Olla

Bring 4,000-year-old irrigation to Vintage Story. An olla (say "oy-yah") is an unglazed clay pot you bury among your crops. Fill it with water and moisture seeps through the porous walls straight down to the roots — no runoff, no evaporation, and no trudging back out with a watering can every morning. Real ollas cut water use by up to 70% against surface watering, and they have been doing it across Africa, Asia and the Americas for millennia.

Features

• 60 litres a pot — enough to hold a full 5x5 plot saturated for about 8 in-game days
• Closer farmland gets more, exactly as water spreads through real soil
• 30 litres takes all 24 surrounding blocks from bone dry to fully saturated
• Refill any time, buried and running — the neck stays above ground for exactly that

Overlapping ollas add up

Farmland never dries below a floor set by whatever water is nearest. Ollas covering the same block blend together instead of just the closest one counting, and ponds and rivers join the blend as another source:

Water reaching one block	Moisture floor
one olla, 2 blocks away	50%
two ollas, 2 blocks away	75%
three ollas, 2 blocks away	87.5%
two ollas, 1 block away	93.75%
pond 3 away + olla 2 away	62.5%

Overlap always pays, so spacing your pots is a real planning decision rather than wasted pottery. It is deliberately asymptotic, though — a true 100% floor still needs a source right alongside the block.

What it will drink

Clean fresh water only. Vanilla water works, and so do Hydrate or Diedrate's rain, distilled, well and boiled water. Salt water is refused because it would poison the soil, and muddy, tainted or poisoned water because it is meant to be purified first. Try one and the olla says so rather than silently doing nothing.

How to use one

1. Clayform an olla — 16 clay, in blue, red or fire
2. Fire it in a pit kiln
3. Fill it from a bucket, watering can or any other water container
4. Bury it by using a soil block on it — this is permanent
5. Leave it be; it waters the 5x5 area around itself from below

An olla only works once buried, and it sits at the same level as the farmland it waters rather than on top of it — dig it in among the crops, not above them.

Requires Vintage Story 1.22.0 or newer.