Instantly killed by a hot spring... does that really make any sense?

[long shot]

As the title says, I got instantly killed by a hot spring. I was about 6000 blocks away in both directions from my spawn point, doing some exploring.  I am generally cautious about exploring, as walking in this game is very slow, and I hate walking back to my items to recover them. I saw the hot spring and was like:

"okay, that's cool. Haven't seen that before. Looks like the surface is nice and warm. Water seems a bit hot, but nothing super deadly, might damage me a bit, I'll touch it real quick to check... oh, it did 20+ damage and I died instantly."

I've died in most ways I can imagine in this game, sometimes frustratingly, but none seemed completely unfair like this one. Standing in a steel-making chimney does, I believe, 5 damage per second at many hundreds of degrees C. Touching a fire burning at 1200 degrees C does something like 1 or 2 damage, maybe lighting you on fire and doing some damage over time.

Hopping in a natural hot spring up to the waist - Instant death. I mean... really? Is it just me, or is that patently unfair? Nothing about their appearance screams instant death like a bomb or a pit of lava. Nothing about the general connotation of "hot spring" is particularly concerning, as these exist in real life and, while not always safe, many are known for relaxing and bathing in. I just don't understand that. I definitely find some damage sources odd, like wolves, but this is the only one that made me think it genuinely should not be the way it is because it makes no sense whatsoever and is objectively poor design. 

What do you think? Am I just stupid for thinking that uncomfortably hot water shouldn't instantly kill me?

 

[Echo Weaver]

Wow. I knew hot springs were damaging, but that does seem to be a lot.

[Bruno Willis]

1 minute ago, long shot said:

I've died in most ways I can imagine in this game, sometimes frustratingly, but none seemed completely unfair like this one. Standing in a steel-making chimney does, I believe, 5 damage per second at many hundreds of degrees C. Touching a fire burning at 1200 degrees C does something like 1 or 2 damage, maybe lighting you on fire and doing some damage over time.

You're dead right, (not just dead) inconsistency is bad. I think you'd probably die almost instantly if you jumped into a pool of literally boiling water, but I also think you'd die instantly if you stepped inside a kiln.

7 minutes ago, long shot said:

Nothing about their appearance screams instant death like a bomb or a pit of lava.

It would be nice to see a heat haze or some signal about how hot the hot-pool is, but I also think the furnaces and kilns could be much more punishing.

Also, welcome to the forums! I wish you many near misses instead of deaths in future. 

[long shot]

4 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Wow. I knew hot springs were damaging, but that does seem to be a lot.

Yeah, I was very surprised. I didn't see my exact health at the time, but I have a max health of 30, and my bar was 60-75% full. So somewhere between 16 and 23 damage. I haven't seen anything in the game do that much damage except maybe bears when I have no armor. 

[long shot]

Just now, Bruno Willis said:

You're dead right, (not just dead) inconsistency is bad. I think you'd probably die almost instantly if you jumped into a pool of literally boiling water, but I also think you'd die instantly if you stepped inside a kiln.

It would be nice to see a heat haze or some signal about how hot the hot-pool is, but I also think the furnaces and kilns could be much more punishing.

Also, welcome to the forums! I wish you many near misses instead of deaths in future. 

I agree that if you jumped into a vat of 80C water, you'd probably die, if not be very close to death. However, they are one block deep. That's just up to the waist / just the legs. I died instantly on contact, which is pretty wild to me. Funnily enough, the soil with the bacteria closest to the water you stand on reads 70-80C and does no damage when you walk on it

And thank you for the welcome. I promise that I'm not oblivious to my only contribution being a bit of a rant, but this was the only time the game really upset me, lol. 

[LadyWYT]

12 minutes ago, long shot said:

What do you think? Am I just stupid for thinking that uncomfortably hot water shouldn't instantly kill me?

Honestly, given what the tour guides at Yellowstone said...yeah, that's actually pretty accurate for a hot spring. It's not just uncomfortably hot water--it's actively boiling, complete with being acidic in some cases. It's one big reason why tourists are warned multiple times about not venturing off paths, keeping pets leashed, and not to chase pets should they get loose near a hot spring. The ground might support a small animal, but not something the size of a human, and if a creature(be it animal or human) falls into one of the springs chances are they will be cooked before anyone can fish them out.

That being said though, I also agree with @Echo Weaver--instant death is more damage than I recall hot springs dealing. What difficulty are you playing on? If it's a higher difficulty, that could be why. It also seems like there was some sort of gameplay reason that the damage might have been increased from what it was, but I can't recall for sure. In any case, I do think that the player should have at least a few seconds grace to react and save themselves, should they jump/fall in.

In any case, welcome to the forums, and may your further adventures in the game be a bit smoother!

4 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

It would be nice to see a heat haze or some signal about how hot the hot-pool is

The pools do have particles in them to suggest that they're boiling, I'm pretty sure, and if you have the block information overlay turned on I'm pretty sure it will tell you the temperature of the water as well.

Edited September 23, 2025 by LadyWYT
grammar

[Bruno Willis]

3 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

That being said though, I also agree with @Echo Weaver--instant death is more damage than I recall hot springs dealing. What difficulty are you playing on? If it's a higher difficulty, that could be why.

I think different pools have different temperatures, so you can find some which are safe to relax in, and some which will fry the animals you chase into them, and most are somewhere in between. 

[long shot]

1 minute ago, LadyWYT said:

Honestly, given what the tour guides at Yellowstone said...yeah, that's actually pretty accurate for a hot spring. It's not just uncomfortably hot water--it's actively boiling, complete with being acidic in some cases. It's one big reason why tourists are warned multiple times about not venturing off paths, keeping pets leashed, and not to chase pets should they get loose near a hot spring. The ground might support a small animal, but not something the size of a human, and if a creature(be it animal or human) falls into one of the springs chances are they will be cooked before anyone can fish them out.

That being said though, I also agree with @Echo Weaver--instant death is more damage than I recall hot springs dealing. What difficulty are you playing on? If it's a higher difficulty, that could be why. It also seems like there was some sort of gameplay reason that the game might have been increased from what it was, but I can't recall for sure. In any case, I do think that the player should have at least a few seconds grace to react and save themselves, should they jump/fall in.

In any case, welcome to the forums, and may your further adventures in the game be a bit smoother!

The pools do have particles in them to suggest that they're boiling, I'm pretty sure, and if you have the block information overlay turned on I'm pretty sure it will tell you the temperature of the water as well.

Yeah I definitely think they should be damaging, but this water was only in the 80s - certainly scalding, but doubtfully worthy of 20 damage in my opinion. I'd have to ask the server owner what the difficulty is. Generally, most other damage seems normal (except for wolves, fuck wolves lol). The Yellowstone Springs are certainly on the most extreme end of what you can still technically call a hotspring. Very acidic, very close to if not at boiling temperatures, and containing extremely harmful bacteria. Some people have died in the Yellowstone Springs, while some have survived. 

[LadyWYT]

2 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I think different pools have different temperatures, so you can find some which are safe to relax in, and some which will fry the animals you chase into them, and most are somewhere in between. 

Possibly, though all the ones I've seen have been too hot to sit in. I'm fairly certain that the hot springs in Vintage Story are supposed to be like Yellowstone's--very hot and highly acidic, not the kind you want to sit and relax in. That being said, having some that were safe to sit in would be awesome, and make hot springs a more interesting find.

[Bruno Willis]

5 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Possibly, though all the ones I've seen have been too hot to sit in. I'm fairly certain that the hot springs in Vintage Story are supposed to be like Yellowstone's--very hot and highly acidic, not the kind you want to sit and relax in. That being said, having some that were safe to sit in would be awesome, and make hot springs a more interesting find.

I haven't found any which were harmless, to be fair, but they weren't doing too much to me. I did use a hotspring to save myself from hypothermia at one point (although I didn't jump in), and that felt good. 

[Forks]

I remember when you could pick up hot spring water in a bucket and it would stay hot when placed.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

[Never Jhonsen]

I'm under the impression (from the creative menu) that the hot springs water is at a nice, toasty 1000°C 

And I think you'd do more than just "instantly die" if you dived into something that hot.

I've seen steam do 3rd degree burns at temps less than that

[Echo Weaver]

So, what's the "smart" way to learn if the hot spring is deadly if you've never seen one before? I can't think of any way within the game mechanics other than jumping in. Or is there a mouseover that tells you it's 1000C?

[LadyWYT]

16 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Or is there a mouseover that tells you it's 1000C?

If you have the block information overlay enabled, I think it should give you the temperature if you are looking at the hot spring. However...

 

17 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

So, what's the "smart" way to learn if the hot spring is deadly if you've never seen one before? I can't think of any way within the game mechanics other than jumping in.

The "smart" method is to let the local wildlife test it. A hot spring will kill a rabbit almost instantly--larger creatures may or may not take longer to die. There is a special death message for them though, in that the game will list the corpse as partially dissolved. 

Of course, if you are playing multiplayer and don't have any local wildlife handy, you could always dare your friend to go for a swim. Or push them in, if you're feeling particularly mean  Just make sure you have a bandage handy/way to otherwise get them fished out and back on their feet after the test!

[Bumber]

Last I checked, hot springs did about the same damage as fire. Did they buff them when they made them damage loot drops?

Or is this like that mod issue where wolves were one-shotting people by attacking several times per second?

[Arasine]

Those Japanese monkeys that take dips in hot springs dont instantly pass away, so I would agree this could use a tweak OP 

 

edit: moneys > monkeys !

Edited September 26, 2025 by Arasine

[Tom Cantine]

On 9/22/2025 at 7:37 PM, long shot said:

I agree that if you jumped into a vat of 80C water, you'd probably die, if not be very close to death. However, they are one block deep. That's just up to the waist / just the legs. I died instantly on contact, which is pretty wild to me.

Well, bear in mind that that "just the legs" are also just the part that are keeping the rest of you out of the water (and the part you'd be using to get out), so if they're cooked, so are you.