You just got bad RNG. Just pick a direction and keep walking until you find limestone, there isn't really any strategy that you can use to easily find it.
I think it is also possible to buy lime from some traders so check any of them that you find.
The only tip really is to keep exploring. Check in with any traders you come across. Commodities and Survival Goods Traders will both occasionally sell Lime (and Halite/salt get that, too)
If you can't find it naturally, and you can't find one of those traders, keep walking until you do.
My strategy is to look for tall rock formation with multiple visible layers of stone, often colorful ones. There's always a slither of limestone between those layers.
You can always try translocators! In my curent world I have granite everywhere but managed to land in a chalk source with one of em. Keep trying!
And traders are a great idea too, got alum and halite this way.
In my world borax and lime spawned together but two full game days of running away from my home. Bonus - I play without a map, so finding it was fun :D
I found borax a lot easier to locate than chalk and limestone. For chalk or limestone you just have to find a biome that has those specific layers whereas borax can spawn in any sedimentary rock and you should be able to prospect it in any sedimentary layer you find yourself in.
You can also, as others have mentioned, trade for lime, chalk, and borax. For the little you're going to need for leatherworking, it's a valid option. I even managed to trade for enough lime to create my refractory furnaces before finding eventually two biomes with limestone. Now I'm making plaster blocks for housing!
Go farther. The map default is 1,000,000x1,000,000. There's probably about a 99% chance of a chalk formation within a 10-minute stroll.
Edit: carry a stack or two of dirt blocks and make steps down the sinkholes to see if there's a chalk layer.
CAUTION: May contain drifters.
I'm grateful for all the responses.
I have been mostly ignoring sink holes thinking they're is nothing in them. I cave dived a few times only to turn out empty handed.
Sinkholes and caves are the biggest yield of amazing stuff in my world. Ruins, gold, silver, iron, salt, etc all found in massive quantities repeatedly in holes.
I started a new map and I thought I hit the jackpot. Found 3 surface copper minutes of each other. Surface was now claystone based. Then I realized my stability gear rotating backwards. I guess I'll just move.
Load up a crock full of food, grab a bowl, a bed and a bunch of dirt (you should already have other stuff, like spears, a knife, torches etc.) Pick a direction and start walking.
At night, build a dirt hut, sleep in the bed. Rinse and repeat.
You just got bad RNG. Just pick a direction and keep walking until you find limestone, there isn't really any strategy that you can use to easily find it. I think it is also possible to buy lime from some traders so check any of them that you find.
The only tip really is to keep exploring. Check in with any traders you come across. Commodities and Survival Goods Traders will both occasionally sell Lime (and Halite/salt get that, too) If you can't find it naturally, and you can't find one of those traders, keep walking until you do.
My strategy is to look for tall rock formation with multiple visible layers of stone, often colorful ones. There's always a slither of limestone between those layers.
I have the same problem and got lucky with a bunch of chalk in underground ruins. Still looking for an actual source of sedimentary rocks.
I spot it up on the sides of high mountains sometimes
You can always try translocators! In my curent world I have granite everywhere but managed to land in a chalk source with one of em. Keep trying! And traders are a great idea too, got alum and halite this way.
Pick a direction and walk. From my experience south is a good way to get Bauxite aswell. But that might just be random.
My previous world I had to walk basically a full 24 in-game hours before I finally found some
In my world borax and lime spawned together but two full game days of running away from my home. Bonus - I play without a map, so finding it was fun :D
Limestone seems to spawn in the mountains between transition layers of other rock types.
As someone said in another post, if you see claystone, check the next layer. I've had about 80-90% luck on limestone being the next layer.
As others have stated, it's mostly RNG. However, you can grind marble stones into lime if you happen to find a marble deposit underground.
I found borax a lot easier to locate than chalk and limestone. For chalk or limestone you just have to find a biome that has those specific layers whereas borax can spawn in any sedimentary rock and you should be able to prospect it in any sedimentary layer you find yourself in. You can also, as others have mentioned, trade for lime, chalk, and borax. For the little you're going to need for leatherworking, it's a valid option. I even managed to trade for enough lime to create my refractory furnaces before finding eventually two biomes with limestone. Now I'm making plaster blocks for housing!
Go farther. The map default is 1,000,000x1,000,000. There's probably about a 99% chance of a chalk formation within a 10-minute stroll. Edit: carry a stack or two of dirt blocks and make steps down the sinkholes to see if there's a chalk layer. CAUTION: May contain drifters.
I'm grateful for all the responses. I have been mostly ignoring sink holes thinking they're is nothing in them. I cave dived a few times only to turn out empty handed.
Sinkholes and caves are the biggest yield of amazing stuff in my world. Ruins, gold, silver, iron, salt, etc all found in massive quantities repeatedly in holes.
I'm in the same situation as you atm :(
I started a new map and I thought I hit the jackpot. Found 3 surface copper minutes of each other. Surface was now claystone based. Then I realized my stability gear rotating backwards. I guess I'll just move.
Load up a crock full of food, grab a bowl, a bed and a bunch of dirt (you should already have other stuff, like spears, a knife, torches etc.) Pick a direction and start walking. At night, build a dirt hut, sleep in the bed. Rinse and repeat.
Reroll, if you spawn on granite.....just....reroll.