Blood Altar

The Blood Altar is a block added by Blood Magic. It is used to transmute various items using Life Essence (LP). The Blood Altar has an internal storage buffer of 1,000 LP that must be filled before crafting can occur. The altar can be expanded into a multiblock structure in order to access more powerful tiers of transmutation. Currently there are six tiers of Blood Altars, although only 5 of them can be made in survival mode since there is no way (by default) to craft the Crystal Clusters needed for the last tier. Some packs allow Crystal Clusters to be crafted using custom recipes with a config option enabling the recipes.

Comparator Behaviour
The Blood Altar has 2 methods of outputting a comparator signal. By default, it will provide a signal denoting how much blood it is carrying, similar to a chest. If a Bloodstone Brick is placed directly underneath the altar and any Blood Orb is placed in it, it will output a signal that corresponds to the linked Blood Network's currently stored LP. This can be useful for automation. It measures how much LP is in the altar compared to the max amount of LP the given Blood Orb has. For example, if a Master Blood Orb is elsewhere collecting LP and an Apprentice Blood Orb is being measured, the comparator output will show as "full" even if the network is well below the capacity the player's Master Blood Orb.

Tiers
The Blood Altar is used to transmute various items using Life Essence. The transmuted items can then be used in the creation of much of Blood Magic's content. A non-upgraded Altar can store a maximum of 10,000 Life Essence (LP). The maximum storage per tier for an altar crafted with only Runes of Augmented Capacity is listed below for each tier.

Much like a Beacon, the Blood Altar increases in tier in a pyramid-like fashion; each successive new tier is added by building downward and out from the previous layer. Unlike the Beacon, the inside of the layers and any gaps in the structure can be left empty. The only required blocks are the Blood Altar, the various types of Blood Runes, and any other block specifically designated in the construction of each tier.

Tier 1
The Tier 1 Altar only consists of the Altar itself. It is capable of storing 10,000 LP.



Tier 2
An Altar can be upgraded to a Tier 2 Altar by placing 8 of any type of Blood Rune around the base of the altar.



Tier 3
The Tier 3 altar requires a new and larger ring of Blood Runes beneath the initial eight runes of a Tier 2 altar. Additionally, 2-block tall pillars on each of the four corners of the new outer ring must be constructed, capped with a Glowstone block or sea lantern.



Tier 4
Upgrading an altar to its fourth tier will require an additional 28 Blood Runes and introduces a new block, Large Bloodstone Brick. 4 four block-tall pillars must be built on the corners of the new outer ring, each capped with a Large Bloodstone Brick.



Tier 5


The fifth tier of your Blood Magic altar requires 52 additional Blood Runes and 4 beacons. Only the beacon block is required for the Altar to correctly form; the base for each beacon is not required at all, and does not need to be made of any particular block. The Tier 5 Altar allows the player to unlock the full potential of their Blood Magic endeavors by way of unlocking even more and more powerful transfusion recipes.

Unlike previous tiers, the fourth ring of runes requires a two-block gap outward from the previous ring.

Tier 6


The sixth tier of the altar can only be built on the 1.7.10 version of the mod without creative mode since there is no way to craft the Crystal Clusters needed for it. The previously final tier of the Blood Magic altar will require 76 additional Blood Runes, and 4 seven block pillars capped with Crystal Clusters. The Tier 6 Altar would allow the player to unlock the full potential of their Blood Magic endeavors by way of unlocking even more and more powerful transfusion recipes.

Like the previous tier, the fifth ring of runes requires a two-block gap outward from the previous ring.

Reverse construction
As per user request, below is a construction guide for building a Tier 6 Blood Altar from the ground up, allowing a player to allocate space for a full altar and construct it over time. The Misc. Solid Blocks can be any solid block. They are used to make pillars in tiers 3, 4, and 6. Only the materials of the top blocks of these pillars matter; otherwise, the pillars must just be present. In addition to the listed required materials, bring a stack or two of Sand or some such, to use as an easily removable block to fill space, stand on, and count with when building. These 'spacer' blocks are not necessary parts of the final construct, but having them will make the initial build easier.

To reverse-construct a Tier 6 Blood Altar, start on the ground with the outermost ring. Pick a corner, place a single block for spacing, then place 7 Misc. Solid Blocks in a vertical column above that spacer. Place a Crystal Cluster block on top of the pillar. Return to the ground to start a side. Place one additional (Sand) block for spacing on any side of the first spacer, then place a line of 19 Blood Runes. At the end of the line, place 2 more spacer blocks and build another 7 Solid Block - Crystal Cluster pillar. Turn 90 degrees and repeat the process of spacer - 19 Blood Runes - spacer - Pillar 3 more times, to form a 23x23 square area of Blood Runes, spacers, and pillars. This is the Altar Tier 6 ring. Note: The four pillars each float one block above the rest of the ring. This applies to all eight other pillars used in later layers.

Continuing inward, step to the second Blood Rune from any side, and place a line of 3 spacer blocks moving in towards the center of the ring. Place another spacer on top of the last spacer, and place a Beacon on top of it. Place two more spacer blocks to continue the previous line, and then place a Blood Rune on top of the last spacer. Place an additional 12 Blood Runes in a line extending from the first, creating a line of 13 runes. Place another spacer below the last Rune, place 2 more spacers in line, place one more spacer on top of the last one, and place a Beacon on top of the last spacer. Turn, and repeat spacers and runes 3 more times, to form a 15x15 square. This is the Altar Tier 5 ring.

Continuing inward, step to the first blood rune on any side, and drop 3 spacers coming in from it. Place two spacers on top of the last, then use 4 Misc. Solid Blocks to build a pillar and place a Large Bloodstone Block on top. Drop down to the bottom of the pillar, and place a line of 9 Blood Runes moving away from the topmost spacer block. At this point, the Pillars should start 3 blocks above ground, and the Blood Runes should sit 2 blocks above ground. At the end of the line of Runes, place another stack of spacers and another 4 Solid Block - Large Bloodstone Block pillar. Turn and repeat 3 more times, to form a 11x11 square. This is the Altar Tier 4 ring.

The Altar Tier 3 ring is essentially the same as the Tier 4 ring, 1 block further in from all sides and 1 block higher. The pillars are each 2 Solid Blocks and 1 Glowstone block, and hover 4 blocks above ground. The Blood Rune sides are each 5 blocks long, and hover 3 blocks above ground.

The Altar Tier 2 ring is the simplest ring. It consists of 8 Blood Runes, 1 block above the Tier 3 Runes (4 blocks above ground) and 1 block further in from all sides. The center of the 8 rings is empty, and the Blood Altar block itself is placed 1 block above the runes to cover the center opening.

All blocks other than the blocks listed can be any block, including air. Blood Altars can therefore be adorned with any number of creative decorations, or they can be left as open shells. However, as there are four Beacons used to build the Altar, it may be useful to build bases for them into the structure, so as to use their bonuses.