Happy thanks

[Jarulf]

I discovered VT around Christmas last year, a random YouTube video I clicked play on. The name was vaguely familiar, but I knew nothing more than that it was a block game.

I thought it looked fun, moreso than Minecraft which I never really got into, so I bought it. One of my best impulse buys ever.  Many test starts later I'm now enjoying a world approaching its second winter. I'm still a newbie, discovering and experiencing things for the first time and just got my first pigs and a lonely billy goat (his mum and aunt are expecting again though), but I've been unable to find any tin, so I'm stuck in the copper age. A little annoying since there are several meteor impact sites around tempting and taunting me.

I'm having so much fun, thank you for a fantastic game.

[Zane Mordien]

I had a similar experience with Minecraft,  my kid made me play it but I never loved it. 

Don't forget the other types of bronze you can make. Sometimes tin is hard to find but bismuth and zinc will be nearby. Also if you sift enough bony soil you can make a black bronze pickaxe with 2 gold and silver nuggets.

 

 

GOOD LUCK!!

[Jarulf]

6 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

I had a similar experience with Minecraft,  my kid made me play it but I never loved it. 

Don't forget the other types of bronze you can make. Sometimes tin is hard to find but bismuth and zinc will be nearby. Also if you sift enough bony soil you can make a black bronze pickaxe with 2 gold and silver nuggets.

 

 

GOOD LUCK!!

Thank you!

I haven't done any panning of any sort in this playthrough, I kind of just forgot about it I think, and was only very vaguely aware of what bony soil was useful for.  I have lots of ruins close to home, so I know what I'll be doing soon.

Also a bunch of pickaxing my way through the area's rock layers hoping for some Bismuth or Zinc (or I could check my old prospecting results - not that I really understand them well).

Edited October 29, 2025 by Jarulf

[Teh Pizza Lady]

7 hours ago, Jarulf said:

or I could check my old prospecting results - not that I really understand them well

the prospecting gives the chance of finding something underneath you as a permille, not a percent. That is, there is an extra zero in the ‰ symbol instead of the two zeros in the % symbol. 

The information displayed is as follows:

• The relative density of the ore compared to how dense the ore can get. The densities are as follows: Ultra High, Very High, High, Decent, Poor, Very Poor, Miniscule. A reading of "Ultra High" means the ore is as dense as it can get. A reading of "Miniscule" means the ore can be present in the area, but in very small quantities. A Very Poor reading of one ore may have a much higher permille reading than an Ultra High reading of another ore.
• The name of the ore. You can click on the name to see the handbook entry for it.
• The actual density of the ore in parenthesis, given in parts-per-thousand (‰, notice the second zero at the bottom), based on the column prospected, which represents the average number of blocks in the area that may be of that specified ore should it have spawned.

Note that spawning of the ore is not guaranteed. Prospecting results are position-based, not chunk based. You could have many different readings within the same chunk. Prospecting readings are based on the position of the first sample out of 3 taken. I say this because mods like Prospect Together will attempt to make everything chunk-based. This is for the mod's heatmap display of prospecting results in the area. Prospecting results should be similar for 4 chunks in an area because the ore densities are created from a density map generated with the world, at a resolution of approximately 32 blocks. The ore densities will tend to have a more concentrated 'center' and then decrease when moving towards the circumference. So when locating a low density reading of any desired ore, try taking other prospecting samples some distance away in other directions to find an area with a higher reading. By using the heatmap feature of Prospect Together, you can watch the prospecting readings to see where the center of the ore distribution is... again... IF it spawned.

A friend of mine and I got an Ultra High reading of Magnetite at like 3.9‰ (which isn't a whole lot) and dug in the area only to find that there was nothing there. We took samples as we were digging using the Node Search mode and got nothing in the entire mine shaft.

Also worthy to note that it will not tell you "Tin" when prospecting. You want to look for the ore that smelts into tin, which is Cassiterite.

[LadyWYT]

27 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

A friend of mine and I got an Ultra High reading of Magnetite at like 3.9‰ (which isn't a whole lot) and dug in the area only to find that there was nothing there. We took samples as we were digging using the Node Search mode and got nothing in the entire mine shaft.

We also dug other shafts nearby and still nothing. In fairness though, magnetite is a dicey ore to find--hematite is generally a lot more consistent about spawning. Most of the time, you'll find what you're digging for on a prospecting reading, at least in regards to ores needed for progress. It's not until one goes looking for rarer stuff, like gemstones, alum, cinnabar, etc, that stuff gets harder to find. Otherwise, the general rule of thumb is that Decent or higher readings are the best dig spots, but it doesn't hurt to check Poor or Very Poor readings either, especially if that's all you've really got to work with.

I will note that halite is a bit of an exception to the prospecting rule; it's not unusual to get very high percentage readings, but I can't say I've ever found it via prospecting despite many high percentages or Decent readings. When it spawns though, it spawns in a large vertical pillar, so the better way to find it generally is prospect for readings and then search nearby caves to see if any deposits are exposed, especially since halite is one mineral that the propick's node search won't pick up.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

5 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

We also dug other shafts nearby and still nothing. In fairness though, magnetite is a dicey ore to find--hematite is generally a lot more consistent about spawning. Most of the time, you'll find what you're digging for on a prospecting reading, at least in regards to ores needed for progress. It's not until one goes looking for rarer stuff, like gemstones, alum, cinnabar, etc, that stuff gets harder to find. Otherwise, the general rule of thumb is that Decent or higher readings are the best dig spots, but it doesn't hurt to check Poor or Very Poor readings either, especially if that's all you've really got to work with.

I will note that halite is a bit of an exception to the prospecting rule; it's not unusual to get very high percentage readings, but I can't say I've ever found it via prospecting despite many high percentages or Decent readings. When it spawns though, it spawns in a large vertical pillar, so the better way to find it generally is prospect for readings and then search nearby caves to see if any deposits are exposed, especially since halite is one mineral that the propick's node search won't pick up.

That reminds me... might need to take more samples with the propick up and down the length of the mineshaft because I'm pretty sure I didn't go all the way down to bedrock and I'm pretty sure I only took like 3-4 samples the entire mineshaft.

[Echo Weaver]

Re bronze: I've had much better luck with bismuth bronze (bizmuth + zinc + copper) than tin bronze. You only need tin specifically to make a tin bronze pickaxe needed to start the story quests. Bismuth is incredibly common, and zinc still seems to be more common than tin, though it might just be the way things rolled in my worlds. At any rate, look for those too. 

Edited October 29, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Jarulf]

3 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

the prospecting gives the chance of finding something underneath you as a permille, not a percent. That is, there is an extra zero in the ‰ symbol instead of the two zeros in the % symbol. 

The information displayed is as follows:

• The relative density of the ore compared to how dense the ore can get. The densities are as follows: Ultra High, Very High, High, Decent, Poor, Very Poor, Miniscule. A reading of "Ultra High" means the ore is as dense as it can get. A reading of "Miniscule" means the ore can be present in the area, but in very small quantities. A Very Poor reading of one ore may have a much higher permille reading than an Ultra High reading of another ore.
• The name of the ore. You can click on the name to see the handbook entry for it.
• The actual density of the ore in parenthesis, given in parts-per-thousand (‰, notice the second zero at the bottom), based on the column prospected, which represents the average number of blocks in the area that may be of that specified ore should it have spawned.

Thank you so much for that detailed explanation. And thank you to the rest of you a swell. There is so much to learn about this game (in a fun way), so many interconnected pieces and little things you might miss or not fully realise at first.

After my last post I played for an hour or so before work, and after digging up 30 or so blocks of bonesoil got the wanted 2 gold and 2 silver. The last thing I did before rushing off to work was to pour my black bronze into a pickaxe mould. Not quite sure what to proceed with now, but some more prospecting seems in order soon.

[Maelstrom]

21 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Re bronze: I've had much better luck with bismuth bronze (bizmuth + zinc + copper) than tin bronze. You only need tin specifically to make a tin bronze pickaxe needed to start the story quests. Bismuth is incredibly common, and zinc still seems to be more common than tin, though it might just be the way things rolled in my worlds. At any rate, look for those too. 

Yeah, it's a world thing.  I've had some worlds I can't find tin for the life of me and either bismuth or zinc are almost as non-existent while other worlds I've found copious amounts of all three not too distant, but copper?   yeah it's on the other side of that large inland ocean that's a full day sail away.