Archaeology and Pottery Sherds

Archaeology and Pottery Sherds covers the brushable blocks, buried gifts and decorated pot sherds that the pack's mods add on top of vanilla archaeology. Vanilla archaeology works by brushing suspicious blocks with a brush, and each completed block yields one roll from a loot table. The mods in this pack add their own brushable blocks in several biomes and structures, and they add nine pottery sherds that can decorate the faces of a decorated pot. Most of this loot is scarce, and many rolls return nothing, so the sources are worth knowing before a search.

The mods involved are YUNG's Cave Biomes and Jaden's Nether Expansion. Some brushable sand also comes from the vanilla desert well and desert pyramid loot tables, through the Desert Outpost structure added by Terralith.

Brushable blocks

Brushable blocks look like ordinary blocks until they are brushed, and each one holds a loot roll. Each mod's block has its own page, and the table below lists where each one is found.

Suspicious Ancient Sand

Ancient Sand is the main material of the Lost Caves biome. A Sand Snapper that stands on Ancient Sand can bury an item under it, and the block becomes Suspicious Ancient Sand with that item stored inside. The stored item is one roll from the same archaeology table that gives the Lost Caves Relics. The brush mechanics and durability cost are described on the Ancient Sand and Sandstone page.

Suspicious Soul Sand

The Nether mod has two ways to make suspicious soul sand, and both are tied to Soul Sand Valley.

• Wisps. An Ecto Soul Sand block releases a wisp on a random tick with a 2% chance, but only if the block below it has a sturdy top face. When a wisp emerges, the block is converted into suspicious soul sand by default. Brushing an Ecto Soul Sand block that has air above it can also tickle a wisp out, with a 7% chance per brush use. The loot from the converted block is listed on the Wisp (Nether) page.
• Mega Fossil campsites. A campsite in a Mega Fossil converts up to six soul sand blocks into suspicious soul sand with the common loot table, and up to four more with the rare table. A campsite therefore has up to ten loot rolls.

The conversion settings and the full list of blocks in the family are on the Soul Blocks page.

Desert Outpost sand

The Desert Outpost is a surface structure with twelve suspicious sand blocks. Nine of them use the vanilla desert well loot table and three use the vanilla desert pyramid table, so this sand gives only vanilla desert loot.

Pottery sherds

Pottery sherds are items that decorate one face of a decorated pot. A decorated pot takes one sherd on each face, and the sherd sets the pattern shown on that face. The pack has nine sherds from two mods: seven from Jaden's Nether Expansion and two from YUNG's Cave Biomes. The sherds are added to the vanilla decorated pot sherd tag, so a pot accepts any of them.

The Nether sherds are described in full on Armor Trims and Pottery Sherds, which also covers the Rift, Spirit and Valor armor trim templates from the same mod. The Sanctum's Brazier Chests hold the Valor template and five of the sherds. The two YUNG sherds, and the Ancient armor trim template that comes from the same table, are on Lost Caves Relics. None of the nine sherds is used in a crafting recipe, so they are collected only for decoration. See Armor Trims for the trim templates that use the same sources.

The chances for each sherd and template are not repeated here. Each page gives the weights and the loot tables that produce them.

Sand Snapper gifts

The Sand Snapper is the only source of the YUNG sherds and the Ancient template. It produces its archaeology roll in two ways. If it is fed a Prickly Peach, it digs up a gift for the player. Any other item given to it is taken and buried in the ground. Each action makes one roll on the same six-entry table, so each entry has an equal chance. The feeding and burial behaviour is described on the Sand Snapper page, and the table's entries are on Lost Caves Relics.

Where to look

• Lost Caves is an underground hot biome with Ancient Sand. It is the place for the YUNG sherds and the Ancient armor trim. It appears only in the underground band of hot climates, so it is reached by digging or through natural cave openings.
• Soul Sand Valley has Ecto Soul Sand, wisps and the Mega Fossil campsites. It is where the mod's ghostly mobs cluster, including apparitions and vessels, so brushing loot here means working close to hostile mobs.
• Mega Fossils are rare. A 26 km² survey of the Nether found none, so players should expect to search several biomes.
• Desert Outpost is a surface structure in arid biomes, and the desert structures of the pack, such as the Better Desert Temple, hold chests and brushable loot of their own.
• Brazier Chests in the Chapel and Sanctum are locked until a Spark of Treachery is used on them.

Fear Nightfall changes

The pack changes the structures that hold this loot in a few ways. The biome tags for YUNG's desert temples were extended to modded deserts and swamps. The pack also places the horror structures about 30% closer together and gives them 6× weight where they share a set with other structures. The Mega Fossil and Desert Outpost structures are not on the pack's list of horror structures.

Tips

• A suspicious block needs ten successful brushes to finish. Brushes must land at least 10 ticks apart, and the progress resets if no brush hits the block for 40 ticks, so brush steadily.
• Check the Nether sherd pages for chances before searching. Most loot rolls return nothing, and the Spirit template is rarer than the sherds.
• Feed a Sand Snapper with a Prickly Peach to get its gift. Avoid giving it items you want back, because any other item it takes is buried.
• Bring spare brushes into Soul Sand Valley. Each use of a brush on Ecto Soul Sand costs 4 durability.