Crafting

Crafting is the way you make new items and tools in Vintage Story. It is how you survive and progress! Unlike other block games, Vintage Story has many unique, hands-on ways to build things. You will not just click a button; you will physically shape clay, chip away stone, and hammer hot metal!

This page will guide you through the 5 main crafting methods you need to survive, starting from your very first day.

Tip: The Handbook is your best friend! Press the H key at any time to open it. It will show you exactly how to make any item in the game.

Grid Crafting

Right-click and drag to quickly spread items in the grid.

Grid crafting is the simplest way to make items, and you can do it from the very start.

To use the crafting grid:

1. Press the E key to open your inventory.
2. Look for the 3x3 grid of empty squares on the right side of the screen.
3. Drag items from your inventory into this grid in the correct shape.
4. Take your finished item from the output box on the right.

If you do not know the shape to use, press H to check the Handbook! Grid crafting is often the final step for making tools. For example, once you make a stone tool head, you put it in the grid with a Stick to make a finished tool.

Quick tip: While holding an item, hold Right-Click and drag your mouse across the squares. This will drop exactly 1 item into each square. It saves a lot of time!

Knapping (Stone Tools)

Left-click to break the orange squares away.

Knapping is how you make your very first tools out of stone. You will chip away small pieces of a rock to make a sharp tool head (like an axe or knife).

What you need:

• Two pieces of Flint, or two loose stones of the same type (like Granite, Basalt, or Obsidian).

How to do it:

1. Put one piece of stone in your active hand.
2. Aim at the solid ground, hold Sneak (Left Shift) and Right-Click.
3. A menu will pop up. Click on the tool you want to make (for example, an Axe head).
4. The stone will appear on the ground, covered in little orange squares (voxels).
5. Aim at the orange squares with your second stone and Left-Click to break them away.
6. Once all the orange squares are gone, the tool head will pop into your inventory!

You can then open your inventory (E) and combine this tool head with a Stick in the crafting grid to finish your tool.

Clay Forming (Pottery & Molds)

Press F to open the tool menu. The 'Duplicate Layer' tool is a life saver!

Clay forming is how you make bowls, cooking pots, storage vessels, and molds for metal. Instead of breaking pieces away, you will be building an item up layer by layer.

What you need:

• Blue Clay, Red Clay, or Fire Clay. (You can find clay near water or in dirt areas with high rainfall).

How to do it:

1. Hold the clay in your active hand.
2. Aim at the solid ground, hold Sneak (Left Shift) and Right-Click.
3. Select the item you want to make from the menu.
4. The base of the item will appear on the ground.
5. Hold Right-Click to add clay to the green squares. If you make a mistake, hold Left-Click to remove clay from the orange squares.

Life-saving tip: Do not place one square at a time! Press F while holding clay to open the tool menu. You can change your brush size to 2x2 or 3x3. Even better, use the Duplicate Layer tool. This automatically copies the layer beneath it and builds the next layer for you as long as you hold Right-Click!

The Pit Kiln (Baking the Clay)

A fully loaded pit kiln before it is lit.

When you finish shaping a clay item, it is "Raw". It cannot be used yet! You must bake it in a Pit Kiln to make it hard.

How to fire clay:

1. Dig a hole in the ground that is exactly 1 block deep. (Make sure there is no tall grass or wood nearby, or it will catch on fire!)
2. Hold your Raw clay item, aim inside the hole, hold Sneak (Left Shift) and Right-Click to place it. You can fit up to 4 small items, or 1 large item (like a storage vessel) in a single hole.
3. Next, aim at the hole and add exactly 10 Dry Grass (Sneak + Right-Click).
4. Then, add 8 Sticks (Sneak + Right-Click).
5. Finally, add 4 to 8 Firewood, Peat, or Coal (Sneak + Right-Click).
6. Light the top of the pile with a Torch or a Firestarter.

Wait about a day (usually 10 to 20 in-game hours). When the fire goes out, your item will be dark brown and have "Fired" in its name. It is now ready to use!

Casting (Your First Metal)

Pouring glowing hot liquid metal into a fired mold.

Casting is how you enter the Copper Age. You will melt metal nuggets down into a liquid and pour them into clay molds.

What you need:

• A fired Crucible (made from clay).
• Fired tool molds or ingot molds (made from clay).
• A Firepit and fuel (peat bricks, coal, or charcoal. Firewood does not burn hot enough to melt copper!).
• Metal nuggets (like Copper).

How to do it:

1. Put your Crucible into the cooking slot of a Firepit.
2. Add your metal nuggets into the Crucible (each mold usually takes 20 nuggets, which equals 100 units of liquid metal).
3. Add your hot fuel and light the fire.
4. Wait until the metal reaches its melting point and turns into a glowing liquid.
5. Take the glowing Crucible out of the fire and put it in your active hand.
6. Aim at your empty, fired clay molds on the ground. Hold Sneak (Left Shift) and Right-Click to pour the liquid metal inside.
7. Wait for the metal to cool down, then break the mold to get your new solid metal tool head or ingot!

Smithing (Advanced Metalworking)

Hit the hot metal to push it into the empty blue and green squares.

Smithing is the most advanced way to make tools, weapons, and armor. Instead of pouring liquid metal, you will be hammering a solid, hot metal ingot into shape!

What you need:

• An Anvil (Copper, Bronze, or Iron).
• A Hammer.
• A pair of Tongs.
• A Forge filled with Coal or Charcoal.
• Metal Ingots.

How to do it:

1. Put your metal Ingot into the Forge, add fuel, and light it.
2. Wait until the ingot is glowing bright hot.
3. Grab the hot ingot using your Tongs.
4. Aim at the top of your Anvil, hold Sneak (Left Shift) and Right-Click to place the hot ingot down.
5. A menu will open asking what you want to forge. Pick your item.
6. Put your Hammer in your active hand.
7. Left-Click on the hot metal to flatten and push it. Your goal is to move the metal out of the "orange" squares and into the empty "green" or "blue" squares.
8. Press F to change how your hammer strikes. Some modes spread the metal flat, while others push the metal left, right, up, or down.

If your metal turns dark and stops moving, it has cooled down! You must use your Tongs to pick it back up, put it back in the Forge, and heat it up again. If you run out of metal before the shape is finished, simply heat up a second ingot and place it right on top of the first one to add more material.