Panning

Panning animation.

Panning is a method to acquire metal ore nuggets from sand and gravel. This is especially useful early in the game, as it offers a safe and reliable alternative to scavenging the surface for stray nuggets, and can also yield other helpful resources.

Requirements

Players may pan gravel, sand or bony soil blocks. Gravel and sand can be found on the surface, while bony soil is found around or under ruins. Each block can be panned eight times. Different types of blocks may result in slightly different drops. Bony soil in particular uses a different drop table, meaning that panning bony soil may give players items that they cannot get from panning gravel or soil. Panning bony soil may drop very helpful items for early-game players.

Note: Even though Muddy Gravel has the word "gravel" in its name, it cannot be panned.

The primary tool used in panning is the wooden pan. This is created by crafting one log with a knife in the crafting grid.

Process

In order to pan a block, players must perform the following steps:

1. Place the pan in the hotbar and equip it in the active hand.
2. Place the block to be panned (the "target block") on dry land, not touching water.

Fill the pan while aiming the crosshairs at the target block.

1. Stand in water.

Wash the pan while standing in water and wait until the pan is empty.

Any items recovered from the process will transfer to the player's hotbar or inventory. Items that do not fit in the player's inventory will drop to the ground at the player's feet.

During the entire panning process, players can remain standing in water. This is the most efficient setup, since the target blocks can just be placed at the edge of the water. Partially-panned blocks that are touching water will be instantly destroyed, so players should avoid panning blocks that are directly touching water.

Results

Panning produces several types of useful small items, as well as rarer yields such as decorative headgear and lore items. It can also provide parts for early weapons.

Common resource drops from panning include loose stones (corresponding to the local rock layer), flint, ore nuggets for copper, sphalerite, cassiterite and gold, quartz chunks (clear or regular) and blue clay.

Common items from panning include flint and copper arrowheads or spearheads, metal scraps (which can be used to create scrap weapon kits), and rusty gears.

Additionally, panning may give players lore items such as books, or decorative clothing such as diadems and necklaces. These can be sold to traders for more rusty gears.

In addition to all of the following, panning bony soil can also give bones, silver nuggets, and candles. More rarely, panning bony soil can also give components for armor such as tin bronze or copper chain and lamellae.

Panning drops

These drops are listed in rough order of probability, with the most common drops at the top and the rarest drops at the bottom.

If you want to check the odds yourself, check the code:

Quick code (pan)

{ type: "item", code: "bone",  chance: { avg: 0.3, var: 0 } avg: chance to get the item: 0,3 = 1/0,3 = 3,(3) ---> 1 in 3,(3)

Gravel or sand

Drop	Rate
None	1 in 1.6129...
Loose stone (layer specific)	1 in 5
Nugget, native copper	1 in 6.(6)
Flint	1 in 9.(09)
Blue clay	1 in 33.(3)
Quartz chunk	1 in 33.(3)
Clear quartz	1 in 40
Nugget, sphalerite	1 in 50
Flint arrowhead	1 in 50
Copper arrowhead	1 in 100
Flint spearhead	1 in 100
Bony ribcage	1 in 100
Rusty gears	1 in 166.(6)
Copper spearhead	1 in 250
Nugget, native gold	1 in 250
Rough lapis lazuli	1 in 500
Metal parts	1 in 500
Metal scraps	1 in 500
Bronze armlet	1 in 1250
Temporal gear	1 in 2000
Nugget, cassiterite	1 in 5000
Tuning cylinder (Cultured Tavern)	1 in 5000
Tuning cylinder (Quirky Tavern)	1 in 5000
Golden necklace	1 in 10000
Bronze gem necklace	1 in 10000
Silver chain	1 in 10000
Silver diadem	1 in 10000
Gold coronet	1 in 10000

Bony soil

Drop	Rate
None	1 in 1.1518...
Bone	1 in 3.(3)
Flax fibers	1 in 6.(6)
Flint arrowhead	1 in 10
Copper arrowhead	1 in 20
Rusty gears	1 in 40
Bony ribcage	1 in 50
Candle	1 in 66.(6)
Rough emerald	1 in 100
Rough peridot	1 in 100
Nugget, native gold	1 in 100
Nugget, native silver	1 in 100
Copper spearhead	1 in 100
Rough diamond	1 in 142.8571...
Lore book (Tobias)	1 in 285.7142...
Lore book (Research)	1 in 285.7142...
Lore book (Diaries)	1 in 285.7142...
Lore book (Jonas)	1 in 285.7142...
Lamellae (Copper)	1 in 500
Metal Chain (Copper)	1 in 500
Temporal gear	1 in 1000
Tuning cylinder (Cultured Tavern)	1 in 1666.(6)
Tuning cylinder (Quirky Tavern)	1 in 1666.(6)
Golden necklace	1 in 2500
Bronze gem necklace	1 in 2500
Bronze armlet	1 in 2500
Silver chain	1 in 2500
Silver diadem	1 in 2500
Gold coronet	1 in 2500

Video Tutorials

This panning tutorial was made for version 1.13, but is still relevant for version 1.17.