CastIronFabric Posted January 31 Report Posted January 31 15 hours ago, marmarmar34 said: Erm, yes actually. It's a reliable source of consistent copper, flint, and clay. Granted, you're not going to end up with oodles of clay, but you'd have more than enough for the bare essentials. you need about 125 clay. You are stating (for the record for everyone reading this) that its reasonable to get 125 clay by panning before you can even make any storage other than reed baskets. ok, well I am not engaging in that conversation but you are stating that 'for the record'. thanks 1
pigfood Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 On 1/30/2026 at 11:42 PM, marmarmar34 said: It's a reliable source of consistent copper, flint, and clay. Granted, you're not going to end up with oodles of clay, but you'd have more than enough for the bare essentials. In terms of clay it would be incredibly painful and tedious. You can get enough clay for making a cooking pot and bowl but not enough for copper processing. You get around 15 blue clay for panning 64 blocks of sand/gravel, that's probably 3-4 nights of panning. I would consider hammer, pickaxe, anvil, crucible and ingot molds the bare essentials, so you would need to pan something like 300 blocks.
marmarmar34 Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 5 hours ago, pigfood said: In terms of clay it would be incredibly painful and tedious. You can get enough clay for making a cooking pot and bowl but not enough for copper processing. You get around 15 blue clay for panning 64 blocks of sand/gravel, that's probably 3-4 nights of panning. I would consider hammer, pickaxe, anvil, crucible and ingot molds the bare essentials, so you would need to pan something like 300 blocks. All you need is a cooking pot, bowl, crucible, and pick and hammer molds. I highly doubt one can miss a mound of clay while hunting for copper chunks. Hell, even scanning the map for signs of a wetland will net you results.
pigfood Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 30 minutes ago, marmarmar34 said: All you need is a cooking pot, bowl, crucible, and pick and hammer molds. That's still 30+ clay or a week of nightly panning. However, IMO, getting a saw, shears and planks count as bare essentials. 31 minutes ago, marmarmar34 said: I highly doubt one can miss a mound of clay while hunting for copper chunks. Hell, even scanning the map for signs of a wetland will net you results. I don't disagree on that. I stated as much in my initial post in this thread.
CastIronFabric Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 (edited) 1 hour ago, marmarmar34 said: All you need is a cooking pot, bowl, crucible, and pick and hammer molds. I highly doubt one can miss a mound of clay while hunting for copper chunks. Hell, even scanning the map for signs of a wetland will net you results. last night 64 clay got me a 1 cooking pot, 1 complete storage vessel and 1 incomplete storage vessel. Nobody is disputing that you can find clay while running around looking for other things, we are disputing that you can realistically get enough clay to be useful by panning. panning for copper? yes because you only need 40 total to get into the copper age. However you need much MORE than 125 clay to get to the copper age and even more than that to get storage that is useful. I have never seen, heard of or play with on multiplayer anyone who sets out to get clay from panning because they have not found a clay depsoit. Edited February 1 by CastIronFabric
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 8 hours ago, pigfood said: In terms of clay it would be incredibly painful and tedious. You can get enough clay for making a cooking pot and bowl but not enough for copper processing. If one is resorting to panning for their clay, a cookpot and bowl is really all they should be worried about getting, outside of maybe an additional crock to store food and bowl for an oil lamp. The main goal in this case is to get the cookware up and running so that the player can worry less about food and thus devote more time to looking around for a proper clay deposit. Item molds will be needed to unlock metal equipment and progress further in the game, yes, but the first order of business is survival. 4
CastIronFabric Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 (edited) 17 minutes ago, LadyWYT said: If one is resorting to panning for their clay, a cookpot and bowl is really all they should be worried about getting, outside of maybe an additional crock to store food and bowl for an oil lamp. The main goal in this case is to get the cookware up and running so that the player can worry less about food and thus devote more time to looking around for a proper clay deposit. Item molds will be needed to unlock metal equipment and progress further in the game, yes, but the first order of business is survival. I would put a cooking pot lower on that list to be frank. The first problem that is going to really be self evident is storage (even more so if you are panning), I always make a storage vessel first both for storage and to prevent spoilage. That all said, lets all get realistic here. Regardless of how you shake it, within the first 4 hours of game play you are going to be stuck in the flint age if you do not have a clay deposit and there is not any realistic way around it if we are all being honest. Edited February 1 by CastIronFabric
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 6 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said: I would put a cooking pot lower on that list to be frank. The first problem that is going to really be self evident is storage (even more so if you are panning), I always make a storage vessel first both for storage and to prevent spoilage. The exact choice probably varies a bit according to player discretion, but storage vessels I wouldn't consider a priority since they are expensive and cookpots produce better food in addition to keeping the meal fresh for a handful of days. The player shouldn't really be collecting more food than they can eat within a couple of days at this point in the game. Reed chests are cheap and serve well enough as basic storage in the meantime, and many items can be piled on the ground. 1
CastIronFabric Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 (edited) 9 minutes ago, LadyWYT said: The exact choice probably varies a bit according to player discretion, but storage vessels I wouldn't consider a priority since they are expensive and cookpots produce better food in addition to keeping the meal fresh for a handful of days. The player shouldn't really be collecting more food than they can eat within a couple of days at this point in the game. Reed chests are cheap and serve well enough as basic storage in the meantime, and many items can be piled on the ground. I do not know what 'considered' to be actually means specifically in this context, I do not think there is an authority on that question. I make storage vessels first, pretty much every video I have ever seen that makes suggestions suggests storage vessels first and it makes sense because you are going to need storage long before you find BOTH grains and berries in quantities worth spending the time to cook in the early game. However, lets not get off point here. The point is, regardless of what you clay form first, within about 4 hours of game play you are going to need to find a clay despot or else you will be playing with flint everything and nothing other than reed baskets and no doors and there is no way around that. Edited February 1 by CastIronFabric
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 12 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said: I make storage vessels first, pretty much every video I have ever seen that makes suggestions suggests storage vessels first and it makes sense because you are going to need storage long before you find BOTH grains and berries in quantities worth spending the time to cook in the early game. Yeah, and my advice is pretty much the opposite. Storage vessels are useful, yes, but early in the game there's really not a reason to hoard food like that. Storing food for the winter is important, but the player has the end of spring as well as all summer and fall to prepare, which is plenty of time. Perishables like hides aren't hard to acquire, so the player doesn't really need to worry about preserving them since they can always hunt more hides later. Non-perishables are easily stored in reed chests or on the ground. Food will keep for a couple of days in the player's inventory; a handful of days if stored in a cookpot, bowl, or crock. A crock can hold four servings, a bowl one serving, and a cookpot six servings, for a grand total of eleven servings possible if the player has all three. That's certainly enough food to keep the player going for a few days, especially if meat is included in said meals. 19 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said: The point is, regardless of what you clay form first, within about 4 hours of game play you are going to need to find a clay despot or else you will be playing with flint everything and nothing other than reed baskets and no doors and there is no way around that. Is that a bad thing though? I'm not convinced that it is. Yes, it can be frustrating to get stalled on progress, however, clay tends to be a resource that trips up primarily new players. Same goes for other early game bottlenecks. The reason for that, I think, is that new players haven't yet learned what to look for or how to prioritize different tasks, and in my opinion that's also part of Vintage Story's charm when one first starts to play it. It's a big world with a lot of unknowns, and the challenges are quite difficult. The learning curve is quite steep, and the game no less fun once the player has conquered that curve, but the experience does change once those challenges have been conquered. 2
CastIronFabric Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 (edited) 4 minutes ago, LadyWYT said: Is that a bad thing though? I'm not convinced that it is. your game progress ends after 4 hours max, its not 'stalled' its over until you find a clay deposit and all you do then is run around with flint items and a ton of reed baskets. I think the argument that you can realistically play this game without finding a clay deposit is flat out absurd. (EDIT: or more specifically that the game can be realistically played by getting most of your clay by panning) I think I am done here, I need to go for a walk anyway Edited February 1 by CastIronFabric
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 Just now, CastIronFabric said: your game progress ends after 4 hours max, its not 'stalled' its over until you find a clay despite and all you do then is run around with flint items and a ton of reed baskets. Game progress ends when the player either has nothing else they can achieve, or they delete the world in question. Game progress is stalled when the player still has things they can achieve(like metal tools), but don't yet have the means to acquire such. 1 2
marmarmar34 Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 2 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said: your game progress ends after 4 hours max, its not 'stalled' its over until you find a clay despite and all you do then is run around with flint items and a ton of reed baskets. The vastly underestimate what you can accomplish with just flint. 3 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said: I think I am done here. That's what you said last time.
CastIronFabric Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 4 minutes ago, marmarmar34 said: The vastly underestimate what you can accomplish with just flint. That's what you said last time. yeah I know, and what is your point in that exactly?
Bruno Willis Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 Fair, I'm not being very sympathetic. It is a real pain when you can't find clay, and not being able to progress sucks. I don't think this is an issue with clay though. I think having a few other progression routes would help a tone. Imagine if animal domestication were not tied behind copper saws? Especially if wolf taming were implemented, with all that entails. Or if weaving were implemented seriously, and was accessible without clay (but became much more do-able mid-late game). If weaving had a learning curve, you could get into that if clay was evading you. I think the best bet though would be to have some exploration and travel based tech that isn't locked behind clay, which you can get good at using, and which will probably help you explore and find clay (and other useful and interesting things too). Shoe making? Walking sticks? (there's a mod for them) Travois and wolves? Coracles on the water? They'd all help you anyway, but make finding clay more fun and easier. As is, I'll admit, there isn't that much to do to improve your situation except hunt for clay.
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 41 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said: I think the best bet though would be to have some exploration and travel based tech that isn't locked behind clay, which you can get good at using, and which will probably help you explore and find clay (and other useful and interesting things too). Shoe making? Walking sticks? (there's a mod for them) Travois and wolves? Coracles on the water? They'd all help you anyway, but make finding clay more fun and easier. Or just allow a few clay blocks to spawn at the bottom of freshwater pools/rivers(when added). It's somewhat intuitive to search for clay near water, and the clay texture won't be hidden by grass and will stand out from the surrounding gravel. Obviously, finding an actual clay deposit is much more ideal for long term work, but otherwise this method allows players some limited access to clay if they're having trouble finding a deposit. 2
Ratbatboo Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 (edited) Hilariously, started another world, and have ended up once again with clay difficulties. Which is a shame. This is an amazing world. I appeared in a foggy downpour in what seems to be VS's best take on a PNW rainforest. But I'm having one big issue. The world is forest as far as I can see except for some gravel beds, and you can't spot clay textures on the full-color map when they're covered by 'forest floor' (does clay even spawn in 'forest floor?'). The area has more mushrooms than any world I've ever seen (good thing, too, I've yet to find a single berry bush). Now, regardless of what people believe is the 'optimal way to start' and 'what you should do instead of fussing about clay,' I would deeply love to have a cooking pot and a bowl so I'm not wasting all of these lovely shrooms. I'm not really all about rushing copper, but AFAIK shrooms don't respawn in anything like 'forager survival time,' so getting more out of them by making soup or stew would be nice. I've got a ridiculous amount of cattails due to a single large lake which seems to've decided 'I will hide behind cattails and no one will know there is water here.' all along its shore. Oddly, I've seen very few animals. Any advice on locating clay in a heavy forest environment? EDIT: The creators of VS have done a most magnificent job of emulating the perversity of the real world, complete with encouraging primitive superstitions. As best I can tell, once again the fastest way to find clay and peat is to post on the forum that I can't find clay and peat. XD The spawns were literally touching each other in a clearing in the forest that looks like someone ordered a half and half pizza. Edited February 1 by Ratbatboo 1
LadyWYT Posted February 1 Report Posted February 1 55 minutes ago, Ratbatboo said: As best I can tell, once again the fastest way to find clay and peat is to post on the forum that I can't find clay and peat. XD The easiest way to find the clay deposit closest to your base is to find one that's a thousand blocks away first. Once you've done that, every clay deposit near your base will reveal itself. Surface copper is quite similar in that regard. Peat is a little different in that it doesn't spawn if it's too hot, and doesn't spawn if it's too cold. It also won't spawn if it's too dry. To my knowledge it does not spawn in forests. It seems easiest to find when you don't need it. One piece of general advice I have for locating things--if you find something useful, or that you think might be useful, mark it on your map when you find it. Even if it's not a resource you need at that moment, you will thank yourself later if you mark it down now. I've ignored my own advice too many times and relied on memory only to have trouble locating various things later on in the game when I actually do need them. 56 minutes ago, Ratbatboo said: does clay even spawn in 'forest floor?' Kind of. I've seen it spawn in a forest once or twice, however, I will also note that the deposits I found were on the forest's border with grassland nearby. In that case, the deposit was visible thanks to the part that was in the grassland, but it was necessary to dig under the forest floor to retrieve the rest of it. As to whether or not clay deposits will spawn entirely within forests...I'm inclined to say no. If they do, they're most likely buried beneath the forest floor and won't be visible at all unless a cave/terrain upheaval happens to cut through them. 1
MKMoose Posted February 2 Report Posted February 2 (edited) 16 hours ago, Ratbatboo said: does clay even spawn in 'forest floor?' Forestation doesn't affect initial clay generation in any way, but forest floor replaces the top block in the later stages of world generation, so while clay can spawn in forests, the deposits will be completely covered by soil from above. Even if you see it on sloped terrain or find it in some other way, it will be smaller than typical clay deposits due to the top layer getting replaced, so it's doubly preferable to look elsewhere. Edited February 2 by MKMoose 1 3
LadyWYT Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 For the record, Commodities traders sell fireclay as well, for a rather reasonable price. The one I found was selling 16 fireclay for 2 gears.
Thorfinn Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 On 2/1/2026 at 2:38 PM, Bruno Willis said: Imagine if animal domestication were not tied behind copper saws? Is it? Used to be you could just toss the appropriate food on the ground, and they ate it. Granted, if they don't eat it within 10 minutes you need to run through and pick it up before it despawns. On 2/1/2026 at 2:38 PM, Bruno Willis said: I think the best bet though would be to have some exploration and travel based tech that isn't locked behind clay, which you can get good at using, and which will probably help you explore and find clay (and other useful and interesting things too). There is such a thing. It's called "ladders". In my playstyle, cooking is more important than storage, but both are after crucible and molds. Usually, though, the one pit has 2 crucibles, 1 bowl, 1 cooking pot. 'Course, now that you can groundstore ore in much bigger piles than 4, using the crucible for storage is a lot less important, but it's a hard habit to break. Chicago? 2
Bruno Willis Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 6 hours ago, Thorfinn said: There is such a thing. It's called "ladders". So true.
Broccoli Clock Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 (edited) 9 hours ago, Thorfinn said: Is it? Used to be you could just toss the appropriate food on the ground, and they ate it. Granted, if they don't eat it within 10 minutes you need to run through and pick it up before it despawns. Just as a side note, if you manage to coral an aggressive animal into some sort of pen, then it seems this is the only way to keep them alive (if you want to, that is!). For example, some playthroughs back, I managed to fence in a wolf cub. I had seen traders selling them and wrongly assumed I could perhaps trade a live one. Putting down troughs didn't work, but throwing meat into the enclosure certainly did. Obviously it was folly, as soon as the wolf was able to, it had its heart set on mine, literally, and didn't fancy being wolf bait.. Edited February 5 by Broccoli Clock 1
williams_482 Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 11 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said: Just as a side note, if you manage to coral an aggressive animal into some sort of pen, then it seems this is the only way to keep them alive (if you want to, that is!). Bears (and I assume wolves as well) will remain indefinitely as long as they have an artificial light source nearby. In one of my worlds I have several bears trapped in 5x5x3 pits with an oil lamp in the middle, and they have remained there for over three years, including one year spent 40,000 blocks away in the tropics.
Broccoli Clock Posted February 5 Report Posted February 5 22 minutes ago, williams_482 said: Bears (and I assume wolves as well) will remain indefinitely as long as they have an artificial light source nearby. In one of my worlds I have several bears trapped in 5x5x3 pits with an oil lamp in the middle, and they have remained there for over three years, including one year spent 40,000 blocks away in the tropics. I was worried about the body weight stat, I had assumed that as it dropped they could end up dying. That was the main reason for feeding the wolf cub. Not that I kept it around long enough to find out.
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