Bony soil

Bony soil
Material	Soil
Stackable	64
Drops	Itself
Blocks

Bony soil is a type of terrain block in Vintage Story. Being the remains of those who once inhabited the now-ruins scattered across the world, it is most useful for panning to collect unique items such as Lore books.

It can be harvested by simply breaking the block, though as a type of soil it is harvested more quickly using a shovel .

Natural generation

Bony soil is found near or underneath randomly-generated ruins . Ruins may be along the surface or hidden underground, with bony soil occupying corners of former rooms where people had once taken shelter.

Uses

Panning

Bony soil is most useful as a block for panning . It has a unique variety of drops, meaning players may find items by panning bony soil that they cannot find by panning other blocks.

Common drops include bones, flax fibers, copper arrowheads and flint arrowheads. Less commonly you may also find candles, gemstones, lore books, rusty gears, tuning cylinders and decorative clothing. Not surprisingly bony soil is one of the best ways of finding lore early on in the game and when you do not yet have enough rusty gears to purchase books and scrolls from traders.

Below is a table showcasing the types of drops found in Bony Soil with their corresponding percentages, all listed in order of probability beginning with the most likely at the top.

Drop	Rate	Blocks on average	Amount in 64
None	1 in 1.15	1	445
Bone	1 in 3.33	1	154
Flax fibers	1 in 6.67	1	77
Flint arrowhead	1 in 10	1	51
Copper arrowhead	1 in 20	3	25,6
Rusty gear	1 in 40	5	12,8
Bony ribcage	1 in 50	6	10,24
Candle	1 in 66.67	8	7,68
Rough emerald	1 in 100	13	5,12
Rough peridot	1 in 100	13	5,12
Nugget, native gold	1 in 100	13	5,12
Nugget, native silver	1 in 100	13	5,12
Copper spear head	1 in 100	13	5,12
Rough diamond	1 in 142.86	18	3,58
Lore book (Tobias)	1 in 285.71	36	1,79
Lore book (Research)	1 in 285.71	36	1,79
Lore book (Diaries)	1 in 285.71	36	1,79
Lore book (Jonas)	1 in 285.71	36	1,79
Lamellae (Copper)	1 in 500	63	1,02
Metal Chain (Copper)	1 in 500	63	1,02
Bronze armlet	1 in 625	78	less than 1
Temporal gear	1 in 1000	125	less than 1
Tuning cylinder (Cultured Tavern)	1 in 1666.67	208 (3,25 stacks)	less than 1
Tuning cylinder (Quirky Tavern)	1 in 1666.67	208 (3,25 stacks)	less than 1
Golden necklace	1 in 2500	313 (5 stacks)	less than 1
Bronze gem necklace	1 in 2500	313 (5 stacks)	less than 1
Silver chain	1 in 2500	313 (5 stacks)	less than 1
Silver diadem	1 in 2500	313 (5 stacks)	less than 1
Gold coronet	1 in 2500	313 (5 stacks)	less than 1

Lore

Bony soil is an excellent source of discovering lore books without need for purchase or trade.

As Vintage Story is an open world game, it lacks linear storytelling and so the player must piece together whatever they may find if they wish to know more of their past. Many lore locations require the player having some level of mastery over metal tools to reasonably explore (i.e. copper, bronze, iron and steel, respectively). By contrast, finding lore books in surface ruins may be done as early as the first day, and while the player still relies on stone tools.

Seen in the drops table above, the four main varieties of lore the player may find through books are:

• Diaries
• Jonas
• Tobias
• Research

It is interesting to note that the inhabitants of former settlements (ruins) kept these types of records in their books and that we do not, at present, see a greater variety of accounts. For instance, we do not see much in the way of religious texts or stories for entertainment. Rather, these are the words of people facing a great calamity, and across all of the books as seen through the eyes of multiple people. It leaves questions as to why all these people had just these records and not ones from before the calamity.

Notes

Despite being classified as a soil block, bony soil cannot be tilled for farming and plants cannot be grown on bony soil.