Copper Early Game

[_TinyBee_]

Kinda new to vintage story,

What do yall suggest is the best way to find copper early game. I've tried panning and its decent and I haven't been able to find any on the surface. Does it spawn in certain locations?

Thank you!!

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums!

12 minutes ago, _TinyBee_ said:

What do yall suggest is the best way to find copper early game. I've tried panning and its decent and I haven't been able to find any on the surface. Does it spawn in certain locations?

Panning is both the safest method of obtaining copper, and the most tedious. Most players will scout nearby territory looking for bits of copper on the surface, and use those to obtain their first pickaxe and hammer. Mark the location of the ore bits before picking them up, as bits of ore on the surface indicate an ore deposit underneath.

Finding surface ore bits is typically easier to do in gravel plains/desert, since there is much less foliage to block one's view and the ore bits stand a little more. However, slowing to a walk and looking around carefully also helps one notice surface bits more easily, as it's very easy to miss smaller details when sprinting around.

[_TinyBee_]

22 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums!

Panning is both the safest method of obtaining copper, and the most tedious. Most players will scout nearby territory looking for bits of copper on the surface, and use those to obtain their first pickaxe and hammer. Mark the location of the ore bits before picking them up, as bits of ore on the surface indicate an ore deposit underneath.

Finding surface ore bits is typically easier to do in gravel plains/desert, since there is much less foliage to block one's view and the ore bits stand a little more. However, slowing to a walk and looking around carefully also helps one notice surface bits more easily, as it's very easy to miss smaller details when sprinting around.

Cool!! Thank you!

[Venusgate]

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

However, slowing to a walk and looking around carefully also helps one notice surface bits more easily, as it's very easy to miss smaller details when sprinting around.

I should post the clip I saved of me finding copper bits in the ferns 20 blocks from my starter house 40 days into my latest run.

[LadyWYT]

2 minutes ago, Venusgate said:

I should post the clip I saved of me finding copper bits in the ferns 20 blocks from my starter house 40 days into my latest run.

This happens to me frequently. I'll scour the landscape and be lucky to find a handful of deposits within decent running distance, and then many in-game days later will be fiddling around near my house and stumble across all the nearby deposits...that I no longer need. 

[7embre]

11 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Finding surface ore bits is typically easier to do in gravel plains/desert, since there is much less foliage to block one's view and the ore bits stand a little more. However, slowing to a walk and looking around carefully also helps one notice surface bits more easily, as it's very easy to miss smaller details when sprinting around.

Side note: no ore spawn in bauxite, so make sure you aren't looking for copper (or any surface/deep-ish deposit really) in places with a bauxite strata on top!

[Maelstrom]

6 hours ago, 7embre said:

Side note: no ore spawn in bauxite, so make sure you aren't looking for copper (or any surface/deep-ish deposit really) in places with a bauxite strata on top!

But deep ores may spawn below the bauxite.   In my previous world I found very/ultra high readings for sphalerite or bismuthanite.   I dug through the surface layer of shale, hit bauxite and stopped.   After a couple days thought things over, went back and bored through the boaxite and found not only the indicated ore, but also sporadic veins of copper too.

[CastIronFabric]

On 12/4/2025 at 1:28 PM, _TinyBee_ said:

Kinda new to vintage story,

What do yall suggest is the best way to find copper early game. I've tried panning and its decent and I haven't been able to find any on the surface. Does it spawn in certain locations?

Thank you!!

I have success finding lots of surface copper on 'mineral based' biomes. Some do not and I honesty forget which ones dont but basically biome that does not have grass. I almost never pan for copper but then again I play on 'Explorer mode' so its not as expensive for me to run around.

[7embre]

18 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

But deep ores may spawn below the bauxite.   In my previous world I found very/ultra high readings for sphalerite or bismuthanite.   I dug through the surface layer of shale, hit bauxite and stopped.   After a couple days thought things over, went back and bored through the boaxite and found not only the indicated ore, but also sporadic veins of copper too.

Well it depends. Sometimes bauxite layer is very thick, and you wouldn't know how deep it goes without digging through it. Despite the change of surface rock to a different sedimentary, bauxite might just go below it. Even with high reading game does not guarantee that there will be any ore, as propick reading says the amount of attempts to spawn ore, not that world gen actually spawned it.

Plus, I specified "deep-ish" as in "not very deep ores". Obviously you can get some in ignious strata below it, somewhere close to the mantle. Will you go for them in early game? Doubt. And OP asked about tips for early game copper, so not looking in bauxite sounds reasonable for the question...