Iron Ingot

Obtained: Smelting of iron ore, crafting of Blocks of Iron, found in Dungeon, Stronghold, Abandoned Mineshaft, and NPC Village Chests, killing iron golems (naturally spawned) and killing Zombies.

Creates: sword, armor, tools, Blocks of Iron, compass, rails, flint and steel, doors, cauldrons, minecart, and Iron Bars.

Iron ingots are used to make a wide variety of useful objects such as minecarts, minecart tracks, compasses, armor, buckets, and tools capable of mining anything but obsidian and bedrock. This makes it one of the most useful items in-game. It creates the middle-tier armor, one tier below diamond.

Trivia

 * Just like gold ingots and diamonds, the bottom half of an iron ingot is darker similarly to how the bottom half of an iron block used to be darker. However, this may simply be a coincidence.
 * While Minecraft does distinguish between ores and metals, it does not have a "steel" item separate from iron; Flint and Steel is crafted directly from an iron ingot.
 * In the coding Iron is called Steel.
 * As of 12w06a Zombies rarely drop iron ingots, helmets, shovels and swords, making it a renewable resource.
 * As of 12w08a, Iron Golems drop 3-5 iron ingots, making it a renewable resource.

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