What pace do people go for?

[Kyle Rick]

What I mean is like, how fast do people here progress in this game, and what do they focus on first. Using the default passage of time.

I myself make sure to collect a ton of seeds in the first few weeks then plant them all to make sure I have 2 big harvests before winter hits. Early on I go for wood lamellar as my first armour, then go for tin bronze lamellar armour, then steel chain. However sometimes I skip straight to meteorite iron chain due to how easy it is to get and make.

Tend to aim for iron before winter and steel before a full year has passed. I don't explore very far until I have a mount and in my current wilderness survival world run it has been a full year and still not found a treasure hunter. Leather can also be a problem because limestone can be quick to get or take ages if not found right away.

I also make sure I have goats, pigs, and chickens rounded up and bred over time. However I feel like it's so slow as I only am in generation 2 for pigs and goats, 4 for chickens. Is what made me think about my pace and making this post as I feel like i'm going too fast so slow things like that don't catch up. Though I have not really been super optimal with the breeding and such, something I want to improve on next time.

Because I focus more on survival and mechanics you can bet that I make the most amazing huge castles of pure dirt. :>  

Makes me wonder if i'm going too fast and I should slow down but unsure. Curious how other people play this game.

[Never Jhonsen]

My goal is to get a saw, leather, and Iron before the end of the first month. 

After that, it’s all about building out, big and luxurious, and whatever pace I feel like being in the mood for  

[Kyle Rick]

I feel like saw unlocks so many things due to making planks and such, however it requires an anvil so I do need to get the metal for that.

There are mods that adds extra molds but I feel like that would make it too easy. I tend to go straight to tin bronze anvil so I can skip the copper anvil.

The 2 days or so of shifting sand for copper is always the most, interesting experience in this game. Laying back as the rain hits shifting sand for a while.

Edited February 24, 2025 by Kyle Rick

[Cattastrafy]

I half knew what I was doing on my first sp playthrough after playing with brother on our own land server and he taught me stuff.

I kiiinda rushed as best I could to steel (didn't actually make any but had the means by 1 years time. Didn't do any story stuff cause treasure hunter is a myth! And I don't build, like you it seems lol. 

 

Soon as steel was in the works...I got bored. 

Second and current playthrough, I'm forcing myself to take it reaaaaaaal slow on purpose. Has been a blast. I enjoy mining, so I'm mining way more metal than I probably need in each era, as a goal, and am spending it on stuff id never spend it on if trying to min/max. My goal is to make a "stronger" set of armor with each tier of metal to have a reason to mine more and more in each age and feel a real strong increase in defensive power for when I go caving.

Also doing a lot more of that because that's fun and endless potential. Going to do more exploring to find that fabled treasure hunter too I hope. 

Id be all about hearing people's ideas to do mid to late game for activities to extend play throughs but I'm not sure I can stretch it more than I already have or plan to. I don't build and I can only "explore" so much before it gets old.

Oh but to give you some perspective, it's October now and I made my first bis bronze couple of tools

Edited February 24, 2025 by Cattastrafy

[Dilan Rona]

First year or two, I generally concentrate on gathering food, firewood, and peat. Left the farming too late (again), overdid it though with the hunting.

Those bears, and wolves are a pest on my current map. So when I see them, Its hunting season open.

[Zane Mordien]

I can get to iron late spring/early summer. Do the Resonance Archives late summer. Steel I don't prioritize at all typically. I make one batch to say I did it. Unless I find chromite by accident then it goes to the top of the list. All of my tools are typically meteoric iron just to save time/resources.  The new story points I will probably do right after the RA or maybe I'll chill and do them after winter. I haven't done them yet starting from a new playthrough.

My goal first armor is blackguard armor if the TH trader cooperates and has it for sale. If not then iron chain. 

 

[Kyle Rick]

17 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

First year or two, I generally concentrate on gathering food, firewood, and peat. Left the farming too late (again), overdid it though with the hunting.

Those bears, and wolves are a pest on my current map. So when I see them, Its hunting season open.

Is that a lamb in the chest? Looks funny with all that chopped up meat with it.

[Lanceleoghauni]

my speed is positively glacial compared to others. I didn't get iron until the start of my third year. I'm a big homesteader though so building up my home little by little is a lot of my enjoyment. It's been 3 years and I've never had enough metal scraped together at once to upgrade from wooden lamellar. But I have more food than I could possibly eat.

[LadyWYT]

I tend to have iron by the end of the first summer, steel by the end of the first year(year 0). Fully developed homestead complete with livestock and fruit trees as well. It's a fast pace, sure, but I prefer to reach the higher-end equipment quickly as it's easier to focus on building and stuff with better tools and weapons.

Now the main story content is a completely different pace. I can certainly beat both chapters by the end of year 0, but it's not unusual for me to wait until midway into year 1 or so before even starting on the main story content.

[Dilan Rona]

9 hours ago, Kyle Rick said:

Is that a lamb in the chest? Looks funny with all that chopped up meat with it.

It is, all my other chests are full, so I used the only free chest to put them in till I can build a pen for those lambs(Starting area for me is mostly bears, wolves, and quite a bit of foxes. So the Domestic Animal Trader comes in handy there.

[Krähenwolf]

10 hours ago, Lanceleoghauni said:

my speed is positively glacial compared to others. I didn't get iron until the start of my third year. I'm a big homesteader though so building up my home little by little is a lot of my enjoyment. It's been 3 years and I've never had enough metal scraped together at once to upgrade from wooden lamellar. But I have more food than I could possibly eat.

I'll be honest, same. Its now the fourth year in my first world, and I am barely breaking into iron. On the other hand, my main base houses pigs, sheep and chickens; my cellar is full of storage vessels with crops, grain and meat; I have an orchard of pears and apples; a full windmill with helve hammer, pulverizer and quern. And then there is the north camp, which basically functions as a forward camp to the northern regions (about 20.000 blocks north) and has all amenities needed for a comfortable life in the bronze age, complete with a silver mine and bauxite plains.

I plan to go to the Resonance Archives next, once I have gotten enough steel for tools and weapons. But then again, I'll probably take my time with this, so it might not be until year 5.

With my wife, we have reached iron in Year 2, and are preparing for the RA, which we also have reached already. But when I see how quick others are to finish Chapter 1, I cannot help but feel slow again

[Zane Mordien]

4 hours ago, Krähenwolf said:

 

I plan to go to the Resonance Archives next, once I have gotten enough steel for tools and weapons. But then again, I'll probably take my time with this, so it might not be until year 5.

With my wife, we have reached iron in Year 2, and are preparing for the RA, which we also have reached already. But when I see how quick others are to finish Chapter 1, I cannot help but feel slow again

Nah don't feel slow. There is no rush. I live in a cobblestone shack. Small upgrade from dirt. Have fun with the archives it's beautiful. Don't over armor yourself. 

[Thorfinn]

This game, I made it to bronze at 00:14 of day 2. Insane luck. Spawned in a region with something like 15 native copper rocks, right next to red clay and brown coal. Cracked vessels dropped a copper pick. The nearby trader had cassiterite for cheap, and peering into a nearby cave, saw a translocator ruin that had enough gears.

I would have made a first day bronze, but, alas, in my excitement, forgot I needed tongs.

Usually, though, I bronze mid to late May, iron sometime in summer. Large farm, but I don't bother with orchards, and only with animals if they are in my way.

[Lupich]

Basically whatever you're feeling always seems to work fine in this game. There is always something productive to do for any pace player.

[Krähenwolf]

2 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

Nah don't feel slow. There is no rush. I live in a cobblestone shack. Small upgrade from dirt. Have fun with the archives it's beautiful. Don't over armor yourself. 

Don't worry, she will go in with bismuth bronze chain, I with a gambeson. Both of us have the drawback of having no good melee damage - she plays Malefactor, I play Hunter - so we will at least go for iron falx/recurve bows to level the playing field a bit. We are absolutely looking forward to it, already made a quick excursion into

Spoiler

the big room and around it

but have yet to go any deeper - we had almost no food after the trip and were building a forward camp first.

[Michael Gates]

I did just make a personal record by getting iron on July 5 (first full set of tools forged). Would'a been two days earlier except for a little wolf trouble.

3 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

 

I would have made a first day bronze, but, alas, in my excitement, forgot I needed tongs.

 

How do you get the molds? It takes a day and a half to fire them.

[Cetasaya]

I usually try to quickly upgrade ore tiers whenever i can mine at least a dozen or so ingots.  And bronze age has always been lightly kissed (bronze pickaxe for mining iron, and I think a bronze anvil is needed to work iron but I forgor) as iron is FAR more plentiful than tin, bismuth, or zinc.  Hunting for tin or comm. traders selling tin sucks ALL the eggs.  And ive never gotten to steel, ive always settled for easy and simple iron tools and armor.  Iron armor is already broken beyond anything any mob could ever do.  And steel armor aint gonna help with anything iron cant save you from anyway lol.

But this playthough im doing now i tried to keep it as slow and deep (giggity) as possible.  Cause you miss a lot of lower tier content when you're chasing iron.

I wanted to see how far a player could get without metal.  But I missed my beautiful chisel.  So I caved a bit after looking at my unchiseled house one too many times and got some copper and then did the first chapter dungeon.  Now I relaxed the rule and am not graduting tiers until i make a full chainmail armor set of the current one.  Im in the bronze age now, have a dozen stacks of raw iron nuggets and a LOT of copper and about 11 bronze ingots and plenty of bronze tools.  Just need to stumble upon one more vein of casserite, get those last eightish bronze ingots, make that set, and start my iron age.  But winter is ending in a month and im getting that greenhouse up, i'm about to start year three lol so that's gonna have to wait a bit longer.  Im dreading the casserite hunt and I already checked my local comm. trader and all he wants to unload for the next three days is linen, linen, linen.

Next or maybe concurrent playthrough; total stone age.  "What's metal?  I dunno.  But watch me unga bungaa this stone spear right into that difter's face hole."

 

Edited February 26, 2025 by Cetasaya

[Thorfinn]

9 hours ago, Michael Gates said:

How do you get the molds? It takes a day and a half to fire them.

Peat is 16 hours, which is too long, but brown coal only 14 and black coal is 12. It's really tight. The worst of it is waiting for the hammer to cool, as your time drains away.

[-Glue-]

I am only on my second playthrough, but like many survival crafting games, I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect place to set up. Then spend a lot of time being indecisive on how to build my house lol. I double the amount of days in a month, so I get more time to waste, but I'm usually still really slow about progression, and more about building. Once I get a saw and a chisel, I am good. I usually only go out exploring when I need a break, or need more materials. I play this game for the cozy vibes, not to speedrun lol. Wild to me that people get to bronze within the first couple days!

Though, on my current playthrough I am trying to rush a bit more, so I can do the Resonance Archives for the first time, and get a mount. Not sure how equipped I need to be for that. I am probably going to get some Iron armor, then head out. So, probably not until the second year on this world, at least lol. I am a few months in, and don't have a proper house, or farm yet. Been really struggling with the planning due to the constrained location.

[HalfAxd]

I'm more of an explorer...  I find an initial spot with lots of cattails, setup a small shack, garden with what I find locally and get that running... get some food prep going too...  I'll use that as my base of operations and start wandering the map... multiple day expeditions...

I never feel rushed to work up the progression ladder.

[Tinkirus]

I play fairly slow, building a temporary shelter and gathering and preserving enough food to keep my character going. The next step is reaching the Copper Age, empowered by a steady supply of food, I explore and gather all the Copper I can find. For the first time, I gathered enough that I felt comfortable making a bigger base (it's still a work in progress, as this is my first serious playthrough of this game). I have a meager Villa style build going, this has propelled me into growing crops for the first time. With enough linen, creating armor which will be useful in ridding the lands temporarily of bears and wolves is possible; their meat will fill my crocks, pies, and belly! I might actually get to a stage where taking on the Resonance Archives is possible in the second year once I feel my gear is sufficient to wreck the boss. Finding Iron is pretty annoying, as I will likely have to dig deep or find a rich vein of the stuff (I haven't encountered any as yet, prospecting has been a bust so far).

[Cetasaya]

22 hours ago, -Glue- said:

I am only on my second playthrough, but like many survival crafting games, I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect place to set up. Then spend a lot of time being indecisive on how to build my house lol.

I do that in Minecraft.  My god ive gone literal rl hours to find that perfect spot.  Vintage story's terrain gen is much more muted.  You can often find some crazy beautiful areas but a nice nexus of temporal stability, temp, percip, ect. is easy to find and vintage story's beauty has a really high floor.  Its almost always beautiful from any spot.

 

2 hours ago, Tinkirus said:

I might actually get to a stage where taking on the Resonance Archives is possible in the second year once I feel my gear is sufficient to wreck the boss.

Linen gambeson or copper chain is usually enough.  So are the lowest tier of poultices.  Just dont lose focus in the boss fight and kite the mobs in the mines with a bow.  The difference between wood and linen armor is massive.  The difference from then on is much smaller.  Dont forget to take it off in the RA's safer areas, cause it murders your food satiety.  Anywhere that isnt the commons, mine, or boss room im flapping my dogs and dong down the halls stark naked and using my body's clothing spaces as extra loot storage!

On a side note, i just remembered my current playthrough's RA run didnt get me any forlorn or blackguard armor from the armory, man I was ripped off! 

Edited February 27, 2025 by Cetasaya

[Vratislav]

I tend to go to the Bronze age quickly. Copper stuff has still pretty weak durability for my comfort, bronze pickaxe works for almost everything except late game resources, tier 2 armor is OK against surface and shallow cave nasty creatures and bronze tools can be sold to traders. With some prospecting (and with two stacks of rope ladders), ingredients for either tin or bismuth bronze can be usually found quickly, and it is better to save copper surface deposits for bronze. I usually make first anvil, saw and metal armor from bronze. If lucky, I have access to bronze in June.

Then I may slow down, focus on base, agriculture, securing food for winter and go for iron with more relaxed pace. For the RA, I try to get them before first winter, but sometimes it may feel a bit rushed. For The Journey locations, I am usually ready at the early spring.

[Kyle Rick]

15 hours ago, HalfAxd said:

I'm more of an explorer...  I find an initial spot with lots of cattails, setup a small shack, garden with what I find locally and get that running... get some food prep going too...  I'll use that as my base of operations and start wandering the map... multiple day expeditions...

I never feel rushed to work up the progression ladder.

I really love exploring myself and am using mods to enhance the experience. Finding loot and such is always nice when you not strictly looking for something, but once you do and can't find it is when it frustrates me like spending ages trying to fine limestone or such.

I collect a bunch of seeds and bushes myself, aiming for copper/bronze starting in june as I try to fine surface copper.

[Vinter Nacht]

This will probably surprise no one, but I prefer a glacial state of progress, with significant amounts of time spent in the stone age, and generally never reaching even iron. 30 day months, 2 hour day/night cycle, and deep need for more content that supports this style.