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Getting to Bronze Age


Quintonn Rothmann

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I've read a bunch of similar questions in the forums but I couldn't find a clear answer.
I've been playing this amazing game for more than 24 hours in total, and I'm still only in the copper age. 
I think I have maybe 5 ingots of another metal.
I've spent about 5 picks and prospecting picks and I am yet to find tin/bronze or anything else for that matter. 

I've tried to go down many of the caves, and I've found a few of those machines that need fixing but I haven't been able to find other ores.

I understand the game is a bit harder than similar other games, but is it really supposed to be this hard to find other ores?
I've managed to get 2 gold through panning. In fact, i had to spend an hour or 2 to pan just to get to my first copper pick as I picked up all the copper nuggets i could but it wasn't enough to make a pick.

I've found areas that show very high probability of bismuth, and i've cleared big areas but still nothing.

I just died again with a brand new set of copper instruments and I've only got about 50 nuggets left at my base, so if I die again, i won't be able to make pick tools again unless i find more ores soon.

I have also not been able to find any temporal gear.

Any tips on finding other/more ore would be appreciated.

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The thing with prospecting for ore is, you can break lots of propicks doing it, but it won't do you any good if you don't have a plan. Ultimately, the prospecting mechanic delivers you data points. You need to think about two things: what data do you actually want? And once you have that data, what do you do with it? If you produce data points without knowing why you produce them, or ones that you cannot properly analyze for useful results, then all that work was for naught.

For this reason, I recommend that people follow a structured approach to prospecting. Don't just prospect wherever, but pick a coordinate grid and stick to it. Really stick to it, even if the coordinate is underwater (protip: drowning is not yet implemented ;)). Record the results, either on the ingame map, or with an external tool like a spreadsheet. Then, look for trends in the results you have recorded. This can be done very simply, like just reading through your notes and thinking "hey, the concentration seems to go up as the x coordinate increases". Or you can go full-on max effort and do a graphical representation where you can visually see where the centers of ore concentration are likely going to be.

In this thread here, I did a much more detailed writeup on how I personally approach prospecting. There is also a video (made by someone else) that shows a very similar approach.

If you've already found a chunk with a "high" or better reading for an ore you are looking for, you can skip down to the part about how to best dig down and discover the presence of actual deposits.

Edited by Streetwind
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The other approach is to simply take propick samples at cave entrances.  Then, if a cave entrance has a decent chance of the ore you're looking for, try to explore the cave and see if you can find the ore you need.   This saves you a lot of pick, vs blind mining.  It also helps to be aware of what stones the ores you need are found.  Tin is only found in igneous rocks, for instance.  Igneous stone layers can be anywhere, because the bottom layer is always igneous.  However the deeper you go the harder the drifters will be, and without good weapons and armor you'll have a rough time.  So it might be better to look in areas that have fairly shallow stone types that have the ores you seek.  But also keeping in mind the y limits of things like tin, which only spawn below a certain y level.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/17/2020 at 8:28 PM, redram said:

So it might be better to look in areas that have fairly shallow stone types that have the ores you seek.  But also keeping in mind the y limits of things like tin, which only spawn below a certain y level.

Is there any way to find out what stone types are below the surface layer without just blindly mining straight down constantly? 

Also, is it stated anywhere what ores usually form in what vertical range? I was looking for tin before and found the ore at 0.1% just below the surface. I tried mining down and actually lost the tin I had found just 8 blocks below where I had last detected it. Which doesn't make any sense because I was in Chert which doens't get tin

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6 minutes ago, Scott Kimberly said:

Is there any way to find out what stone types are below the surface layer without just blindly mining straight down constantly?

Finding a vertical shaft cave will let you see a good ways down without digging.  No way besides that though.

Ya you shouldn't have found tin in chert.  There do exist very rare shallow cassitterite deposits, but I think they're still stone type limited afaik.  Best place to find ore depth info and such is the wiki.  There's an ore deposits page.

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