Allomancy or Feruchemy

[ElendTheEmperor]

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

Just now, elendtheemperor said:

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

personally id prefer feruchemy how abt u guys

[NovaRay He/him]

Allomancy’s useful abilities are iron, tin, pewter, and zinc and brass. Whereas in Feruchemy only 2 things aren’t that useful. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

12 hours ago, elendtheemperor said:

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

personally id prefer feruchemy how abt u guys

FERUCHEMY

HANDS DOWN, UP AND ALL AROUND

[Trusk'our he/him]

21 hours ago, elendtheemperor said:

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

personally id prefer feruchemy how abt u guys

Most of the time when people are asked this question, they go for Feruchemy.

I'd do that too, as there are too many practical applications and such greater control that I wouldn't pass it up.

[Returned he/him]

I would probably choose Allomancy. Feruchemy is amazing and cool, but I think that the books gloss over how much time and capacity has to be spent to get enough of an attribute stored to do the really dramatic or useful stuff. It's still hard to turn down, even so.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

53 minutes ago, Returned said:

I would probably choose Allomancy. Feruchemy is amazing and cool, but I think that the books gloss over how much time and capacity has to be spent to get enough of an attribute stored to do the really dramatic or useful stuff. It's still hard to turn down, even so.

I feel like the books gloss over how hard it would be to consistently fuel your allomancy

and you dont need feruchemy all the time, and even storing can sometimes be useful, just look at F-Tin! (Brandon confirmed Tin can store more than just the 5 senses, like sense of pain)

[Qianweilian He/him]

2 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I feel like the books gloss over how hard it would be to consistently fuel your allomancy

Only hard for those skaa Allomancers (who should be taken to the inquisitors anyway) who have no one to sell them pure metals. sniff Too bad, so sad.

2 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

even storing can sometimes be useful, just look at F-Tin!

Brass is even better for this, never be overheated. Or Bendalloy (don't have to worry about getting fat).

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

29 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

Only hard for those skaa Allomancers (who should be taken to the inquisitors anyway) who have no one to sell them pure metals. sniff Too bad, so sad.

Brass is even better for this, never be overheated. Or Bendalloy (don't have to worry about getting fat).

Yes, but this is for IRL, where using Allomancy consistently would be expensive.

Dont even get me started on the all-nighters that could be done with bronze

or the focus with Electrum

[Returned he/him]

3 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I feel like the books gloss over how hard it would be to consistently fuel your allomancy

and you dont need feruchemy all the time, and even storing can sometimes be useful, just look at F-Tin! (Brandon confirmed Tin can store more than just the 5 senses, like sense of pain)

I think they cover the Allomantic metal piece well enough. Allomancers do run out in tight situations, which is bad, but they can also just buy more to prepare. If you have something to do tonight or tomorrow or next week, go to the store or get your file out. The time it takes to get ready is the time it takes to do a shopping trip, at least for less exotic metals. Allomantic amounts are measured in flakes and beads, so you don't need very much unless you're going to be doing something big like a pewter drag. You don't need Allomancy all the time any more than you do Feruchemy.

Feruchemists don't have such an option, though they still need to procure the metals (and a lot more of them than an Allomancer needs), especially if you're storing traits to ditch (like pain). Wax, Wayne, and Sazed routinely use in short bursts attributes that they spent weeks if not months storing up. And they have to spend a lot of time doing the storing, often debilitated, which gets a paragraph or two of coverage at most (and usually less). Sometimes that doesn't matter (you can watch TV for a long time while storing physical speed, you can store weight pretty constantly without much downside, or store other attributes in short bursts when convenient). Sometimes the storage can be good, as you point out, but not necessarily for drawing on that attribute later. It takes a large amount of real time and consequences to store enough of an attribute to use for very much, and that time cannot be skipped over.

Feruchemy is still cool and amazing but the tradeoffs it requires can be difficult, and if you don't make them you don't get the benefits. Your average attribute with Feruchemy is always the same while Allomancy increases your average. An all-nighter with bronze requires another eight hours' worth of wakefulness be converted to sleep-- you don't get an "extra" night because you have to trade a different, equivalent amount of wakefulness away to get it. You can cut the intensity of storage to mitigate that, but then it can take a long time to store that whole night's wakefulness. With pewter you actually can get the "extra" night, to some degree.

I'm not saying Feruchemy is bad, and trading one hour of being awake per day gets you almost a whole all-nighter each week, which is cool. The tradeoffs can get less clear and less comfortable or convenient with some other traits, which is less appealing to me but still cool and can be very workable. But you still have to sacrifice proportionally because your average [whatever] is always 1, while Allomancy gives direct benefits on-demand that make your average greater than 1. That's why I would prefer it to Feruchemy, but I wouldn't say no to Feruchemy nor do I discount Feruchemy's unique potential.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

13 minutes ago, Returned said:

I think they cover the Allomantic metal piece well enough. Allomancers do run out in tight situations, which is bad, but they can also just buy more to prepare. If you have something to do tonight or tomorrow or next week, go to the store or get your file out. The time it takes to get ready is the time it takes to do a shopping trip, at least for less exotic metals. Allomantic amounts are measured in flakes and beads, so you don't need very much unless you're going to be doing something big like a pewter drag. You don't need Allomancy all the time any more than you do Feruchemy.

Feruchemists don't have such an option, though they still need to procure the metals (and a lot more of them than an Allomancer needs), especially if you're storing traits to ditch (like pain). Wax, Wayne, and Sazed routinely use in short bursts attributes that they spent weeks if not months storing up. And they have to spend a lot of time doing the storing, often debilitated, which gets a paragraph or two of coverage at most (and usually less). Sometimes that doesn't matter (you can watch TV for a long time while storing physical speed, you can store weight pretty constantly without much downside, or store other attributes in short bursts when convenient). Sometimes the storage can be good, as you point out, but not necessarily for drawing on that attribute later. It takes a large amount of real time and consequences to store enough of an attribute to use for very much, and that time cannot be skipped over.

Feruchemy is still cool and amazing but the tradeoffs it requires can be difficult, and if you don't make them you don't get the benefits. Your average attribute with Feruchemy is always the same while Allomancy increases your average. An all-nighter with bronze requires another eight hours' worth of wakefulness be converted to sleep-- you don't get an "extra" night because you have to trade a different, equivalent amount of wakefulness away to get it. You can cut the intensity of storage to mitigate that, but then it can take a long time to store that whole night's wakefulness. With pewter you actually can get the "extra" night, to some degree.

I'm not saying Feruchemy is bad, and trading one hour of being awake per day gets you almost a whole all-nighter each week, which is cool. The tradeoffs can get less clear and less comfortable or convenient with some other traits, which is less appealing to me but still cool and can be very workable. But you still have to sacrifice proportionally because your average [whatever] is always 1, while Allomancy gives direct benefits on-demand that make your average greater than 1. That's why I would prefer it to Feruchemy, but I wouldn't say no to Feruchemy nor do I discount Feruchemy's unique potential.

You would never ditch a trait. You could spend it all in one burst (Because it would be your sense of pain, not the pain itself).

And in the long run, you dont need either much IRL. Super speed once a month is far more than enough. I feel like you are really glossing over the amount of effort it would take to buy all those metals.

Over time, the cost of Allomancy would go up and up, while Feruchemy would just be a few new metalminds every few years, maybe an earring or 2.

In Feruchemy, you trade the attribute now for the attribute later on, but allomancy is also a trade. It is trading you money now for some extra power later on.

And Feruchemy is far more healthy than allomancy. In allomancy, you have higher risks of addiction (savantism) and you can sometimes just die from exhaustion. A lot of the cool allomantic powers that are flashy will have a lot of downsides in the real world. Iron and Steel are far too noticable (unless you are using it for a small speed boost) Tin and Pewter are useful, but they are so useful that they drain you money and cause possible addiction. Gold & Electrum are only useful in battle, and Bendalloy & Cadmium are useful, but are hard enough to get even if you know the perfect alloy mixture. Aluminum & Duralumin? Aluminum - Useless, and Duralumin is a money waster. Nicrosil and Chromium are useless without another allomancer. Brass and Zinc have severe ethical problems, and Copper & Bronze have the same problem as Nicrosil and Chromium!

Even if all of those metals are useful, how are you supposed to find the perfect porportions of metal? There is no well known perfect porportions, and innefficient metals will be that, inefficient. Or, if you get it too wrong, downright painful, possibly deadly.

To recap, the useful metals are Iron & Steel (Sometimes, barely), Tin & Pewter (Money Drain & Addictive), Bendalloy & Cadmium (expensive), and Brass & Zinc (ethical problems). Half of which could be incredibly dangerous and deadly to ingest.

However, Feruchemy, has far better options. Steel - Super Speed (even just standing still can let you pause for a second), Iron - Weight (Lighter than a bird, heavy enough to win most fights), Pewter - Strength (You can be weak very often, especially at home, and super strength is great), Tin - Senses (So many possibilities), Gold - Health (costs a bunch, but you dont need that much), Electrum - Determination (More focus, can store while you are watching TV or reading a book), Bendalloy - Calories (i think. good for storing food for later filling, can also make you hungrier before you eat), Cadmium - Water (Drink 10 bottles of water in the begining of the day, workout is so much easier), Aluminum - Identity (Not super useful), Duralumin - Connection (Era 2 shows off it's power), Nicrosil - Investiture (Along with aluminum, possibilities of unsealed metalminds), Chromium - Fortune (No idea, but def something useful), Brass - Heat (cold in warm places, hot in cold places), Zinc - Mental Speed (Become smart, can store while watching TV or smth, does have downsides in storing), Copper - Memories (See: Keepers), Bronze - Wakefullness (has problems, already discussed).

Feruchemy has a signifigantly lower chance of addiction (savantism) and is far cheaper because you only have to buy the base metalminds. And even if you still dont know the perfect mixtures, it is far less dangerous to test, and would probably still cost less than allomantic testing (go over to the metal shop, and touch the metals to find the right ones)

[Returned he/him]

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I feel like you are really glossing over the amount of effort it would take to buy all those metals.

Um, almost none? Buying a pound each of steel, iron, pewter, tin, zinc, cadmium, chromium, and brass, all used in flakes, is not an intense activity nor very expensive (setting dependent). Exotic or trademarked metals are definitely going to be harder. Duralumin, zinc, brass, cadmium, (some) chromium, and pewter are around $1-5 per pound when I checked, which isn't exactly breaking the bank. Bendalloy is ~$20-70 per pound. Iron and steel are far less. Tin, interestingly, is much more expensive than all of those save maybe Bendalloy. One pound of each can last an allomancer a very long time, depending on how much you want to burn (I realize that's a big asterisk). Allomancy could easily pay for itself in a variety of ways, and pocket cash is enough to get started. A few clicks or a phone call to a metal supplier are all it would take.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

And in the long run, you dont need either much IRL. Super speed once a month is far more than enough.

Enough for what? It's always a key question, and will vary a ton from person to person. For some it will be very little, but then they're also not getting much out of their Feruchemy. For others it will be a lot, and storing it will be a major issue. Some attributes fit this better than others, too. It's hard to predict how much extra health you might need, for example. But it's true that you don't necessarily need much storage to make good use of the attributes. In the books we tend to see a lot of storage consumed very quickly, but for great feats and people who are in constant, mortal danger. We don't see a whole lot of casual, day-to-day Feruchemy, so maybe the storage/consumption ratio for that is a lot more favorable than my intuition suggests.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

In Feruchemy, you trade the attribute now for the attribute later on, but allomancy is also a trade. It is trading you money now for some extra power later on.

Yes, this is exactly my point as well. I can part with $50 for months' worth of metals far more easily than I can sacrifice several weeks to abject misery, uselessness, and/or vulnerability for the really dramatic Feruchemy applications. I can spend an hour getting the money for lots of Allomancy, but you can't spend an hour to get more of a trait than you store.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

And Feruchemy is far more healthy than allomancy. In allomancy, you have higher risks of addiction (savantism) and you can sometimes just die from exhaustion.

True. While a lot of the Feruchemical storage schemes I've heard also seem to carry some similar risks to them they are risks of a different type and seem far less likely to be addictive. I, personally, am not at all concerned about becoming addicted to tin or pewter, nor about overuse of pewter.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Even if all of those metals are useful, how are you supposed to find the perfect porportions of metal? There is no well known perfect porportions, and innefficient metals will be that, inefficient. Or, if you get it too wrong, downright painful, possibly deadly.

To recap, the useful metals are Iron & Steel (Sometimes, barely), Tin & Pewter (Money Drain & Addictive), Bendalloy & Cadmium (expensive), and Brass & Zinc (ethical problems). Half of which could be incredibly dangerous and deadly to ingest.

Industrial metallurgists produce metals with the exact mixtures that are requested, all day, every day. It wouldn't take a lot of experimentation, already knowing what metals you can use, to get to the right mixtures. A few serious migraines aren't going to be fun, but it's a bearable cost (and not too dissimilar from the cost of storing health!).

I disagree with your assessment of the usefulness of the metals for Allomancy. Iron and steel have tons of useful applications beyond the publicly, overtly magical, and "overtly magical" is not unique to Allomancy. Tin and pewter addiction is something that could happen but there's no reason to assume that it will. That people keep returning to brass and zinc as being nothing but ethically problematic is disturbing to me-- reaching such a conclusion strikes me as being really focused on some (obviously) bad things and little to no imagination outside of those things. Some people would be monsters, but some people would only use Feruchemy to commit crimes; it's not an indictment of the magic itself any more than using Feruchemical Connection only to con people means F-Duralumin is inherently problematic. And none of these metals are so expensive as to be out of reach for a typical person (in the U.S., at least, certainly there will be a wide variety), especially since Allomancy offers opportunities to earn money. Toxicity is irrelevant when you can control how much metal you ingest and then burn it off at will with aluminum (also very cheap and widely available).

A lot of the feruchemical applications you suggest are obviously magical (or potentially so, such as suddenly Hulking out with pewter) or are pretty minor conveniences (I want more out of my magic than to not need to take a drink while working out). Again, all cool and appealing applications but not a slam dunk in Feruchemy's favor for me, personally. It's not wrong to prefer Feruchemy, for these or any other reasons.

Edited January 20 by Returned

[redundant]

I think y'all are sleeping (pun intended) on the power of bronze feruchemy for certain people. For someone with bipolar disorder, you can tap wakefulness when in a depressive episode to be able to get out of bed (I know someone who sometimes will have episodes where they sleep 16 hours a day until it passes) or store wakefulness during a manic episode where the reverse happens. Or if you have insomnia, you can use this to actually go to sleep. It would absolutely be my choice at the moment, because there's only so much ZZZquil you can take before you have a problem. 

[Frustration]

Feruchemy is just objectively the correct answer.

There are just only upsides to it.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

6 hours ago, Frustration said:

Feruchemy is just objectively the correct answer.

There are just only upsides to it.

YES

[Nitpicking]

On 1/18/2026 at 1:55 AM, ElendTheEmperor said:

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

personally id prefer feruchemy how abt u guys

I have the Curse of the Philosopher Mom, so I have to ask, "Which feruchemical power? Which allomantic power? Useful for what?"

 

On 1/19/2026 at 5:55 PM, CoderDrag0n8 said:

... Tin & Pewter (Money Drain & Addictive) ...

Both metals are really cheap, so I'm not sure why you mention money drain.

 

One advantage of being an allomancer: you're immune to heavy metal poisoning, apparently. I'd love to have, say, zinc or bronze or steel feruchemy, though.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

14 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

I have the Curse of the Philosopher Mom, so I have to ask, "Which feruchemical power? Which allomantic power? Useful for what?"

 

Both metals are really cheap, so I'm not sure why you mention money drain.

 

One advantage of being an allomancer: you're immune to heavy metal poisoning, apparently. I'd love to have, say, zinc or bronze or steel feruchemy, though.

I mention Money Drain specifically because of how useful they are.

You are prob going to be passively burning them all the time, because of their use, so no matter how cheap, it will build up.

[ElendTheEmperor]

On 1/21/2026 at 10:31 PM, Nitpicking said:

I have the Curse of the Philosopher Mom, so I have to ask, "Which feruchemical power? Which allomantic power? Useful for what?"

 

Both metals are really cheap, so I'm not sure why you mention money drain.

 

One advantage of being an allomancer: you're immune to heavy metal poisoning, apparently. I'd love to have, say, zinc or bronze or steel feruchemy, though.

no but you aren’t fully immune to metal poisoning as you will still die if you dont burn off all ur metals before sleeping  (I know zane survived doing it but he states that he would die one day because of it)

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

14 minutes ago, ElendTheEmperor said:

no but you aren’t fully immune to metal poisoning as you will still die if you dont burn off all ur metals before sleeping  (I know zane survived doing it but he states that he would die one day because of it)

Hate to be an advocate for allomancy, but Aluminum!

[ElendTheEmperor]

2 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Hate to be an advocate for allomancy, but Aluminum!

Yeah, but you would still have to burn it to get rid of your metals and that doesn’t mean that you're invincible to food poisoning

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

8 minutes ago, ElendTheEmperor said:

Yeah, but you would still have to burn it to get rid of your metals and that doesn’t mean that you're invincible to food poisoning

Not food poisoning, metal poisoning, and just chug a little aluminum and no more metal poisoning!

[+Kelkamer]

I would absolutely chose Feruchemy over Allomancy and would spend one day a week as a vegetable Storing everything 

[Treamayne]

On 1/18/2026 at 1:55 AM, ElendTheEmperor said:

Which one do you think would be more useful irl? 

personally id prefer feruchemy how abt u guys

You may be interested in these similar threads:

• If you were a misting & Which Misting
• If you were a ferring
• Everyday Feruchemy
• Twinborn Everyday Value
• Metallic Arts Poll

Hope that helps

[+robardin he/him]

On 1/18/2026 at 1:40 PM, NovaRay said:

Allomancy’s useful abilities are iron, tin, pewter, and zinc and brass. Whereas in Feruchemy only 2 things aren’t that useful. 

Well, of the original Era 1 (non-god) metals, yeah. By Era 2, the timeshifting metals (especially bendalloy) get very intriguing.

But I think most people would agree that being a (full) Feruchemist would be the most useful IRL. Why, you’d be ideal for being a packman servant into the mountains, like a Super Sherpa!

(I mean even pre-Ascension Rashek had a valid beef; if Terris alone had Feruchemy, why the heck WERE they content in just being scholars and porters or guides?)

Now, if you could only take one metal for one power… Allomancy starts looking attractive, particularly A-pewter.

Yes, F-gold allows for insta-healing versus “just” a stamina and healing factor in A-pewter, but you also don’t have to worry about having filled a metalmind sufficiently, so long as you have pewter on hand. Plus you get enhanced agility, speed, and balance thrown in.

You’ll never blur like the Flash by tapping a steelmind, but you also won’t ever have to spend time filling one, either.