Bony Soil ain't so bony... or anything... anymore?

[Angie P]

Hi all.

I've always been a huge proponent of picking up bony soil when i find it, and panning it when I'm waiting on something, or during the winter when I'm not waiting on crops, or just need a calm easy thing to do. Lately though, I've gone through a bunch of blocks and found almost nothing, not even bones. I just panned 5 blocks, not one item. This has changed drastically from a few months ago, and I've looked through the devlog to see if they reduced drop-chance of items, but I can't find anything. 

Is anyone else having the same issue, or has info on an actual change in the drop-chance that I might have missed? Shame if such a fun "never know what chu gonna get" isn't as fun anymore. Is this perchance a bug, though I also checked on  the bug report page and saw nothing there either.

 

Cheers!

Edited November 3, 2025 by Angie P

[Professor Dragon]

I don't think so. I got a book (lucky!!!), flax, bones, arrows etc from a small run last night.

Maybe just unlucky?
5 blocks is too small a sample size. Drop list here. Try panning a stack (64) blocks and see what you get. Go into Creative Mode (/gamemode creative, /gamemode survival) and give yourself blocks just for a test. Either on your main world or make a small block size test Creative World.

Maybe a Mod interaction?
In particular, Knapster.
https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues/7234

Maybe a tool interaction?
Make sure nothing in the off-hand. (Should not matter, but see.)

Professor Dragon.

Edited November 3, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Maelstrom]

Five blocks is a plenty large enough sample size.   In my experience there should be roughly 16 bones and 5 flax fibers at the least.  Granted my experience is 1.20 and previously, but I don't see drop rates for bony soil being affeted this much!

[Angie P]

OOoh, I'll disable Knapster and give it a shot, as I ended up going through about 15 blocks, not one bone. My left hand was empty, so yeah.

Gracias!

[Professor Dragon]

Just now, Maelstrom said:

Five blocks is a plenty large enough sample size.   In my experience there should be roughly 16 bones and 5 flax fibers at the least.  Granted my experience is 1.20 and previously, but I don't see drop rates for bony soil being affeted this much!

Oh, right, yeah. Somehow I was thinking "Five panning attempts", and not "five whole blocks with eight attempts each equals 40 tries."

That is somehow attrocious RNG or one of the other things.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Angie P said:

OOoh, I'll disable Knapster and give it a shot, as I ended up going through about 15 blocks, not one bone. My left hand was empty, so yeah.

Gracias!

That's insane RNG if it's just pure luck of the draw. If disabling Knapster doesn't solve it, I would disable any other mods you have installed and do some testing on a fresh world in vanilla just to see if the issue repeats itself. If vanilla works as intended, then add your mods back in one-by-one, testing on throwaway worlds until you can narrow down which one(or ones, sometimes mods work fine by themselves but not with other mods) is causing the issue.

If the issue is repeating itself in vanilla though, then it might be time to consider a bug report. At the very least, you'll want to relocate your beloved worlds to a different folder temporarily and do a complete reinstall of the game, then move your worlds back to the proper folder. A fresh install should fix any issues caused by corrupted files(it's rare, but it does happen), but still make sure you test a fresh world in vanilla before adding your mods back in(it's tedious, but you may want to test them again just to see if things break) and picking up where you left off.

[Angie P]

So, it looks like Knapster. I disabled it, restarted my game, and got 3 bones out of my first block. I'll just have to remember that when I wanna do some hard core sifting. Thanks to everyone! 

 

[Professor Dragon]

43 minutes ago, Angie P said:

So, it looks like Knapster. I disabled it, restarted my game, and got 3 bones out of my first block. I'll just have to remember that when I wanna do some hard core sifting. Thanks to everyone! 

 

Thanks for confirming. Great to hear. 

I had a quick look at the Knapster mod page.

• There is configuration for Panning which changes the drops per pan from 0 to 10. Default 1.
• There is an Issue Tracker for this mod at the top of that page.
• Some other people have reported issues with drops from panning. The author looks to be on board with helping troubleshooting what is going on, but you need to be prepared to provide logs, and it looks like it can get a bit technical (ruling out other mods, other system interactions). But the option is there if you want to go down that path.

Professor Dragon.

[spiinniing]

On 11/3/2025 at 3:47 PM, Professor Dragon said:

I don't think so. I got a book (lucky!!!), flax, bones, arrows etc from a small run last night.

Maybe just unlucky?
5 blocks is too small a sample size. Drop list here. Try panning a stack (64) blocks and see what you get. Go into Creative Mode (/gamemode creative, /gamemode survival) and give yourself blocks just for a test. Either on your main world or make a small block size test Creative World.

Maybe a Mod interaction?
In particular, Knapster.
https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues/7234

Maybe a tool interaction?
Make sure nothing in the off-hand. (Should not matter, but see.)

Professor Dragon.

I don't know if Angie P. has the Knapster mod, but I did and that was absolutely my problem! Removed the mod, closed and reopened the game, and I'm getting items again! Well so far just bones, but that's far better than getting no items at all. Thanks!

[Angie P]

Yes, it's definitely Knapster, I just bulk up my bony soil and when I'm in the mood to sift, I toggle the mod off, and but it back on when I'm done gathering shinies from the dirt.

[BiancaMoon]

I've seen this and it is a bit off topic for this post but I have noticed the content of it changed. In the past (pre second chapter) I would find books and lanterns, and some other items of "greater value". I have went trough 2 stacks of bony soil and found just one book, two pieces of bronze chain and rest were arrow tips, bones, and the low potential gems. I feel like it is not worth it past really first stages of the game.

[Professor Dragon]

2 hours ago, BiancaMoon said:

I've seen this and it is a bit off topic for this post but I have noticed the content of it changed. In the past (pre second chapter) I would find books and lanterns, and some other items of "greater value". I have went trough 2 stacks of bony soil and found just one book, two pieces of bronze chain and rest were arrow tips, bones, and the low potential gems. I feel like it is not worth it past really first stages of the game.

Did you mean candles? You can get candles from Bony Soil drops, but never lanterns - so if so, that would have been a mod.

You're right, the return does fall off the further you get in the game. You'll get far more "treasures" from completing the story rewards. And with good tools you will get way more of the common resources.

However, I will still collect Bony Soil from Ruins and pan it during off moments, even in very late game. Sometimes you just need an activity when you can't think of anything else to do, and the rewards of the Lore books and Gems are still worth it to me.

Professor Dragon.

[Angie P]

On 11/21/2025 at 1:32 PM, BiancaMoon said:

I've seen this and it is a bit off topic for this post but I have noticed the content of it changed. In the past (pre second chapter) I would find books and lanterns, and some other items of "greater value". I have went trough 2 stacks of bony soil and found just one book, two pieces of bronze chain and rest were arrow tips, bones, and the low potential gems. I feel like it is not worth it past really first stages of the game.

Sometimes you're just at home, it's a cold winter's day and you're tired of pounding metal and your cellar is full of crock-pots brimming with those goodies you've grown the previous fall. With cold, wet wool boots, utilizing the little sunlight we get mid-Jan, I like to stand and just sift all the boney dirt I've gathered in my previous travels and stacked near my boat dock. I've gotten gold crowns, lots of shiny gems that I can trade to various traders, occasional lit candles (what, how? Magic, they be MAGIC I tell ya!), sometimes a waterlogged book with a story still legible. It's just a good downtime activity when you simply aren't in the mood to do anything else and have already run and bounced around your home too many times to count.

[LadyWYT]

34 minutes ago, Angie P said:

lots of shiny gems that I can trade to various traders

This alone makes panning bony soil worth it in the late game. The gems sell for quite a bit, and you're not really likely to find gemstones you can mine. You can buy them from other traders, but it's not really worth it given that the buy price is pretty much the same as the sale price.