Once Human: How to get and use the Disassembly Bench

The Disassembly Bench is a crafting station that sets Once Human apart from most other survival games, and in my humble opinion, it’s one of the things that makes this game far better and less grindy than most in the genre.

This is an item that you’ll want to unlock the second you’re able to. The base function of the Disassembly Bench isn’t terribly difficult to figure out, but there are plenty of hidden uses I didn’t figure out until about level 15. The less-than-stellar menu design in the Once Human beta can make figuring out where and how to actually unlock the option to create a Disassembly Bench a little confusing. Here is how to get and use the Disassembly Bench in Once Human.

How to get the Disassembly Bench in Once Human

The recipe for a Disassembly Bench is:

• Copper Ingot x 10
• Gravel x 20

The Disassembly Bench is one of the first things you’re going to need to craft in Once Human, but because it requires Copper Ingots to actually create one, you’re going to need to craft a furnace first. Thankfully, both stations are in the same Memetics page: Infrastructure. Press Tab and select Cradle on the right, then Memetics on the left. By default you should see the Infrastructure page first. Use Ciphers to unlock Disassembly Techniques and Smelting Essentials, and build a Furnace at your Territory.

Any pickaxe will let you mine for Copper Ore, and you can use that ore to create Copper Ingots at your furnace. You need 10 Copper Ingots to craft a Disassembly Bench, which should actually only take a couple minutes of farming and smelting.

Gravel is just Once Human‘s version of Stone or Rock, and you will automatically get Gravel aplenty while mining for Copper Ore.

How to use the Disassembly Bench in Once Human

When you open the Disassembly Bench menu by pressing F, you will automatically be brought to a screen where you can dismantle any materials into crafting parts. All of the “junk” you find while exploring (footballs, alarm clocks, glue, etc.) can be broken down into crafting materials like Cloth, Metal Scraps, and Adhesive—nothing is actually worthless in Once Human, and so you should always be grabbing everything you see, especially early on. In case you’re wondering (I certainly was), there are no alternate uses for these Materials. There is no reason not to disassemble them all.

This material acquisition at the Disassembly Bench is pretty intuitive, and if you progress the main quest line a bit, V will actually walk you through this part of the bench’s use. What V won’t tell you is that you can also disassemble weapons, armor, and mods.

Weight is almost never an issue in Once Human, so it’s easy to forget that you’re lugging around the last five pairs of pants in your inventory. Oddly enough, you aren’t actually allowed to discard gear or weapons. When my friends and I realized this, we initially thought this meant you needed to craft Gear Storage containers in your Territory and use them to hold old gear.

It wasn’t until several hours later one of us realized you can convert your old weapons and armor into extremely useful parts at a Disassembly Bench. When you open the Bench’s menu, you can use Q and E to tab over to weapons, armor, and mods. This isn’t just a fast and easy way to get Standard Parts and All-Purpose Plastic (which you’re bound to be pining for), it’s also the only way to actually get rid of old gear.