This page offers a guide on how to build the Hydrogel Core, which is a required build for the Moisture Farm Blues main quest in My Time at Sandrock.

For the main quest, Moisture Farm Blues you’ll need to build both the Hydrogel Door and the Hydrogel Core. Head over to our guide on the Hydrogel Door for more information.

Required Materials to Build Hydrogel Core¶

The Hydrogel Core is probably your biggest build so far! It requires x2 Engines, x2 Bronze Blades, x10 Copper Bars, x5 Basic Leather and x4 Copper Pipes! In total, you’ll need the following raw resources to make the materials needed:

• 2 Engine
• 102 Copper Ore
• 15 Raw Animal Skin
• 5 Sea Salt
• 16 Tin Ore

How to Make Copper Bars¶

There are a few ways to get Copper Bars. Firstly, Copper Bar can be made with x3 Copper Ore in the furnace. Copper Ore is the most abundant ore in the mines. It can be found on the first level of the Abandoned Ruins and you’ll be able to get hundreds of the stuff in no time. You’ll get the most Copper Ore from mining big Copper Crystals found in the mines, but you’ll also get some ore from clearing the blue-brown debris that blocks your path. If you want to make all the Copper Bars from scratch, you’ll need 30 Copper Ore to make 8 Copper Bars.

You could also obtain Copper Bars from recycling Copper Scraps. Copper Scraps can be obtained from Junk Piles found in the Eufaula Salvage Yard - or you can purchase Copper Scraps from the Eufaula Salvage Shop as well. Given that materials dropped from a Recycler are random, you may have to recycle more or less Copper Scraps depending on your luck.

And finally, if you really don’t want to do any of the work, you could just purchase Copper Bars from Hammertime. They cost around 25 Gols, depending on the price fluctuation.

How to Make Basic Leather¶

Basic Leather can be made at the worktable using Raw Animal Skin and Salt. For each piece of basic leather, you’ll need 3 Raw Animal Skin and 1 Salt.

How to Get Raw Animal Skin¶

Raw Animal Skin can be obtained in a few different ways. The easiest way to obtain lots of Raw Animal Skin is to head out and hunt some of the Wild Yakmel out in the desert near your house. Most of the time, they’ll drop at least a couple of Raw Animal Skin, but they’ll also drop a lot of Damaged Animal Skin.

The Damaged Animal Skin is still usable though! In the worktable, you can use x4 Damaged Animal Skin to make 1 Raw Animal Skin.

In total, you’ll need 15 Raw Animal Skin to make the 5 Basic Leather required for the Hydrogel Core.

How to Get Sea Salt¶

Sea Salt can only be purchased from vendors. The vendors that sell Sea Salt are By the Stairs store and the Blue Moon To-Go store and they’ll sell it for around 8 Gols depending on cost fluctuation.

How to Make Copper Pipes¶

Copper Pipes can be made with 2 Copper Bars on the Grinder. To make 4 Copper Pipes, you’ll need 8 Copper Bars.

As outlined above, you can obtain Copper Bars either by smelting Copper Ore in the furnace, by recycling Copper Scraps or by purchasing them from Hammertime. You already need 30 Copper Ore for the Copper Bars, so you may as well collect and extra x24 Copper Ore to make the 8 Copper Bars needed for the Copper Pipes.

How to Get Engines¶

Engines are a rare-ish item found by mining the debris in Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins. You’ll need 2 of them and if you’re struggling to find them, you could just buy them from Eufaula Salvage Store for around 130 Gols, depending on price fluctuation.

How to Make Bronze Blades¶

Bronze Blades can be made on the worktable once you’ve purchased the recipe from the Commerce Guild Store. It’ll cost around 317 Gols for the recipe, depending on price fluctuation.

To make 1 Bronze Blade, you’ll need x2 Copper Gears and x4 Bronze Bars. So since you need 2 Bronze Blades for the Hydrogel Core, you’ll need to obtain dobule the materials.

How to Make Bronze Bars¶

Bronze Bars can be made in the Furnace with x3 Copper Ore and x2 Tin Ore. You’ll need to build a furnace before you can forge Bronze Bars yourself! To make 8 Bronze Bars, you’ll need 24 Copper Ore and 16 Tin Ore.

The main way obtain these materials is to mine them in Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins (you can purchase Ore from Eufaula Salvage store).

As outlined above, Copper Ore is the most abundant ore in the mines. And in addition, you’ll also need Tin Ore. Tin Ore can only be found in the mines once you’ve reached and unlocked at least the 3rd level of the Abandoned Ruins. To get to deeper levels of the mine, you need to search for door ways and holes downwards - most of the time they’ll be hidden behind depris so you’ll need to dig through it. It can be mined from silver spikey crystals. Once you’re at levels lower than the 3rd level, tin ore is very common and easy to mine.

Alternatively, if you don’t fancy going mining, you can purchase Bronze Bars from Hammertime - the smithing shop. Prices fluctuate in Sandrock, but one Bronze Bar will cost around 45 Gols. Or, you could purchase some Tin Ore and Bronze Ore from Eufaula Salvage Shop. Bronze Ore costs 4 each and Tin Ore costs 8 so it’s cheaper than purchasing the Bronze Bars outright.

How to Make Copper Gears¶

In addition to purchasing the recipe for the Bronze Blades, you’ll need to also buy the recipe book for Copper Gears at the Commerce Guild store. This book can be purchased for around 66 Gols, depending on price fluctuation.

Once you’ve purchased the book, you’ll be able to make Copper Gears on the Grinder. You’ll need 2 Copper Bars for each Copper Gear. You need 4 Copper Gears in total, meaning you’ll need an extra 8 Copper Bars.

So in addition to the Copper Ore needed for the materials listed above, you’ll also need an additional 24 Copper Ore to make the Copper Bars for the gears. This brings your grand total to x102 Copper Ore.

How to Use the Hydrogel Core¶

The Hydrogel Core is a required build for the Moisture Farm Blues main quest. Before you can rebuild the Hydrogel, you’ll need both the Hydrogel Door and the Hydrogel Core.