halite prospecting and an odd noise

[grunkle lame]

First things first i was wondering what percentage of halite is good enough that it can be found without too much effort, I've been getting hits from 2% all they way up to 15.8% which is still described to be on the lower end in-game. should i just try to find it where i already know it is or is it worth it to continue prospecting for a larger amount? secondly whilst searching i went into a small cave which was a dead end and when i came back out to the surface i heard what sounded like mumbling in a language not the instrument sound the player or traders make. it didn't really sound like words exactly but its an odd and somewhat frighting sound because i simply have no clue what it could have been both in-game and the possibility that the sound was irl. I'm 98% sure the only mod i had enabled was freedom units if anyone might know what it might have been was please give me a clue thanks!

[Zane Mordien]

Buy halite from a merchant is my advice, unless you want to find it just to say you found it. I'd suggest doing a Youtube search if you want to a decent tutorial on it. What you heard just sounds like drifters grumbling to me. 

[grunkle lame]

i found the halite.

[Maelstrom]

On 3/11/2025 at 7:22 PM, grunkle lame said:

when i came back out to the surface i heard what sounded like mumbling in a language not the instrument sound the player or traders make. it didn't really sound like words exactly but its an odd and somewhat frighting sound because i simply have no clue what it could have been both in-game and the possibility that the sound was irl. I'm 98% sure the only mod i had enabled was freedom units if anyone might know what it might have been was please give me a clue thanks!

Oh yeah.  Uhhh.... About that mumbling... 

 

Herobrine immigrated.

[Cetasaya]

Halite I think always has some sylvite which grinds down and when added to water creates potash one of the very best fertilizers and is cracked out for flax farming.  So grab a stack or two of that.  Its ore is red flakes within the halite's white. 

Halite is insanely rare.  ANY first reading above miniscule is an auto chase for me.  Same for all the precious minerals like gold or emerald.  If halite gets up to a Very Poor reading i'm likely stopping everything to get that potash asap.

3 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Herobrine immigrated.

Well he's paying rent if he wants to live on my island.  Otherwise he's going into the drifter pile like all the other freeloaders.

[Maelstrom]

I've had halite at medium reading and a per mille of 35.something+ and no halite dome for the 3 chunk radius around that reading.  The only reason I'd even want a halite dome is for the sylvite to turn into potash.  Otherwise, salt can be bought from traders in sufficient quantities to make brined veggies for further use in cheesy endeavors.

[grunkle lame]

3 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

Halite I think always has some sylvite which grinds down and when added to water creates potash one of the very best fertilizers and is cracked out for flax farming.  So grab a stack or two of that.  Its ore is red flakes within the halite's white. 

Halite is insanely rare.  ANY first reading above miniscule is an auto chase for me.  Same for all the precious minerals like gold or emerald.  If halite gets up to a Very Poor reading i'm likely stopping everything to get that potash asap.

Well he's paying rent if he wants to live on my island.  Otherwise he's going into the drifter pile like all the other freeloaders.

is it really that rare? i didn't really have much trouble finding an area with 25% which had the dome not far from where i dug down was only like 10 blocks from the ladder

[grunkle lame]

45 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I've had halite at medium reading and a per mille of 35.something+ and no halite dome for the 3 chunk radius around that reading.  The only reason I'd even want a halite dome is for the sylvite to turn into potash.  Otherwise, salt can be bought from traders in sufficient quantities to make brined veggies for further use in cheesy endeavors.

sounds like your really unlucky or I'm really lucky I just wanted to have it cause its useful for preserving all sorts of stuff and i dont like relying on trading in games like this

[Cetasaya]

4 hours ago, grunkle lame said:

is it really that rare? i didn't really have much trouble finding an area with 25% which had the dome not far from where i dug down was only like 10 blocks from the ladder

In my experience, its by far the rarest minable resource in vintage story by like 1000 miles.  Im a BIG farmer i love growing shit and turning dull, pale medium fertility soil into that beautiful.  Stinky.  DARK.  Terra Prita.  Gets me excited.  I gotta have the full cocktail of all 4 fertilizers and I sprinkle that stuff on thicc on every block of farmland.  Potash for me is a goal AND a catalyst.  So i'm extra horny for it when I stumble upon even the lightest reading.

I think the only rarer mineable is chromite but its only minable by steel pickaxes and i've always restarted even my oldest world well before I even bother to leasrn how to forge it.  So I dont really have any experience in hunting it down BUT I know its also crazy rare cause you need it for the best backpacks and im always struggling with inventory space cause i'm a disgusting little loot goblin.

4 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I've had halite at medium reading and a per mille of 35.something+ and no halite dome for the 3 chunk radius around that reading.  The only reason I'd even want a halite dome is for the sylvite to turn into potash.  Otherwise, salt can be bought from traders in sufficient quantities to make brined veggies for further use in cheesy endeavors.

Bro thats brutal.  Halite at MEDIUM and it cucks you.  I'd be pissed.  I think halite domes are super low, close to the mantle and very narrow.  Nailing one from the side by strip mining is a long and tedious process.  It's always taken me a long time, and I sometimes spend a good hour just mining away before I switch to creative, get the night vision mask, a temporal gear to fuel it, and just go ham on the walls with the instant block breaking until i find it, jot down the coords, and reload the saveback in survival.  Is it cheating?  Yeah, but halite's rarity is beyond unreasonable.

4 hours ago, grunkle lame said:

sounds like your really unlucky or I'm really lucky I just wanted to have it cause its useful for preserving all sorts of stuff and i dont like relying on trading in games like this

Yes and yes.   You quickly nailed a super rare and useful resource.  It is, salt is goated for long, long expeditions, especially during winter and crossing vast oceans and if you dont wanna waste time gathering.  I may be exaggeratting, but the game changes after you find Halite.  You get free salt AND free access to the best fertilizer for flax and a bunch of other crops.  Food spoilage/overharvesting/waste is a major challenge the enitre game, salt basically just completely remdies it.  And flax is used for so many really vital and useful recipies.  AND you can never have enough cause you need it to repair clothing.

The only things IMO more useful or impactful than halite/sylvite is farming gears for trading, the sailboat, and iron.

Edited March 14, 2025 by Cetasaya

[grunkle lame]

7 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

In my experience, its by far the rarest minable resource in vintage story by like 1000 miles.  Im a BIG farmer i love growing shit and turning dull, pale medium fertility soil into that beautiful.  Stinky.  DARK.  Terra Prita.  Gets me excited.  I gotta have the full cocktail of all 4 fertilizers and I sprinkle that stuff on thicc on every block of farmland.  Potash for me is a goal AND a catalyst.  So i'm extra horny for it when I stumble upon even the lightest reading.

I think the only rarer mineable is chromite but its only minable by steel pickaxes and i've always restarted even my oldest world well before I even bother to leasrn how to forge it.  So I dont really have any experience in hunting it down BUT I know its also crazy rare cause you need it for the best backpacks and im always struggling with inventory space cause i'm a disgusting little loot goblin.

Bro thats brutal.  Halite at MEDIUM and it cucks you.  I'd be pissed.  I think halite domes are super low, close to the mantle and very narrow.  Nailing one from the side by strip mining is a long and tedious process.  It's always taken me a long time, and I sometimes spend a good hour just mining away before I switch to creative, get the night vision mask, a temporal gear to fuel it, and just go ham on the walls with the instant block breaking until i find it, jot down the coords, and reload the saveback in survival.  Is it cheating?  Yeah, but halite's rarity is beyond unreasonable.

Yes and yes.   You quickly nailed a super rare and useful resource.  It is, salt is goated for long, long expeditions, especially during winter and crossing vast oceans and if you dont wanna waste time gathering.  I may be exaggeratting, but the game changes after you find Halite.  You get free salt AND free access to the best fertilizer for flax and a bunch of other crops.  Food spoilage/overharvesting/waste is a major challenge the enitre game, salt basically just completely remdies it.  And flax is used for so many really vital and useful recipies.  AND you can never have enough cause you need it to repair clothing.

The only things IMO more useful or impactful than halite/sylvite is farming gears for trading, the sailboat, and iron.

halite domes are at the edge of the lowest sediment rock layer and i think go all the way down? so far I'm into the bronze age and i have yet to struggle to find anything that I've actively searched out i even found a ton of copper bismuth and zinc in the same place within like 50 blocks on the surface also i dont know how rare it is but i have found a ultra high native copper area of 37~ some percent i also found tin really easy in like 10 or so blocks from the ladder i dug down

[Maelstrom]

3 hours ago, grunkle lame said:

halite domes are at the edge of the lowest sediment rock layer and i think go all the way down?

Correct.  Halite domes generate the first block under the lowest sediment rock layer and go down to the mantle.

I once chanced upon a halite dome while caving.   Came to the end of cave and heard drifter moans.   Ran into the edge of a halite dome tunneling to the drifter moans.

[Thorfinn]

Got 3 in this world already, and it's still May. Granted one of them is probably 5k or more from home, but one is maybe 50.

Most games I find none. Though I don't really look, either. The trader is usually a better use of my time.

[Maelstrom]

3 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Got 3 in this world already, and it's still May. Granted one of them is probably 5k or more from home, but one is maybe 50.

Most games I find none. Though I don't really look, either. The trader is usually a better use of my time.

 

STOP STEALING MY HALITE DOMES!!!!

[Cetasaya]

10 hours ago, grunkle lame said:

halite domes are at the edge of the lowest sediment rock layer and i think go all the way down? so far I'm into the bronze age and i have yet to struggle to find anything that I've actively searched out i even found a ton of copper bismuth and zinc in the same place within like 50 blocks on the surface also i dont know how rare it is but i have found a ultra high native copper area of 37~ some percent i also found tin really easy in like 10 or so blocks from the ladder i dug down

Jesus buy a lotto ticket please lol

Speedrunners get this person's seed

Though im playing a stranded islander playthrough and ive found copper, bismuth, zinc, AND iron all among these tiny three islands.  If you got even a low reading and some time to kill you can find almost anything pretty quickly it seems.

Okay halite domes gen much higher than i thought.  Thickest and easiest to find part is still down to the mantle but I could be wrong about that too

 

12 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

STOP STEALING MY HALITE DOMES!!!!

For real damn.

[Maelstrom]

Ore generation in VS is random despite the world seed.  Generate 10 worlds using the same seed and you will get a unique ore generation every. single. time.

[grunkle lame]

4 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

Jesus buy a lotto ticket please lol

Speedrunners get this person's seed

Though im playing a stranded islander playthrough and ive found copper, bismuth, zinc, AND iron all among these tiny three islands.  If you got even a low reading and some time to kill you can find almost anything pretty quickly it seems.

Okay halite domes gen much higher than i thought.  Thickest and easiest to find part is still down to the mantle but I could be wrong about that too

 

For real damn.

i only have good luck in games sadly

[idiomcritter]

2 minutes ago, grunkle lame said:

i only have good luck in games sadly

oddly I do too!  ain't it amazing :blink:

and per chance a misstep, why that just gives a further opportunity to gaining even further best luck

can't understand how it would be any other way....

 

[Maelstrom]

8 minutes ago, grunkle lame said:

i only have good luck in games sadly

 

STOP STEALING MY GOOD LUCK!!!

[Cetasaya]

8 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

STOP STEALING MY GOOD LUCK!!!

For real damn.