Tips on finding marble/phyllite?

[Derro]

Basically what it says on the tin. I've tried looking in slate, just digging random holes in the gravel. 

I've tried strip mining at mantle. 

Looked on the side of mountains.

I tried digging down in a volcanic region only to dive straight into lava at the mantle.

I found several gigantic deposits of fireclay in bauxite deserts, hell, I even found Nadiya village before having beaten Eildon on my bloody search for the stuff (granted my story scaling is around 20%)

You know the real kicker? 

While running south for something unrelated I found marble. A singular block of marble. 

My excitement turned to rage quickly and I pegged it at the first drifter I saw.

 

Is there a better methodology, or am I just really unlucky?

[Krougal]

I have found it exposed at the base of mountains or under the sea but It's just very rare.

[Never Jhonsen]

I've only ever found it once (as mentioned here), and that was from three blocks sticking out of a cliffside

And if it wasn't for that find I'd say the stuff was naught but a myth

[LadyWYT]

I've found plenty of marble, but I can't say that I've ever found phyllite--I'm thinking that one might spawn deep down.

As for tips on finding the stuff in general...all the marble I've found has been pure accident. I was running around the world looking for something else, and saw exposed rock on nearby cliffs that had different light colors to it--in many cases, the suspicious light pink of halite. It wasn't halite, but marble.

Otherwise...I'm not sure there's a good way to find it, aside from maybe checking all the "normal" rock types in the game and seeing which types can be host rocks for marble. Then just search for those rock types, perhaps, though there is no guarantee of finding what you're after. 

2 hours ago, Derro said:

While running south for something unrelated I found marble. A singular block of marble. 

I would go back and check the area around it. It's entirely possible there is more than just the single block, but buried out of sight.

This would be a prime time for traders to offer marble blocks for sale though.  It would probably be pretty expensive to obtain that way, but it would offer the player a guaranteed way to get what they're after.

[Krougal]

12 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

...all the marble I've found has been pure accident. I was running around the world looking for something else, and saw exposed rock on nearby cliffs that had different light colors to it--in many cases, the suspicious light pink of halite. It wasn't halite, but marble.

Yeah, that has been my experience as well.

Edited September 11, 2025 by Krougal

[Professor Dragon]

Not to hijack this thread, but I've been wanting to vent for a while, and this kind of gives me the opportunity.

What are peoples' experience with the Propick?

In my hunt for Magnetite, I sank shaft after shaft into the highest "Decent" reading (after smothering the area with Distribution checkings) and found nothing. I think three (?) Black Bronze pickaxes were used. (Thanks, Survival Goods Traders.)

Another area that was "Poor" I stumbled upon my first large haul, that let me enter the Steel Age.

But then another area (I know what I'm doing now!) turned up EMPTY, even though there was  Very High chance of Magnetite and Ultra High chance of Cassiterite.

So, I downloaded an X-Ray mod called Block Overlay and went into my Test world.
https://mods.vintagestory.at/xray

And I tried prospecting again, and checking my Pro-Pick Distribtion and Node results against what was found.

Now, I know how Prospecting is SUPPOSED to work. Distribution gives the CHANCE of "there might be none, even though you get a good reading" and "Node" is "always right, if you are within range.

But in my Test world, a Distribution check gave no results, while standing literally in the middle of the biggest Magnetite vein I've seen.

So I sent back to my real world (I'd had enough by this time), and checked.

There was nothing near my original Decent Magnetite reading.

There was nothing near my Very High Magnetite reading and the nearest Cassiterite to the Ultra High reading was 140+ blocks away.
 

Now . . . that is a very small sample size. But honestly, it has been a frustrating experience and it would be nice if the Density Search were "a little more accurate."
Would it kill it to have an extra setting where you could do a Density Search, but it actually checked broadly the chunks around and gave a yay/nay to it?

I like to think of myself as a "give everything a decent go" type of player. But I'm pretty sure that many people would have given up long before this.

/rant

Thanks for listening.
Professor Dragon.

 

 

[LadyWYT]

5 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

What are peoples' experience with the Propick?

Overall the propick gives you an idea of where you might want to dig, but you're never guaranteed that the ore in question will be there. Only a node search will tell you that. It can be frustrating when the propick lies, of course, but more often than not the data it provides is fairly useful.

 

8 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

In my hunt for Magnetite, I sank shaft after shaft into the highest "Decent" reading (after smothering the area with Distribution checkings) and found nothing. I think three (?) Black Bronze pickaxes were used. (Thanks, Survival Goods Traders.)

There are certain ores that seem to be harder to find than others, and magnetite seems to be one of those ores. If you're searching in andesite rock, I think there's a better chance that you'll find it, as that's the only iron type that can spawn in andesite, but I'm also not 100% sure. What I do know is that I've checked a handful of Decent-Ultra High readings for it and not found it, but found it just find at Poor or other sub-optimal readings. The times I recall finding though, have also been in andesite.

 

11 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

Now, I know how Prospecting is SUPPOSED to work. Distribution gives the CHANCE of "there might be none, even though you get a good reading" and "Node" is "always right, if you are within range.

But in my Test world, a Distribution check gave no results, while standing literally in the middle of the biggest Magnetite vein I've seen.

So I sent back to my real world (I'd had enough by this time), and checked.

There was nothing near my original Decent Magnetite reading.

There was nothing near my Very High Magnetite reading and the nearest Cassiterite to the Ultra High reading was 140+ blocks away.
 

Now . . . that is a very small sample size. But honestly, it has been a frustrating experience and it would be nice if the Density Search were "a little more accurate."
Would it kill it to have an extra setting where you could do a Density Search, but it actually checked broadly the chunks around and gave a yay/nay to it?

I like to think of myself as a "give everything a decent go" type of player. But I'm pretty sure that many people would have given up long before this.

 I wonder if it's possibly bugged in some fashion, and not quite working as intended? Because this does seem very odd. Of course, it could also just be an older system that could use some refining. I would think that the density search should be accurate to what should actually be there, with any existing ore that wasn't reported just a happy bonus. That way players can confidently pinpoint good dig sites, while having the occasional happy little surprise instead of the occasional unhappy disappointment.

[Derro]

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I've found plenty of marble, but I can't say that I've ever found phyllite--I'm thinking that one might spawn deep down.

As for tips on finding the stuff in general...all the marble I've found has been pure accident. I was running around the world looking for something else, and saw exposed rock on nearby cliffs that had different light colors to it--in many cases, the suspicious light pink of halite. It wasn't halite, but marble.

That's genuinely how I've found most of my stuff, when I've given up and moved on to other stuff ay 

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Otherwise...I'm not sure there's a good way to find it, aside from maybe checking all the "normal" rock types in the game and seeing which types can be host rocks for marble. Then just search for those rock types, perhaps, though there is no guarantee of finding what you're after. 

I would go back and check the area around it. It's entirely possible there is more than just the single block, but buried out of sight.

See, that's the tragic thing tho, I did mark it and went back and dug up the surrounds and nope, just pain and suffering haha 

 

Its found in slate and phyllite apparently. I've found phyllite in a different game but no luck here. Ive only looked in one slate biome so far though.

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

This would be a prime time for traders to offer marble blocks for sale though.  It would probably be pretty expensive to obtain that way, but it would offer the player a guaranteed way to get what they're after.

I'd be completely down for that

[Derro]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

I would think that the density search should be accurate to what should actually be there, with any existing ore that wasn't reported just a happy bonus. That way players can confidently pinpoint good dig sites, while having the occasional happy little surprise instead of the occasional unhappy disappointment.

Yeah that would be awesome

[Maelstrom]

regarding the finding of phylite (but this might be for kimberlite)

This only works for color maps.

In a gravel or sand plain look for a small eliptical rock strata that is not the same as the surrounding rock strata.  Phylite generates deep and causes the strata above it to be upthrust.  The top layer then disappears revealing the second layer of rock strata as the surface layer.  Mine down and you will find phylite (or kimberlite).

Kudos to Nathan Wostrel

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

In a gravel or sand plain look for a small eliptical rock strata that is not the same as the surrounding rock strata.  Phylite generates deep and causes the strata above it to be upthrust.  The top layer then disappears revealing the second layer of rock strata as the surface layer.  Mine down and you will find phylite (or kimberlite).

How small are we talking here?  And when you say "second layer as surface layer" do you mean the rock type itself is different? I'd like to try this strategy but I'm a little confused.

[Maelstrom]

How small?  about 24 block diameter or so.   Once you see your first one (and they are at best uncommon) you'll know you've found one.

The rock itself will be the surface layer; which is why the color map will reveal the anomaly.

In all my wandering and looking at color maps, I've only found one such anomaly, but there was indeed phylite or kimberlite way deep down.   I don't recall which one coz it happened a couple years ago now.  Unfortunately, that world was on my son's computer before he left for the colleges.  It is either lost in his vault of games or is no more.

[Echo Weaver]

Re: phylite and kimberlite, I really would like to be able to make a survival house in multicolor drystack as a stretch goal for a long-playing world, so ways to find it are very interesting to me!

Re propick -- I have always found the ore when my pick tells me there's a high chance of finding it. I haven't had that kind of result for decent, and I don't think I've ever tried to find something at a level below decent. It really seems like there's a problem if the reading is very high and there's no ore nearby. Maybe that could happen once with really bad RNG, but twice within any length of time seems like a big stretch.

Edited September 12, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Professor Dragon]

2 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Re propick -- I have always found the ore when my pick tells me there's a high chance of finding it. 

I wish that I had that luck.

Here is my latest search.

• A while ago (Maybe on the prior version v.1.21.0 stable???), I found and marked a High ilmenite reading near my base.
• The rest of the ProPick results are on current version v1.21.1 stable
• NOT ONE has an ilmenite reading. This makes sense (maybe) compared to the findings, but doesn't gel with the first result (?)
• Digging at the High reading didn't find anything.
• I used the ore finder (mod Block Overlay), and the closest vein of ilmenite is marked.
• The closest reading to it showed a Very Poor reading for Copper and trace amounts for Bismuthinite.
• I dug down to where the vein was - Block Overlay was correct.
• ProPick Node Search from within six blocks FAILED to pick it up from one block away. I wish I took a screenshot.
• Using ProPick again on different blocks close to the vein DID pick it up after that.

I don't know?

Professor Dragon.

  

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Krougal]

55 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

I wish that I had that luck.

Here is my latest search.

• A while ago (Maybe on the prior version v.1.21.0 stable???), I found and marked a High ilmenite reading near my base.
• The rest of the ProPick results are on current version v1.21.1 stable
• NOT ONE has an ilmenite reading. This makes sense (maybe) compared to the findings, but doesn't gel with the first result (?)
• Digging at the High reading didn't find anything.
• I used the ore finder (mod Block Overlay), and the closest vein of ilmenite is marked.
• The closest reading to it showed a Very Poor reading for Copper and trace amounts for Bismuthinite.
• I dug down to where the vein was - Block Overlay was correct.
• ProPick Node Search from within six blocks FAILED to pick it up from one block away. I wish I took a screenshot.
• Using ProPick again on different blocks close to the vein DID pick it up after that.

I don't know?

Professor Dragon.

  

 

 

 

Yeah, I recently tried to use the propick instead of block overlay, but even with various mods, the propick is complete shit.

[Never Jhonsen]

The prospecting pickaxe with a radius of 6 is trash

I've ran it with a radius of 12 since 1.14 and I've always had luck in finding stuff on readings less than decent

Try increasing your radius

[Maelstrom]

I've had tons of success running the default 6 block radius.  Node search mode is just as much determining where ore is not as much as it is determining where it is.

[Derro]

18 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

regarding the finding of phylite (but this might be for kimberlite)

This only works for color maps.

In a gravel or sand plain look for a small eliptical rock strata that is not the same as the surrounding rock strata.  Phylite generates deep and causes the strata above it to be upthrust.  The top layer then disappears revealing the second layer of rock strata as the surface layer.  Mine down and you will find phylite (or kimberlite).

Kudos to Nathan Wostrel

I did find some gravel in that shape in a creative world in grass, dug down and found phyllite but it was next to a hot spring 

 

Gonna do some more experiments in creative mode and see what I can suss out