InternetDragon Posted February 8 Report Posted February 8 (edited) Many people gripe and groan when they are faced with the step up to bronze-tier because cassiterite is a seemingly extinct resource. I recommend using black bronze, an alloy of copper, gold, and silver, the last two which are easier to get than tin if you have a bad seed. The ratio to get it is 16 copper : 2 gold : 2 silver There are two ways I recommend to get gold and silver, Panning and Quartz mining. You can also get Omok gold pieces from the luxury trader, which can be smelted. 1. Panning The easiest method. Get your pan, a pannable block (Bony soil works best, with a MUCH higher droprate compared to the gravels and sands), and go at it. You can't get silver from sands/gravels, so use either bony soil or the second method for your silver. 2. Quartz mining (copper pick + copper hammer + prospecting pick needed) While normally you would need to already have bronze to mine quartz, you can skip this with ore-blasting bombs. Get sulfur, saltpeter (found in some caves), and charcoal. Mix into 4:2:1 ratio to get blasting powder. Use blasting powder to make bombs, and then start looking for quartz deposits. Upon finding a quartz vein, use a prospecting pick to check for readings of gold and silver. Even if it's a low reading, start blowing up the quartz. Within, there is usually a few ores of gold and silver inside the quartz. Although it is rare, sometimes the gold and silver will be destroyed, so only blow enough up for a black bronze pick, then come back for the rest to mine manually. Hope this helps! Edited February 10 by InternetDragon Apparently silver doesn't appear in gravels and sands, so i fixed it. Thanks for the correction MKMouse! Also added another way to get gold 2
pigfood Posted February 10 Report Posted February 10 Panning for gold/silver isn't practical at all. You need a bronze anvil to move to the iron age. Regularly making black bronze tools is far too expensive. You need 20 gold nuggets for a bronze pickaxe + anvil. That requires panning 256 blocks of bony soil. Finding, digging up and panning that much will take half a year. I can get something like 20-30 rusty gears from panned gems, while panning for a gold nugget. Commodity traders sell fairly cheap tin. That's at least 10 times less effort. > saltpeter (found in some caves) IME, saltpeter is extremely rare in caves and requires going pretty deep. I would consider gambeson armor mandatory. In my current game, I'm sitting on 200 ingots worth of meteoric iron. I have found 20 translocators and a huge amount of ruins. I haven't found any saltpeter (I'm rich and it's thankfully sold by commodity traders). Even having unlimited ore blasting bombs, IME getting gold requires an extreme amount of luck. Even chunks that show up positive for gold with a density search, frequently have nothing. I've blown up tens of thousands of quartz blocks in positive gold reading chunks and didn't get anything. I haven't found any gold in quartz deposits in my current game, despite being on the brink of making steel. I've done a crazy amount of exploration/prospecting. Since I'm rich, I have unlimited ore blasting bombs. I only need to buy saltpeter, I have the other ingredients in vast abundance. The only reason I'm looking for gold is repairing Forlorn Hope armor. 1
LadyWYT Posted February 10 Report Posted February 10 On 2/8/2026 at 3:21 PM, InternetDragon said: 1. Panning The easiest method. Get your pan, a pannable block (Bony soil works best, with a MUCH higher droprate compared to the gravels and sands), and go at it until you have 2 of each kind of nugget. I would say this is more practical for the other stuff that bony soil can drop--primarily candles, since bees can be a bit tricky to find sometimes and a candle drop can be used for an early lantern. Otherwise, it's a nice way to get the silver and gold needed for a pickaxe, or other basic tool, but not really for an anvil. On 2/8/2026 at 3:21 PM, InternetDragon said: Many people gripe and groan when they are faced with the step up to bronze-tier because cassiterite is a seemingly extinct resource. Cassiterite can be difficult to find sometimes, but it is a relatively common ore so it's often worth checking Poor/Very Poor readings if better readings aren't available. That being said, if tin bronze isn't turning out to be an option, the next best option is bismuth bronze. Bismuth and zinc(sphalerite) ore are common finds as well, and it's not unusual at all to find those two when cassiterite seems to be rare. Additionally, it's also possible to purchase cassiterite from Commodities traders; bismuth and zinc as well, I think. Doing a little exploring and trading for rusty gears to buy the ore is likely going to be a lot less tedious than trying to pan for the silver and gold required to craft a black bronze anvil. 1
MKMoose Posted February 10 Report Posted February 10 On 2/8/2026 at 10:21 PM, InternetDragon said: 1. Panning The easiest method. Get your pan, a pannable block (Bony soil works best, with a MUCH higher droprate compared to the gravels and sands), and go at it until you have 2 of each kind of nugget. Besides other issues with black bronze, I want to just point out that regular gravel and sand don't drop silver at all - it's only obtainable this way from bony soil.
InternetDragon Posted February 10 Author Report Posted February 10 1 hour ago, MKMoose said: Besides other issues with black bronze, I want to just point out that regular gravel and sand don't drop silver at all - it's only obtainable this way from bony soil. Oops, will fix
InternetDragon Posted February 10 Author Report Posted February 10 8 hours ago, pigfood said: Commodity traders sell fairly cheap tin. That's at least 10 times less effort. In the world I have spent 153 hours in as of now, I have not met a single commodity trader. I know they apparently exist due to the wiki, but I have never found one. 8 hours ago, pigfood said: > saltpeter (found in some caves) IME, saltpeter is extremely rare in caves and requires going pretty deep. I would consider gambeson armor mandatory. In my current game, I'm sitting on 200 ingots worth of meteoric iron. I have found 20 translocators and a huge amount of ruins. I haven't found any saltpeter (I'm rich and it's thankfully sold by commodity traders). Strange. Every few caves I go into have a patch or 2 of it.
V1ncent Posted February 11 Report Posted February 11 (edited) Based on wiki ore deposits data, though bismuthinite only bountiful in basalt, it is at least rich in all the igneous rock layer in addition to medium in slat&phyllite, which means it is actually quite widespread. Additionally, bismuth is only 10% needed for the alloy, which translates to a small amount of 20 nuggets for pick+anvil. Interesting enough, bismuth can be more easily found than tin, as tin is only bountiful in Peridotite and medium in other igneous and slat & phyllite. The zinc can be easily byproduct when mining copper, as the Sphalerite is everywhere except the three special rocks (marb, kim, suev). So overall, if one keeps on prospecting, the bismuth bronze is easier than tin bronze and far more feasible than black bronze. Edited February 11 by V1ncent
pigfood Posted February 12 Report Posted February 12 On 2/10/2026 at 10:06 PM, InternetDragon said: In the world I have spent 153 hours in as of now, I have not met a single commodity trader. I know they apparently exist due to the wiki, but I have never found one. How much exploration have you done? Sometimes, things can be extremely skewed with regards to the expected, statistical behavior. In my current game, I have encountered 5 commodity traders, which is in line with the expected amount compared to the traders I've discovered. On 2/10/2026 at 10:06 PM, InternetDragon said: Strange. Every few caves I go into have a patch or 2 of it [saltpeter]. I rarely explore deep caves, i.e. much below 70 depth. The risk/reward isn't there. (Playing with pretty much perma-death.) In theory, saltpeter should start spawning below 88 depth - that doesn't match my practical experience. I have a explored a HUGE amount of caves down to around 70 depth without finding ANY saltpeter.
InternetDragon Posted February 12 Author Report Posted February 12 6 hours ago, pigfood said: How much exploration have you done? Sometimes, things can be extremely skewed with regards to the expected, statistical behavior. In my current game, I have encountered 5 commodity traders, which is in line with the expected amount compared to the traders I've discovered Mostly 5K+ long lines to story locations + a huge blurb in the middle 6 hours ago, pigfood said: I rarely explore deep caves, i.e. much below 70 depth. The risk/reward isn't there. (Playing with pretty much perma-death.) In theory, saltpeter should start spawning below 88 depth - that doesn't match my practical experience. I have a explored a HUGE amount of caves down to around 70 depth without finding ANY saltpeter. I try to stop around 50ish, where the tainted and such start popping up. About the risks, honestly, I play with keepinv. Call me a noob, or a coward, or whatever. I've heard it all. For me, it's easy to headcanon "I'm a magic angel who can respawn on death, why would I not have my gear with me?" Plus all the brutal grinding that comes with dying in this progression system just makes playing without it plain unfun.
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