Borax/Lime/Chalk/Marble for leather is waaaaaaay too hard to find.

[coolAlias]

I flew for 1500+ blocks in every direction and didn't spot any chalk or limestone sticking out anywhere, just peridotite, sandstone, and granite as far as I could see.

I did spot some borax when I went in a random cave, but it's very far away, and I can't mine it with my copper pick, so it'll have to wait for tin.

I guess leather is supposed to be a bit of a struggle since the backpack is made with it, and there'd be no point in having the hunter's pack or sack if it was too easy to get leather, but still, it's very frustrating that such a basic material as leather can be so difficult to acquire.

Panning for shellfish would be a great backup solution for this exact scenario. Do I love panning, no. But I would prefer it to restarting in hopes of a better seed.

[Nisaba]

I hate to be gross, but the real world alternative to minerals for our ancestors wanting to soak hides in an alkalizing agent was aging their own collected urine. Maybe the game could make it so you could make salt water, drink it, then have to pee. You could then age that pee in a barrel and use it for leather-making.

[Zane Mordien]

11 hours ago, coolAlias said:

I flew for 1500+ blocks in every direction and didn't spot any chalk or limestone sticking out anywhere, just peridotite, sandstone, and granite as far as I could see.

I did spot some borax when I went in a random cave, but it's very far away, and I can't mine it with my copper pick, so it'll have to wait for tin.

I guess leather is supposed to be a bit of a struggle since the backpack is made with it, and there'd be no point in having the hunter's pack or sack if it was too easy to get leather, but still, it's very frustrating that such a basic material as leather can be so difficult to acquire.

Panning for shellfish would be a great backup solution for this exact scenario. Do I love panning, no. But I would prefer it to restarting in hopes of a better seed.

It's just RNG. Don't forget that limestone or chalk rock layers can be under the sandstone rock layer. If I don't have limestone or chalk to start with I usually pick a direction and travel until the stone changes. If that didn't work then I pick a new direction the next time and try again. It's usually closer than you think. 

[Zane Mordien]

On 12/6/2025 at 11:47 AM, LadyWYT said:

Funny you say that, because half the ones I find seem to be in pines.  I think it depends on where the pine trees are though. If it's a mixed forest, there's probably a good chance of finding bees in there. Forests that are exclusively pine though tend to either be in dry regions, or colder regions, neither of which will spawn bees.

I'm still looking and still haven't found bees in a pine tree. lol

[Blaiyze]

I'm still not sure why the devs haven't ever considered tannin - easiest no-brainer for early game leatherworking. We can already debark logs, let us collect the bark and make tannin from it. I play with the Ancient Tools mod which is one of my favs and has easily become a must-have mod for me. It allows us to create an early game barrel out of a log, at the handicap of it not being as efficient/able to hold as much as a proper barrel, has to be sealed wither either pitch or fat, and we can collect bark from logs we've stripped to soak in water and make tannin. It also adds brain tanning but I can understand if the devs don't want to go in that direction.

But ultimately I agree, gatekeeping leatherworking behind lime, something that we need to at least be in the copper era to be able to utilize, yet several of the leatherworking recipes would be -very- useful for early game hunter+gathering/nomadic playstyles. It doesn't make sense. Make it less efficient, that's fine, but we need to be able to do some leatherworking earlier on.

[Zane Mordien]

20 minutes ago, Blaiyze said:

I'm still not sure why the devs haven't ever considered tannin - easiest no-brainer for early game leatherworking. We can already debark logs, let us collect the bark and make tannin from it. I play with the Ancient Tools mod which is one of my favs and has easily become a must-have mod for me. It allows us to create an early game barrel out of a log, at the handicap of it not being as efficient/able to hold as much as a proper barrel, has to be sealed wither either pitch or fat, and we can collect bark from logs we've stripped to soak in water and make tannin. It also adds brain tanning but I can understand if the devs don't want to go in that direction.

But ultimately I agree, gatekeeping leatherworking behind lime, something that we need to at least be in the copper era to be able to utilize, yet several of the leatherworking recipes would be -very- useful for early game hunter+gathering/nomadic playstyles. It doesn't make sense. Make it less efficient, that's fine, but we need to be able to do some leatherworking earlier on.

I think they would just add some new obstacle if they made default leatherworking easier.  

[Blaiyze]

3 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

I think they would just add some new obstacle if they made default leatherworking easier.  

That's why I mentioned handicaps - reduced output etc. Just because you have access to something earlier doesn't inherently mean it's easier, it just gives you an option to access it. Presently, it makes no sense that leatherworking is gatekept behind copper.

[Zane Mordien]

53 minutes ago, Blaiyze said:

That's why I mentioned handicaps - reduced output etc. Just because you have access to something earlier doesn't inherently mean it's easier, it just gives you an option to access it. Presently, it makes no sense that leatherworking is gatekept behind copper.

I understand, but as you  mention they have it locked behind copper. I think that is just what they intend for progression.  So if they let us make leather easier, then they would add something else needed to make a backpack that you can only get after you have bronze. Some new resource that would gatekeep backpacks. To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done something else like this already, because who makes the hunter backpack or linen sacks? My first playthrough I did, but after I realized the importance of linen and hides I never did it again. I find the occasional linen sack but I'm not wasting linen on it. 

[LadyWYT]

9 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

because who makes the hunter backpack or linen sacks?

My hunter friend enjoys making the hunter backpacks. They aren't something I bother with myself in singleplayer, but they're a nice option to have for players who want to take things slow, or are otherwise still figuring out how to make progress in the game.

The linen sacks can be useful for an early edge on inventory, if one scrounges up enough flax fibers. They're also rather useful on maps where leatherworking ingredients aren't so easily found(like colder climates).

[williams_482]

1 hour ago, Blaiyze said:

I'm still not sure why the devs haven't ever considered tannin - easiest no-brainer for early game leatherworking. We can already debark logs, let us collect the bark and make tannin from it. I play with the Ancient Tools mod which is one of my favs and has easily become a must-have mod for me. It allows us to create an early game barrel out of a log, at the handicap of it not being as efficient/able to hold as much as a proper barrel, has to be sealed wither either pitch or fat, and we can collect bark from logs we've stripped to soak in water and make tannin. It also adds brain tanning but I can understand if the devs don't want to go in that direction.

But ultimately I agree, gatekeeping leatherworking behind lime, something that we need to at least be in the copper era to be able to utilize, yet several of the leatherworking recipes would be -very- useful for early game hunter+gathering/nomadic playstyles. It doesn't make sense. Make it less efficient, that's fine, but we need to be able to do some leatherworking earlier on.

Tannin already exists in the vanilla game as part of the leatherworking process. Scraped hides are soaked in weak tannin and again in strong tannin to get leather. Why this is only a secondary/tertiary step I'm not sure. 

5 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done something else like this already, because who makes the hunter backpack or linen sacks?

Thorfinn says he always goes with linen sacks, as they're available quickly and are enough storage to get you through chapter 2 if you're stingy with what you keep. Personally I've found them to be pretty nice upgrades over baskets and quicker to get than backpacks. Flax is important, but if you're aggressive about gathering as many seeds as you can and planting it immediately, you should wind up with more than enough for a windmill by winter. 

Not sure how the reduced yields and slower crop growth are going to affect that in 1.22, though. 

[Blaiyze]

3 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

Tannin already exists in the vanilla game as part of the leatherworking process. Scraped hides are soaked in weak tannin and again in strong tannin to get leather. Why this is only a secondary/tertiary step I'm not sure. 

Oop must have missed that lol

[Zane Mordien]

3 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

They're also rather useful on maps where leatherworking ingredients aren't so easily found(like colder climates).

100% for snowball earth or cold start. The only way to get leather is to add a mod that lets you use other types of wood to make tannin.

 

4 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

Thorfinn says he always goes with linen sacks, as they're available quickly and are enough storage to get you through chapter 2 if you're stingy with what you keep. Personally I've found them to be pretty nice upgrades over baskets and quicker to get than backpacks. Flax is important, but if you're aggressive about gathering as many seeds as you can and planting it immediately, you should wind up with more than enough for a windmill by winter. 

He also dances with bears. I agressively want every stich of flax!

5 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

Not sure how the reduced yields and slower crop growth are going to affect that in 1.22, though. 

 

I haven't noticed a difference in crop growth, was that a thing I missed in the patch notes?

 

 

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

I haven't noticed a difference in crop growth, was that a thing I missed in the patch notes?

It's for grain crops. Yields have been cut in half from what they previously were, so players will want to make their fields a little bigger. That's all. To balance it out, wild grains now spawn in larger patches, so it's easier to gather more seeds quickly.

 

10 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

Not sure how the reduced yields and slower crop growth are going to affect that in 1.22, though. 

In my experience it really doesn't affect much at all, though that depends on how the player approaches farming. My strategy was to simply till a large field exclusively for grain--about 75-100 tiles if I had to guess--which yielded enough flax for a full smaller windmill plus a little left over for bandaids and stuff. The backyard vegetable patch of previous game versions is still fine for growing vegetables, but players who try to rely on the backyard vegetable patch for growing grain crops are likely to find themselves getting frustrated.

[Zane Mordien]

15 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

To balance it out, wild grains now spawn in larger patches, so it's easier to gather more seeds quickly.

I was thinking those patches were bigger. That explains it. I hadn't noticed on the yields, but I wasn't paying attention either.

[coolAlias]

7 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

It's just RNG. Don't forget that limestone or chalk rock layers can be under the sandstone rock layer. If I don't have limestone or chalk to start with I usually pick a direction and travel until the stone changes. If that didn't work then I pick a new direction the next time and try again. It's usually closer than you think. 

Yeah, RNG gonna RNG. I'm actually in a sandstone area, but from what i can tell the layer below it is mostly peridotite, and like I mentioned, I flew around in creative for a bit and the top layers don't really chang much at all for 1500+ blocks in any direction.

I'm not about to dig down through 10-20+ blocks of sandstone to see if there happens to be chalk limestone underneath - I'd have to either get very lucky or spend tons of time methodically drilling for it. No thanks. At this point, I just cheated and gave myself some lime so I can make a couple barrels of leather.

[Zane Mordien]

2 hours ago, coolAlias said:

I'm not about to dig down through 10-20+ blocks of sandstone to see if there happens to be chalk limestone underneath

With all the vertical shafts and upheaval created mountains I don't usually have to dig. 

[coolAlias]

49 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

With all the vertical shafts and upheaval created mountains I don't usually have to dig. 

I understand that. But RNG gonna RNG, and in my current world, despite flying around over a 3000 x 3000 area and checking mountains and caves for a couple hours, I did not find any. In cases like this, having another option would be very nice.

[LadyWYT]

13 minutes ago, coolAlias said:

I understand that. But RNG gonna RNG, and in my current world, despite flying around over a 3000 x 3000 area and checking mountains and caves for a couple hours, I did not find any. In cases like this, having another option would be very nice.

Don't forget that Commodities and Survival Goods traders often have lime for sale. It's a good workaround if you have lore content enabled and a few rusty gears lying around.

[Stralgaez]

12 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Don't forget that Commodities and Survival Goods traders often have lime for sale. It's a good workaround if you have lore content enabled and a few rusty gears lying around.

But that, too, is something RNG dictates whenever you are lucky or not to have those traders in your area. If you can manage to spot them.

I wouldn't mind a alternative that is considered very inefficient but still gives you a measure of progress if everything else fails. 

Edited Tuesday at 12:51 PM by Stralgaez

[Chrondeath]

5 hours ago, Stralgaez said:

17 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Don't forget that Commodities and Survival Goods traders often have lime for sale. It's a good workaround if you have lore content enabled and a few rusty gears lying around.

But that, too, is something RNG dictates whenever you are lucky or not to have those traders in your area. If you can manage to spot them.

It would be nice if traders had options to point you towards the nearest trader of all types, not just treasure hunters.  I feel like the distance should be enough to make that balanced.

 

On 3/9/2026 at 1:27 PM, LadyWYT said:

On 3/9/2026 at 1:18 PM, Zane Mordien said:

I haven't noticed a difference in crop growth, was that a thing I missed in the patch notes?

It's for grain crops. Yields have been cut in half from what they previously were, so players will want to make their fields a little bigger. That's all. To balance it out, wild grains now spawn in larger patches, so it's easier to gather more seeds quickly.

Wasn't there also a bug fix to crop nutrient consumption that was going to make all crops (15%?) slower?  And I thought at least one person claimed they were unable to get two sets of crops to mature before first winter, though there's a lot to confound that, obviously.

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Stralgaez said:

I wouldn't mind a alternative that is considered very inefficient but still gives you a measure of progress if everything else fails. 

Ancient Tools is what I usually use as an alternative, as I really like some of the things that mod adds. However, I also think that the way Ancient Tools handles things makes leatherworking a little too easy. The player will still need barrels in order to soak scraped hides, so leatherworking is still locked behind the saw(which I do think is fine!). However, it's possible to skip lime/borax entirely by simply soaking hides in water for a day, which isn't really ideal in my opinion.

Bloom and Lather(aka the soap mod) adds a better option, I think, in that the player can wood ash as a solution to get scraped hides instead, rather than having to rely on borax or lime. It takes quite a bit of wood ash though, and to get the wood ash the player needs to "cook" full logs in a firepit. Thus it makes for a good alternative that is inefficient, but useful if lime and borax are being a bit hard to come by.

[Zane Mordien]

5 hours ago, Chrondeath said:

Wasn't there also a bug fix to crop nutrient consumption that was going to make all crops (15%?) slower?  And I thought at least one person claimed they were unable to get two sets of crops to mature before first winter, though there's a lot to confound that, obviously.

I was definately able to get two grain crops by winter in Pre 5. 

[runnybabbit]

On 3/9/2026 at 11:07 PM, Nisaba said:

real world alternative to minerals for our ancestors wanting to soak hides in an alkalizing agent

Brain tanning is also a thing.

Bit of a different process with more manual labor required, it might be confusing gameplay-wise to implement two systems for leatherworking.

 

I echo the sentiment that shells turning up in panning would go a long way to feed my compulsive collection addiction for helping with leather struggles.

Edited Wednesday at 12:14 PM by runnybabbit

[vinnland]

One time I spawned into a massive vein of borax. I was new at the time, I deleted that world and started again...

[ijkdenem]

On 12/5/2025 at 4:01 PM, dakko said:

A rare loot drop would be okay, imo, but they've already made it much easier to find shells in the wild. Or perhaps I've had incredibly good luck.

I just don't see the need to provide nearly instant gratification to everyone just because one player decides to play without a map, thereby forfeiting the ability to quickly find bodies of water.

adding to siftables near water sources only for shells to be in the loot table seems fair to me.

Edited yesterday at 05:36 AM by ijkdenem
misspelled word