Okay, so I think we all know that Blood Magic has a reputation for being particularly 'grindy', you need to basically sit there and stab yourself repeatedly ad infinitum for a very long time, and it is very boring and tedious and needs to be done to get to the fun point where you can automate things a bit more.
Yea, I didn't enjoy it much either. However, I've discovered a way to dramatically minimize this early grinding, and also give you a very useful resource for both blood and will generation.
First off, you need a Tier 2 Blood Altar. The Dagger of Sacrifice requires a Tier 2 altar, so you'll need to poke yourself just a bit to get a Tier 2 altar. That's 16 blank slates in total you have to manually create. Use a Blood Letter's Pack if you want to get through this faster. You don't need any Runes of Sacrifice yet, we'll get those going once we get our system up and running.
Now then, on the Blood Altar, Shift+ Right Click a half-slab to place it on top. You should see roughly a half-slab's worth of space between them. Build this platform out one on either side, then back a row, so you have a 3x2 platform directly above your altar.
For purposes of this build, when I say the 'front', I am talking about the three blocks that you can stand on runes while facing the blood altar. This is going to be where you will be standing.
Now then, take your light-obscuring block of choice (I am using Dark Glass from ExUtil2, but EnderIO also has a good Dark Glass. I do this so I can show you what I am doing easier, but if you simply want to use cobble to do this next step, it is absolutely fine) and surround the platform with full-blocks, except the three directly in front of the platform . The next row up will be a fully completed 5 x 4 of solid full blocks.
This should give you an area you can stand on which is adjacent to the blood altar, but cannot be hit by mobs. It should also give you a half-block you can attack through. It should probably look something like this:
Now we need the platforms the spawners will sit on. I'm only going to be using two spawners, but you can put in a whole bunch more if you have them. The more spawners you have, the steadier the flow of mobs will be. To make things even, I'm going to be going to be doing things slightly inefficiently, you can stack in a whole bunch more spawners than I am doing here if you like.
Go out four blocks from the center of the front and back of the mob trap. This is the point at which I will be placing the actual spawner. To maximize spawn capacity, go in a 4 block radius around it to create a 9x9 platform.
Now build walls around this platform three tall. On top of this wall, put a half slab. Then roof over with the half-slabs. We use half-slabs because mobs cannot spawn on them, and we do not want mobs to spawn on top of our grind-o-matic. You can use any opaque block which mobs do not spawn on if you like.
Now we do our 'off switch', and by that, I mean the lighting. Use Redstone Lamps. The ones on the outside are going to be two blocks out from the two walls, the internal ones are five blocks closer to the center of each of them, giving you eight redstone lamps lighting everything up.
Then we wire them up. Personally, I use EnderIO conduit because it works, but you can use any redstone wiring system you like.
Now run your redstone wiring system down to the front of your system. Personally, I like to simply use RFTool's Redstone Transmitter and Receiver, but that's just me.
Having made the area entirely lit up, it is now completely safe to add in the spawners. Personally, I use the Too Many Wands Moving Wand, but there are many different systems you can use to move spawners and/or create mob spawners which function automatically (i.e. Auto-Spawners from EnderIO).
Now, we need to find a way to push the mobs into the center. Personally, I've become a huge fan of Dark Utilities, but you can just use vanilla water if you like.
I use the yellow vector plates in the back, and green vector plates closer to the mob holding pen, so they don't overshoot the gap.
Note how the ones directly 'behind' the mob spawner point sideways so a mob doesn't get caught on the spawner. Also, each spawner got a green vector plate on top to pitch it off.
This is a simple little build that goes on top of an altar. It doesn't even need to be your main altar. But this gives you all the blood you need to get going MUCH faster. In addition, you can also farm Wills here at the same time, because it is going to be providing zombies WAY faster than your consumption will be
This can be done the moment you hit Tier 2, so you can set up slate automation and just start cranking out the LP. And if you don't need LP, pull out your Sentient Sword and fill up on Wills!
Yea, I didn't enjoy it much either. However, I've discovered a way to dramatically minimize this early grinding, and also give you a very useful resource for both blood and will generation.
What you will need:
- Sentient Sword is assumed to be something you have already done. Quite frankly, it should be the first thing you do in this mod anyway.
- A means of moving mob spawners. This could be the Moving Wand from Too Many Wands, this could be creating powered spawners from EnderIO, there's several ways to do this, you only need one
- A means of lighting the area within and/or turning off the spawners. I'm going to be using redstone lamps. Wireless redstone a plus, but not required.
- Some basic building supplies
- A means of pushing mobs into an area is a plus for efficiency, but not strictly necessary
- Blood Magic (obviously)
- Dark Utilities
- RFTools
- Too Many Wands
- ExUtil2
- Quark
Step 1: The Beginning
First off, you need a Tier 2 Blood Altar. The Dagger of Sacrifice requires a Tier 2 altar, so you'll need to poke yourself just a bit to get a Tier 2 altar. That's 16 blank slates in total you have to manually create. Use a Blood Letter's Pack if you want to get through this faster. You don't need any Runes of Sacrifice yet, we'll get those going once we get our system up and running.
Now then, on the Blood Altar, Shift+ Right Click a half-slab to place it on top. You should see roughly a half-slab's worth of space between them. Build this platform out one on either side, then back a row, so you have a 3x2 platform directly above your altar.
For purposes of this build, when I say the 'front', I am talking about the three blocks that you can stand on runes while facing the blood altar. This is going to be where you will be standing.
Now then, take your light-obscuring block of choice (I am using Dark Glass from ExUtil2, but EnderIO also has a good Dark Glass. I do this so I can show you what I am doing easier, but if you simply want to use cobble to do this next step, it is absolutely fine) and surround the platform with full-blocks, except the three directly in front of the platform . The next row up will be a fully completed 5 x 4 of solid full blocks.
This should give you an area you can stand on which is adjacent to the blood altar, but cannot be hit by mobs. It should also give you a half-block you can attack through. It should probably look something like this:
Step 2, the grind-o-matic
Now we need the platforms the spawners will sit on. I'm only going to be using two spawners, but you can put in a whole bunch more if you have them. The more spawners you have, the steadier the flow of mobs will be. To make things even, I'm going to be going to be doing things slightly inefficiently, you can stack in a whole bunch more spawners than I am doing here if you like.
Go out four blocks from the center of the front and back of the mob trap. This is the point at which I will be placing the actual spawner. To maximize spawn capacity, go in a 4 block radius around it to create a 9x9 platform.
Now build walls around this platform three tall. On top of this wall, put a half slab. Then roof over with the half-slabs. We use half-slabs because mobs cannot spawn on them, and we do not want mobs to spawn on top of our grind-o-matic. You can use any opaque block which mobs do not spawn on if you like.
Now we do our 'off switch', and by that, I mean the lighting. Use Redstone Lamps. The ones on the outside are going to be two blocks out from the two walls, the internal ones are five blocks closer to the center of each of them, giving you eight redstone lamps lighting everything up.
Then we wire them up. Personally, I use EnderIO conduit because it works, but you can use any redstone wiring system you like.
Now run your redstone wiring system down to the front of your system. Personally, I like to simply use RFTool's Redstone Transmitter and Receiver, but that's just me.
Step 3: Mob Spawners and Guidance
Having made the area entirely lit up, it is now completely safe to add in the spawners. Personally, I use the Too Many Wands Moving Wand, but there are many different systems you can use to move spawners and/or create mob spawners which function automatically (i.e. Auto-Spawners from EnderIO).
Now, we need to find a way to push the mobs into the center. Personally, I've become a huge fan of Dark Utilities, but you can just use vanilla water if you like.
I use the yellow vector plates in the back, and green vector plates closer to the mob holding pen, so they don't overshoot the gap.
In conclusion
This is a simple little build that goes on top of an altar. It doesn't even need to be your main altar. But this gives you all the blood you need to get going MUCH faster. In addition, you can also farm Wills here at the same time, because it is going to be providing zombies WAY faster than your consumption will be
This can be done the moment you hit Tier 2, so you can set up slate automation and just start cranking out the LP. And if you don't need LP, pull out your Sentient Sword and fill up on Wills!
