Best Vintage Story Seeds for Servers (2025 Guide)

Picking a seed for your Vintage Story server matters more than it does in most survival games. Spawn on a cliff in a frozen wasteland with no copper nearby, and you’re looking at hours of walking before you can progress past stone tools. Start in a limestone basin with surface copper and clay visible from spawn, and your players can hit the Copper Age in their first session.

We’ve pulled together the best seeds from community testing - the ones that actually deliver on resources, spawn stability, and playability. These are tested on version 1.21+ and include the worldgen settings needed to get the results people are reporting.

What Makes a Good Vintage Story Seed

Before diving into specific seeds, here’s what separates a playable world from one you’ll regenerate after an hour:

1. Temporal Stability at Spawn

Your spawn point is where players respawn on death until they get a temporal gear. If it’s in a temporally unstable area, you’re fighting drifters every time someone dies. Check the blue gear icon - if it’s spinning counterclockwise fast, that’s a red flag for base building. Underground areas and certain biomes tank stability faster.

2. Surface Copper Access

You need 40 copper nuggets to make your first pickaxe and hammer. That’s a lot of panning or hoping traders have stock. Seeds with surface copper deposits (those small copper-bearing stones scattered on the ground) let you mark the location and know there’s a full vein below. Two or three of these near spawn means you’re not hiking 2000 blocks to start metallurgy.

3. Clay Deposits

Red or blue clay near spawn is non-negotiable. You need it for storage vessels, crucibles, and molds. Finding clay from the side of hills is easier than from above since the green grass blends in. Blue clay only spawns between Y 99-110 in default height worlds, so elevation matters.

4. Biome Variety and Water

Cattails for fiber, diverse crops, and temperature management all require access to different biomes and water sources. A spawn that gives you temperate forest, plains, and a lake within reasonable distance beats spawning in one massive biome.

5. Ruins and Loot

Cracked vessels in ruins can contain ore nuggets, tools, seeds, and other early-game accelerators. Some ruins spawn with exceptional loot - we’ve seen reports of Excalibur swords and other rare items. Heavy ruins generation near spawn means faster progression if you’re willing to explore.

6. Spawn Location Quality

Spawning halfway up a cliff face or in the middle of a frozen taiga means you’re burning daylight just getting to playable terrain. Good seeds put you on flat or gently rolling ground in a temperate zone.

Understanding World Generation Settings

Here’s something important to keep in mind: the same seed generates completely different worlds depending on your worldgen config. That “perfect seed” someone posted might not work for you if they used different settings. Now, we’ll cover some of these settings.

Landcover Percentage

This controls how much of the world is land vs ocean. Default is 1 (100% - no oceans), while 0.5 (50%) creates archipelagos. Lower landcover means more sailing and island-hopping in 1.21+. For servers, 70-100% typically works better unless you specifically want an ocean exploration focus.

Landcover Scale

This affects the size of continents and oceans. Higher percentages (200-300%) create larger landmasses. Pair with lower landcover percentage for big islands instead of tiny scattered ones.

Climate Settings

Humid climates increase rainfall and make resources like clay more abundant. Arid settings create deserts and reduce water sources. Normal is the balanced middle ground. This affects which crops grow where and how much you’ll be dealing with temperature management.

World Size

Options typically range from 256k blocks to 16M blocks. On WinterNode servers, all nodes run NVMe SSDs, so world generation happens instantly regardless of world size you choose - pick what fits your playstyle, not what your hardware can handle. If you’re playing on singleplayer, you will need to take your hardware into consideration. Smaller worlds (1-4M) work well for 2-8 players who want to build near each other. Larger worlds spread players out naturally.

Ore Density

Settings like “rare copper” are misleading - they affect spawn chance, not total quantity. A rare copper world can still have dense veins, you just find fewer deposits overall. This increases exploration requirements but doesn’t necessarily make progression harder once you locate ores.

The key point: when someone shares a seed, check if they mention their worldgen settings. A seed that creates a great archipelago at 50% landcover might spawn you in the middle of an ocean at 80% landcover.

The Best Seeds for Vintage Story Servers (1.21+)

These seeds are organized by what they’re actually good at, not arbitrary rankings. Pick based on your server’s focus.

Best All-Around Starter Seed

Seed: -171057458
Settings: 50% landcover, 300% landcover scale, humid
Version: Verified 1.21

This creates an archipelago world with a resource-rich starter island. You spawn on a large island that has most of what you need - the landcover scale setting ensures islands are substantial, not tiny outcrops. Surface copper, varied biomes, and nearby islands for exploration once you get a raft or sailboat in 1.21.

Good for servers with 2-6 players who want a balance of cooperation and exploration. The island format naturally encourages players to establish a main base before venturing out. The humid setting keeps clay and crops accessible.

Best Seed for Resource Abundance

Seed: 1877269268
Settings: 70% landcover, humid, 8M x 8M, rare copper
Version: Verified 1.20, confirmed working in 1.21

This seed has a quirk where the “rare copper” setting actually works in your favor - the person who found it reported double trader spawns and multiple treasure vessels near the starting area. Despite the rare copper designation, the density is good once you locate veins.

We see this pattern in support tickets: players think “rare” means harder, but it just means less frequent spawn points. When you do find copper, you’re finding full deposits. This seed frontloads resources through traders and ruins, so you spend less time grinding and more time building or engaging with the lore content added in 1.20.

Best Balanced Seed for New Players

Seed: 0
Settings: Default
Version: Works across versions

Yes, literally zero. This spawns you in a limestone area with immediate access to cattails, wood, clay, and peat. The concept has been around since older versions but the principle holds - seed 0 with default settings creates a beginner-friendly spawn that teaches core mechanics without overwhelming.

Limestone is everywhere (good for building), temporal stability is decent, and you’re not stuck in a harsh biome. It’s not exciting, but for a first-time player or someone who wants something that just works, it’s reliable.

Best Seed for Scenic Building Servers

Seed: 1305224479
Settings: 384 world height, 300% landform scale, 30% upheaval
Version: Verified with Terra Prety mod (vanilla compatible seed)

This seed was shared by the Terra Prety worldgen mod developer as a showcase for varied, beautiful terrain. Even without the mod, the seed generates interesting landscape features - the settings are what matter. The 30% upheaval creates actual mountain ranges instead of rolling hills, and 384 world height gives those mountains room to be impressive.

You’ll get nightmare peaks (tall, dramatic mountains), plateaus, canyons, varied water features, and distinct biome transitions. The 300% landform scale means terrain features are substantial - when you find a valley, it’s a proper valley, not a dip between two hills.

Good for creative building servers where aesthetics matter more than having copper within 200 blocks of spawn. Players will need to explore for resources, but they’ll have stunning locations to build in once they do. The varied elevation also creates natural separation between different player builds without feeling cramped.

Best Seed for Challenge/Hardcore

Seed: -171057458 (same as the starter seed, but with harsh settings)
Settings: 40% landcover, 100% landcover scale, arid climate, rare ore density (all types)
Version: 1.21+

Take the archipelago seed that works well for beginners and flip the settings to hostile. Lower landcover to 40% and reduce landcover scale to 100% - this creates smaller, more isolated islands. Arid climate cuts water sources and makes clay harder to find. Setting all ore types to “rare” means you’re actually hunting for copper, not just walking to the nearest deposit.

This setup forces real cooperation. One player finds copper, another locates clay, someone else scouts for traders. Resource scarcity means you can’t afford to waste materials on experiments. It’s the kind of world where losing your pickaxe to a drifter is a genuine setback, not a 10-minute inconvenience.

Good for experienced players who’ve “solved” Vanilla Vintage Story and want the game to push back. Not recommended for mixed experience servers unless you want tickets asking why copper is “broken” - it’s not broken, it’s just actually rare for once.

How to Apply Seeds to Your WinterNode Server

You’ve picked a seed. Here’s how to actually use it.

Edit serverconfig.json

1. Log into your WinterNode control panel
2. Navigate to File Manager
3. Open serverconfig.json through the “Quick Access” panel on the right side
4. Find the WorldConfig section (CTRL + F to search)
5. Locate the Seed line - it’ll look like: "Seed": "null"
6. Replace ‘null’ with your chosen seed
7. Save the file
8. Restart your server

Important Notes:

The Seed value should be a number or string without extra characters. Valid: "Seed": "-171057458" or "Seed": "0". Invalid: "Seed": "-171057458 (archipelago)".

If you’re changing the seed on an existing world, you’re regenerating the world. Back up first if there’s anything you want to save, though realistically, changing the seed means starting over. This is why testing matters.

After changing the seed, restart the server. The world generates on first load with the new seed.

Adjusting Other WorldConfig Settings

While you’re in serverconfig.json, you’ll see other worldgen options in the same section:

• Landcover: Percentage value, typically 50-100 (1.0 = 100%, 0.5 = 50%, etc.)
• Climate: Options like “hot”, “normal”, “cold”
• WorldSize: Usually 1000000 to 16000000 (that’s 1M to 16M blocks)

These affect how your chosen seed generates. If someone recommended settings along with their seed, apply those too.

Testing Seeds Before Committing

This saves you from opening a ticket and asking why your spawn is underwater.

Create a Local Single-Player World First

Before applying a seed to your server, test it locally. Create a new single-player world with the same seed and worldgen settings your server will use. Spawn in, look around, and verify it’s actually playable.

What to Check in the First 30 Minutes

Walk 500-1000 blocks in each direction from spawn. You’re looking for:

• Surface copper stones (those small rocks with copper ore)
• Clay deposits visible on hillsides
• Water sources and cattails
• Ruins (if that’s important to your server)
• Overall terrain quality - is it flat enough to build on?

Use /waypoint add [color] [name] to mark important locations as you find them. Example: /waypoint add yellow Surface Copper North.

Check Temporal Stability

Watch the blue gear icon above your hotbar. If it’s spinning counterclockwise rapidly at spawn, temporal stability is low there. That’s fine for short visits, but you don’t want your spawn point in an unstable zone since that’s where dead players respawn.

Walk around until you find an area where the gear stays relatively still or spins clockwise (increasing stability). That’s where you want players building their first base.

Use Commands for Faster Testing

/time add 12 skips forward 12 hours, letting you check day/night cycle and how drifters spawn. If you’re getting mobbed every night at spawn, that’s a stability issue.

/gamemode creative and /gamemode survival let you fly around scouting without worrying about dying. Just remember to check things from survival perspective too - what looks close when flying might be a 20-minute walk on foot.

Prospecting for Ore Availability

Once you progress far enough to make a prospecting pick in your test world (or spawn one in creative), use it to check ore densities. Break three stone blocks in a vertical column, and the pick shows ore spawn chances for that chunk.

You’re looking for “Decent” or better readings on copper, and at least some indication of tin, bismuth, or zinc for bronze/brass later. “Very Poor” or “Miniscule” means you’re in a sparse area.

When to Reroll vs Adjust Settings

If spawn is bad but you like the terrain 1000 blocks away, don’t abandon the seed - adjust worldgen settings. Changing landcover or climate can shift where resources spawn while keeping the same overall terrain structure.

If you’ve tested three different setting combinations and it’s still not working, try a different seed. Some just don’t generate well regardless of settings.

What to Do First After Spawning

Your players load in. Here’s the immediate priority list.

Set Spawn Waypoint Immediately

Use /waypoint add [color] [title] or press M to open the map and place a marker. This is where players respawn on death until they use a temporal gear, which is a rare drop. Knowing where spawn is saves the “where am I” confusion later.

Scan for Surface Copper and Clay

Don’t start building immediately. Walk 200-300 blocks in each cardinal direction scanning hillsides for:

• Small stones with copper coloring (malachite, native copper)
• Clay deposits - look for blue or red soil on hillside cuts
• Mark both with waypoints

The copper stones indicate a full vein underneath. You’ll come back with a pickaxe later, but knowing where it is early saves massive amounts of wandering once you hit the copper age bottleneck.

Find Water and Cattails

You need cattails for fiber (rope, baskets, fishing) and crops need water nearby. Locate a lake or river and mark it. Cattails (cooper’s reed) grow at water edges - harvest with a knife, not your hands, or you’ll destroy the plant.

Check Temporal Stability of Base Locations

Once you’ve scouted resources, pick a base site in a stable area. The blue gear icon tells you - if it’s spinning counterclockwise fast, keep walking. Underground areas, certain ruins, and deep valleys tend to be less stable.

You want somewhere flat enough to build, near water, and temporally stable. Resources can be a short walk away, but your base should be somewhere players won’t get jumped by drifters every night.

Gather Immediate Survival Resources

Now you can start actually playing:

• Break tall grass with a knife in hand for dry grass (fire starter)
• Chop trees for logs (break with hands, or craft an axe from flint)
• Collect sticks from ground or from bushes
• Knap flint tools if you haven’t already

First night priority is a firepit (4 firewood + dry grass) and basic tools. Don’t go underground yet.

Don’t Go Underground Too Early

Temporal stability drops faster the deeper you are. Until you’ve got gear and understand the stability mechanic, stay on the surface. Caves are tempting, but they’re also where new players die repeatedly because they don’t realize their stability is tanking.

Get copper tools, make storage vessels, establish a food supply, then consider caving. The game’s pace is deliberately slower than Minecraft - embrace it.

We’re obviously biased, but WinterNode exists because we wanted hosting that didn’t nickel-and-dime people. All our Game Servers are priced at $1.99/GB of RAM - we don’t charge extra for CPU usage, storage space, or basic features that other hosts mark up. That pricing applies to Vintage Story just like it does to Minecraft, Palworld, or any of the other 25+ games we support.

Everything’s backed by our 48-hour refund policy, so there’s no risk in trying things out. Got questions about setting up your seed or troubleshooting worldgen? Our support team responds to tickets with actual humans, and we’re active on Discord if you prefer chatting there. We also have an extensive Vintage Story section of our Help Center.