In Starbound, there are many new things introduced into the game in the Nightly builds (for the upcoming Winter update). One of which is many changes to progression...

I'm up to a part where you're meant of craft Steel. Except Steel is not crafted from a Metalworking Station (made of 1 Iron + 1 Coal). Instead, it is made from an alloy furnace using 3 Oil + 1 Iron.

Iron is plentiful for me; I can find them easily by digging further down into the surface of a planet. But I've haven't come across any signs of oil.

Question: Where does oil commonly spawn?
Is there a minimum planet treat "level" (not a number) or is it tied to specific biomes? Or what?

3

3 Answers

Oil can be found under the surface, in caverns of Desert planets.

References:

  1. The wiki:
  2. This picture:
    The dark water is oil.

The dark water seen in this picture is not water found in the underground tar biome (stable builds). They inflict a debuff when walked into and can be mined with a liquid-upgraded Matter Manipulator.

1

It can not only be found in caves but there are also small to huge lakes of oil on the surface (tar biomes).

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I Found some oil in tar biomes but I couldn't find any underground...