Entering bronze age

[Mulkis22]

I'm a relatively new player with like 50 hours in the game and played several games where I've managed to get a healthy way into the copper age but can never seem to find any of the materials needed to enter the Bronze age. The pro pick shows that there aren't any ores around even though I've spent several hours traveling and systematically documenting the area and when I try to go spelunking I just get sniped by deep bowtorns. Are there any tips for finding ores or rock types, areas, etc. that I should be looking out for (as I can't make sense of the ore description on the wiki)

[TJ Pepler]

look for bits on the ground, look for tin bits OR check when you see big fields of quartz bits, there may be silver and gold mixed in there!  OR look around for a few bits of zinc and bismuth, any of these in very small amounts (2 for tin) will be enough to make 100 units of one of the bronzes to get your next tier pick.  You can keep your copper anvil and hammer a bit longer until you get a bunch more.  But remember if you see a few needed nuggets on the ground, dig right in that spot as there will be a deposit of that ore below it.
 

*** SHAMELESS PLUG --- FEEL FREE TO IGNORE ***

Critcher's Calculator  << This will show you how many nuggets of each type you need to make ingots, slide it around to adjust for the nuggets you have.

Critcher's Cheats  << This contains nugget hunter which gives all the nuggets on the ground a color coordinated particle effect making them MUCH easier to spot.

[Vexxvididu]

if you have no good ores within a great distance from your base in all directions, it could be a sign you just got a really bad area....  but it's unusual you'd not have something within a half day's walk from your base.  Maybe post a screen shot of your map around your bass with the prospecting pick locations?

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Mulkis22 said:

I'm a relatively new player with like 50 hours in the game and played several games where I've managed to get a healthy way into the copper age but can never seem to find any of the materials needed to enter the Bronze age.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)! Generally when looking for ores, it's best to prospect a wide area(like, a 1000 block radius of spawn or so) and then sink a shaft at the most promising spot. If you're playing with surface tin enabled(which it's enabled by default on Standard/Exploration mode), you can find tin on the surface but it's very rare.

Do keep in mind though that while tin(cassiterite) is the most common ore to make a bronze alloy with, you don't actually need tin bronze specifically save for making the pickaxe for the treasure hunter quest. There are two other bronze types that will serve just as well: bismuth bronze and black bronze. Bismuth bronze is an alloy of bismuth, zinc(sphalerite), and copper, while black bronze is an alloy of gold, silver, and copper. 

Also keep in mind that as long as you're playing with lore content enabled, you can acquire pickaxes and ores from certain traders. Survival Goods carries pickaxes, I think, while Commodities traders will sometimes have ore bits for sale.

[Noah_0407]

I'm not sure, but I think you are using the wrong mode on the prospecting pick. The prospecting pick has two modes, which you can switch with [F]. The first one shows you if there are any ores in a 6x6 area (you can change the size somewhere, I think). This is great, if you know where a deep ore vein is, but not exactly helpful, when finding a vein in the first place. What you need is the second mode. After you take 3 rock samples (break three blocks with the prospecting pick, each 4 blocks apart), it will show you how many ores there are in your area (also reaches to the world bottom). Like this you can pinpoint larger ore veins. Then, as you're digging down, use the first mode.

I recommend watching a guide on YouTube, like this one I found -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CBlbhvq43I

[pigfood]

You can buy tin from commodities traders. You can get rusty gears from surface ruins and digging up their basements or ruins in shallow/easy caves. You can pan bony soil for gems to sell.

You need very little tin to progress to iron.

21 hours ago, Mulkis22 said:

The pro pick shows that there aren't any ores around even though I've spent several hours traveling and systematically documenting the area

I would be willing to bet, you are using the propick wrong and in node search mode. Density search mode showing no ore is pretty uncommon.

[Mulkis22]

15 hours ago, Noah_0407 said:

I'm not sure, but I think you are using the wrong mode on the prospecting pick. The prospecting pick has two modes, which you can switch with [F]. The first one shows you if there are any ores in a 6x6 area (you can change the size somewhere, I think). This is great, if you know where a deep ore vein is, but not exactly helpful, when finding a vein in the first place. What you need is the second mode. After you take 3 rock samples (break three blocks with the prospecting pick, each 4 blocks apart), it will show you how many ores there are in your area (also reaches to the world bottom). Like this you can pinpoint larger ore veins. Then, as you're digging down, use the first mode.

I recommend watching a guide on YouTube, like this one I found -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CBlbhvq43I

I did some research and found out that a bunch of the ores I was trying to find either don't spawn in my area or in small/poor quantities as I was in a sandstone area. I was using the density search and thought it was chance based (likelihood that the ore spawns and not the amount of the chunk that is generated as that ore) so would dismiss any hits I got that were ridiculously low. thank you of the advise though!

23 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums(and the game)! Generally when looking for ores, it's best to prospect a wide area(like, a 1000 block radius of spawn or so) and then sink a shaft at the most promising spot. If you're playing with surface tin enabled(which it's enabled by default on Standard/Exploration mode), you can find tin on the surface but it's very rare.

Do keep in mind though that while tin(cassiterite) is the most common ore to make a bronze alloy with, you don't actually need tin bronze specifically save for making the pickaxe for the treasure hunter quest. There are two other bronze types that will serve just as well: bismuth bronze and black bronze. Bismuth bronze is an alloy of bismuth, zinc(sphalerite), and copper, while black bronze is an alloy of gold, silver, and copper. 

Also keep in mind that as long as you're playing with lore content enabled, you can acquire pickaxes and ores from certain traders. Survival Goods carries pickaxes, I think, while Commodities traders will sometimes have ore bits for sale.

I have a moderate amount of quartz in my area so had a look around and dug through them, although it wasn't much I did find some gold and silver so thanks a lot for the advise and now its just about finding more or getting some iron. Thanks a lot for the advise

[LadyWYT]

10 minutes ago, Mulkis22 said:

a bunch of the ores I was trying to find either don't spawn in my area or in small/poor quantities as I was in a sandstone area.

Poor/Very Poor deposits aren't the ideal places to dig, but if those are all you have to work with it doesn't hurt to try either. The density search will only list what likely spawned there, not what actually did.

As for percentage readout, I tend to ignore that unless I'm trying to find an exact dig spot. 

For tin specifically, it's a fairly common ore that occurs in small deposits, so the percentage reading is often rather low. Since it's a common ore, it's usually somewhat easy to find, even at poor readings.

[PoisonedPawn777]

Keep in mind, just because you are in an area with sedimentary stone as the top layer, sandstone in your case, the deeper rock layers will still be an igneous variation. Andesite, Granite or Peridotite. All of which are capable of hosting the ores necessary for bronze making; Cassiterite, Bismuth and Zinc. You are on the right track using the density search, there have been times where I've had to explore >1000 blocks before locating certain ores, unusual but it happens.