Vintage Story: Prospecting & Ore Finding
Checked on 14 October 2026 against the Vintage Story 1.22.7 game files and its in-game handbook.
In Vintage Story, ore deposits are large fields tied to host rock layers. The Prospecting Pick (Propick) is the primary tool for locating these fields and then pinpointing the actual vein. You make one by putting a prospecting pick head, cast in a fired prospecting pick mold or smithed on an anvil, above a stick on the crafting grid. Copper is the usual first metal for it; the in-game handbook's advice is that the pick helps you find "where not to search".
Propick Modes (What They Actually Do)
| Mode | What it reports | Best use | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Density Search (long range, chance based) | For each ore it detects: a rating from Very poor to Ultra high and the density in parts per thousand, for the position of your first sample | Find if an area has a viable ore field | Needs 3 rock samples; a reading is a probability, not a promise of a vein |
| Node Search (short range, exact) | Every ore block within the search radius of the block you break, as an amount from Trace to Huge | Pinpoint the actual vein after density confirms potential | Radius 2 to 8 blocks, set by the world; switched off entirely on some playstyles |
Switch modes with the tool mode key while holding the pick. Whatever mode you use, the stone or ore block you hit is destroyed without dropping anything, so do not prospect on ore you want to keep.
How Density Search Works
- Taking a reading: break 3 rock blocks with the pick. Space them at least 4 blocks apart: samples closer together count for less and the pick asks for more. A sample more than 20 blocks from the others restarts the reading around that block.
- Position-based: the result belongs to the spot of your first sample, and it is the same at every depth, so sampling at the surface or deep in a mine gives the same answer for that spot.
- Parts per thousand: roughly how many rock blocks in 1,000 would be that ore if the whole area were mined. Rare ores always show small numbers: the handbook's own example is Ultra high Cassiterite (0.3‰), a top rating with a tiny number.
- The rating: Very poor, Poor, Decent, High, Very high and Ultra high come from the strength of the ore field at that spot, multiplied by how much of the rock column, from the bottom of the world to the surface, is the ore's host rock at the depth that ore forms. Ores that form only in a thin band of rock therefore rarely rate well. Ores below the lowest rating are listed as Miniscule amounts of ..., and anything weaker is not mentioned at all.
- Rating versus number: the rating compares this spot with other spots for the same ore, while the per mille number tells you how common each ore is here. In the handbook's example, Very poor Chromite (0.5‰) still means more chromite than the Ultra high reading means tin. Some ores may only ever show low ratings because of where they generate.
- Durability: each sample costs 1 durability, 3 per reading. A copper pick has 150 (50 readings), tin bronze 250, iron 650 and steel 1,625.
How Node Search Works
- If the result is anything other than No ore node nearby, there is ore within range. The pick lists each ore it found with an amount: under 10 blocks is Trace, then Small (10 to 19), Medium (20 to 39), Large (40 to 79), Very large (80 to 159) and Huge (160 or more).
- It searches a cube around the block you break: with the 6 block radius of the Standard playstyle that is 13 blocks on each side. Exploration uses 8 blocks.
- No Node Search mode on your pick? The world setting Prospecting Pick node search radius is 0 (Disabled), which is what Wilderness Survival and Homo sapiens worlds start with. An admin can set it with
/worldconfig propickNodeSearchRadius 6(2, 4, 6 or 8) and then restart the world. - Each node probe costs 2 durability and the block breaks more slowly than with density search.
- Use it while digging a shaft to triangulate the strongest readings.
Tip: Node Search is the final step. Use Density Search first to find the center of a field, then dig down and switch to Node Search to locate the vein.
Prospecting Workflow (Efficient Method)
- Survey: Take a density reading every 30 to 100 blocks while traveling, the spacing the in-game handbook recommends.
- Map the field: each reading appears on your world map's Prospecting layer, colored by its strongest result; move toward the highest values.
- Dig a shaft: Once at the peak, dig down while checking node readings on walls.
- Triangulate: If a wall shows a stronger reading, dig toward it.
Step 2 is the one worth doing properly, and it is far easier with everyone's readings together than with your own in a notebook, because the game keeps each player's map readings to that player. Paste them into our Vintage Story prospector atlas with the coordinates you took them at: it maps the field, ranks the strongest places to dig for each ore, and points at the spot where one more reading would tell you the most. It draws a smooth field rather than chunk squares, because density readings belong to the position you sampled, and it works only from readings your players actually took; it never reads your world file.
Ore Distribution Mechanics (2026 Update)
- Ore fields are tied to host rock layers. Use the in-game Handbook to check which rocks can spawn a specific ore; our metallurgy guide lists them for the metal ores.
- Density readings indicate opportunity, not guaranteed veins.
- Gold and silver show up in density readings, but they sit inside quartz veins (silver also comes with galena), and the handbook notes you need a bronze pickaxe or bombs to mine them.
- The pick does not read quartz itself, flint, clay, saltpeter, olivine, marble or obsidian, nor the loose surface copper and tin; look for those by eye.
Prospecting Mods
A large share of prospecting searches are for mods. The three most used on the official Mod DB:
- ProspectTogether by Wooza (a fork of ProspectorInfo): records every density reading automatically, shows it per chunk on the map with a heatmap for the ore you pick, and shares readings with the whole server or a group. It works client side alone, but sharing needs it on the server too. Release 2.2.1 is listed for 1.22.0 to 1.22.7.
- BetterEr Prospecting by KnewOne: a reworked density search based on the actual blocks around you, plus proximity, stone and borehole modes. Borehole mode reveals every block below the one you break, down to the bottom of the world, within a radius (8 by default). Node mode stays as in vanilla, and its commands are under
/help btrpr. Release 3.4.12 is listed for 1.22.0 to 1.22.7. - BetterProspecting (now the same mod as DurableBetterProspecting, use one or the other): extra, less tedious prospecting modes. Its latest release, 22.0.0-rc.1, is listed only for the 1.22 test builds.
Mods that change readings for everyone belong on the server; on Supercraft the server panel's mod browser installs them from the Mod DB.
Common Mistakes
- Sampling too close together, which makes the pick ask for more samples and the heatmap look more precise than it is.
- Skipping the Handbook and searching in the wrong host rock.
- Using Node Search without first confirming density.
- Prospecting on ore blocks: the pick destroys them without a drop.
Prospect like a geologist. Host your Vintage Story server with Supercraft for smooth travel while mapping large ore fields.