Steel Rod is a material weapon item in Project Zomboid. As a weapon it hits for 0.7–1.1 damage with 1.2 reach and a maximum condition of 8. Build 42.21 data, November 2026.
Material Weapon Melee weapons
As a weapon it hits for 0.7–1.1 damage with 1.2 reach and a maximum condition of 8. It weighs 1.5.
Melee weapons use one of the weapon skills. Condition drops as you fight, a broken weapon is useless until repaired, and heavy two-handed weapons drain endurance faster.
More: Melee weapon stats · Weapons and ammo.
Use the item ID in sandbox loot settings, admin tools and mods.
| Item ID | Game category |
|---|---|
Base.MetalBar | Material Weapon |
Steel Rod is on 11 loot tables in the game files. Share is how much of a table's total weight this item takes, before your sandbox loot settings. Each container rolls its table several times, so a bigger share and more rolls both mean you see it more often.
| Loot table | Where that table is used | Share | Rolls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crate Metal Bars | Metal fabrication shop (crate, shelves); Metal shipping (box, crate, shelves); Metal Shop (crate, shelves) | 100% | 6 |
| Welding Workshop Metal | Welding storage (shelves); Welding workshop (shelves) | 7.4% | 4 |
| Garage Metalwork | Garage storage (cupboard, shelves); Shed (cupboard, shelves) | 4.5% | 4 |
| Drug Shack Weapons | Drug lab (cupboard); Drug shack (crate, box) | 3.9% | 4 |
| Tool Store Metalwork | Tool storage (box, shelves); Tool Store (box, crate, shelves); Tool store storage (box, shelves) | 3.7% | 4 |
| Crate Metalwork | Garage storage (box, crate); Shed (crate); Storage (box, crate); and 3 more places | 3.3% | 4 |
| Melee Weapons | Survivor safehouse (early) (box, cupboard, crate, …); Survivor cache 1 (cupboard); Survivor cache 2 (cupboard); and 1 more place | 3.0% | 4 |
| Melee Weapons Mid | Survivor safehouse (mid game) (box, cupboard, crate, …) | 2.8% | 4 |
It is on 3 more tables with smaller shares.
Inside bags and cases: Garbage Bag.
Town by town: loot locations.
Used up as an ingredient in 18 recipes: Barricade Metal Bar, Forge Rod Into Bar, Make Block Bludgeon, Make Bucket Maul, Make Kettle Maul, Make Scrap Metal Chopper, Make Scrap Metal Cleaver, Make Scrap Metal Morningstar, Make Scrap Metal Weapon, Metal Door Frame, Metal Door Frame, Metal Fence, Metal Fence Lvl 2, Metal Stairs and 4 more.
It weighs 1.5 in Build 42.
Base.MetalBar.
0.7–1.1 per hit, with 1.2 reach.
Stats and item IDs from the Build 42 game data as listed on pzfans.com. Item art is from Project Zomboid.