Clay

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.20.0.

Clay is a terrain block variant created during world generation. Harvesting clay is essential to progress from the stone age to the copper age.

Blue clay in soil
Material	Soil
Stackable	64
Drops	4-5 Blue clay
Blocks

Red clay in soil
Material	Soil
Stackable	64
Drops	4-5 Red clay
Blocks

Fire clay in soil
Material	Soil
Stackable	64
Drops	4-5 Fire clay
Blocks

Blue clay
Stackable	64
Items

Red clay
Stackable	64
Items

Fire clay
Stackable	64
Items

Worldgen spawn conditions

In-game Handbook entry

Where to find blue clay
"Blue clay can be found at low elevations anywhere there is soil, and a minimum level of rainfall. It will be more plentiful when soil layers are thick. It does not occur in sand or gravel, nor in extreme cold regions, and also does not occur very far above sea level."

Where to find red clay
"Red clay can be found anywhere there is soil, and a minimum level of rainfall. It can occur at any elevation. It will be more plentiful when soil layers are thick. It does not occur in sand or gravel, nor in extreme cold regions."

Where to find fire clay
"Fire clay is found naturally in areas of bauxite sand or gravel in small patches at the surface, and underlaying black and anthracite coal deposits in large patches, underground. It can also be crafted by combining red or blue clay with powdered flint ."

Regional conditions

Variant	Average temperature	Average rainfall	Other
Blue clay	min -10°C	min 0.27	elevation only 0.9-1.0 of sea level
Red clay	min -10°C	min 0.27
Fire clay	min -10°C	min 0.1	amid bauxite gravel or sand, or directly below black coal or anthracite

Clay deposits are disc-shaped, and the disc follows surface deformations. The thickness of the disc can vary between 2 and 4 blocks.

Clay Types

There are three type of clay blocks: blue clay (appears pale blue), red clay (appears dull red), and fire clay (appears pale pink/beige). Fire clay is required for certain unique uses and certain recipes, but can be used for clayforming anything that blue or red clay is useful for.

There are also items made out of brown clay. But those are only available by purchasing them from Traders (Building Materials) or by finding them in ruins .

Spawn stats

Variant	triesPerChunk	Radius	Thickness
Blue clay	0.004	13 blocks ± 6	3.3 blocks ± 1
Red clay	0.019	13 blocks ± 6	3.3 blocks ± 1
Small patch of fire clay in bauxite	0.004	4 blocks ± 2	2 blocks ± 1
Large patch of fire clay in bauxite	0.0002	12 blocks ± 5	3.3 blocks ± 1

Grass Variants

Clay blocks have grass coverage variants and may appear as "bare clay" with a surface colored according to the clay type (no grass), or a green top surface, aka "grass block". Depending on climactic conditions, grass coverage appears sparse (patchy green) on clay blocks. Tall grass may also grow/spawn on clay blocks.

Obtaining

Locating

Because the green top of clay deposits blends in with the surrounding grass, it's usually easier to notice clay from the side. Make a habit of scanning hillsides as you explore.

If looking for blue clay in particular, toggle on the coordinate HUD: Ctrl+V. In a default world with height 256 blocks, sea level is at Y 110. Blue clay is restricted to 0.9-1.0 of sea level. In a default-height world, this translates to 99-110: blue clay will only spawn between Y 99 and Y 110. Use the coordinate HUD to check whether you're in this range (Y is the middle of the three numbers displayed in the HUD).

If looking for fire clay in particular, use a prospecting pick to find areas likely to have bituminous coal or anthracite. The pick cannot detect clay, but if node mode reports bituminous coal or anthracite then there is likely to be fire clay as well.

If your world map is the default style, clay deposits are indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain. If you opted for the colorful map style, it might be possible to identify clay deposits from a birds-eye view. Deposits are semi-circular, usually slightly more gray than surrounding terrain. But the difference can be subtle, especially during some seasons when foliage contrasts less strongly.

Ultimately, you might need to travel thousands of blocks to find clay, but could still find some closer that you overlooked earlier. Rather than fixate on finding a specific resource, try to stay attentive to your surroundings whenever you're traveling.

Harvesting

Clay blocks may be removed by breaking with an empty hand or using any tool, though a shovel is a faster method to harvest clay blocks. When broken, clay blocks drop 4-5 units of clay, which stack to 64 and may be carried in player inventory, or stored in stationary containers. Clay blocks may NOT be harvested intact and replaced elsewhere.

Looting

Stacks of clay are sometimes found in cracked vessels (forage) in ruins .

Crafting

An alternative to finding fire clay is creating it, with 8 pieces of blue and/or red clay combined with powdered calcined flint , to produce 8 pieces of fire clay.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Powdered calcined flint , 8x Red clay OR 8x Blue clay OR 8x Blue/red clay

Usage

The in-game Handbook shows possible recipes, cycling through acceptable variants. Cooking pots may be made from any clay, but an oven requires fire clay. It's recommended to use red or blue clay for the majority of your pottery needs, reserving fire clay for things like processing iron and steel.

Blue/Red Clay

Blue and red clay can be used to create:

Items requiring no cooking

• Empty skep
• Empty beenade
• Light mudbrick
• Dark mudbrick
• Mudbrick slab
• Cobblestone
• Cobblestone stairs
• Cobblestone slab
• Slate roofing blocks (5 versions)

Items requiring a pit kiln

• Clay brick which is used to craft:
  • Clay bricks
  • Clay brick stairs
  • Clay brick slab
  • Clay brick chimney

• Items created with the clay forming mechanic:
  • Tools and weapons molds
  • Cooking pot
  • Crock
  • Bowl
  • Jug
  • Watering can
  • Crucible
  • Planter
  • Flowerpot
  • Storage vessel
  • Clay shingle which is used to make Clay roofing blocks (5 versions).

Items requiring a beehive kiln

Blue and red clay can make a variety of colors for a few types of item, such as shingles, depending on the amount of oxygen available in a beehive kiln . In a pit kiln, shingles made with blue clay can only become black; in a beehive kiln they can become black, gray, or cream-colored. In a pit kiln, shingles made with red clay can only become red; in a beehive kiln they can become red, tan, orange, or brown.

• Clinker clay brick
• Black clay brick
• Gray clay brick
• Cream clay brick
• Black clay shingle
• Gray clay shingle
• Cream clay shingle
• Black ceramic jug
• Gray ceramic jug
• Cream ceramic jug
• Tan clay brick
• Orange clay brick
• Brown clay brick
• Tan ceramic shingle
• Orange ceramic shingle
• Brown ceramic shingle
• Tan ceramic jug
• Orange ceramic jug
• Brown ceramic jug

Fire Clay

Fire clay can replace blue or red clay for the creation of all the items from the previous section. However, only fire clay can be used to make:

• Clay oven
• Fire clay brick that is required to build the bloomery for ironmaking, and is optional to build the beehive kiln .
• Tier 1-3 refractory brick that is required to build the cementation furnace for steelmaking , and is optional to build the beehive kiln .

A beehive kiln can be used to make fire clay products, but the outputs will not vary in color the way red and blue clay products can.

Storage

Clay blocks technically stack to 64 but they cannot be obtained through normal survival gameplay. Clay pieces can stack up to 64.
Clay bricks (raw or fired) can be stacked in-world. However, for making pit kilns the maximum allowed is 12 bricks.

Protip: If collecting fire clay for bloomeries, you can maximize inventory space by quickly converting clay to bricks in the crafting grid. If the purpose is brick blocks for the steel furnace or the beehive kiln, don't convert the clay to bricks yet.

History

• Prior to version 1.20, blue clay was the most common type, and fire clay was nearly as common on the surface.
• Prior to version 1.20, clay could be cooked in a firepit to produce Hardened clay. Wattle and daub in various colors replaced this mechanic.