Just start a mine in the forrest biome, youll come across all the iron you need. 500 seems excessive at face value, but im pretty ive used much more than that throughout my entire build. I found a prison and put double iron bars going around the entire wall. Ive used them for so many other things too. Biggest thing is having a mine, youll get the irn no problemDidn't realize it was only a survival game, not crafting or anything. ALso, how am I not playing a survival game if I want to build with iron bars?
I like earning all of my resources, just think it's excessive for the cost of those.