your Dock and confirm the upgrade. This should expand the radius you see on your map. Quartz can be found on every new island unlocked after researching the Level 2 Airship upgrade, but there’s a Quartz mine node (infinite) on the small island cluster northwest of your starting base, as seen in the image above.
Farm as many Quartz Ores on the new islands (you can also find Wheat here) and bring several stacks to your base. Silicon is used for several useful energy buildings, so you would want to stock up, especially since the island is quite far already.
Bring the Quartz Ores to your Furnace to turn them into Silicon. Bring your first six Silicon to the Traderbot island and get the tier 2 blueprint research upgrade while also getting the next blueprint. I’d suggest getting the Animal Transport research blueprint first and getting started with that.
