After the good reception of my last guide I have decided to do an “updated” version for Mindcrack, V8.0.1 as of writing this, as Ultimate has not been released yet. There will be repeated information from the old thread to save you from having to look it up as well. Anyways, on with the guide.
Don't Panic
I know this one seems a bit self explanatory but I feel it needs to be stressed. This mod pack has a lot of additions and there are even things in it that baffle me on how to use them, I'm looking at you Fusion reactor. This is not because these items are so complicated but instead are the result of a lack of familiarity. The more you use a mod and it's associated items and blocks the more comfortable you will become with them.
NEI is you best friend
NEI is a wonderful tool and should be your first stop when trying to figure out recipes. Some mods in the pack change the recipes of other mods a bit while a recipe may change between versions of the the same mod. The individual mod's Wikis may simply not 100% reflect your version of the mod in this pack but NEI should. Here are a few tips when working with NEI:
A large number of the more useful devices in the pack require some kind of power and depending on which mod added them they may need completely different types of power. In the pack there are two main types of power that you will use when starting out, Energy Units (EU) and Minecraft Joules (MJ).
EU is the power units used in Industrial Craft 2 and is carried along cables of different metals most of the time covered in rubber. EU is made with various types of devices from the lowly generator to the more advance nuclear reactor depending on how much you need. EU is easily store-able with many devices with ranging capacity for storage, from the batbox to the Interdimensional energy storage unit, and associated build costs. You can directly convert EU into MJ through the use of electric engines.
MJ on the other hand is the power source of of buildcraft and is produced through the use of various engines. MJ are transported to their associated machines via direct contact or redstone pipes and conduit. MJ is not nearly as easy to store early on but once you have Redstone energy storage cells and redstone conduit the systems efficency will be much better. There is no direct method to convert MJ over to EU but there are a few indirect methods like like using a magma crucible to generate lava to then use in geothermal generators.
To begin with pick one type and get used to it because the both have their positives and negatives. You will most undoubtedly use both in any major setup so you should plan accordingly.
It is good to note now that there are two more power systems in the pack that are not 100% recommended to start with your first time out and they are Redpower 2 and Factorization.
Redpower 2's bluelectricity is similar to real world electricity and is used exclusively within Redpower 2. Starting out though it offers little to give your ore processing a boost but you will use it by mid-game if you intend to do automation. There are three ways to generate bluelectricity, kinetic turbines that use wind power, Thermopiles that use heat differences to generate power and the ever common solar panel. Each has it's merits and drawbacks and I have used them all. There is also bluelectric engine that allows you to convert to MJ but as bluelectricity is mostly a low power system and MJ is a high power one you can very quickly end up with now energy in your bat boxes.
Factorization's energy on the other hand is used solely for it's ore processing setup and has only one method of generation, the solar turbine. Because it uses mirrors to heat it to generate power, power requirements for it's machines are often given in the number of mirrors used to generate that power. Factorization's ore processing tree is very time consuming so be warned but you are rewarded with 300% output.
Tools of the Trade
No matter where you start with MindCrack there are a number of tools that are staples to the mod pack. Below are some of the more useful tools that you will use early on in the game.
MindCrack uses Gregtech's hard mode settings and as such the recipes for many IC2 items as well as a few from other mods have been changed to be more difficult. This is done to allow for a more challenging game as well as to extend the length of the tech trees provided by the various mods by intertwining them. This in effect makes it harder to make a setup that uses only one mod's machines as well as making ore processing a bit expensive and later game for an IC2 setup. It also makes automated mining a bit later in the tech tree by making the relatively cheap quarry a bit more expensive. Expect to do more manual mining or explore the other methods of automated mining like the good old IC2 Miner or turtles if you have an eye for programming.
Don't Panic
I know this one seems a bit self explanatory but I feel it needs to be stressed. This mod pack has a lot of additions and there are even things in it that baffle me on how to use them, I'm looking at you Fusion reactor. This is not because these items are so complicated but instead are the result of a lack of familiarity. The more you use a mod and it's associated items and blocks the more comfortable you will become with them.
NEI is you best friend
NEI is a wonderful tool and should be your first stop when trying to figure out recipes. Some mods in the pack change the recipes of other mods a bit while a recipe may change between versions of the the same mod. The individual mod's Wikis may simply not 100% reflect your version of the mod in this pack but NEI should. Here are a few tips when working with NEI:
- If you hover over an item and press the R key NEI will show you all the recipes that make that item as a result.
- If you hover over an item and press the U key NEI will show you all the recipes that that item is used in.
- If you do either of the above and get no results this does not always mean that there is no corresponding recipe, like with many Thaumcraft items. Instead there may be a different way of obtaining it, like the Thaumcraft cauldron, or there is no NEI plug-in currently for the mod at the moment, currently this applies to Forestry.
- Many items have multiple recipes so remember to click the arrows at the top or bottom of the NEI recipe window to see them all. The top arrows cycle different devices or methods while the bottom arrows cycle through the different recipes for the current device or method.
- While on a crafting table shaped or shapeless crafting recipes can be loaded into the table in ghost images by clicking the ? box in the NEI recipe window.
A large number of the more useful devices in the pack require some kind of power and depending on which mod added them they may need completely different types of power. In the pack there are two main types of power that you will use when starting out, Energy Units (EU) and Minecraft Joules (MJ).
EU is the power units used in Industrial Craft 2 and is carried along cables of different metals most of the time covered in rubber. EU is made with various types of devices from the lowly generator to the more advance nuclear reactor depending on how much you need. EU is easily store-able with many devices with ranging capacity for storage, from the batbox to the Interdimensional energy storage unit, and associated build costs. You can directly convert EU into MJ through the use of electric engines.
MJ on the other hand is the power source of of buildcraft and is produced through the use of various engines. MJ are transported to their associated machines via direct contact or redstone pipes and conduit. MJ is not nearly as easy to store early on but once you have Redstone energy storage cells and redstone conduit the systems efficency will be much better. There is no direct method to convert MJ over to EU but there are a few indirect methods like like using a magma crucible to generate lava to then use in geothermal generators.
To begin with pick one type and get used to it because the both have their positives and negatives. You will most undoubtedly use both in any major setup so you should plan accordingly.
It is good to note now that there are two more power systems in the pack that are not 100% recommended to start with your first time out and they are Redpower 2 and Factorization.
Redpower 2's bluelectricity is similar to real world electricity and is used exclusively within Redpower 2. Starting out though it offers little to give your ore processing a boost but you will use it by mid-game if you intend to do automation. There are three ways to generate bluelectricity, kinetic turbines that use wind power, Thermopiles that use heat differences to generate power and the ever common solar panel. Each has it's merits and drawbacks and I have used them all. There is also bluelectric engine that allows you to convert to MJ but as bluelectricity is mostly a low power system and MJ is a high power one you can very quickly end up with now energy in your bat boxes.
Factorization's energy on the other hand is used solely for it's ore processing setup and has only one method of generation, the solar turbine. Because it uses mirrors to heat it to generate power, power requirements for it's machines are often given in the number of mirrors used to generate that power. Factorization's ore processing tree is very time consuming so be warned but you are rewarded with 300% output.
Tools of the Trade
No matter where you start with MindCrack there are a number of tools that are staples to the mod pack. Below are some of the more useful tools that you will use early on in the game.
- Pocket crafting table – This Item allows you to craft on the go using a portion of your inventory as crafting space. Probably one of my favorite items early on as it keeps you from running out of picks if you have the material and it's cheap to make.
- Metal Chests – For general storage nothing is better than these chests and you can upgrade them as you go. Starting with copper and going all the way to diamond offers a range of storage capacities to suit almost any need. Best part about these are that they can be placed next to each other, unlike normal chests.
- Barrels – The big daddy of high capacity storage are the barrels. To start with they store 64 stacks of a single item and are pretty cheap to make. With the extra dimensional storage upgrade they can store more cobble than you will ever use. In the end you are trading physical space for storage space.
- Treetap – Treetaps are the device you will use to get resin from rubber trees to make rubber. Just click on a tap point on the tree and out pops the resin (if you don't double click it will regenerate). Resin is almost always needed in IC2 crafting and used for the Hazmat suit below.
- Full Hazmat suit – You ever want to swim in lava and survive? With the full Hazmat suit you can! Warning, it consists of 4 parts that must be worn at the same time to provide immunity to lava. The parts are: Scuba Helmet, Hazmat suit, Hazmat suit Leggings, and Rubber boots.
- Wrenches/screwdriver – These various basic tools are the tools of the trade for their respective mods and should be built before working with them. The correlations are thus: the iron Wrench = Buildcraft, the bronze Wrench = IC2, Screwdriver = RedPower2,
- OmniWrench – replaces the need for Buildcraft and IC2 wrenches and is the tool of choice for Thermal Expansion but requires diamond to make. You can use it to rotate chests and levers as well.
- Gem Tools – The gem based tools will be the staple for you for a good portion of the game because the don't consume metals, that are better used for crafting, and the gems are quite plentiful. On top of that they also don't need processing and the tools can be enchanted like normal. Gem mine at the speed of diamond but are about as tough as iron but can not mine things that require diamond tools.
- Sickle – If you make a rubber tree farm you will want one of these because they make getting rid of leaves a breeze. Click on either leaves or tall grass and it will remove a sizable area instead of just one at a time. I keep one on me at all times when tree faming.
- Canvas Bags – Additional storage is always nice and with a flax farm you can churn out the string required to make them in no time. They can also be colored to help with organizing them and you can carry multiple. --No you can not place then within each other--
- Handsaw – A tool made for making purely ascetic blocks which you can use to cover up unsightly wiring or just make cool looking things. I use the resulting panels and covers to cover up Redpower piping.
MindCrack uses Gregtech's hard mode settings and as such the recipes for many IC2 items as well as a few from other mods have been changed to be more difficult. This is done to allow for a more challenging game as well as to extend the length of the tech trees provided by the various mods by intertwining them. This in effect makes it harder to make a setup that uses only one mod's machines as well as making ore processing a bit expensive and later game for an IC2 setup. It also makes automated mining a bit later in the tech tree by making the relatively cheap quarry a bit more expensive. Expect to do more manual mining or explore the other methods of automated mining like the good old IC2 Miner or turtles if you have an eye for programming.
