How to reliably find gold?

[Pensir]

 Can't seem to find any reading of gold with pro pick that's at least "decent" only "miniscule" amounts, should I go and mine in whenever I find a reading?

[Streetwind]

Getting readings for gold like that is not going to happen, I'm afraid. Gold mostly spawns in single-chunk spikes, and since the prospecting pick interpolates across an area, there just won't be enough gold-bearing chunks for you to get more than the lowest couple values.

Gold is rare. There are no ways to obtain large amounts at once. Your best bet is to canvas every quartz layer you find for small pockets of it.

[LadyWYT]

On 10/15/2024 at 2:10 AM, Streetwind said:

Your best bet is to canvas every quartz layer you find for small pockets of it.

This. Very much this. If you find a seam of quartz, do a node search in a couple of spots to see if there's anything else to be found there, if you don't see anything to otherwise indicate precious metal deposits buried within. You might also go looking for quartz seams in desert areas, as I seem to have better luck finding both gold and silver deposits in those areas than others.

[Thorfinn]

Welcome to the forums, @Pensir!

Another possibility is to just play the game on its own terms. If the random number generator grants you a resource, you use it.  You don't set out to build the Parthenon. But if you stumble into marble, figure out what you can build with the quantity of material you found. Even if it's not enough for the Parthenon, it's enough for something.

The next world will give you a different set of opportunities.

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

You don't set out to build the Parthenon. But if you stumble into marble, figure out what you can build with the quantity of material you found. Even if it's not enough for the Parthenon, it's enough for something.

Very much this too! When it comes to building, Vintage Story very much prioritizes building with local materials, given how harder it is to acquire materials. That also happens to have the interesting side effect of making things that aren't local more of a status symbol, even if it's not an uncommon resource.

Now as for tech stuff that requires gold...finding one quartz vein with gold deposits will probably supply all the gold you really need. For lanterns, silver is a much cheaper lining option, and brass/tin bronze have similar golden coloring for the lantern frame itself, while being easy to obtain.

[HeermanTheGerman]

So that would mean that when the prospecting pic says "poor" on Gold readings, the readings are higher as usual because gold actually appears on the readings at all? I´ve got two hils that actually show gold readings on prospecting which makes me curious because its just those two isolated hills. No vein to follow on to higher concentration like on copper or sphalerite

[LadyWYT]

4 minutes ago, HeermanTheGerman said:

So that would mean that when the prospecting pic says "poor" on Gold readings, the readings are higher as usual because gold actually appears on the readings at all? I´ve got two hils that actually show gold readings on prospecting which makes me curious because its just those two isolated hills. No vein to follow on to higher concentration like on copper or sphalerite

Welcome to the forums! The prospecting pick's Density Search mode only gives you an idea of what could have spawned in the chunk, not what's actually there. Node Search will tell you exactly what there is to find, if anything, but has a very short search radius. And just because Density Search reports a chance of something having generated, doesn't mean it's actually present. Likewise, there may be ore present that's not listed in the Density Search--had that happen on more than one occasion.

As for gold specifically, the best way to find it is to find a quartz vein and conduct a Node Search or two to see if there is any precious metal within. Oftentimes, there are bits of gold or silver mixed in with the quartz.

[HeermanTheGerman]

22 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums! The prospecting pick's Density Search mode only gives you an idea of what could have spawned in the chunk, not what's actually there. Node Search will tell you exactly what there is to find, if anything, but has a very short search radius. And just because Density Search reports a chance of something having generated, doesn't mean it's actually present. Likewise, there may be ore present that's not listed in the Density Search--had that happen on more than one occasion.

As for gold specifically, the best way to find it is to find a quartz vein and conduct a Node Search or two to see if there is any precious metal within. Oftentimes, there are bits of gold or silver mixed in with the quartz.

yeah I got that. But since you said that gold spawns in sharp localized spikes far apart distribution wise and the prospecting pick interpolates data from bordering chunks, getting any reading at all on density search for gold should mean that the chunk near the sample taken is one of those localized spikes. Because if what you say is true and that gold "veins" are small only one or two chunks at most with a lot of empty space in between to form lots of tiny individual spikes on the heat maps the game uses for ore distribution, that means you do not really get percentages guiding towards a high concentration area like copper for example with "veins" hundreds of chunks wide with probability of up to 30% in the center of the heat map peak. You cant get those percentage readings because there are no high percentage areas so to speak. A reading for gold on density search is more like a boolean answer of "true, you are on a node" as soon as you get any. Or you get  "false, you are in the empty space between nodes" when you are between the nodes. The nodes are never close enough to get you any readings like the gradients of poor, decent etc or the percentages. Because the nodes are too far apart for any interpolation but as soon as you are directly on one, there would be enough of it to give you a poor reading. Which I got on two locations.

Finding most ores with the prospecting pic is like walking barefoot in the dark on a carpet trying to find a puddle in the room. You can actually feel the carpet getting from humid to moist to wet and at some point you step into the puddle.

Finding gold if what you say is true, is like walking the same room barefoot in the dark only that you dont look for a puddle. Its a bunch of single lego pieces spread around couple of meters apart. You wont feel anything most of the time. But once you find a "reading" by stepping on it. You should be pretty certain its there.

Edited April 15, 2025 by HeermanTheGerman
further explanation given

[Thorfinn]

1 hour ago, HeermanTheGerman said:

But since you said that gold spawns in sharp localized spikes far apart distribution wise and the prospecting pick interpolates data from bordering chunks, getting any reading at all on density search for gold should mean that the chunk near the sample taken is one of those localized spikes

Unfortunately, no. It just means that statistically, it could be there.

[Khornet]

Don't bother prospecting for silver/gold. As mentioned above, you want to find a deep quartz vein. They tend to get pretty big and there's "guaranteed" silver/gold chunks of 2-5 blocks in there.

There really is no other efficient way to mine for silver/gold than chaining up ore blasting bombs in massive excavated walls of underground quartz deposits. The downside is you end up with stacks upon stacks of quartz that you don't really need.

 

[Vermilius]

Farm Rusty Gears, buy Omok (Gold) from Luxurious Traders restocks near you and then smelt it down. While it isn't Mining, it's at least a way to get Gold. 

[Omnipotent Rodent]

On 10/16/2024 at 5:01 PM, LadyWYT said:

This. Very much this. If you find a seam of quartz, do a node search in a couple of spots to see if there's anything else to be found there, if you don't see anything to otherwise indicate precious metal deposits buried within. You might also go looking for quartz seams in desert areas, as I seem to have better luck finding both gold and silver deposits in those areas than others.

Bit of a necropost, but I wanted to say you guys saved my sanity, thank you. Now I've got the electrum I need!

[Maelstrom]

It ain't a necropost until at least 6 months, probabaly even a year.

Someone recently necro'd Tyron's first post after NINE YEARS!  

[OBAMFSpike]

On 4/15/2025 at 6:43 PM, Khornet said:

Don't bother prospecting for silver/gold. As mentioned above, you want to find a deep quartz vein. They tend to get pretty big and there's "guaranteed" silver/gold chunks of 2-5 blocks in there.

There really is no other efficient way to mine for silver/gold than chaining up ore blasting bombs in massive excavated walls of underground quartz deposits. The downside is you end up with stacks upon stacks of quartz that you don't really need.

 

Howdy. First time in the threads here. Radical game.  Too much quartz means build glass houses at the bottom of deep lakes and oceans as to hide your coveted gold and silver? Anyways, once I get out of the copper age, I'll get to blasting and mining quartz and the metals that hide within it. I get to blow stuff up!

Edited August 9, 2025 by OBAMFSpike

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, OBAMFSpike said:

Howdy. First time in the threads here. Radical game.  Too much quartz means build glass houses at the bottom of deep lakes and oceans as to hide your coveted gold and silver? Anyways, once I get out of the copper age, I'll get to blasting and mining quartz and the metals that hide within it. I get to blow stuff up!

Welcome to the forums! You can also smelt quartz you don't need into glass and sell it to some of the traders, making a tidy little profit over time.

[Never Jhonsen]

13 hours ago, OBAMFSpike said:

 Too much quartz means build glass houses at the bottom of deep lakes and oceans

I tried this back in 1.18 once

Tragically, I could only get about 8 blocks down, before my house was considered a cave Even in a 100% glass house, the water's still thick enough to block that "Natural Light" requirement

[OBAMFSpike]

On 8/10/2025 at 5:30 AM, Never Jhonsen said:

I tried this back in 1.18 once

Tragically, I could only get about 8 blocks down, before my house was considered a cave Even in a 100% glass house, the water's still thick enough to block that "Natural Light" requirement

Well I thank you for saving me the time and effort of attempting this. I just started playing Vintage Story and I am happier than a two petered puppy. Very cool game. 

[Krougal]

3 hours ago, OBAMFSpike said:

I am happier than a two petered puppy.

Dude!

You just made me spit a mouthful of coffee all over my monitor!

LMFAO.

[Maelstrom]

22 hours ago, OBAMFSpike said:

Well I thank you for saving me the time and effort of attempting this. I just started playing Vintage Story and I am happier than a two petered puppy. Very cool game. 

Why keep that from your 20,000 league under the sea challenge?  Think I'll find me a nice coral reef and build me a sunken glass bathysphere

[OBAMFSpike]

19 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Why keep that from your 20,000 league under the sea challenge?  Think I'll find me a nice coral reef and build me a sunken glass bathysphere

Well, truth be told, I wasn't aware I had to adjust settings to spawn oceans.                                                                                                                                                                                       

So I will be working on this build for a while. Third year in the game with a little under two hundred hours vested this far. I havent even been able to locate bees yet and fat is getting harder to source the more I progress and use for things like the windmill. 

What a cool game. I'm looking forward to Vintage Story for many years to come. What a cool job these hombres have. 

[Maelstrom]

The solution to animal fat is cultivating livestock.   Pigs usually are the best for fat with added benefits of leather and meat.  Bones if you want to fertalize your garden or make terra preta.

[OBAMFSpike]

On 8/14/2025 at 7:30 AM, Maelstrom said:

The solution to animal fat is cultivating livestock.   Pigs usually are the best for fat with added benefits of leather and meat.  Bones if you want to fertalize your garden or make terra preta.

Excellent. I am on the right track then. Collected every berry bush and marked all clay and found bees and and and and............

I have pigs, chickens and rabbits. All spoiled food gets composted for Terra Preta as mentioned. Now I'm looking for obsidian and lava. This game is deep. So much exploration but even more important is how every journey is recon for potential resources. 

Hunting bears has provided fat as well as moose. But it sure goes quickly with wood for mechanical power. Stumbled upon a Translocator which has really broadened the journey and allowed for the discovery of bees which opens up Lamps. 

Oh man ive got some time invested and a lot more in the future. I definitely need to pursue Discord and try this game in Multiplayer. It's easy to see how teamwork can benefit game play in a monumental way. Sorry for the book. 

[OBAMFSpike]

Honestly, long story short, this game is Gold.