Metal fragments are extremely important for crafting many items throughout the game. Without it, you can't get better doors or upgrade your base to metal.
How do you get metal frags? The easiest way is to harvest metal ore from ore nodes, and then smelt the ore in a furnace.
There are several other ways to get metal frags, which I'll explain in detail.
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Ore Nodes
The most common way to get it is to mine the nodes filled with metal. You can use pickaxes or jackhammers to mine them, and better pickaxes harvest much faster.
Each node gives you a couple hundred metal ore, and you can find a ton of nodes if you look in the snow biome.
Ore Rocks
All along the ground you can find small ore rocks that you can pick up for 50 metal ore. If you collect them everywhere you go, you can collect a ton without even thinking about it.
Recycling
At most monuments you can find a recycler, which breaks down items into basic components. Break barrels on the side of the road to collect tons of metal items, and then recycle them for a bunch of metal frags.
Raiding
The hardest but arguably the most fun way is to raid others for their frags. There's something satisfying about stealing other people's hard earned look, and often you can get thousands from a single raid.