Here is some tips I learned... the hard way!

[BigBadBeef]

Here are some helpful tips I learned the hard way, something that no tutorial or let's player hasn't mentioned or doesn't know:

1. Go slow when exploring. Not only is there a danger of you falling into a concealed pit and dying, it is also easy to skip over valuable resources since they are often hard to see.
2. A casual stroll in the woods will net you a bounty of valuable resources. But keep your ears, yes your EARS, not your eyes open. Forrests are thick, and you will more often than not, hear a potential threat before seeing it. Bears and wolves will growl when they're coming after you, giving you MAYBE half a second to mash that sprint button and run!
3. Molybdochalkos is an excellent material for lanterns since both lead and copper are easy to obtain.
4. Drifters are crazy. Sometimes they will fight and kill each other just so that the winner would be the only one who tries to murder you!
5. Foxes are a good source of fat and they die with a single metal spear throw... but only in spring and summer.
6. Some bronzes are harder to make & obtain than Iron.
7. The first bronze, any type of bronze item you should make, is an anvil. If you have enough left over for a pickaxe, you can skip straight to Iron if you knew where there is some.
8. Black Bronze spears are the most powerful craftable ranged weapons in the game. First hit won't make the wolf run away, but the second will already kill him.
9. Making pounder caps or helve hammer heads out of anything lesser tier than Iron is a waste of resources.
10. If you don't have wind power yet, don't bother processing all the iron blooms. When you need to smith, just heat them up, shape them into ingots, then instantly smith then into whatever you need, they cool very slowly.
11. Pick all the berries you can! Its okay if they rot, you can make compost in barrels, which in turn leads to making high fertility soil if you don't have enough Terra Preta, and they are good for fertilizing crop fields.
12. Bears are present in Vintage Story. And those eency-weency fences won't keep them out. Build a stable to house the animals, totally sealing access to them. Unless bears are the ones you want to tame, in which I case, PLEASE record your efforts. The community would LOVE to see that suicidal suicidal comedy!
13. Tameable animals can't swim against the current. Build a trench two blocks wide and at least two blocks deep to where you want them to go, then use water buckets to "flush" them in your desired direction. Make sure you spawn that water outside the trench since they can swim up water sources.
14. Making dirt scaffolding? That will make you need a shovel to knock it down efficiently later on. Use hay blocks instead. Knocking down hay scaffolding is faster than a steel shovel with dirt, and you save a little bit of space of not needing tools.
15. Brown bear? Don't. Just don't. Your guts will be on the ground before you had time to charge the second ranged shot. Only the heaviest armor and weapons will let you take one head-on. Unless you're a low-down, good for nothing, yellow-bellied cheesing coward.
16. An Iron knife is a decent weapon against tier 1 enemies that hits really fast and often.

[BenLi]

my 4 cents to add re traveling and advanced mining:

17) Iron/steel axe is good for wood, fast sticks shearing on travels and killing tier1 enemies especially the bronze locusts. One slot, 3 functions.

18) when leaving for a long travel - it is better to bring a pot with 6 meals than a sealed 4 meals crock, as it usually is eaten faster than it gets rot. In the worst case you can cook more food while traveling.

19) having 10-20 lanterns is the same as having 1 lantern. One slot. But when traveling - you may leave visible marks and/or light your way in the cave you are planning to return to, even when the rift activity is apocalyptic. Especially worth for iron and coal mines - you can return to mine more safely.

20) Speaking of mines: use dry stone fence to seal depleted areas. 6 stones for 1 fence is not that expensive as running hoh due to freshly spawned saw locust behind your back. Just remember to seal from the floor to the ceiling.

[Maelstrom]

On 11/13/2022 at 5:09 AM, BigBadBeef said:

 

1. Making ... helve hammer heads out of anything lesser tier than Iron is a waste of resources.

Not true.  ANY helve hammer head will work on anything up to, and including, pounding blister steel into steel ingots.  Yes, that means you can use a copper helve hammer to work steel.  The anvil is the gateway to forging the next tier of metal.

Quote

1. An Iron knife is a decent weapon against tier 1 enemies that hits really fast and often.

An axe is even better as it provides the highest DPS (damage per second) of all items.  I strike first with a falx and switch to axe for successive blows.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Maelstrom

[Maelstrom]

23 hours ago, BenLi said:

19) having 10-20 lanterns is the same as having 1 lantern. One slot. But when traveling - you may leave visible marks and/or light your way in the cave you are planning to return to, even when the rift activity is apocalyptic. Especially worth for iron and coal mines - you can return to mine more safely.

Better yet - place those stones from mining on the ground to eliminate monster spawnage for greater safety.

[BigBadBeef]

18 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Not true.  ANY helve hammer head will work on anything up to, and including, pounding blister steel into steel ingots.  Yes, that means you can use a copper helve hammer to work steel.  The anvil is the gateway to forging the next tier of metal.

An axe is even better as it provides the highest DPS (damage per second) of all items.  I strike first with a falx and switch to axe for successive blows.

My comment pertains to availability of any particular resource when crafting helve hammer heads. You will have access to large quantities of Iron by the time you're in a position to able to make one. It pays to save copper for alloys, meant for decorative purposes.

Most people usually carry a knife around, they don't usually carry an axe. I am talking about dispatching the occasional drifter nuisance, not going deep underground, fighting sawblade locusts butt naked with a knife. Of course the axe will be better in that regard.

 

18 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Better yet - place those stones from mining on the ground to eliminate monster spawnage for greater safety.

... Or just go mining armed. Can never have enough gears...

[BenLi]

19 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Better yet - place those stones from mining on the ground to eliminate monster spawnage for greater safety.

Yes, this is good solution for small deposits and salt hunt. But.

Iron mines are usually quite large (up to 26 blocks). And are very unstable.

Losing precious underground time for placing stones is hmmm not that efficient.

Mine line by line and put lanterns each 10 blocks.

Move lanterns as you slice more 3 blocks wide rows.

Once getting enough depleted space - seal with dry stone fence.

[Buddh4]

I violated number 15. It was the middle of winter. She was trespassing on my homestead. I had to send a message. It was a beautiful dance, but only one of us could walk away. Her sacrifice was not in vain.

[ArgentLuna]

On 11/13/2022 at 11:09 PM, BigBadBeef said:

Molybdochalkos

Favorite metal for that reason ~ always have more copper than i can use and similar with Lead and particularly once I get a Helve hammer going everywhere gets a Lantern

[Konslufius]

What about 2 fences high? I was expecting the bear to be somewhat of an annoyence and build a barn in advance.

And I did not know that foxes are a good fat source. Thanks.