Why is it so difficult to find Coal Nodes?

[Starbreeze]

It's my first time playing Conan Exiles apart from the intro years ago when I got it. Decided to give it another go.

I've been following the Journey quests, getting those nice unlockables and it helps me figure out stuff to try. I got to Blacksmith though, and it said "Harvest Coal from a Coal node" and I finally found some, but GOSH what a journey!

Why are they so hard to find? They weren't as far as I went looking from them, when I finally found some. But also why are they were I found them?

They were outside the gates of a temple or something, in G5 on the map.[\spoiler]

The ironstone nodes are usually at the base of cliffs and things like that. I went into some caves and found crystal and brimstone and death. These weren't in a very obvious location for finding mineral resources. I'm not sure where you'd normally find coal? I think most coal in medieval and fantasy stuff was charcoal that had been burned from wood. ^.^;;

I noticed that the journey step description for Harvest Ironstone described what Ironstone looks like, and the Harvest Coal step didn't describe a coal node. So, on top of how hard it was to find one, I was sure they would be more common so I was just randomly hitting every rock that looked funny.

I really felt like I had to say something after finally finding it and in such an odd place. I heard that the Journey system had just been redone, so maybe if the Funcom folks end up reading this they can add a description of a coal node (they're black) and a hint where to look? I don't think I found any ironstone nodes south of the big river, either, and there's no reason to assume someone would look there first if they can also go east and west.

[Migromul]

They're not that hard to find.. From the starting position go straight on, until you come to the river. Cross the river. Maybe you need to go a bit west until you come to grassland. (WEST, not east. and JUST A BIT It's only coastal grassland...)

Just east of the brimstone cave, go straight on north and you should find coal nodes. Maybe a bit hidden among spider webs. They're realy not that hard to find. It's more efford to get a decent amount of iron, imho. (it's also straight north. Go through the spider webs. You should come to a big flat mountain-top. Beware: there's a boss spider there. (the aggro range is pretty low, however, so you should be safe.) It's about 50 times bigger than normal spiders, so you shouldn't oversee it.. :)

Go straight on and leave the boss-spider to the left. You should come to a Dafari-camp-entrance (and probably see a fight between a spider and dafari.) Among this cliff is plenty of iron and also plenty of coal.

That's all not that hard. Wait, until you need hardened steel. The receipt for that was changed long ago! You need black ice now, And THAT is realy hard to find... (I even found some star metal first, that was a drop, however. )

I use a mod, however, which provides the old receipe... (just steel and brimstone.)

[Willow Rivers]

There is a ton around the Summoning Place, that is where i go get my coal when I am stil lin the stating area.

[Starbreeze]

I definately went east before I went west. I also haven't found the Summoning Place yet.

The nodes I found were due north, but far enough that I didn't go there first. Actually, the ones I found are the ones Migromul mentioned "Just east of the brimstone cave, go straight on north and you should find coal nodes." The path uphill there didn't seem like a good way to go at the start, which was why I went east first. I circled around back to west further north, and was on my way back to the center south when I found those nodes.

[Jaq]

It's just the classic exploration experience with this game. Everything seems like an epic adventure until you find what you're looking for, then it's never a problem again. The map gets smaller and smaller the more you play, despite the fact that it never changes size.

[Starbreeze]

I do think it's weird how long it took to find any coal. I suppose it's just a fact that it's not everywhere, just like the metal isn't everywhere.

I can't help but compare the game to ARK: Survival Evolved, that I also played recently at last. There's a lot less diversity so far, but what is there seems more complex. I like it.

[Shadow]

Maybe it's one of those things that has a mysterious curse on it where when you need it, it's nowhere to be found. But if you stop looking for it you'll soon be swimming in the stuff.

[Starbreeze]

I did technically find it when I needed it, it was just a long and circuitious journey through all the early regions where there isn't any, first. Maybe it's bad luck? But, it is definately possible to subconciously lead players where you want them to go without handholding or impinging on their freedom. I went where it seemed best to go, but I was wrong.

That said, I've also since found out that you can 'start' in different parts of the desert, so the starting point also differs when you get to the more livable parts of the exiled lands. ^.^;;

[m142]

if it's hard to get coal , try sulfur silver and gold with out help from internet.

[Starbreeze]

I definately haven't found sulfur, silver or gold yet. I haven't found resin yet. There's no journey saying "Go get some resin" for one of the steps, but I have a recipe that needs resin and no clue where to get it. No tool that says it's for getting resin, either. XD

[Bloodartist]

Originally posted by Starbreeze:

I definately haven't found sulfur, silver or gold yet. I haven't found resin yet. There's no journey saying "Go get some resin" for one of the steps, but I have a recipe that needs resin and no clue where to get it. No tool that says it's for getting resin, either. XD

There are basically only two sources of SULFUR:
1. Caves in the desert biome
2. The huge alkali lake at C8, easily visible on the map (called "Shattered springs" ingame). There are large pillars of sulfur growing out of the lake which give you all the sulfur you could possibly need, but the lake emits poison gas iirc so you need a sandstorm mask or be immune to poison. There is also a world boss in one area of the lake.

There is basically only one main source of SILVER ore:
1. The silver mine south of the city of Sepermeru, near Jawbone (C6) and its neighborhood outside the cave. This mine will get you all the silver you need if you mine it regularly.

Additionally there is silver ore nodes in the jungle around Descent of Dagon, but since the area is less defined than the silver mine, I find the mine to be the go-to spot.

There is one main source of GOLD:
1. The obsidian nodes inside the volcano will drop gold as a byproduct. You need to mine a lot of obsidian nodes (I just drop obsidian straight to ground) but it will get you all the gold you need. I get couple thousand gold coins worth per trip with my starmetal pick. The volcano is a very inhospitable place. You need to eat ice while inside or die to heatstroke.

Additionally you can find gold and silver coins and bars in lootchests around various bosses and dungeon areas (also chests just lying around in Sepermeru, or sunk in the sea in the eastern coast), but these are so few in number they aren't a sustainable income imo.


RESIN is collected from northern trees with a pick, or you can put wood and bark into a drier to produce dried wood and resin.

[Starbreeze]

Interesting that they'd put gold in a place like that.

On some level I was avoiding looking things up or asking questions while I was looking for the coal, because I'm stubborn I guess? I also generally like exploration. I just think that most people I know would have given up after searching much less than I did, so that might be a problem for new player onboarding. XD

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by Starbreeze:

Interesting that they'd put gold in a place like that.

On some level I was avoiding looking things up or asking questions while I was looking for the coal, because I'm stubborn I guess? I also generally like exploration. I just think that most people I know would have given up after searching much less than I did, so that might be a problem for new player onboarding. XD

Yeah, the resource distribution is kinda screwy, particularly since you need gold for alchemical base long before you're likely to be able to survive at trip to the volcano and may not get a meaningful amount from grinding coins.

Really they should have made gold and silver as a rare resource from mining standardish rocks in certain parts of the jungle. This would create secondary locations for it and give reason for the player to even explore the jungle. Or made the alchemical base recipe not dependent on these minerals.

Meanwhile coal feels like it doesn't have any special usage, it should have probably been swapped with brimstone in the recipe to make steel. Brimstone still used for explosives. And let us get ashes as a byproduct of burning wood in a furnace or campfire.

I get that part of the point of putting these things where they are is to force the player to slowly head to the northern and western part of the map, but it does that pretty poorly.

[Solomon Hawk]

Give yourself enough time to discover while you adventure (while avoiding being eaten).
You'll begin finding nodes in more places than you might imagine.

[Starbreeze]

It's an interesting point, I hear this game is really good for PvP. Maybe having the nodes be in certain areas means area control is more important for rivals?

[💖jurassic💖rappy32💖]

They are all over the place