Thaumcraft Tips

Thaumcraft is the primary magic mod in GT:NH, which gates numerous others including Witchery, Botania, Blood Magic, vanilla Potions/Enchanting/Beacons, Ender Chests/Tanks, the Bedrock dimension and more. It is based around studying alchemy, wandcraft, nodes and eldritch secrets, balancing the quest for knowledge against the consequences of forbidden arts. Starting Thaumcraft normally requires late LV for aluminium screws and access to the Twilight Forest for Shards and Naga Scales.

Benefits

Beyond unlocking other portions of the modpack, Thaumcraft offers useful tools and mechanics.

• Thaumic Restorer - Repairs durability for almost anything
• Rare Metal Duplication
• Boots of the Traveller - direct upgrade over Piston Boots
• Thaumostatic Harness - creative flight
• Wand Focus: Equal Trade - Swap blocks easily
• Wand Focus: Dislocation - move crops
• Hoe of Growth - 3x3 till, tick accelerate trees/crops not normally affected by bonemeal
• Warded Glass - virtually unbreakable
• Everfull Urn - Infinite Water, automatically fills Crucibles and Petal Apothecaries.
• Everburn Urn - Infinite Lava from Ignis Centivis

First Steps

• Wand
  • Thaumonomicon
  • Arcane Worktable
  • Thaumometer
  • Scribing Tools
    • Research Table

There are two options for a first wand, which is needed to begin Thaumcraft. The standard path is making the Iron Capped Wooden Wand as the Quest Book suggests with "Your First Wand". The Quest Book doesn’t cover everything in Thaumcraft but provides a good guide towards what should be next. The second and more risky option is obtaining a Profane Wand from a Heretic Villager Trade, as covered in the Stone Age Thaumcraft Guide, which gives Warp when it recharges. The Thaumonomicon can be rarely looted from towers in villages, or crafted by right-clicking a Bookshelf with a wand. The Arcane Worktable is made similarly, with a Table instead of a Bookshelf.

Thaumonomicon

Change your GUI scale from Large to see more of the Thaumonomicon at once. The Crafting Recipes in the Thaumonomicon are not to be trusted. Always check NEI for the correct recipes.

Thaumometer

The aspects that make up objects can be scanned by using a Thaumometer. Not all objects are scannable, and sometimes scanning will be blocked until you have discovered aspects. The quest “quest_name” offers a list of items to scan, in order, to unlock aspects quickly. Some researches won't appear until you scan certain items in the world. For example, you must scan iron ingots to unlock Thaumium Ingots, and a torch to unlock Alumentum. Scan everything, including non-block items like Portals or entities. GT:NH includes an inventory scanning upgrade. Hold the Thaumometer over any item in an inventory to scan it without having to throw entities on the ground. Scanning aspects gives points that can be used to unlock new discoveries in the Research Table via a minigame.

Research

Research requires Research Notes, Research Points, and the Research Table. Research Points are obtained by scanning new things with the Thaumometer. The Research Table is two side-by-side Thaumcraft Tables, right-clicked with Scribing Tools. Research Notes are obtained from the Thaumonomicon, while having Scribing Tools and paper in the inventory. Important: any research marked Forbidden with a purple swirly effect will give normal and/or permanent Warp.

While most aspects can be discovered by scanning, there are some that are not needed for progression, but can be found on Galacticraft planets or combined in the Research Table directly by dropping one aspect over the other in the side storage area. Direct combination can be used to discover new aspects instead of scanning an item for any compound aspect.

Place Research Notes and Scribing Tools in their respective slots in the Research Table to activate the minigame. Aspects must be placed in the hexagonal grid in such a way that all the initial symbols are linked together by aspects they share commonalities with. An aspect will connect to any other aspect it is made from, or can be combined to make. A completed Research Note becomes a Discovery, which can be right-clicked in hand to unlock a new section of the Thaumonomicon.

Research Completer =

multiblock

• Research Helper - ‘’’set for version 4.2.2.0 and all add-ons enabled’’’
• Thaumcraft Research Cheatsheet
• Research - FTBwiki.org
• Research Notes - FTBwiki.org

Wands

• ’’’Main Article: Thaumcraft Wands

Using wands crafted from either impregnated sticks or iron caps will harm nodes if you pull too much vis. You can do most alchemy recipes and some crafting recipes with a wooden wand, but infusion is locked until you can get stainless screws for the greatwood wand. After greatwood wands, you will need to build wands AND scepters to get the better wands.

With a frugal 5 dislocation focus + amber wand + 14% discount from gear you can use wand to move your crops around without bothering about seeds, and wand self recharges. Amber Wand Core is in the Thaumic Exploration tab, Wand Focus: Dislocation is in the Thaumic Tinkering tab. Crop Disclocation - Discord

Nodes

Nodes give off a small amount of light, so switching your Journeymap to night mode may allow you to identify them in areas you've explored. You can also use a Copter Pack to spot them from the air at night. Hives also give off a small amount of light, so it can be hard to tell from Journeymap alone.

Nodes in different biomes tend to have aspects corresponding to their environment. For example, deserts have lots of Ignis-containing nodes.

Nodes often spawn alongside rivers.

You can see nodes much easier through a Thaumometer or Goggles of Revealing (locked behind greatwood wand progression).

Obsidian totems always have sinister nodes, but they may have tough guardians nearby.

You can use the i key to list the nodes you have discovered. Once you get Goggles of Revealing you get an arrow pointing to a selected node.

Build a Nature's Compass and look for a Thaumcraft magical forest. The mushrooms there can be turned into vishrooms using alchemy that grant a little vis for every one you break.

Clean Crucible

If you don't want to worry about cleaning up flux goo, you can find paths to use up all of the aspects in the crucible. Here's one that gives both Thaumium ingots and Balanced Shards:

• First, complete the Shard Recrystallisation and the Magical Metallurgy research in the Alchemy tab.
• Throw in 4 Air Shards, 4 Water Shards, 4 Fire Shards, 4 Order Shards, 4 Entropy Shards, and 4 Earth Shards. This should give you 4 balanced shards back and leave 20 Praecantatio and 20 Vitreus in the crucible.
• Next throw in 5 iron ingots to get 5 Thaumium ingots. This should leave 20 Vitreus.
• Now throw in 5 crushed shard powder (Aer Crystal Powder, Aqua Crystal Powder, etc). This will give you 5 shards and leave zero aspects in the crucible. Nice and tidy!

If there's a few lingering aspects left in your crucible and you're not sure how to get rid of them, try throwing some stuff in:

• Fames (x2): throw in sugar to get Nutrient Mix. Requires the Nutrient Mix research in Thaumic Horizons.
• Gelum (x1): throw in a snowball to get 2 snowballs. Then throw them at a golem. Requires Simple Duplication research in Thaumic Bases.
• Ordo (x1): throw in an iron nugget to get a steel nugget. Requires Steel Transmutation research in Alchemy.
• Metallum (x2): throw in an iron nugget to get 3 iron nugget. Requires Metal Transmutation research in Alchemy.
• Pannus (x4): throw in vanilla wheat seeds to get Plax seeds. Requires Plax research in Thaumic Bases.
• Perditio (x1): throw in a bone to get 4 bonemeal (Requires research in ), or one sandstone to get 3 sand, or a blaze rod to get 3 blaze powder (Requires Simple Duplication research in Thaumic Bases).
• Praecantatio (x4): throw in an iron ingot to get a thaumium ingot.
• Telum (x1): throw in an arrow to get 2 arrows. Requires Simple Duplication research in Thaumic Bases.
• Victus (x3): throw in raw beef, raw pork chop, or raw chicken to duplicate it. Requires Meat Growth research in Thaumic Horizons.
• Vitreus (x4): throw in crushed shard powder (Aer, Aqua, etc). to get a corresponding shard, or amber dust to get amber. Requires Shard Recrystallisation research in Alchemy.
• Vinculum (x1): throw in a spruce sapling to get amber. Requires Making Amber research in Thaumic Bases.

Appendix 1: Concepts

Aspects

All aspects, except custom GTNH aspects

These are elemental signs which describe all objects. Thre are six primal aspects; Ignis (fire), Aqua (water), Terra (earth), Aer (air), Perdito (chaos) and Ordo (order). Primal aspects combine to make more complex, compound aspects, which in combination with Primals are then assigned to every object based on its nature. Scanning objects with a Thaumometer gives research points equal to the aspects of the item scanned.

List of Custom Aspects (spoilers).

Aspect	Combine
Aequalitas	Cognito + Ordo
Astrum	Lux + Primordium
Gloria	Humanus + Iter
Primordium	Vacous + Motus
Terminus	Alienis + Lucrum
Vesania	Cognito + Vitium

Vis

This is the physical manifestation of aspects for using wand foci, charging wands, and magical crafting. Vis may be found by killing mobs (the other orbs that drop besides experience), drawing it from Nodes found in the world, or by breaking Primal Shrooms. Vis only exists as the six Primal aspects.

• Vis - FTBWiki.org

Centivis

Energized Nodes can produce Centivis, a type of Vis that is only used to power other magical devices within an eight block radius. It cannot recharge wands or be used as normal Vis.

• Energized Nodes - Thaumcraft 4 Wiki

Nodes

These are nexuses of Vis power which can be found in the world. The aspects of a node are random. After scanning them with a Thaumometer, their location will be marked down in your Node Tracker (bound to "I" by default). A node will not be scannable if it contains undiscovered aspects. Late into your thaumaturgical study, you will learn ways to manipulate nodes - adding aspects, moving & merging them, and finding the true secrets behind them.

Essentia

Essentia are a liquid form of aspects. You can acquire them by burning items in an Alchemical Furnace to extract their component essentia. Liquid essentia may be stored in essentia jars, and later can interface with your AE2 system. Essentia are vital for alchemy, the Infusion Altar, and running certain machines, like the Lamp of Growth, Arcane Bore, or Thaumic Replicator.

• Spreadsheet - good sources of Essentia

Warp

Warp is one of Thaumcraft's consequence mechanics; it's acquired when learning Forbidden research in the Thaumonomicon (marked with a tooltip and purple fog) and when doing certain actions in world, like eating zombie brains. There are three types; Temporary, which fades with time, Normal, which can be removed with effort, and Permanent, which is permanent until very late in Thaumcraft progress and exceptionally hard to remove even then. Current Warp can be checked by using Arcane Litmus Paper, or /checkwarp (if allowed on your server). Do not stack Warp without the means for dealing with it. It cannot be permanently removed before IV tech progression, so choose research options accordingly.

Warp will randomly provide in-world effects depending on the total amount of all types. Low levels of Warp are manageable and can be annoying, but aren't very harmful. Large amounts of warp can and WILL end a run if obtained too early on. (Unless capable of surviving random Wither boss spawns.) Some eldritch secrets cannot be understood without at least 50 warp. The Eldritch tab first unlocks at 30 warp, which gives access to Void Metal. Void Metal can also be acquired via Bees.

Warp can be mitigated or eliminated, with effort. Pure Tear, Impure Tear, Soul Brazier, Warp Tumor, Santizing Soap, Bath Salts. Pure Tear can be rarely obtained from lootbags but beware: using one will discharge all your Warp at once, causing death and destruction. Use well away from anything important and expect to perish.

• Warp Effects
• Display TC Warp with InGame Info XML

Flux

Flux is the second of Thaumcraft’s consequence mechanics. Instead of affecting the player, Flux is released into the world as a gas or liquid. Touching either can inflict the Flux Flu debuff. Both can be destroyed by placing blocks in the space they occupy. Too much Flux from careless Thaumaturgy has a chance to create Fibrous Taint.

• Flux - FTBwiki.org

Taint

Taint is the third, and most challenging negative mechanic. It can manifest as Fibrous Taint, Tainted Soil or Crusted Taint, which will slowly convert the local biome to Tainted Land any any nodes into Tainted nodes, which will also spread more Fibrous Taint. Taint can infest any living block or entity, slowly spreading across the landscape and stopped only by void, bedrock and water. Do not allow Tainted Land to remain in render distance as it will continuously spread while loaded.

• Fibrous Taint - FTBwiki.org

Appendix 2: Warp Effects

Warning: Contains Spoilers

2.1.1.0 WarpTheory Effects (spoilers).

Warp	Effect Name	Description
10	FakeBoom	Random explosion noises
10	FakeBoomer	Random creeper charging noises
15	Bats	Spawns bats around you (good source of volatus!)
16	Poison	Adds poison effect randomly. First harmful effect, can be cleared with milk or terrawart
18	Jump	Increases jump height very significantly. If you're wearing jump increasing boots, this might propel you 40 blocks into the air in the overworld. If you're on a low gravity planet, I don't recommend jumping to avoid dying of fall damage.
25	Blood	Rains blood particles from nearby blocks
25	Nausea	Applies nausea effect (screen tearing)
25	Rain	Turns weather to rain. Off on most multiplayer servers.
26	Friend	Spawns a "friendly" creeper with ~110 health and a randomized name. Although it won't explode, it can be infernal, which means it can force choke you if you're afking when it spawns. Or hurt you with vengeance when you try to kill it.
30	Lightning	Queues up more and more lightning strikes over time for when you go outside. This is the first warp effect that really sucks as it makes going outside difficult without bonus hearts or good armor. Get a Thaumic Restorer for all the damage your armor will be taking. Or use electric armors.
32	LiveStockRain	Rains animals on a nearby sky-visible block. Will queue until you get within 5 or so blocks of a valid block. Good source of leather :)
38	Wind	Pushes you around
43	Blind	Applies blind effect
45	Blink	Randomly teleports you a few blocks, including up or down. Can be very disorienting with blind and nausea.
50	Acceleration	Randomly increases ticks nearby?
50	Decay	Inflict slowness? Destroy nearby crops?
50	Swamp	Spawns random trees/swamp water around. Will grief your base.
80	Chest	Scrambles all nearby chest inventories.
80	WitherSpawn	Spawns a wither.

Since 2.1.2.0, warp has been reworked to be less oppressive and puts base griefing much later in the warp progression. The table below may not reflect the final warp effects, this is just copy-pasted from the PR which added the changes.

2.1.2.0 WarpTheory Effects (spoilers).

Warp	Effect Name	Description
5	Message	Displays a random message in chat
10	Fake Explosion	Random explosion noises
15	Coin	Player gets a Thaumcraft coin
15	Pumpkin	If player has no helmet, place pumpkin into helmet slot.
20	Spawn Phantoms	Spawns ghost mobs (disappear when looked at, harmless)
20	Lay Eggs	Player lays eggs at random intervals
25	Fake Creeper	Random creeper charging noises
25	Fake Rain	Fake rain particles spawn near player
30	GregTech Fake Sounds	> 30: Wrench sound > 60: Machine out of power > 90: Howler alarm
30	Spawn Bats	> 30: Bats > 60: Bats are on fire > 90: Bats are on fire and have fire resistance
35	Blood	> 30: Blood particles spawn around player > 70: Blood is black
35	Fake Enderman	Plays distorted enderman scream
40	Spawn Friendly Creeper	> 40: Spawns a "friendly" creeper with ~110 health and a randomized name. Although it won't explode, it can be infernal, which means it can force choke you if you're afking when it spawns. Or hurt you with vengeance when you try to kill it. > 80: Creeper will explode (but do no damage) > 120: Creeper is invisible until right before it explodes
45	Nausea	Applies nausea effect (screen tearing)
45	Jump Boost	Increases jump height very significantly. If you're wearing jump increasing boots, this might propel you 40 blocks into the air in the overworld. If you're on a low gravity planet, I don't recommend jumping to avoid dying of fall damage.
50	Vis Drain	Drains some vis from player's wand
50	Insomnia	Player cannot sleep for a few minutes
55	Thunderstorm	Changes weather to thunderstorm. Disabled on most servers.
60	Spawn Fire Bats	> 60: Spawns some Thaumcraft fire bats > 120: Fire bats can be randomly explosive or devil fire bats
65	Blindness	Applies blindness effect
65	Poison	Applies poison effect. Use milk or terrawart to clear.
70	Livestock Rain	> 70: Rains animals on a nearby sky-visible block. Will queue until you get within 5 or so blocks of a valid block. Good source of leather :) > 140: Rains squid > 210: Rains tainted livestock. Note that it's possible for some of the livestock to survive if there's a ledge or something nearby, and tainted sheep can spread taint. However, this warp effect spawns special "safe" tainted sheep that won't spread taint.
75	Spawn Doppelgänger	Spawns a mob that: + Follows players around and is leashable + Looks like the player that spawned it, with same max and current health + Heals over time, similar to a well-fed player + When it takes damage, deals same damage to player that spawned it, ignoring armor + On death, drops rotten flesh, with a rare drop of a player head
80	Wither Potion	Gives player 30s of Wither 3, Hunger 3, Slowness 3
80	Spawn Angry Enderman	> 80: Spawns aggro'd endermen. Only occurs at night > 160: Endermen have Invisibility and Strength 2
85	Wind	Pushes you around
90	Ender Pearl	Makes the player fire an ender pearl wherever they happen to be looking
95	Blaze Fireball	After a 2-second delay, player fires 3 blaze fireballs. There's a delay so you can look away from anything flammable.
100	Junk	Fills all empty inventory and hotbar slots with random junk items.
100	Litmus Paper	Gives player some litmus paper. Meant as a warning for upcoming dangerous warp effects. Can only trigger once per 8 hours.
110	Obsidian	Spawns a block of obsidian where the player's head is, suffocating them.
120	Lightning	Queues up more and more lightning strikes over time for when you go outside. This makes going outside difficult without bonus hearts or good armor. Get a Thaumic Restorer for all the damage your armor will be taking. Or use electric armors.
125	Inventory Swap	Does one of the following at random: + If a player is holding an item and has an empty slot in inventory, places the item in hand into the empty slot. + Randomly swaps the items in two slots in inventory (not hotbar)
130	Random Teleport	Randomly teleports you a few blocks, including up or down. Can be very disorienting with blind and nausea.
140	Acceleration	Randomly increases ticks nearby?
150	Inventory Scramble	Completely scrambles player's inventory and hotbar (currently held item will not be moved)
150	Fake Wither	Plays a wither spawn sound effect. Like the litmus paper, meant as a warning for even worse warp effects coming.
160	Countdown Bomb	Player gets a countdown from 10 seconds. Once the countdown hits 0, triggers a real creeper explosion centered on the player. Also spews particles everywhere so other players know to run away.
170	Mushrooms	Randomly places mushrooms, converts grass and dirt to mycelium, and converts cows to mooshrooms.
175	Snow	Randomly places snow, converts water to ice, and spawns snow golems with fire resistance.
180	Decay	Inflict slowness? Destroy nearby crops?
190	Random Trees	Spawns random trees around. Will grief your base.
200	Spawn Wither	Spawns a wither.