Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice crafting and upgrade materials guide: Scrap Iron, Magnetite, Yellow and Black Gunpowder, Fat Wax locations

Guide by James Billcliffe Guides Editor

Published on April 12, 2019

There are loads of upgrade materials to find in Sekiro, and it just wouldn’t be a FromSoftware game without an esoteric crafting system, would it? Although things are a little more straightforward in Sekiro, the upgrade system can take some figuring out, let alone finding the materials you need to improve your equipment. Here are the locations of all the Scrap Iron, Scrap Magnetite, Yellow and Black Gunpowder, and Lumps of Fat Wax we’ve found so far.

As we progress further through the game and find more materials, we’ll add them to the list. Found something we haven’t? Let us know in the comments!

Sekiro Crafting and Upgrade Materials

You gain access to the Prosthetic Upgrade menu once you’ve beaten the first proper boss in the game, the horse-riding general, and obtained the Mechanical Barrel. The Sculptor can then fit it to your arm to enable a slew of upgrades.

My personal early favourite is the simple Spinning Shuriken, but your upgrading your axe - which is a powerful tool, especially when combined with some skills - is a strong choice too.

Scrap Iron locations

Scrap Iron seems like a basic upgrade resource, and looks to be one of the most plentiful. After you've reached a certain point in the game, it seems like the basic human enemies start to drop Scrap Iron - use a blessing balloon for a greater chance.

You can find one piece of Scrap Iron just past where you fought the Chained Ogre, in the ditch behind the samurai Tenzen Yamauchi
Following the boss fight with the horse rider general, there’s some Scrap Iron in the next area. Past the two hammer-wielding giants, you’ll find the item behind a pagoda over on the left-hand side
After the Blazing Bull when you’re at the Ashina Castle shrine, you can turn left just through the gate in front of you. In this small area, there’s a door you can push open. Through the door you can jump down to get to the Ashina Reservoir, but instead, bear right and open a second door that leads into an enclosed courtyard. You can find a Scrap Iron in here
In the Ashina Reservoir area, you can find another Scrap Iron by defeating the Lone Shadow Longswordsman down the sewer where you woke up at the start of the game. Just after the fog gate he was guarding, there’s some Iron on your right
After going through the Abandoned Dungeon Entrance shrine in the Ashina Cast, you can find another Scrap Iron on the left just after you’ve found the Underground Waterway shrine
Inside the Ashina Castle Upper Tower, as you fight your way through the first sections you’ll find a side room with two guys sat on the floor. One of the items they’re guarding is some Scrap Iron
In the Ashina Castle area, near to where you have to kill the straw-hatted "rat" for Isshin. There's some iron around the corner to the left

Black Gunpowder Locations

Another basic resource, Black Gunpowder is often found near enemies that use guns or flames as weapons. Like the Scrap Iron, it seems like gun-based enemies start to drop black gunpowder past a point in the game, so you can start to grind it out.

The first time you run into Black Gunpowder is when it’s dropped by the enemy wielding a large cannon in the Ashina Outskirts, just before the Chained Ogre
You can find more Black Gunpowder in the square guarded by the bell-wielding giant near the Ashina castle bridge, just before the Abandoned Dungeon Entrance shrine
Just after that, you can get some more once you’ve swum through the water and passed the Underground Waterway shrine
The Long-armed Centipede Giraffe in the Mt. Kongo area is guarding two caches of Black Gunpowder
At the end of the Mt. Kongo area when you reach the main temple hall, go to the right of the temple shrine and you can find some more
You can grab some more Black Gunpowder at the Poison Pool in the Ashina Depths. To get there, jump down the big hole in the dungeon after going through the entrance guarded by the lone shadow longswordsman
There's yet more Black Gunpowder in the Gun Fort in the Sunken Valley. The easiest way there is through the Poison Pool. You can pick some up both on the cliffs outside, and inside the Fort itself.

Yellow Gunpowder Location

Yellow Gunpowder is a much rarer resource but starts to appear more regularly as the game progresses.

Your first cache of Yellow Gunpowder comes from the Long-Armed Centipede Giraffe in the Mt. Kongo area
There's more Yellow Gunpowder in the Poison Pool where you fight the Snake Eyes mini-boss
You can fight another Long-armed Centipede in the Gun Fort, who drops more Yellow Gunpowder
Once that Giraffe is down, you can crouch under the floorboards of that room and pick up some more Yellow Gunpowder from an item drop
Then when you reach the Hidden Mist Forest, you can find more Yellow Gunpowder as an item pickup in the main area
After that in the Cursed Mibu Village, there's another item pickup of Yellow Gunpowder in the house just before the Water Mill Shrine

Scrap Magnetite locations

Killing the bell-wielding giant who’s guarding the entrance to the Abandoned Dungeon gets you one scrap Magnetite
You can grab another just after the Armored Knight mini-boss on MT Kongo
Just after the Long-armed Centipede Giraffe, you’ll encounter a giant with a shield. Killing him drops a Scrap Magnetite
After you beat the Ashina Elite in his dojo in the Castle Upper Tower, there’s another Scrap Magnetite
Killing the Lone Shadow Longswordsman in the sewer where you woke up at the start of the game in the Ashina Reservoir area nets you a piece of Scrap Magnetite too
Just after the Ashina Depths shrine, you'll come across a large Buddha statue. You can grapple up to its hand and grab some Magnetite Scrap
There are two Magnetite Scraps to collect in the Poison Pool Snake Eyes camp
When you get to the Sunken Valley Shrine, there's some Magnetite Scrap just next to it
As you make your way up to the Gun Fort, there's some Scrap Magnetite on the cliffs outside
Then inside the Gun Fort, you can get some in the room guarded by the Long-Armed Centipede Giraffe
Once you've freed the Young Lord from Genchiro, you can find some Magnetite hidden around behind the incense burner in that room

Adamantite Scrap

As you progress deeper into the world of Sekiro, another upgrade material starts to become available - Adamantite. This is rare, and found in later game areas.

As you go through the Cursed Mibu Village, you'll see a farming area with two large hammer-wielding enemies over to your left. Head over there and you'll find some Adamantite Scrap as an item drop
Again in Mibu Village, there's a house that you can get inside via a revolving door underneath the floorboards. You can Eavesdrop on the front door and it has a load of enemies outside. Around the back of that house, which you access via the floorboards, is some Adamantite Scrap
Once you've got the key to the back of the Gun Fort from the Lord and made your way to the Riven Cave in the Sunken Valley, there some Adamantite on the floor just after the Riven Cave Shrine

Lump of Fat Wax locations

Lumps of Fat Wax seem to be quite rare as well, but you can find a few in Mt. Kongo, as well as the Hidden Forest in the Ashina Depths.

The first is behind the statue in the room full of monks in Mt Kongo where you find a Gourd Seed - it’s one of the earlier areas of Mt. Kongo after you’ve come up from the Underground Waterway. It’s being guarded by a big dude with a hammer
Later in the area, past the Long-armed Centipede Giraffe, you’ll be able to take a left into a courtyard full of small, fast, straw-hatted enemies. In the temple behind them, you’ll find a load of centipede infested mummy monks - here you’ll find some more Fat Wax
Then at the end of the area, in the temple main hall, you can find some more Fat Wax behind the large statue that the elderly monk who gives you the Infested Chapter is sitting in front of
In the Hidden Forest, between the drunkard-style enemy and the Mist Noble, there's a Lump of Fat Wax on the floor

Lump of Grave Wax locations

There's a rare version of the wax lumps too. We've gotten a Lump of Grave Wax from killing the Mist Noble inside of his temple in the Hidden Forest in Ashina Depths.