Gregtech Survival Guide

[Someone Else 37]

I've found diamonds (an integral component of macerators) to be surprisingly difficult to get your hands on in early-game GT, since the normal ores need diamond-level tools to mine, and the small ores (which can be mined with iron picks) only drop crushed ore and dust, neither of which are useful before the electric age. There are, however, a few ways to do it:
1. Small Thaumcraft shard ores (save Perditio) can be mined with iron-level tools. They sometimes drop shards (unlike diamond and topaz ores), which can be crafted into diamond-level picks with low durability, but free enchantments.
2. If you have Thermal Expansion, you can use the Igneous Extruder to create obsidian without needing a diamond-level pick to mine it, then use that to make Industrial Diamonds with the Steam Compressor, a stack of coal dust (obtainable by using a Mortar on coal), and some flint.
3. The simplest GT-only solution seems to be Cobalt. Small cobaltite ore can be mined with iron-level picks, and drops dust that can be smelted directly into ingots.

If you're already well-established in the electric age and have an Ore Washer and a Sifting Machine, you can wash then sift the crushed ore dropped by small diamond ore, which gives actual diamonds 15% of the time and items that can be hammered into multiple diamonds significantly less often. In one test run, a stack of purified (i.e. ore-washed) crushed diamond ore gave me, after some hammering and maceration, 25 diamonds and 50.5 diamond dust. That dust could be implosion-compressed into 36 more diamonds (ok, industrial diamonds) with 2.5 dust left over, at the cost of six stacks of ITNT.

 

[asb3pe]

3. The simplest GT-only solution seems to be Cobalt. Small cobaltite ore can be mined with iron-level picks, and drops dust that can be smelted directly into ingots.

Correct, however Small Cobaltite Ore is definitely not the way to get it, I don't think I've ever found one of those - it's just pure luck finding one, totally random.

In my opinion, the "correct" way to get Cobalt to make a Level 3 pickaxe for mining diamond-level ores is to macerate Chalcopyrite Ore (which might be the most common ore in all of GregTech, in my experience), then place the Crushed Chalcopyrite Ore into a GregTech Thermal Centrifuge which will provide one tiny pile of Cobalt Dust. I discovered (the hard way, thru failures) that the Thermal Centrifuge is one of the only LV machines that requires more than one ampere, so I used a LV Batter Buffer with 4 Sodium LV batteries to provide multiple amps to it (and I wired my base using 4x Tin Cable so the cables don't ignite and explode).

Nothing about this method is difficult, it is merely time consuming because you need to make all sorts of machines to make the batteries, along with finding some Stibnite Ore (which might be one of the rarest ores in all of GregTech, in my experience, if you lack any "high country" to find it in) for the Battery Alloy Ingots. As it stands right now, I won't be able to make any more batteries until I find another Tetrahedrite deposit. I've already exhausted the only one I found.

I don't really like the way Greg did his pickaxe metals. There are far, far too many lower level (i.e. practically useless) alloys, and not enough mid-tier and upper-tier pickaxe alloys. Cobalt was literally the only one I could reasonably make, and even tho I've got all sorts of ores coming in now thanks to my quarry, I'm still using my Cobalt pickaxes. I did just discover a Sheldonite/Palladium/Iridium ore deposit, so I hope that's gonna change soon.

 

[asb3pe]

Another tip I've learned the hard way... I made a MV Steam Turbine and hooked it up to my Railcraft Steel Tank full of steam using Ender IO conduits, the top tier fluid conduit. But it wasn't putting out enough power, stuff was failing and I was pretty frustrated and upset about it.

I finally learned why... you cannot just put one Railcraft Tank Valve and stick an Ender IO conduit to it and expect that your GregTech Steam Turbine will get enough steam to run at full power. It won't. I ended up putting four Railcraft Tank Valves in a row, hooked up an Ender IO conduit to each one, and then I ran that line to my MV Steam Turbine. Suddenly, I wasn't having any power problems! One Steam Turbine runs my Electric Blast Furnace, smelting stack after stack, without any downtime. When I was only pulling from a single Railcraft Tank Valve, I could only smelt four Aluminium dusts and I had to wait a few minutes for it to recharge! Huge difference!!

 

[asb3pe]

Oh, one more thing... earlier in the thread I was pretty upset because I returned to my base and my GT Steam Boiler had exploded and destroyed everything. I assumed it was because my Railcraft Tank had filled up and the steam had nowhere to go, so it exploded.

However, I had a second incident where my boiler blew up, and this time I knew exactly what happened. I put charcoal in and started it up... however I forgot a critical piece of the puzzle... I didn't hook up a water line. As soon as the rubber hammer turned the Boiler on, BOOM!

So what happened the first time? It wasn't "too much steam". In fact, if the system is full of steam, the Boiler keeps cranking it out and using fuel, but the steam just disappears. It doesn't build up pressure and blow things up. It's simply wasted. The first time my Boiler exploded, I am 100% convinced I had a "chunk error" - I had placed the Steam Boiler in a different chunk from my Water Reservoir. When the boiler couldn't get water because the reservoir chunk was unloaded, it blew up and left a huge crater. But I recovered from it (thank goodness for creative mode!) and I learned some lessons from it. Now my Water Reservoir is in the same chunk as my Steam Boiler.

 

[adamich]

...

MV Steam Turbine request 4 liters of steam per 1 EU = 128*4=512 mb/t.
http://ftb.gamepedia.com/Steam_Turbine_(GregTech)

AND Ender Fluid Conduit can carry 800 mb/t.

BUT one input on Ender Fluid Conduit can extract only 200 mb/t.
so U need more than two input on ender fluid conduit.

http://wiki.enderio.com/Fluid_Conduits

RC boiler produce up to 720 mb/t.
Iron GT boiler produce, imho, 1200 mb/t.
I usualy make 4 input and 1 output on separated pipe.
So U dont need 4 RC boilers per turbine)

 

[asb3pe]

Thanks for the math, adamich.

HOWEVER - can anyone please answer my question - why can't a GT Huge Stainless Steel Fluid Pipe (capacity of 28,800 L/s) transfer steam fast enough from a GT Steel Steam Boiler (output of 24,000 L/s) into my Railcraft Steel Tank to keep my machines running? I have the Boiler one block away from the Steel Tank, so I only need to use one piece of Stainless Steel Fluid Pipe.

If I use GT pipe, I do not get enough steam - the level of steam in my tank drops. If I switch the GT Fluid Pipe to Ender IO conduit, I get more than enough steam - the level of steam in my tank goes up, and it goes up fast. I just want someone - anyone - to answer the question of "how the heck do you use GT Fluid Pipes properly? Do I need some kind of pump to "push" the steam into the tank? Neither Chloe's video nor "The Guide" has helped me figure this out. Yes I tried GT Shutters, it made no difference no matter what setting I used with the Screwdriver.

 

[Pyure]

Thanks for the math, adamich.

HOWEVER - can anyone please answer my question - why can't a GT Huge Stainless Steel Fluid Pipe (capacity of 28,800 L/s) transfer steam fast enough from a GT Steel Steam Boiler (output of 24,000 L/s) into my Railcraft Steel Tank to keep my machines running? I have the Boiler one block away from the Steel Tank, so I only need to use one piece of Stainless Steel Fluid Pipe.

If I use GT pipe, I do not get enough steam - the level of steam in my tank drops. If I switch the GT Fluid Pipe to Ender IO conduit, I get more than enough steam - the level of steam in my tank goes up, and it goes up fast. I just want someone - anyone - to answer the question of "how the heck do you use GT Fluid Pipes properly? Do I need some kind of pump to "push" the steam into the tank? Neither Chloe's video nor "The Guide" has helped me figure this out. Yes I tried GT Shutters, it made no difference no matter what setting I used with the Screwdriver.

I've never been a huge fan of the GT pipes. I sorta wish they moved liquids "magically" like some other systems. Regarding the screwdriver settings, always remember that if the shutter is on the pipe, then "insert" is "allow in", and "export" is "allow out". Also remember that pumps are required for activelly pulling and pushing liquids and have their own L/sec ratings which may bottleneck the pipes.

Personally? I run my boilers (Titanium) flush against the RC tank and save myself the trouble.

Did you ever get answers on hatches/buses/etc? I wish I'd seen these earlier, I'd have tried to help.

Regarding boiler safety: My boilers automatically come on under a variety of conditions, and one thing I check for is that the internal water reservoir MUST be 100% full. I currently do this by only allowing the charcoal feed to insert fuel into the bus when the 100%-water signal is on. I use a ULV input bus because it only has 1 slot, and if my water suddenly shuts down, it should at least last me until the remaining 64 charcoal are safely processed through the system.

A better setup is probably to use a machine controlling cover on the bottom of the Boiler controller block. If I'm not mistaken, you can flip the boiler off instantly with a redstone signal if you wish by doing this (untested).

Also: I finally got my damn projectred logic working properly so that my boilers only come on when my RC tank is at 25%, and shut down again at 75% (reliably).

 

[asb3pe]

I've never been a huge fan of the GT pipes. I sorta wish they moved liquids "magically" like some other systems. Regarding the screwdriver settings, always remember that if the shutter is on the pipe, then "insert" is "allow in", and "export" is "allow out". Also remember that pumps are required for activelly pulling and pushing liquids and have their own L/sec ratings which may bottleneck the pipes.

Personally? I run my boilers (Titanium) flush against the RC tank and save myself the trouble.

Did you ever get answers on hatches/buses/etc? I wish I'd seen these earlier, I'd have tried to help.

Regarding boiler safety: My boilers automatically come on under a variety of conditions, and one thing I check for is that the internal water reservoir MUST be 100% full. I currently do this by only allowing the charcoal feed to insert fuel into the bus when the 100%-water signal is on. I use a ULV input bus because it only has 1 slot, and if my water suddenly shuts down, it should at least last me until the remaining 64 charcoal are safely processed through the system.

A better setup is probably to use a machine controlling cover on the bottom of the Boiler controller block. If I'm not mistaken, you can flip the boiler off instantly with a redstone signal if you wish by doing this (untested).

Also: I finally got my damn projectred logic working properly so that my boilers only come on when my RC tank is at 25%, and shut down again at 75% (reliably).

So we DO require a pump to move steam from the GT Boiler to the Railcraft Tank? I don't see any pumps tho in NEI except for the Buildcraft pump. I assume it would have to be a GregTech pump, correct? There is indeed a variety of GregTech "Electric Pumps", but aren't those only for making GT machines? Can you actually use those to move fluids on their own? How do you hook them up to the GT pipes?

When I examine the GT "Electric Pump (MV)" in NEI, the tooltip says: "2560 L/s (as cover)". What does "as cover" mean? When I type "cover" into NEI, the only GT item that shows up is the "Crafting Table Cover". I've asked about covers before and someone said they really don't exist except for the Crafting Table Cover and four more items that are called "Detectors", not "Covers".

So what "Cover" am I supposed to use, and how do I use such a cover with a GT Pump to push fluids into tanks?

This comment you made is very interesting too, I'll try it, didn't think it would work: "Personally? I run my boilers (Titanium) flush against the RC tank and save myself the trouble."

Did you ever get answers on hatches/buses/etc? I wish I'd seen these earlier, I'd have tried to help.

Regarding boiler safety: My boilers automatically come on under a variety of conditions, and one thing I check for is that the internal water reservoir MUST be 100% full. I currently do this by only allowing the charcoal feed to insert fuel into the bus when the 100%-water signal is on. I use a ULV input bus because it only has 1 slot, and if my water suddenly shuts down, it should at least last me until the remaining 64 charcoal are safely processed through the system.

You already answered it right there - I discovered the answer on my own... if you make a hatch (or bus) using a GT ULV Machine Block, it will have one slot. If you use a GT LV Machine Block, it will have four slots. If you use an MV Machine Block, the bus will have 9 slots. Etc. It doesn't make common sense, because the Steam Boiler is not an "electric" machine so I didn't make the connection at first. But Greg is simply using the "ULV/LV/MV/HV" Machine Blocks instead of coming up with yet another block to do the same job. It works I guess, but it is a bit confusing to someone who it trying to logically think their way thru GregTech and figure things out.

I'm still manually starting and stopping my GT Steam Boiler, which is definitely a big hassle, but my real concern would be wasting my charcoal by not shutting it off. However, I added a second Forestry Multifarm so my charcoal production exceeds my charcoal usage. Thus, I really don't sweat it at this point. Someday I'll figure out how to automate it but for now I've been working hard to collect ores and process them to keep moving up the ladder. I'm getting very close to going from MV to HV soon. I just processed my Ilmenite ores and now I have over 300 Titanium dusts. Yay!

 

[Pyure]

So we DO require a pump to move steam from the GT Boiler to the Railcraft Tank? I don't see any pumps tho in NEI except for the Buildcraft pump. I assume it would have to be a GregTech pump, correct? There is indeed a variety of GregTech "Electric Pumps", but aren't those only for making GT machines? Can you actually use those to move fluids on their own? How do you hook them up to the GT pipes?

When I examine the GT "Electric Pump (MV)" in NEI, the tooltip says: "2560 L/s (as cover)". What does "as cover" mean? When I type "cover" into NEI, the only GT item that shows up is the "Crafting Table Cover". I've asked about covers before and someone said they really don't exist except for the Crafting Table Cover and four more items that are called "Detectors", not "Covers".

So what "Cover" am I supposed to use, and how do I use such a cover with a GT Pump to push fluids into tanks?

Sorry, I might have mislead you here. You definitely do NOT need a cover to do what you're doing. I'm just saying its possible. I'm not sure if it would help matters or make them worse, but the boiler will always automatically output to a valid liquid container (GT Pipe), and a GT pipe will do the same (output to a valid liquid container such as an RC tank). Note that the RC tank has some rules, so trying to insert steam "into the bottom" would not be valid. For testing this, I highly recommend you build a Portable Scanner: you can right-click pipes and containers and find out how much steam is inside and identify bottlenecks.

Regarding pumps/covers: The pump is a recipe item true, but it also doubles as a sort of multi-part: you can attach it to blocks similar to the shutters you saw in those videos. The L/sec tooltip you mentioned applies to its use as a cover. Like all covers, it can be attached to any specific side of a block, and it can be "screwdrivered" for various options. Anything marked "as cover" can do this. (BTW the gregtech "robot arm" also functions as a cover).

BTW I consider the GT steam boilers to be electric since they require a lot of electrical-age components to build. Plus, the controller clearly has an electrical GUI

You can use low-level blocks for most GT multiblocks. I never use MV buses for instance because you can easily transport items in and out with pipes, making the internal buffers kind of irrelevant.

 

[asb3pe]

Here's a typical question I have. I just mined a Pitchblende Ore Deposit (Ender Quarry rocks!). What should I do with it? I can either obtain a tiny pile of Uranium 238 dust, or a tiny pile of Thorium dust, but I have little idea what to do with either material. But I want to do something with them because I prefer to process my ores after I mine them so I don't have a huge processing backup and a logjam. But I don't want to regret obtaining Uranium 238 from them if I find a good use for Thorium later on. How do you handle this situation? Do you save the ores and not process them until you actually have a good reason to do so? For most ores, the answer is obvious after examining NEI for all the possibilities. But for other ores, I just don't know what they're used for. Palladium is another ore I just mined. No idea what that is used for tho. Unfortunately, paging thru NEI to find a use for a material is practically impossible in GregTech modpacks. There's just way too many pages of relatively useless recycling recipes for each material.

 

[Pyure]

Here's a typical question I have. I just mined a Pitchblende Ore Deposit (Ender Quarry rocks!). What should I do with it? I can either obtain a tiny pile of Uranium 238 dust, or a tiny pile of Thorium dust, but I have little idea what to do with either material. But I want to do something with them because I prefer to process my ores after I mine them so I don't have a huge processing backup and a logjam. But I don't want to regret obtaining Uranium 238 from them if I find a good use for Thorium later on. How do you handle this situation? Do you save the ores and not process them until you actually have a good reason to do so? For most ores, the answer is obvious after examining NEI for all the possibilities. But for other ores, I just don't know what they're used for. Palladium is another ore I just mined. No idea what that is used for tho. Unfortunately, paging thru NEI to find a use for a material is practically impossible in GregTech modpacks. There's just way too many pages of relatively useless recycling recipes for each material.

Pitchblende: Source of U238
U238: Source of U235 (and plutonium I believe)
U235: Fuel for standard IC2 reactors
Plutonium: Fuel for MOX IC2 reactors (Good source of power btw)
Palladium and Thorium: Currently useless I believe but I store everything just "in case".

Agreed, trying to figure out a use for GT stuff in NEI is absolutely insane. I generally do exactly what you just did: ask around. Because even if we could magically filter out all the NEI clutter of tools and widgets and components that are duplicated with every metal, its always possible that something like Thorium just happens to make amazing, say, picks.

 

[asb3pe]

Agreed, trying to figure out a use for GT stuff in NEI is absolutely insane. I generally do exactly what you just did: ask around. Because even if we could magically filter out all the NEI clutter of tools and widgets and components that are duplicated with every metal, its always possible that something like Thorium just happens to make amazing, say, picks.

Precisely - pickaxes. That's what I'm focused on at the moment. I posted this link earlier in the thread, it summarizes all the GT pickaxe materials and sorts them by Level.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpVV3Rfbc0WD83FVXZT6nWEk7KxujtK01oSLZZc1kV4/edit#gid=0

I've been using Level 3 Cobalt pickaxes, but I see diamond is actually more durability with the identical mining speed so I'm gonna switch to that. But I'd like to make a Level 4 pickaxe, and after looking at the chart it appears Tungstensteel is the best material to use - except I cannot make that ingot yet because I don't have a Nichrome Electric Blast Furnace yet. I'm trying to balance durability with mining speed. For pure mining speed, Osmium seems to be the best Level 4 pickaxe, and I think I can actually make one of those - I discovered an NEI recipe that provides one tiny pile of Osmium from an ore I recently mined (I forget which one it is right now). So maybe I'll go for that one and try it out. Hate to waste such a potentially valuable material tho - once again, I have no clue what "Osmium" is used for in GT besides tools.

And yet another example of why GregTech can be so darned difficult to play... there's an entry for "Tritanium" in the pickaxe chart, but if you go into NEI you will not find any recipe for how to make this mysterious material. I went thru every page of every machine's recipes and found nothing. Very aggravating and frustrating, but par for the course.

 

[Pyure]

Precisely - pickaxes. That's what I'm focused on at the moment. I posted this link earlier in the thread, it summarizes all the GT pickaxe materials and sorts them by Level.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpVV3Rfbc0WD83FVXZT6nWEk7KxujtK01oSLZZc1kV4/edit#gid=0

I once took this spreadsheet and added my own math to it so I could rank the materials differently. I prefer speed to durability, so fluxed electrum makes an excellent level 3 pick.

Depending on your modpack, if you do a lot of exploring, you may find Dark Steel items everywhere. This is an all-around amazing metal, and it seems to enchant absurdly well too. Generally speaking this is a go-to pickaxe material of choice. Not GT however.

I've been using Level 3 Cobalt pickaxes, but I see diamond is actually more durability with the identical mining speed so I'm gonna switch to that.

For early play, cobalt is a lucky find: this stuff is absolutely fantastic for early game tools, to the point of being op in the early game. I still use it for all my GT tools (files, hammers, etc).

But I'd like to make a Level 4 pickaxe, and after looking at the chart it appears Tungstensteel is the best material to use - except I cannot make that ingot yet because I don't have a Nichrome Electric Blast Furnace yet. I'm trying to balance durability with mining speed. For pure mining speed, Osmium seems to be the best Level 4 pickaxe, and I think I can actually make one of those - I discovered an NEI recipe that provides one tiny pile of Osmium from an ore I recently mined (I forget which one it is right now). So maybe I'll go for that one and try it out. Hate to waste such a potentially valuable material tho - once again, I have no clue what "Osmium" is used for in GT besides tools.

Osmium is used in late-game machinery, replication machines, high-end wires and some other stuff. If you have IHL in your pack there's a complicated recipe to get osmium from that.

Lemme know if you figure out the tritanium stuff, now i'm curious too

 

[Optibane]

I'd be a bit leery about using osmium for tools since it is quite rare and you'll need a lot of it once you get past HV. If you're stuck, I'd recommend you keep 7 osmium ingots in reserve and then you can make tools with the rest. You need 7 to get UU fab (4), replicator (2), and Os data disc (1) so you can make osmium renewable (although very slowly!)


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[Pyure]

I'd be a bit leery about using osmium for tools since it is quite rare and you'll need a lot of it once you get past HV. If you're stuck, I'd recommend you keep 7 osmium ingots in reserve and then you can make tools with the rest. You need 7 to get UU fab (4), replicator (2), and Os data disc (1) so you can make osmium renewable (although very slowly!)


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Amusingly the modpack i'm playing (Infitech2) has minechem in it which happens to have a fusion reactor recipe to create osmium. This is technically a mid-high end machine, but it makes osmium so ridiculously simple that I've submitted a request to disable it. I actually made some by accident.

Osmium is and should be a high-end, difficult-to-acquire resource

 

[asb3pe]

For early play, cobalt is a lucky find: this stuff is absolutely fantastic for early game tools, to the point of being op in the early game. I still use it for all my GT tools (files, hammers, etc).

Osmium is used in late-game machinery, replication machines, high-end wires and some other stuff. If you have IHL in your pack there's a complicated recipe to get osmium from that.

Lemme know if you figure out the tritanium stuff, now i'm curious too

I mentioned it earlier - Cobalt is actually a very easy early game material to acquire:
1. Find and mine Chalcopyrite Ore (very easy, it's everywhere once you get down to elevation 40 or so and start to explore, abandoned mineshafts are perfectly placed for Chalco so find them and use them).
2. Macerate Ore.
3. Put Crushed Chalcopyrite Ore into a (LV) Thermal Centrifuge, machine requires 2 amps of LV so I used a 4-battery buffer box with 4x Tin Cable to the Centrifuge.
4. After you process 14 Chalco ores you will have 28 tiny dusts of Cobalt which is enough to make 3 ingots/plates for a Cobalt pickaxe.

Thanks for the Osmium info, that's all I need to know to cross it off my list. Definitely do not want to use valuable materials when there is an abundance of other materials to use.

Here's what I found regarding "Tritanium" - a wiki that says it is "Not Obtainable": http://ftb.gamepedia.com/Pickaxe_(GregTech)
There are other materials with the identical note: Duranium, Osmiridium, Naquadah Alloy and Neutronium.
I'm not sure what the point to having materials in a mod that are "unobtainable", but then again I am not Gregorius T.

I looked up the ore which provides Osmium - it's Iridium Ore, same procedure as I described above for Chalcopyrite, you get 2 tiny piles per Ore block. I was pretty shocked to find Iridium Ore (I got 176 blocks of it), it was in a "Sheldonite Ore" (platinum) vein that I found (Sheldonite/Palladium/Iridium). I won't process the ore yet tho, until I discover whether it will be more important to get the maximum amount of Iridium or if I can sacrifice a bit of it to get a bit of Osmium.

 

[Pyure]

I mentioned it earlier - Cobalt is actually a very easy early game material to acquire:
1. Find and mine Chalcopyrite Ore (very easy, it's everywhere once you get down to elevation 40 or so and start to explore, abandoned mineshafts are perfectly placed for Chalco so find them and use them).
2. Macerate Ore.
3. Put Crushed Chalcopyrite Ore into a (LV) Thermal Centrifuge, machine requires 2 amps of LV so I used a 4-battery buffer box with 4x Tin Cable to the Centrifuge.
4. After you process 14 Chalco ores you will have 28 tiny dusts which is enough to make 3 ingots/plates for a Cobalt pickaxe.

In the early game, none of these machines exist

Cobalt is interesting in that you can mine it really early. If you happen to find this stuff during your early explorations its really handy.

 

[Optibane]

I looked up the ore which provides Osmium - it's Iridium Ore, same procedure as I described above for Chalcopyrite, you get 2 tiny piles per Ore block. I was pretty shocked to find Iridium Ore (I got 176 blocks of it), it was in a "Sheldonite Ore" (platinum) vein that I found (Sheldonite/Palladium/Iridium). I won't process the ore yet tho, until I discover whether it will be more important to get the maximum amount of Iridium or if I can sacrifice a bit of it to get a bit of Osmium.

I used all my iridium ore for max iridium and a few days later I spent hours looking for another vein to get enough to make the osmium for my UU setup. But the set of quantum armor I made from the iridium was nice too


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[asb3pe]

I used all my iridium ore for max iridium and a few days later I spent hours looking for another vein to get enough to make the osmium for my UU setup. But the set of quantum armor I made from the iridium was nice too

I've been getting a bit bored because all I've been doing is mining using my EnderQuarry... making a suit of armor complete with jetpack, that's exactly the project I needed for today, it will keep me busy while my ore processing continues. Thanks for the tip! I see "Quantum" requires "Nano" armor, so I'll start with a suit of Nano and go from there.

Immediate edit: Nice idea, but it looks like even NanoArmor requires an HV Autoclave to make the required Energy Crystals. Darn it...

 

[asb3pe]

A little tip I've discovered - don't waste your time at LV or MV any more than you have to. Don't waste materials by building LV or MV machines that will soon be obsolete.

The Electric Blast Furnace is the key structure in all of GregTech, but it must go hand-in-hand with the Vacuum Freezer because all higher-tier ingots require freezing a "hot" ingot that comes out of the EBF.

When I looked at the Vacuum Freezer Controller recipe, I was in for quite a shock, because it requires a lot of HV stuff. Sure, making Stainless Steel and even Chrome can be done in a Cupronickel EBF (the lowest tier), so making HV Machine Blocks and Electric Motors and Electric Pumps is not a big problem. But the problem is the three required "Data Control Circuits". In order to produce this item, we need HV versions of the Precision Laser Engraver, the Forming Press, and the Assembling Machine.

I've taken my time going from LV to MV, but I'm glad I've realized this fact - there's zero point to wasting materials on LV and MV, because HV is required to advance forward in GregTech. So I'm basically skipping MV machines altogether, with the exception of the three machines listed above (Laser, Forming and Assembler) because MV versions of those are required to make the HV versions.

tl;dr: The most critical "machine" in GT is the EBF, but the next-most important is the Vacuum Freezer. In order to make a Vacuum Freezer you need HV, so it is a waste of materials to build a complete line of LV and MV machines. The goal should be to make as few of those tier machines as possible, and go straight to HV as quickly as possible.