The entrance into sunken chambers is not indicative of the depth you must go to enter the chamber - game logic explained...

Originally posted by GeoForce:

Still, I'm beginning to get a bit discouraged. Found a lot of treasure, but only 1 core. That makes a total of 4 burial chambers cleared and a total of only 12 cores ( 1, 2, 3, and 6 ) which, after building the charcoal burner, smelter, and forge doesn't leave many to play with. I'm also having a hard time finding more burial chambers.

Don't get disheartened,
You only really need like say maybe 24? for early game.
10 - kiln
10 - furnace
4 - 2x portal

Take the furnace (and coal) with you for nearby copper deposits to get bars fast so that you can then turn them into nails and make a cart. once done, you can then transport the bars you make home and then run back out and do the same with tin.
Then, make a bronze axe and go for the white trees.

The portal bit is important. You make a portal back at home (remember what you named it)
Take the portal bits with you on the hunt along with some materials to build a small portal shack. When you find a burrial chamber, kill enemies, build portal shack, place portal and then go into the burrial chambers. This way you can get home fast with the cores you just found, then teleport back, pick up your portal and continue searching.

Originally posted by GeoForce:

My world so-far has been a series of small landmasses with only Meadows and Black Forest. There's still land I can get to by swimming, but it's a long run from my base.

What seed are you working on? I'm kinda curious and would like to have a look.

One thing I always do to get cores is as soon as I am able to craft a karve I go to the Ash Lands. Take food with you and plenty arrows that's a good place to harvest cores and coles as well. Take graydrarf eyes regular wood and enough fine wood with you on your trip so you can when needed repair the carve and place a portal in the Ash lands so you can after your trip hop back and forth when needed. Tip for the Ash lands is when you got low gear to stay wet because if you get hit by a surtling the fire weares off after a second or two and won't hurt much. If you already have enough items to build one portal place it in your home before going on the trip so you don't have to make the long way back home in the karve.

When I was short on cores in the early game, I had 2 kilns and I'd feed them every time I went by and stockpiled copper/tin ore. Once I had enough coal, I broke them down and built 2 smelters instead.

That leverages one of the great things about this game; you get back all the resources when you break a structure.

Surtling spawns in the swamp biome--look for the fiery guys. Yep, not a bad source of cores if you're not in to the whole burial chamber thing or having trouble accumulating cores.

Extra pro tip: All you need is 5 cores. Build the kiln, burn up a lot of wood for charcoal, break it down then build the smelter, use coal + ore to get your ingots. Repeat as needed, until you have enough cores for your kilns/smelters/portals/etc.

As for the guy who never goes into burial chambers--it's a good source of cores (eventually) as well as a lot of other loot items. You can skip it, sure, but if you want to buy the belt or other items from the trader earlier in the game, those chambers have a lot of treasure in them.

Originally posted by AbraCadaver:

All I can say is that there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of burial chambers in your world. if you're running out of stuff you need then it may be time to go on a good ol' voyage.

Possibly so. My world so-far has been a series of small landmasses with only Meadows and Black Forest. There's still land I can get to by swimming, but it's a long run from my base.

Originally posted by Kriminaal:

Well since you came here to post about it, the next crypt you find will have 15 cores. Not kidding... some of them have a lot. Good luck!

Nope ! Worst yet. 5 Amber, 2 ruby, No cores.

Originally posted by silverwoodcreations:

Don't worry about it, you built what you needed for now. Once you hit the Swamp biome and come across surtlings (the little dudes on fire) you can harvest them for cores. If you dig out the ground around their spawner (the flame shooting out of the ground) they'll instantly die when they hit the water. Easy-peasy Surtling core and charcoal farm ftw. ;)

Edit to add: the forge does not take cores, just 6 copper, 4 stones, 4 charcoal, and regular wood. You only need 8-10 cores to build a smelter and a charcoal furnace. After that, you're just building additional furnaces, smelters, and portals with 'em.

Thanks for the tip vary nice to know. I'm just trying to install a couple of portals now though to bypass a 2 day run.

All I can say is that there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of burial chambers in your world. if you're running out of stuff you need then it may be time to go on a good ol' voyage.

I try to avoid the burial chambers. I think in my 200ish hours ive been in one. As a curiosity. I found the surtlings early in my game, with a good three to four spawns near my base.

Any time I enter a burial chamber I just immediately want out. Its zero challenge is boring.

Originally posted by Chillum:

I found the surtlings early in my game, with a good three to four spawns near my base.

Didn't realize this is possible.

Well since you came here to post about it, the next crypt you find will have 15 cores. Not kidding... some of them have a lot. Good luck!

Don't worry about it, you built what you needed for now. Once you hit the Swamp biome and come across surtlings (the little dudes on fire) you can harvest them for cores. If you dig out the ground around their spawner (the flame shooting out of the ground) they'll instantly die when they hit the water. Easy-peasy Surtling core and charcoal farm ftw. ;)

Edit to add: the forge does not take cores, just 6 copper, 4 stones, 4 charcoal, and regular wood. You only need 8-10 cores to build a smelter and a charcoal furnace. After that, you're just building additional furnaces, smelters, and portals with 'em.