What is it and is it for Me?
Welcome to Thaumcraft 101 - An Introduction to Thaumcraft.
I'll be your professor - Dr. Albus McBlockington.
You will notice that my script is purple and the font is a little nicer than yours. That is to differentiate the voice in your head that you will be reading me in from your own voice ... or whichever voice you assign to the 'student' in this dialogue.
I'll not try to deceive you... Thaumcraft is going to require some effort on your behalf to understand, unlock, build, and use. This isn't quick and easy magic like the blood warlocks sigils and rituals... this is going to be a lot of reading, a lot of grinding, a fair bit of experimenting, and a lot of building.
Sounds like a lot of work... But like... what sorts of things do I get to do and will it be fun?
A Thaumaturge is the master of alchemy (reducing items down to their base magical components and using them to create other items), auromancy (manipulating the latent magic within a region), artificing (fine control over enchantment and the creation of wonderous items), golemancy (the creation and manipulation of golems to do tasks for you) and we've also thrown in a touch of eldritch danger for funsies.
As to its 'fun', that depends on you. If you enjoy a bit of reading, a bit of grinding, solving logistical quandries, building magical apparatii, keeping track of dozens of essentia bottles, and hunting for specific and possibly rare items then yes this will probably be 'fun'.
If you're into it only to shoot lightning from your hand or decorate your area with pretty magical lights then maybe get someone else to build those toys for you rather than build them yourself. And don't feel bad, look into Blood Magic or Botania, they also have some very cool and more... um... 'accessible' and more 'immediately useful' things for novices.
Ouch... ok. Let's assume that I'm interested. Where do I start?
The Beginning - Salis Mundus
Your first foray into the world of Thaumcraft will be to craft some Salis Mundus. This is 'magic powder' that we will use to help create the foundational items to begin your journey.
Now before we begin, have you noticed in your mining or your exploring the existence of coloured crystals that emit faint light? They tend to come in large 'veins' growing along the side of stone blocks. They are rather hard to miss...
You are going to need to collect at least three different types of these.
Once you have your three different types of crystals you will need to craft them together with redstone, a wooden bowl, and a piece of flint. The result should be a pile of magical powder that kind of sparkles.
Step 1 - Crafting Your Own Thauminomicon
Every Thaumaturge needs to create their own Thauminomicon, a magical book that guides you through the material, offering information, challenges, insight, and most importantly, the ability to progress and unlock new items and concepts. If you're used to looking up crafting recipes for mods in the crafting screen well most of Thaumcraft's recipes can't be found their, they can only be found in the Thauminomicon!
To create one for yourself all you need is a regular Minecraft bookshelf. Place it in the world, and then sprinkle some Salus Mundi on it and Abracadabra magic book!
As you unlock aspects of Thaumcraft my nodes (and tabs along the left side) will become available to you. Everything you need to continue on is in this book.
At this point you can just consult your Thauminomicon and be on your merry way... or if you'd like a little bit of a head start, read on and we'll cover some important concepts and early milestones.
Do I get to say much in this one or is it just you talking?
Mostly just me I'm afraid... this is a more academic kind of setting so imagine that I am lecturing from the front of a magical classroom.
Great. :|
We'll try to not make it longer than it needs to be and try to make it useful.
Step 2 - Setting Up a Place to Research and Tinker
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Thaumcraft requires two specialized work stations when getting started... don't worry, there will be more to play with further in... but for now all you need is an Arcane Workstation and a Research Table. Both are easy to make.The Arcane Work Station is just a crafting table placed in the world with Salis Mundus applied to it. The Arcane Workstation works just like a crafting table, except you can add Vis crystals around the sides and also tap into the regional aura.
Step 3 - Scan Everything with the Thaumometer
The first magical item you will craft with the Arcane Workstation is the Thaumometer... a large looking glass that reveals the aspects present in whatever you happen to be looking at. Scanning items, blocks, or entities will provide you with valuable knowledge which will reveal and unlock new things within the Thauminomicon. Once you have this item, scan literally everything. All blocks, all mobs, all items, including chests that contain items... scan your stuff, scan your neighbour's stuff, go into the Nether and scan everything there too... any things you make with Thaumcraft, scan them... scan everything.
Step 4 - Theory Crafting
As you encounter and unlock more nodes within the Thauminomicron, read them carefully... some are just information, some are challenges for you to unlock more, and some have recipes or sub-tabs to be explored.
One of the advancement requirements you'll run into fairly early is the need for specific knowledges... these are gained by crafting or scanning specific things.
Another advancement requirement is discipline specific theories, which are generated by using the Research Table.
Be sure to stock up on paper... you're going to go through it.
To start the Theory Crafting mini-game, interact with your Research Table and give it a stack of paper. You'll be presented with two (sometimes more) options for research. Each item will increase your percentage chance of crafting a theory among the varies disciplines within Thaumcraft and most options require you to have a specific item in your inventory in order to select it. If the items have a yellow exclamation mark next to them then those items are consumed upon selecting that option.
There are a few other subtle options involving focuses and such that I shan't bore you with... the full details of how all this works can of course be found in the Thauminomicon.
Step 5 - Basic Alchemy
Early on you are going to want to get into the Alchemy discipline... at least enough to work a Crucible.
Yes, I can see you've had your hand up for a while... what is it?
... I don't remember what I was going to say, it's been a while... but what is a crucible?
There are a number of special recipes that allow you to create items in this way, by adding something specific if the crucible has the correct type and number of essentia present.
The thing I wanted to make sure you understood though is that there will almost always be extra essentia in your crucible after you are done using it. Even if the crucible has run out of water, the essentia is still present within it... and that essential will break down over time into flux, which is bad. To solve this be sure to use Quartz Shards to turn the leftover essentia into vis crystals. This will be very useful for you in progressing through the Thauminomicon and also for Theory Crafting.
Step 6 - Recording Phases of the Moon
Each night be sure to use the Thaumometer to scan the moon. If you have spare paper and scribing tools in your inventory then you will get a Celestial Note. These can be important in theory crafting but also difficult to get. Start early so that when the time comes and you need a Celestial Note of the Waning Gibbous and the First Quarter, you have them on hand instead of having to wait for the moon to get to the correct phase (hopefully you don't miss it).
Addendum 1 - Next Steps
That concludes the introductory steps to Thaumcraft. It is, by no means a proper overview... there is still so much that hasn't been mentioned... but it should be enough to get you comfortably begun such that you can find your own way with a solid starting point.
Following are a few pieces of advice for your consideration.
- Everything you need to progress will be found within the Thauminomicon. Read it thoroughly.
- Continue to scan everything new with your Thaumometer, everything you make, everything you find, everything you discover... it will sometimes add new knowledge and new nodes to the Thauminomicon
- Be prepared to expand into a large space for the distillation, storage, and manipulation of a LOT of essentia.
- Try not to add flux to the environment unnecessarily. If left unchecked it will create problems.
- Greatwood and Silverwood are important components in Thaumological constructions... be sure to have some on hand and replant the saplings so they grow back.
- Greatwood and Silverwood trees have an effect on a region's aura. They can increase the amount of regional magic and speed its replenishment.
- Once you have a basic grasp of alchemy you may be interested in auramancy next... because it allows you to make a magic glove for shooting fire and lightning and even mining using the magic of the regional aura.
Addendum 2 - Boring Theory Stuff
Studies in Thaumaturgy require you to be proficient in the language of the craft. There are a few terms you need to understand. The Thauminomicon goes over them but why not give a summary here...
Aura (Regional Magic) - Each chunk in Minecraft has a regional amount of magic that can be used in magical crafting, the working of magical constructs, and in manipulating for a more direct effect on the world around via auramancy. In practice, it is a number that can be high or low that fluctuates depending on a variety of factors. If the region's aura is too low then your crafting or magical constructs will fail until it is replenished.
Aspects - The base materials that everything is made out of. You'll be working with these a lot in Alchemy and Artifacing. Aspects are a whole other system that is unrelated to Aura.
Vis - A solid concentration of a specific aspect... Vis crystals contain one 'unit' of an aspect. Handy for storing, very stable and safe to handle, essential for theorycrafting.
Essentia - The liquid version of an aspect. In alchemy you will be 'melting down' items to their base 'aspects' by turning them into 'essentia' and then manipulating that essentia to create new objects. More advanced infusion artificing will also make use of essentia. Safely storing essentia can be an issue as it requires specialized equipment and will quickly deteriorate into dangerous flux if left unattended.
Flux - The unfortunate leftovers of thaumaturgical progress... essentia and powerful thaumaturgic rituals will release flux into the area. In small amounts it should dissipate in time. In moderate amounts it can start to cause harm. In large amounts it threatens to warp the landscape and rip wholes in the fabric of space.
Warp - The amount by which you have become affected by the eldritch danger that is latent within certain forbidden knowledges. The Thauminomicon will highlight forbidden warping knowledges in ominous dark purple. Temporary warp will go away after a while. Permanent warp is... as the name implies... permanent. Warped thaumaturges claim to hear the secrets of the universe whispered to them and are sometimes prone to fits of fear or rage, suffering from very realistic hallucinations.