Beginner's Guide to Blood Magic

[James_Grimm]

Ha! I think I finally have got the hang of Alchemy. I've summoned some demons, upgraded my altar (still don't have beacons, so no Archmage Orb yet), and made a Blood Magic Regeneration flask that is indeed much better then Vanilla for healing.

The key seems to be that you combine a Binding Agent with the Vanilla Potion Ingredient you would normally use, so Ghast Tear for regeneration, Magma Cream for Fire Resist and so on. That gets you an Empty Flask of (Effect). You can then risk adding more effects with a Standard Binding Agent, but the more you add the greater the chance it all goes boom and you lose your stuff. A single effect seems to be 100% safe however.

Then you take your flask and can boost it's power/duration combining it with Power/Lengthening catalysts, with the upper tier catalysts obviously providing bigger boosts. But even the entry level versions put together (which you can't do in vanilla) will make you a fairly strong potion flask. Each time you need to match the catalyst with whatever ingredient you used for the potion's effect, so Ghast Tear + Catalyst to boost a Regeneration flask. Catalysts don't seem to have a chance to go boom either.

Finally you fill your flask by combining it with a Filling Agent in the alchemy set. The basic agent gave me 2 uses (out of the Flask's max of 8) per combining attempt. I am unsure if the upper tiers of Filling Agents either give more uses per agent or prevent explosions when filling Multi-Effect Flasks. That will require more experiments.

All in all, crafting a Regeneration 2 (30 sec) flask was pretty easy, only requiring a bit of resources and I could have made it stronger still (and I still can I think?). Plus I found a bunch of spare agents/catalysts in chests which helped. I think a Witch farm would come in handy with Blood Alchemy, as Redstone, Glowstone, and Gunpowder are used in a lot of ingredients (especially the simple catalysts which is in everything else).

Sadly (sort of) between my 50 runes on my Altar (can craft all the things, barely) and my Bound Armor (fighting is easy) I don't really need the Regeneration potion as much anymore. Perhaps when I finally go fight the Wither it will come in handy.

Edit: You can indeed upgrade an existing flask. A single Greater Lengthening Catalyst (Tier 3) took my Regen II potion to a 3:33 minute duration per use (WOW).

 

[madnewmy]

It's a little late, but as promised, a quick video on my Altar in my LP series. Shows how I fit my Well of Suffering beneath it and the mob stuff below that. Hope it helps anyone having trouble with Altar design ideas.

Quick question

With that much rune of sacrifice, are you able to drain the LP fast enought or it stalls at 10k?

On my altar in this fashion, I have a few (30ish) rune of dislocation so I can move those LP out. (Will be used into a dislocation/speed altar whenever I find time to make it)

And if you can catch a witch, reproduce it and get it there, they regen quickly enought so they don't die but they are a pain to get there

 

[MoosyDoosy]

Quick question

With that much rune of sacrifice, are you able to drain the LP fast enought or it stalls at 10k?

On my altar in this fashion, I have a few (30ish) rune of dislocation so I can move those LP out. (Will be used into a dislocation/speed altar whenever I find time to make it)

And if you can catch a witch, reproduce it and get it there, they regen quickly enought so they don't die but they are a pain to get there

Safari Nets from MFR easily solve the problem of getting them there.

 

[madnewmy]

That's what I used and still managed to die 4-5 times getting 8 of them under my altar :3

I will try to spawn them under the altar next time

 

[SawBlade]

Quick question

With that much rune of sacrifice, are you able to drain the LP fast enought or it stalls at 10k?

On my altar in this fashion, I have a few (30ish) rune of dislocation so I can move those LP out. (Will be used into a dislocation/speed altar whenever I find time to make it)

And if you can catch a witch, reproduce it and get it there, they regen quickly enought so they don't die but they are a pain to get there

It stalls out and fills my altar entirely. I just replaced my T5 runes with dislocators and that monster has no problems pumping in and out of the altar, even when crafting multiple items at a time. (Via chests and itemducts)

Everyone says to use witches...I'm just too lazy...cursed earth

 

[madnewmy]

It stalls out and fills my altar entirely. I just replaced my T5 runes with dislocators and that monster has no problems pumping in and out of the altar, even when crafting multiple items at a time. (Via chests and itemducts)

Everyone says to use witches...I'm just too lazy...cursed earth

One thing I realized with CE ( when my grinder ran out of power) is that they spawned only 3 mobs in a 5x5 area.

3-4 mobs versus 8-9 witch? 2-3 times more lp!
Anyway at this point, so much LP this dosen't matter that much

 

[James_Grimm]

*Cue Lore/roleplay background music* Gather round curious Blood Mages, for I bring you the results of my experiments in the Art of Blood Alchemy, and it is far more powerful then we imagined my brothers and sisters.

Not only may the Alchemic Chemistry set duplicate the effects of any regular potion, matching ingredient for ingredient (See: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Brewing , "Secondary Ingredients") which alone makes it very powerful, as each Flask has eight uses compared the normal one. However there are a number of secret arcane recipes that can brew new unheard of potion effects!

The results of my early experiments: (As always, you need a Binding Agent with the flask and the ingredient to brew)
Ingredient -> Potion Flask Effect

First the Positive (and most useful effects) -
Glass Bottle -> Invisibility
Redstone Dust -> Haste (Like the Sigil of the Fast Miner)
Poison Potato -> Saturation (Liquid Food!)
Feather - Flight! (Just like creative mode) - Half Normal Duration
Diamond -> Resistance (Haven't tested how much it protects you yet, but this is easier to get then the Bedrock+Imperfect Ritual version)
Arrow -> Reciprocation (I believe this reflects damage similar to the Thorns enchant, but also needs more testing)
Ender Pearl -> Planar Binding (?!?!? No Clue what this does) - Half Normal Duration
Weak Blood Shard - Absorbtion (Just like a Golden Apple, not useful for Altar Blood work but good for combat)
Demon Blood Shard - Max Health (Works like Tinker's Construct Heart Canisters) - Double Normal Duration

Now the Negative (and not useful ... until ....)
Clay -> Slowness (-15% Speed)
(Plus Vanilla Poison & Weakness effects)

But those Negatives are useful if you ... Turn a Flask into a Throwable Flask! (Splash Potion) - (Did not seem to risk explosions during testing, like a Catalyst instead of a new effect)
Blank Slate (Tier 1 Slate) -> Throwable

Other useful information I found:
- Base duration for an Flask Effect is 2 Minutes except where noted above, and Regeneration/Poison/Slowness/Weakness Flasks (which have a base 22 second duration).

- You can add a Catalyst (Power or Lengthening) to a Flask at any time without a chance of explosions (That only seems to happen when you try and make a Multi-effect potion, and it doesn't happen when you upgrade that Flask with Catalysts). New Catalysts override old ones on the Flask, meaning you can upgrade as you gain the ability to make higher tier catalysts, and you can downgrade a flask also (the only time I can think of a reason for this is if you want to get back a higher duration out of a Flask you upgraded with a tier 2/3 Power Catalyst)

- Each Tier of Power Catalyst divides the duration of the Flask in half, so Tier 2 is 1/4th duration, and Tier 3 is 1/8th.

- Lengthening Catalysts change the duration of most Flask as follows : Tier 1 - 5 Minutes & 20 Secs / Tier 2 - 14 Minutes & 13 Secs / Tier 3 - 37 Minutes & 55 Secs (!!!!). This is then modified by the Power Catalysts you've added, and the effect (for the few above that have a non-normal duration).

- Lengthening Catalysts on Regen/Poison/Etc Flasks: Tier 1 - 1 Minute / Tier 2 - 2 Minutes & 40 Secs / Tier 3 - 7 Minutes & 6 Secs. Again modified by Catalysts & Base Potion Effect (if any)

A multi-effect potion with some Catalysts can make you a serious powerhouse, potentially for many minutes.

 

[madnewmy]

Would you know what are thr chances of boom after a certain # of ingredients added?

 

[James_Grimm]

Would you know what are the chances of boom after a certain # of ingredients added?

First Ingredient - 100% chance with either binding agent, always works. (As does Catalysts)
Second Ingredient (NEEDS a Standard binding agent) - slightly worse odds then 50/50 of success (other ppl say it's 40%)
Third+ - Definitely lower odds each time, seemed to be about half the chance (so in 5 attempts only 1 made it to the 3 effect stage), again matches with what I've seen a few others report.

This means past 3-4 effects, you either need to be really lucky, or try a very grindy number of times burning through lots of resources and risking your health bar the whole time. Minecraft's RNG makes it difficult to estimate without trial runs numbering in the hundreds of attempts.

So if you want to do multi-effect potions, I'd suggest getting at least a dozen spares of everything for a 3 effect (including Flasks), maybe a half stack or more if you want get a 4 effect. Brew in your cheaper effects first, and don't bother with a Catalyst of any kind until you've got all the effects you want in there, as they don't seem to risk explosions in any of my tests (otherwise they're wasted if the Flask blows up).

Each boom will cost you the Flask (it's destroyed) and everything you've already put into it, but I think you get to keep the non-flask parts from the failed attempt. Luckily Flasks only cost a little more LP to craft then a basic slate, and hopefully you've got good supplies of Redstone/Glowstone/Gunpower/Sugar for sub-ingredients already. Standard Binding Agents are what you will go through most trying to make a super potion.

Other warning - Wear armor or STAND BACK. A single exploded flask was enough to take me to half life, and because I was testing I blindly kept on brewin'. The second boom (I got unlucky, had back to back fails on a 2 effect attempt) killed me outright. If you have Blood Armor however, you should be totally fine at point blank range (it solves many problems, that armor does). Some other super-armor would also likely work for that (MPS/Quantum/etc).

 

[madnewmy]

Sounds good! Thanks!

 

[SawBlade]

@James_Grimm You started a bad thing with that little narrative style post

Listen you little Sanguine whelps, Beakers and bottles are good and fine if you intend to drink yourself to victory. But a real mage knows where his true strength lies, and that is in his magic. Let this old man tell you how to really get things done.

You need an altar, separate from your ritual area to host your spell. You'll also need yourself a spell table right next to it, for they work hand in hand. You place your paradigm atop the table, and your focus in your altar. Bind your spell crystal to the table, and you're ready to cast. Your altar knows how to power the spell and the rest...is magic.

What is a Paradigm? And you call yourself mages to-be. In my day we got by with just one dime and were happy with it.

You use one of four vanquished heads as a paradigm, a way to shape the design of your spell.

Wither Skulls will give your spell a close and personal touch.
Skeleton Skulls are for ranged and distance effects.
Creeper heads change things in your area.
Zombies, the tough little buggers, make for defensive magics.​

So now you know how to direct your magic, how do you shape the elements? Haha, now that is where things get interesting.

You have nine basic elements and each have a focus, an item that represents them. You place this focus in your altar next to the spell table in order for your magic to flow through it and the paradigm.

Fire is Flint and Steel
Cold you use an Ice Block
Explosions, well, only TNT will do there
Air is the dreaded Ghast, his tears specifically
Storms respond to Glowstone nicely
Water is easy, a bucket of it will do
The very strength of earth is represented by Obsidian
Mysterious ender can be tapped with an Ender Pearl
And finally your own raw power, with an Apprentices Blood Orb​

As a general rule, What happens through your Wither skull works the same but at a distance with a Skeleton Skull. But each element is...picky about what happens with each paradigm. I'll give you a few examples.

An Ender Pearl through a Wither skull will shoot a bead to teleport your foes away, but through a Skeleton skull it will instead send you to where-ever you targeted.

Obsidian against a foe will blind if close enough, and slow down if they're further away. But with a Zombie head it summons an instant shelter for you and your companions.

Glowstone through a Wither calls a storm, while any other paradigm summons lightning to your call.

This old mage has a better use of his time than to describe every darn spell combination. That's your job young whelps, learn and expand the power we wield. Now go, and do us all proud.

(Grimms fantastic post prompted this narrative style reply. Now for the nice facts table )

1. Wither Skull (Melee Paradigm)
   1. Flint and Steel - Close Shotgun of fire starting
   2. Ice Block - Damage + Slow debuff
   3. TNT - Blows stuff up right in front of you
   4. Ghast Tear - Flings targets away
   5. Glowstone Dust - Starts a storm
   6. Bucket of Water - Damage + Damage over time debuff
   7. Obsidian - Damage + Blindness debuff
   8. Ender Pearl - Randomly teleports target
   9. App. Blood Orb - Explosion in front, no Terrain damage
2. Skeleton Skull (Ranged Paradigm)
   1. Flint and Steel - Tighter grouping of fire starting pellets
   2. Ice Block - Tighter grouping + Slow debuff of targets
   3. TNT - Smaller explosion, but at a distance
   4. Ghast Tear - Ranged flinging of target away from you
   5. Glowstone dust - Damaging pellet
   6. Bucket of Water - Ranged Damage + Damage over time debuff
   7. Obsidian - Damage + Very slow debuff
   8. Ender Pearl - Teleports you to pellet target
   9. App. Blood Orb - Explosion at target, no Terrain damage
3. Creeper Head (Environmental Paradigm)
   1. Flint and Steel - Lights the ground around you on fire (Yes, you too)
   2. Ice Block - Freezes all water near by into ice blocks
   3. TNT - Huge explosion centered on you, you take no damage
   4. Ghast Tear - Flings any nearby mobs away
   5. Glowstone Dust - Shoots a pellet, calls lightning down upon the target
   6. Bucket of Water - Fills the area around your feet with water source blocks
   7. Obsidian - Turns surrounding water into sand and dirt
   8. Ender Pearl - All nearby mobs randomly teleport
   9. App. Blood Orb - More explosions, all around the caster
4. Zombie Head (Defensive Paradigm)
   1. Flint and Steel - Sets all mobs around you on fire
   2. Ice Block - Creates a wall of ice
   3. TNT - Blows up all mobs around you, no terrain damage
   4. Ghast Tear - Flings you in the direction you're looking, fast
   5. Glowstone Dust - Summons multiple random lightning strikes
   6. Bucket of Water - Damage of Time debuff on all surrounding mobs
   7. Obsidian - Summons a 3x3x4 stone shelter
   8. Ender Pearl - All nearby mobs are randomly teleported
   9. App. Blood Orb - Nova of mob damaging pellets spread outward from you

 

[Padfoote]

@SawBlade that is an absolute ton of information... I know what's getting added to the wiki next weekend...

 

[SawBlade]

@SawBlade that is an absolute ton of information... I know what's getting added to the wiki next weekend...

Hope it helps
For the curious, my go-to collection is:
Ender + Skelly Head for Teleporting
Obsidian + Zombie for instant shelter
Glowstone + Creeper for lightning...because it's awesome

 

[Padfoote]

Hope it helps

It definitely does, thanks for posting. Looks like the Blood Magic page can finally get close to being complete now.

Edit: And it's begun. I've started the transfer of this guide over to the wiki (a month late at that, but better late than never. )

 

[Yusunoha]

probably a pretty stupid question, but for a beginner in blood magic I don't know if it's possible...
the question is if it's possible to transfer LP from the blood orb to the altar and vice versa

 

[Padfoote]

probably a pretty stupid question, but for a beginner in blood magic I don't know if it's possible...
the question is if it's possible to transfer LP from the blood orb to the altar and vice versa

Nope, it's a one way transfer to the orb from the altar. Or you can store LP from the altar in tanks.

 

[Yusunoha]

Nope, it's a one way transfer to the orb from the altar. Or you can store LP from the altar in tanks.

bummer

 

[James_Grimm]

bummer

How you get blood into the Altar is one of the major constraints of the mod. Getting it from there into your orb is kind of easy, but as you've probably noticed you can't craft with blood not in the altar itself.

What are you having problems with? There is likely a way around it . My first guess would be that you are using standard blood runes for your Altar? (It's pretty hard to craft some stuff with just those).

 

[Yusunoha]

How you get blood into the Altar is one of the major constraints of the mod. Getting it from there into your orb is kind of easy, but as you've probably noticed you can't craft with blood not in the altar itself.

What are you having problems with? There is likely a way around it . My first guess would be that you are using standard blood runes for your Altar? (It's pretty hard to craft some stuff with just those).

it'd have been nice if you could transfer LP from your altar to your orb, and vice versa. one time you may need alot of LP for your orb, and the other time your altar is lacking LP but you've alot of it in your orb, if you could transfer it back and forth it'd be quite helpful. but I can understand that it's meant to be that way. but yea, those blood runes and slates... ugh

 

[James_Grimm]

It's sort of an investment thing. As you improve your altar a lot of things get easier, including making slates. You can also automate both blood collection and slate crafting at a Tier 4 altar, at which point you can just afk and come back to a stack of made slates.

Edit: Additionally, if your not playing in AgSkies or MF2, I highly recommend Runes of Self-Sacrafice (you only need tier 2 slates & altar to make them) as they a relatively inexpensive. You will really notice a difference when you can put a dozen of those in your altar (even more if you can replace all the rune stones with those, every 10 stones will double your LP gain from each knife use). Unless you have some kind of mob farm going, using the Sacrificial knife is usually easier to start of with.