In Team Fortress 2, items and skins play a very important role. And you can get both of them by simply playing the game. However, the quality of what you will get is not very spectacular, and after a while, you’ll realize that you own a lot of duplicates. That’s when you should start using the TF2 refined metal.
These tools allow you to break items into components such as Scrap Metal or Class Tokens. Both of them can be used as trade currency or in the creation of weapons and skins.
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How Crafting Works in Team Fortress 2
To start crafting, go to your Items tab in the Main Menu and click on the Crafting tab. Here, you will find numerous options.
For a start, you’ll probably want to smelt class weapons. These are weapons utilized by one of the nine classes, and you will need two of them from the same class to create a unit of Scrap Metal.
So, for example, if you own two Sniper weapons, you can smelt them and turn them into a pile of Scrap Metal.
The next step is to create Reclaimed Metal. One pile of Reclaimed Metal requires you to smelt three piles of Scrap Metal. And if you want to go further, you can obtain one pile of Refined Metal by combining three piles of Reclaimed Metal.
Therefore, you could say that Refined Metal is one of the most valuable currencies you can own in TF2. It’s practically worth 2 * 3 * 3 = 18 class weapons per unit. Its price is quite low, though, at only $0.04 per unit. So you’d need hundreds of class weapons to make $1, which is insane.
Trading this item is not worth it unless you do it in high amounts. This is probably one of the reasons why TF2 has such a huge bot problem.
Some TF2 players create bots and then farm items with them. These items are turned into Refined Metal, and that metal is sold on the market.
Instead of using Refined Metal for trade, a much better idea would be to use it to craft items. If you enjoy creating weapons or cosmetics for yourself, Valve gives you the possibility to do that using this material. These items will be of normal quality, but they don’t cost any money. Just the metal.
You need to be careful about this: not all weapons require Refined Material to craft, so it’s a good idea to keep some of the metal you own in Scrap and Reclaimed form.
Related: How to Trade For Profit in TF2?
How to Craft Hats
If you want to craft Hats in TF2, you will need to go to the Rare Items tab and then click on Fabricate Headgear or Fabricate Class Headgear. The first option will allow you to fabricate a random hat for a random class, while the second one will let you choose the class. However, this choice comes at a price.
To create a class-specific Hat, you will need a Slot Token and a Class Token. You can create a Slot Token by combining three weapons utilized for the same loadout slot. So you can use for instance three primary weapons. To create a Class Token you need to combine three items from the same class.
Once you have all the ingredients, crafting a class is very easy and can be done by selecting one of the Rare Item’s blueprints and then adding all the required materials to craft the desired item.
Related: Trade TFT items
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Not all crafted items require Refined Metal. It’s wise to keep a balanced stock of Scrap, Reclaimed, and Refined Metal for various crafting needs.
