Beginner's Guide (Relaxed Mode)

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(This is a copy of the Beginner's Guide, needs to be adapted to Relaxed Mode)


This guide is intended to aid you in understanding the mechanics at play and how you might make use of them to survive in the very hostile world that is Better Than Wolves. Should you require more in-depth knowledge about any single mechanic, you may consult the rest of this wiki. Although many things carry over from vanilla (i.e. regular) Minecraft, many things don't. As such, the wiki is a one-stop shop, and this guide has the steps you need to get started and establish yourself in this familiar, but now far less accommodating game.

It is highly suggested that you use the Craft Guide mod, which will show any recipe in the game when you press G : https://www.sargunster.com/btwforum/viewtopic.php?t=10181

And if you have any question, head over the BTW Discord : https://discord.gg/jpjtbST9rA

Please note that besides this guide, updated for the latest version, this wiki is not up-to-date for a lot of articles because of constant bot spam, restricting our ability to open up the wiki to more people.

Prologue

Better Than Wolves is a total overhaul of Minecraft. It completely modifies pretty much every single aspect of the game, the main goal being to make the player feel a real sense of progress and give the game a true sense of depth and a cohesive tech tree to slowly progress, so that every little upgrade you get feels rewarding and hard-earned. In the early game, it is better to concentrate on surviving, creating landmarks and expanding. Many renewable resources are no longer readily available and may require traveling long distances to obtain. Some of the more unique features of the mod like the Light Block and Soulforged Steel require access to the Nether and the End, respectively. Many of the items and blocks that will be obtainable on the first day of a Minecraft game will take much longer to obtain in a Better Than Wolves playthrough. It is not uncommon for players to need over a hundred hours before they can finally get access to a Torch and acquire permanent lighting.

Important Changes from vanilla to help get you started

  1. Hardcore Spawn: you will randomly spawn in a large area that increases as you progress the tech tree.
  2. Beds no longer set your spawn and are locked in the tech tree, Sleeping bags have been added to speed up nights early game.
  3. Actions make you hungry. Doing nothing makes you hungry (you can't afk forever). If the foodbar shakes you're actively burning food. watch your step, You should avoid running and jumping as much as possible.
  4. Animals do not re-spawn, get spooked from player activity nearby, require food to stay alive and require different and more difficult to obtain breeding items.
  5. Hostile mobs target and kill animals. Spiders will hunt chickens, zombies will try to eat any other living being.
  6. Hostile mobs can spawn in any place they fit, including slabs, glass and any kind of half-block. As a tradeoff, mobs can no longer spawn on Wood based blocks or mushroom and mycelium blocks.
  7. Hostile mobs always drop their tools and armor so risk your life getting that shiny metal!
  8. Hardcore Tools and Weapons reworks or removes recipes, and modifies efficiencies.
  9. It takes longer to break blocks when using basic or no equipment.
  10. Health and food level influences movement, harvesting speed, and attack power.
  11. Most blocks can only [properly] be harvested with their designated tool.
  12. World generation is mostly untouched but stone has been divided into three stratification layers, each layer needing a higher tier tool to mine through
  13. Structures in the game have been abandoned near the players first spawn area. These still provide useful materials and shelter but lack items that jump you through the tech tree. You will need to travel a large distance before being able to find semi-abandoned Villages, and even go further to find them intact.
  14. Hardcore darkness. If there is no light, it is completely dark (aka gloom). Standing in complete darkness will terrorize you to death eventually.
  15. Moonlight: The moon has an 8 day cycle, with a full-moon night being bright enough to prevent mob spawn on the surface, to dark-moon nights having zero light, requiring you to have another source of light or die in terror in the gloom.

For more information look at Changes From Vanilla

Surviving the first few days

Starting with nothing and surviving through the first night--in and of itself--can be difficult. It may take several attempts to optimize your own strategy. And that's okay, there is nothing stopping you from experimenting. The more you fail, the more you will learn from those failures. Nothing you do can put your game in an unwinnable fail state. Staying in an area overnight may reduce the amount of tasty animals at your disposal, but animals aren't the part of the tech tree you should be focusing on at this point anyway. So, if you happen on an area that is already devastated by your presence prior, go out farther or focus on what you can do until you starve. Starvation is an actual threat now, but it's not the end of your game. Play on in a new location until leveling up your tech and eventually finding the places you've already been to. It takes a long time to get anywhere in this mod, so just be patient and have fun.

General Tips

  1. During any following day, look for cobwebs. These are your only source of string early game aside from bows or killing spiders directly. If you already have enough, consider leaving them where they are as string is not able to be placed until much later (see stakes).
  2. Look for undead mob drops. Rotten flesh acts as bait, and you can make bone a fishing hook from a single piece of bone (working it as required). Alternatively, two bones can create a bone club, which are stronger than wooden mallets and last longer.
  3. Try to learn how to force creeper explosions without taking much damage, the amount of dirt you can get is invaluable in the first couple of days. Or consider killing them if food is tight, Nitre can be used to cure meat, albeit at reduced efficiency (doesn't restore as much hunger so use it as a safe last resort).
  4. Gather wood during the day and stone during the night while tending your campfires. You can't expand the cave very easily until you get the right tools, but at least you can cook meat, knit wool, weave wicker, and harvest stone.
  5. Gather clay to make bricks and then ovens out of it. Bricks require a full day in the sun to dry. Rain resets progress, as does stepping on them.
  6. Keep an eye out for iron deposits as you explore. These can be mined for half-value with sharp stone. Iron ore can be placed on the ground as a means of storage.
  7. Once you have a chisel you can make a workstump. This will open up the crafting menu to 3x3 recipes.
  8. Lining floors with wood (including logs) will prevent mob spawns regardless of light level. Good for open-air roofs as well.
  9. Avoid the water at night. Rivers and lakes are not your friend unless you like hats.
  10. Avoid cows. Attacking them or placing/destroying blocks near them will cause them to spook.
  11. Breaking logs without a proper axe will shave sawdust and shafts off the log. Every log will grant you bark, stick, sawdust, stick, sawdust. Save the bark and sawdust as fuel for your campfire.
  12. A lot off stuff can be placed down to save inventory space or to save it in case you die and find your base again. Things like raw ores, clay and bricks can be placed on the ground. Tools can be placed into their related blocks by right clicking while holding the CTRL button.

Day One

On your first day in an area, all you can reasonably do is collect enough supplies for a campfire, dig out a small enclosure, and maybe (maybe) get a couple pieces of meat to cook. The harvesting speed has been reduced so much that it's going to take all day doing just that. And when night hits, the monsters are going to make short work of you if you don't have any equipment. Fist punchies is not a good strat.


The game starts as Minecraft itself starts: by punching trees. The main difference is that you do not get a full log from like a second of holding down the mouse button. Nope, you punch that tree like your life depends on it until it gives you all its lesser drops. You can stop after a couple shafts if you like leaving toothpicks everywhere, but that's up to you. All you need is one to make a pointy stick out of, and then you can use that to get some stone.

Stone crafts into sharp stone, which makes harvesting wood bits faster, but you might want to get a few before going back to the trees. Before nightfall, you will want to have enough shafts to make a campfire in case it's a gloom night, or if you have meat to cook. 4 for the campfire, 1 for a pointy stick (to put meat on), 2 for a fire plough, and optionally a couple more for a wooden bat. So, 7 minimum, 9 if you want to combat hostile mobs or gather more food next day.


If nightfall approaches before you get all this prepped, don't panic. Hostile mobs don't spawn right away, and once they do, they don't wander into your space as early as you expect. So, just try to make a hole that you can block off entrance to while letting light in, and you should be golden. The only exception is if you are in a region with wolves, in a swamp, or in a jungle. Starved wolves may seek you out, but that takes more than a day to happen. Jungle spiders and smaller slimes can fit through one-block gaps, but just steer clear of their biomes to prevent that outcome.

Campfire Usage

The initial state of a lit campfire is a low flame. This will not burn a player walking over it, but once it picks up to a medium flame, all bets are off. The medium flame can be just enough to light a small shelter and hot enough to cook your food. A big flame gives off more light, but will not help you cook your food, rather burn it if you keep it blazing for too long. High flame and low flame do not reset cooking progress, but letting the fire die down to smoldering embers will. If you keep a fire at medium size a full night can cook you two pieces of meat on a single campfire.


Other Things to Keep in Mind

  • At this point, hunger may have set in. If you did a lot of jumping or killing things, it probably reduced your food meter considerably. Jumping can be avoided using dirt slabs (created from two dirt blocks side by side). Wait until you have a weapon or axe before killing nearby animals for food, as it is much more efficient and less hunger intensive than doing it bare-knuckle.
  • Keeping an eye on the sun can keep nightfall from surprising you. Basic stuff, I know. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West (as in real life). The moon in Minecraft does the same. When nightfall hits, unless you have prepared a modest shelter already, make a terrible one quick! Dig a deep hole in the ground if you need to. As you won't be able to build a log cabin or anything nice on the first day, just digging into a mound of dirt is a better goal.
  • When the first night has fallen and hostile mobs roam free, your only forms of protection are your shelter and your tools. By the start of initial spawn nightfall, the only weapon likely obtainable will be a wood club (made with two shafts aligned vertically in the crafting grid. These break easily. So, unless you're only using it for knockback, you might need a few.

Day Two

At the start of the second day, you may wish to wait for any skeletons or zombies nearby to keel over. If there are any nearby you in direct sunlight, a sound will play as if they are being hit. Once you hear them keel over, feel free to destroy whatever barricade you placed at the entrance and run the heck out of your base before looking back. Reason being that creepers love to surprise you right outside your house. But unless you stay in close proximity for more than a second, they won't explode. Surprise creepers are the worst.


Depending on your situation (food level and such), now may be a good time to either cut your losses and drown yourself or to look for food. It's hard to get out of a food deficit if your movement speed and attacks are already weakened by hunger. So, you're left with two choices: either try your best to slap something to death with a bat or two and risk food poisoning, or try again at a new spawn. If you choose the latter, make an effort to place whatever supplies you have at the moment (shafts and stone slabs, for instance), and find enough water to cover your head with. If there isn't any nearby water, consider burying yourself alive, hugging some cows or falling off a cliff. I feel like there should be a content warning here.


If you do have enough food remaining, either you cooked some during the night or you were very sparing on the bunny hops, you should have enough energy to secure more meat and look for cobwebs. Since spiders target chickens and shoot webs at them from a distance, you may find some in the area just waiting for you to harvest and make tools out of. Consider making an axe to get wood resources (including logs) faster, and shovels to dig up clay at full value. Logs can be used as a platform to dry clay on, and careful placement should allow you to prevent mobs from wrecking your bricks before they dry. Since mobs cannot spawn on wood, this is pretty much the intended strat. You can get away with placing bricks just as the sun rises on day three if you want, but leaving wet bricks overnight in areas mobs can traverse is just asking for some to despawn unattended.


Two other uses for string are the fishing line and the bow drill. Consider either of these if you are low on food but have plenty of other resources, as they both will stave off starvation in their own way. Bow drill by using less food to light fires, and fishing rod to catch fish using rotten flesh and other such undesirable food drops. Be aware though, these (unlike the axe and shovel) cannot be placed, and will therefore likely be lost on death. Keeping them for next time will require alternative storage. If you've yet to find sugar cane but already have a workstump and some leather, you can use a picture frame as an alternative to the wicker basket. This however will only let you store one of each item. Stacks still need baskets.

Stone Tools

  • Axe: 2 stones, 1 string, 1 shaft
  • Shovel: 1 stone, 1 string, 1 shaft
  • Pickaxe: 3 stones, 1 string, 2 shafts

As the pickaxe requires more slots than are in the inventory crafting grid, this will be locked off until later when you've chiseled out a workstump. For now, get used to not really mining yet in Minecraft. It is what it is.

Everything That Follows

From the second day onward, survival is pretty freeform. There are goals you should have for sustainability, but many of them can be done in any order. Initial goals are as follows:

  • Find enough sugarcane to farm and make baskets out of (one-stack storage).
  • Dig up clay from shallow water areas (looks different now, as the blocks are a mix of dirt and clay).
  • Place clay on top of dirt or logs to sun-bake into bricks.
  • Use a total of 16 bricks to make four brick slabs.
  • Use four brick slabs to make an oven.
  • Find and collect exposed coal using sharp stones.
  • Create coal from coal dust.
  • Create primitive torches from coal and shaft. They burn out after about a day of use.
  • Light and use torches for cave exploration.
  • Find and mine at least eight iron ore blocks.
  • Craft iron ore into chunks of iron.
  • Place chunks of iron into oven.
  • Completely fill (stuffing with extra flammables if available) and light oven.
  • Store smelted iron nuggets in basket for later retrieval.
  • Craft a chisel from four iron nuggets.
  • Stumped on what to use it for? You'll figure it out.
  • Collect more clay to make more furnaces. Since it takes so long for iron to cook, having 9 ovens means you can get a full iron ingot in a single night.
  • Always stay careful about your supply of string, you will constantly need it for your tools.


Avoiding Starvation

Since animals do not re-spawn and are killed at night by monsters, Hunger become a major threat to the player. Farming won't be available right away either, so the two best options left are hunting and fishing:

  • Hunting is your primary income of food for a long time, so planning effective hunting trips can help you spend less time on gathering food and more on progressing the tech tree and get out of that food stress situation. You want to avoid spending nights near living animals. Common practice is to make outposts to spend the nights in deserts or land that's already devoid of life, building these a day or a half walk away from your base. Make landmarks along the way to find your way back, which also help recover from a death and finding old bases. One way to mark areas is to stick shafts into dirt blocks to indicate directions for instance. A trick for effective hunting is using tall grass (requires shears) in your hand to lure cows and sheep into holes in the ground and suffocate them all at once.
  • Fishing is a major food source next to hunting in the early game (and helps out a lot throughout the rest). During a full moon you can catch up to 10 times as many fish, rain and dusk/dawn also increases the chances a bit. Build up a fishing pole (Bone Fish Hook) and a nice fishing hut that keeps you safe and the next full moon will have you stock up on tons of fish. People have reported catching 30+ fish on full moons, catching over a full stack is a common occurrence. There is one catch though. You need bait to catch fish. Keep those mob drops around! (Rotten flesh, bat wings, creeper oysters, witch wart, spider eyes)
  • Combine foods: Many food sources can be combined to make more valuable food. Brown mushrooms( found in third strata caves only) combine with egg or milk. eggs also combine with pork chops, fish can be combined with milk and bread can make tasty sandwiches with any kind of meat. There are a lot more recipes later on in the game.

Your First Iron Tools

"Which iron tool should I make first ?" is one of the most debated question about this mod, because there is no perfect answer. They all offer different new possibilities so it mostly depends on your situation and what you need the most.

  • Pickaxe: Much faster mining and the ability to mine stone blocks to make your base bigger. Most importantly, it allows you to break the second tier strata stone and thus gather iron more easily (see Hardcore Stratification). A strong contender for your first iron tool if you already know where to get more iron quickly.
  • Axe: Gives access to most Wooden Plank recipes, and allows you to bring back home chests you might find in dungeons and temples, helping you deal with inventory management. Allows you to build much safer base since hostile mobs can't spawn on anything made out of wood. Gives you access to one of the most easily accessible material at that stage of the game, giving you more opportunity to build and to explore around your home.
  • Shears: A single unseen creeper can end your life if you're not careful enough, so it's always handy to have a pair of shears ready to cut out the most explosive parts of the creeper in tense situations. Doubles your string output, since you can harvest the Web block with it (can be crafter into 2 string). Shears also allow you to harvest Tall grass, which can be used to lure sheep and cows to kill them more easily. They are also needed for harvesting hemp to progress the mechanical power tech tree.
  • Sword: Pretty much indispensable for deeper mining. Allows you to block (right click) and reduce damage taken.
  • Shovel: A very powerful tool and viable choice if you're not lucky enough to get them from a zombie. With it you can gather clay much faster, gather full dirt blocks instead of piles and most notably prevents dirt and grass from loosening around your mined block which makes digging holes a whole lot easier and quicker.
  • Hoe: Unlocks farming, can gather Hemp Seeds from mining grass blocks, which lets you lure chickens for all sorts of benefits. Mandatory to start farming Hemp as soon as possible (it's very slow) helps speed up the mechanical power tech tree and lessens the food pressure.
  • Bucket: Even before being able to keep cows alive near your base you can gather milk from wild cows which helps with hunger. Like the other tools you can place buckets as a block using CTRL.

What's next

Check the Ages page for a guide on progression throughout the different stages of the mod!

Beginning To Mine

Once you have a stable base with a decent supply of food and a bunch of torches, you should try exploring deeper caves. Your main aim is to light your way down as far as possible, hopefully finding gold, diamonds and redstone. Due to Hardcore Stratification, it is not possible (or at least ridiculously unfeasible) to dig far enough down to hit diamonds using only an iron pickaxe. Instead, look for existing cave systems or abandoned mines to find your first source for redstone and diamonds. Once you have these, a large portion of the tech tree will be opened unto you.

Alternate Technique: FC mentioned on the forums a good alternative to branch mining is to hit the 2nd layer of stone then dig a long hallway just above it. Listen for water or monsters which will indicate a 2nd layer cave system, then carefully make an opening into the cave system. This cave system will most likely be a deeper system than surface caves - and it is much safer than trying to go down a trench/ravine.

Mechanical Power

Your first bit of mechanical power gets unlocked as soon as you craft an iron axe. Using a chisel to mine stone will grant you up to two Stone Brick before the remainder is too cobbled and just hands you loose stones Using these stones and Gear allows you to build a Hand Crank and Mill stone


Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Gear Shaft,
Wooden Plank
 
Shaft
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Gear
GridNumbersCSS.png
Shaft
Wooden Plank
Shaft
 
Shaft
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Hand Crank Stone Brick,
Gear,
Shaft
 
 
Shaft
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Hand Crank
 
Shaft
 
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Gear
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Mill Stone Stone Brick,
Gear
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Mill Stone
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3
Gear
Stone Brick Brick Stone Strata2 Brick Stone Strata3

You'll notice quickly that using the hand crank uses huge amounts of hunger so you'll be wanting to automate this as soon as possible. Your first automated mechanical power will be a [[Wind Mill] and in order to make one of those you will have to grind Hemp Manually. a LOT of hemp. Time to get that farm up and going! You will need a Hoe and dig up grass blocks for a chance to find hemp seeds which roughly only drops every 20blocks. gather a couple( it's advised to gather around 8 to kick start your farm) and consider if you have the bones and food to manually grind some bone meal to speed up the hemp growth to its mature state.

Once the hemp is mature, it will start producing a second block on top. you can cut these tops off with a shears and grind it in the Mill Stone for Hemp Fibers which makes Sails (also speed up your boat!) which combine into a Wind Mill

Windmill

Goals for this stage are to build a Windmill, Axles, and Gearboxes, and bring power to your mill without standing there hand cranking it.

Before you go any further you can watch this video of Mechanical Power, especially the section from 5:50 to ~8:00 that explains how gearboxes and axles work (you may want to turn your sound down a lot before you hit play. You've been warned!)

[Tutorial]Better than Wolves 101 #2 Mechanical Energy & Hemp : How to start, how to use on YouTube


The recipes for the devices you need for this stage are:

Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Fabric Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Fabric
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Hemp Fiber
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Sail Fabric,
Wooden Plank or
Wooden Moulding
 
 
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Sail
Fabric
Fabric
Fabric
Wooden Plank Wooden Moulding
Wooden Plank Wooden Moulding
Wooden Plank Wooden Moulding
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Wind Mill Sail
 
Sail
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Wind Mill
Sail
 
Sail
 
Sail
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Axle Wooden Plank or
Wooden Moulding,
Rope
 
 
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Axle
Wooden Plank Wooden Moulding
Rope
Wooden Plank Wooden Moulding
 
 
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
!Gear Box Gear,
Axle,
Wooden Planks or
Wooden Siding
Wooden Plank Wooden Siding
Gear
Wooden Plank Wooden Siding
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Gear Box
Gear
Axle
Gear
Wooden Plank Wooden Siding
Gear
Wooden Plank Wooden Siding

Keep in mind that gear boxes and axles will become the basis of all mechanical power systems you will construct in the future. You should make lots of them, especially when you start automating things.

Now, to build a functioning windmill you will need around 5 gearboxes to bring the power down to ground level and approx 20 axles. Another option would be to connect the millstone straight to the windmill (using 1 gearbox and 2 axles), although it is useful to bring the power to the ground/floor level if you want to build more mechanical contraptions there. You will probably want to build a structure to house the windmill as well. Windmills take up a huge amount of space; they are 13x1x13 (LxWxH). So any tower you build to house it must be at least 10 blocks high. The windmill is set up by placing an axle over the edge of your tower, turning it with a right click with empty hands so that it points out and away from the wall (unless it's already pointing in the right direction), and right clicking with the windmill in hand on the axle. The windmill should be placed. If you get an error message, you should make sure the 6 blocks above, below and to the sides of the windmill aren't taken. Remember - even torches and vines can stop you from placing the windmill. You will then run the axles back to your gearbox and down and away to your mill. NOTICE: Every axle can only transport power up to a length of 3 blocks. Placing more axles will just break them when the device is powered.

Leather Processing

Remember back when we said it would be very handy to get some cows and wolves together for later? This is later. Things you will need to start this stage are: a productive wheat farm (or just a decent supply of wheat), cows (at least 2, or else you won't be able to get more), a pack of wolves (two would be a minimum), at least 1 netherrack (probably want to grab glowstone and soul sand while you are there, and way more than 1 netherrack (up to 9), that's just the minimum) 7 iron, a bone, and a bucket of water. This stage is very short and simple once you get all the materials, the only new device is the Cauldron.


Now, put a block of Netherrack and ignite it. Above the flames (exactly 2 blocks above the Netherrack) there should be a Cauldron. It is very recommended to place 9 blocks of Netherrack (in a 3X3 formation, with the Cauldron above the center), because that will greatly increase the speed of the Cauldron.

You have successfully created a Cauldron. You can use it to heat many different food items at once, unlike the Furnace, and it is also capable of creating other things. Also, any items that are thrown into it will get inside. That means you can put it in the bottom of your traps, farms and toilet to effectively store items.

Now, farm some leather from your cows, feeding them wheat to breed, and thinning the herd as they mature. Simultaneously breed your wolves (feed them raw meat till they get hearts over their heads, while they aren't sitting) and once you have around 10 have them sit down in a little area and feed each one, beef or any other meat besides rotten flesh. Just sit around and wait. They will poop out dung, which you need to collect (be careful with that, you don't want to spill it). Once you have a few Leather pieces go over and put it in your mill at the base of the windmill from earlier. It gets processed into Scoured Leather, once you have that put it and the dung into the cauldron. Wait a few seconds and voila: Tanned Leather!

!Tanned Leather | align="center"| Scoured Leather,
Dung,
2 Jungle Bark or
3 Spruce Bark or
5 Oak Bark or
8 Birch Bark
8 Blood Bark |

Scoured Leather
Dung
Jungle Bark
GridNumbersCSS.png
Spruce Bark
GridNumbersCSS.png
Oak Bark
GridNumbersCSS.png
Birch Bark
GridNumbersCSS.png
Blood Bark
GridNumbersCSS.png
 
Grid layout Arrow Stewing Pot (small).png
Tanned Leather
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Tanned leather is really your next step in building devices, much like hemp fiber, and will be used in a LOT of your upcoming stages, as such it is very important and you will probably want to maintain occasional hemp and leather processing as you go about the next few stages. Since you cannot yet fully automate anything.

Wood Processing

This stage has some very easy goals. You will first need to place your new tanned leather on a crafting table and grab some straps. Then construct a belt to use in making your first saw. Immediately after that you will be able to create a Hopper, and then the world of automation is busted wide open. Recipes used in this stage:

Name Ingredients Input » Output
Cut Tanned
Leather
Tanned Leather
Shears
 
 
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Cut Tanned Leather
GridNumbersCSS.png
Shears
Tanned Leather
 
 
 
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
Strap Cut Tanned Leather
Shears
 
 
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Strap
GridNumbersCSS.png
Shears
Cut Tanned Leather
 
 
 
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
Belt Straps
 
Strap
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Belt
Strap
 
Strap
 
Strap
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
Saw Iron Ingots,
Gears, Belt and
Wooden Planks
Iron_Ingot
Iron_Ingot
Iron_Ingot
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Saw
Gear
Belt
Gear
Wooden Plank
Gear
Wooden Plank
Name Ingredients Input » Output
Hopper Wooden Sidings, Gears,
Wooden Pressure Plate,
Wooden Corner
Wooden Siding
 
Wooden Siding
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Hopper
Gear
Wooden Pressure Plate
Gear
 
Wooden Corner
 

First build the saw, then take it over next to your mill at the base of your windmill. Now run another axle out of one of your gearboxes and into your saw. To use the saw, place a block of wood in front of it, and it should be cut down into 2 pieces of wood called Panels. You can also cut a panel to get an even smaller one (1/4 of a wooden block) called Moulding. You can further cut the Moulding into Corners (1/8 of a wooden block). You can also cut corners into gears which is a very efficient way to make them. Continue until you have all of the blocks you need for the Hopper (2 panels, 2 gears, 1 corners). Hoppers are used to collect and sort things that pass over them. Using a combination of hoppers and water flows, and in some cases such as the nether, you will use pistons to automate all of your farm collection areas easily, and with more clever work you can automate just about anything in the game.

Hibachi + Bellows

After much thought and planning, the next section is going to be very short and really not accomplish very much because this is simply a needed step on the way to pottery. First step in this stage is to collect a lot of netherrack. 216 is again the magic number needed to make the 9 Hibachi that will be needed for our Kiln. Once you have 216 Netherrack you will need to place them in your mill and grind them down into Ground Netherrack. After that they will need to be dropped onto(hint hint, first semi automatic opportunity here) a hopper that has soul sand in the filter slot and Hellfire Dust will appear on top of the hopper in the place of the ground netherrack. It is important to note that you will need to run mechanical power to the side of the hopper you are using to filter the ground netherrack or your hopper will overload on the souls being filtered out(which are invisible) and explode, spawning a very bad friend. Hellfire dust is then placed in your Cauldron and 8 dust turns into 1 Concentrated Hellfire. Add an Element, some stone, and a redstone and you get a hibachi. You need 9 of those.

Name Ingredients Input » Output
Concentrated Hellfire Hellfire Dust
Hellfire Dust
GridNumbersCSS.png
 
 
 
Grid layout Arrow Stewing Pot (small).png
Concentrated Hellfire
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Name Ingredients Input » Output
Element Blaze Powder,
Redstone Dust,
Hemp Fiber
Blaze Powder
Redstone (Dust)
Hemp Fiber
 
Grid layout Arrow Stewing Pot (small).png
Element
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Element Blaze Powder,
Redstone Dust,
String
Blaze Powder
Redstone (Dust)
String
 
Grid layout Arrow Stewing Pot (small).png
Element
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Name Ingredients Input » Output
Hibachi Concentrated Hellfire,
Stone, Element,
Redstone Dust
Concentrated Hellfire
Concentrated Hellfire
Concentrated Hellfire
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Hibachi
Stone
Element
Stone
Stone
Redstone (Dust)
Stone

Hibachi are actually very easy to use. All you need to do is run redstone power to them, and they create fire. If you are like me and simply leave them burning all the time then the easiest way to do this is to place a redstone torch immediately below each hibachi. The next piece you will need to complete your preparation for building a kiln is your Bellows. This is very easy to make and I will simply show you the pattern and move on to the next stage.

Name Ingredients Input » Output
Bellows Wooden Sidings,
Tanned Leather,
Gears and Belt
Wooden Siding
Wooden Siding
Wooden Siding
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Bellows
Tanned Leather
Tanned Leather
Tanned Leather
Gear
Belt
Gear

Ok, once you have at least one hibachi (though 9 is optimal) and a bellows in your inventory you are ready for the next stage.

Pottery

The pottery process is started with at least one but preferably several Turntables. When a turntable has mechanical power supplied to the bottom it rotates the block on top of it at varying speeds controlled by the indicator on the side of the turntable. Right clicking with empty hands will change to a slower rotate speed.

Name Ingredients Input » Output
Turntable Sidings, Stone,
Clock,
and Gear
Wooden Siding
Wooden Siding
Wooden Siding
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Turntable
Stone
Clock
Stone
Stone
Gear
Stone

Your first step is to create 8 clay blocks. Then place the clay block on top of a turntable that is powered by an axle. It would be very handy to have a nearby lever that turned on and off the gearbox nearest to your turntable so as to stop the turning at the correct stage of the clays' shaping into Unfired Pottery. As a clay block turns on a turntable it goes through 4 stages that become the following items if placed in a kiln: Crucible, Planter, Vase, and Urn. For now you will need to stop the turntable at the first stage and collect the item once for a crucible, then go to the last stage for 7 urns.

Now we need to build a Kiln with the hibachi underneath and the bellows to stoke it. Your Hibachi are placed in a 3x3 square much like your netherrack under your cauldron but with 9 redstone torches under the hibachi. You will then take at minimum 4(but more makes it look better) brick blocks and place them as shown in the picture below. One block above the hibachi.

Kiln.png
The kiln (on the right) with hibachis underneath it.

Your bellows must be placed against the center and one block above your hibachi facing the fire. Then you need to run mechanical power to the back of the bellows. Now power needs to be alternated to the bellows for it to expand then contract, the easiest way to do this is to use a turntable with redstone torch on the block above it. I'll leave the rest for you to figure out.

Now you have your kiln, to fire your unfired pottery from the turntables above you simply need to place the block in the center of your bricks and wait a few seconds. If nothing happens make sure you have your kiln only one space above your lit hibachi and that your bellows has alternating mechanical power to keep it expanding and contracting. Also check that your bellows is facing the right direction :P.

To move to the next stage you simply need to fire your 7 Urns and 1 Crucible.

Soulforged Steel and Anvil

Your first step in acquiring steel, along with the more advanced blocks that come with it, is placing a urn under a hopper with a soul sand filter, BE SURE THE HOPPER IS POWERED! Else you will get a bit of a surprise, along with a broken hopper, after placing 8 souls of the damned into the urn, place the urn into a crucible with some extract of carbon (coal dust), an iron ingot, and soul flux, like so

Name Ingredients Input » Output
Soulforged Steel Soul Flux
Coal Dust
Soul Urn
Iron Ingot
Soul Urn
Soul Flux
Coal Dust
Iron_Ingot
Grid layout Arrow Stewing Pot (small).png
Soulforged Steel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

now you have your first soul forged steel ingot.

Rendering

now you may be asking "why can't I make tools from steel?" the answer is quite simple, really, the shafts that you use normally are too weak to make steel tools out of, you need something tougher, such as a Haft, which is made like so:

 
Strap
 
Grid layout Arrow (small).png
Haft
 
Glue
 
 
Wooden Moulding
 


Now you may be wondering what that orange stuff in there is, it's Glue, which is made from rendering leather. You may be asking "how do I turn leather into glue?" it's quite simple really, all you need is a cauldron and a fire. Now you may be asking why it doesn't work, well you know the bellows you made earlier? Now it's time to use them again, the fire needs to be hotter in order to render items down, and I'm pretty sure you know how to use those bellows... I hope.

Rest to be completed later -- slango20, Egger3rd