Getting Started in v5 (Equivalent Exchange)

Written by Akamaru12307.

= Step One: Create The Philosopher's Stone = To start performing alchemy, you're going to need the Philosopher's Stone; this is the fundamental tool that is used in most of the crafts in Equivalent Exchange.

1. Mine around a bit until you find Redstone Ore (and mine it, too).

2. Build a Nether Portal, go to the Nether, and mine some Glowstone.

3. Craft a slimeball like this:

4. Craft your Philosopher's Stone:

I don't want to go to the Nether!: No problem. Use one of the ones at the top of this pic:

= Step Two: Learn Your Transmutations = The heart of the Alchemist's craft is transmutation - turning one kind of material into another. There are a vast number of recipes in Equivalent Exchange that let you do this! The "equivalent" in "Equivalent Exchange" doesn't describe numbers; it describes values. You trade some amount of one item for another item that is equal in value. Think of this as "the Alchemist's ladder" - it takes a lot of Cobble to make a Diamond, and there are several rungs in between.

So 16 Iron (Ore) is equivalent to 1 Diamond (Ore).
Also, since

4 Cobblestone -> 1 Clay

and

5 Clay -> 1 Iron Ingot

320 Cobblestone is equivalent to 1 Diamond.
The 'ladder' also works backwards; if you start with diamonds, you can make a lot of lesser materials. There are many more recipes here..You're going to want to put your transmutation skills to work right away, to build your first few artifacts. We'll get to that in a moment.

Transmutation Part B: The Transmutation Table
Holding your Philosopher's Stone in your hand, press V to charge it until the green bar is full. Then press C.

This will open the Transmutation Table, which is often a more efficient way of doing longer Transmutations.

All the math and such for this is located here.

.

= Step Three: Getting some Diamonds = The recipes in Step Four use DIAMOND BLOCKS.

You can go diamond mining if you want.

OR you can use Akamaru12307's patent pending method:

1. Get some Pumpkin Seeds. This can be difficult, but just use the following recipes:

2. Set up a Pumpkin Farm. Whoever explained Pumpkin farming on minecraftwiki.net clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

Just use the same format as a Melon Farm, but replace the Melon plants with Pumpkin plants:

3. Follow this sequence:

4 Dirt + P-Stone -> 1 Cobblestone

4 Cobblestone + P-Stone -> Clay

5 Clay + P-Stone -> 1 Iron Ingot

And use the recipes that you MEMORIZED UP ABOVE to turn the iron ingots into Diamonds!

Using this method, every 40 Pumpkins will give you a Diamond!
(And then craft 9 Diamonds into a Diamond Block.)

each Diamond will only require 24 Pumpkins! Much better!
All you need to know for the Pumpkin farming is that you put 24 Pumpkins into the left and keep pulling things from the right out and putting them into the left until 1 thing is left on the left and a Diamond appears on the right, and then you take the Diamond.

ALTERNATIVELY, you can mine Cobble for Diamonds using that last bit

4 Cobblestone + P-Stone -> Clay

5 Clay + P-Stone -> 1 Iron Ingot

and this

4 Iron Ingot -> 1 Gold Ingot

4 Gold Ingot -> 1 Diamond

BUT BE AWARE that every Diamond will use 320 Cobblestone.
= Step Four: Building Your Toolbox = The first few things you should build with your new-found skills, of course, aren't going to be the crazy endgame material. You're going to be building up a toolkit of awesome stuff that will help you get there. With that in mind, the rest of this page is devoted to exactly those kinds of tools, and how to get them, set up in a sort of 'walk-through' order...

= Energy Collector: = The Energy Collector is a special device that allows you to increase the worth of fuel items.

To make an Energy Collector, you need: 1 Furnace, 6 Glowstone blocks, 1 Diamond block, and 1 Glass.

It's expensive (nine diamonds per device!), but set up properly, it will pay for itself. Eventually.

(Note: for those of you who still haven't been to the Nether [there's something wrong with you, I say!], you can transmute 4 Redstone Dust or 2 Coal into Glowstone Dust.

Then just craft (ie without the Philosopher's Stone!) 4 Glowstone Dust into 1 Glowstone Block. You'll want at least 10 of them in total, although 14 would be better.)

These ensure that you always have enough fuel for your Energy Condenser or other power items.

Note on placement: you'll be making a shape like this eventually,

basically a plus sign with the center missing, out of your Energy Collectors and later Condensers, so plan accordingly.

It's powered by light.

You'll need to place a Glowstone block directly on top of it to provide max power. (Since right-clicking directly on the Collector opens the UI, you'll have to either use a nearby wall, a ceiling, or place it before you put down the Energy Collector by using a placeholder block like dirt in place of the Collector).

Just place a Glowstone block inside. It will convert it to a Mobius Fuel, which you can transmute backwards into 8 Alchemical Coal and then transmute those into 8 Glowstone.

So it multiplies Glowstone Blocks by 8. Obviously they pretty much fuel themselves.

Make ONE of these for now. Fuel is fine-and-dandy, but you can't convert it to more diamonds.

Multiplying diamonds (in effect) is the job of the next block.

= Energy Condenser: = While the Energy Collector "augments" fuel items (raises them to the next level), the Energy Condenser augments matter-type blocks. What I mean by that is Dirt, Cobblestone, metals, Diamonds, and basically anything that ISN'T fuel. To do this the Condenser uses up fuel (which is why you need an Energy Collector).

Note: for those of you who STILL haven't been to the Nether and/or don't have any Obsidian lying around, you can transmute some from Iron like this:

2 Iron Ingots (+ P-Stone) -> 1 Obsidian.

Here's the recipe:

(Remember to place it in that "plus-sign" format shown above, but not in the same "plus-sign" as the Collector. Group Condensers with Condensers and Collectors with Collectors).

To start with, build ONE Energy Condenser, and put a stack of Dirt (Sand, Gravel) or Cobble in it.

Then take the Mobius Fuel that your Energy Collector has made (transmute 1/4 of it back into Glowstone Blocks to refuel the Collector if you need to)

and put them into the lower "fuel bar" of your Energy Condenser.

If you want to, you can put a Gold Ingot in the Target Slot (the one on the left with a "scope" symbol in it).

Then, however often you want to, take any Gold Ingots/Bars out of the right (or left!) side, transmute all of them back into Iron Ingots, and place 1/4 of those in the left side.

When you have 16 or more Iron Ingots, you can transmute 16 of them into 4 Gold Ingots (4 at a time) and then transmute those into 1 Diamond.

Finally, when you have 9 or more Diamonds, craft 9 of them into a Diamond block.

Use it to craft another Energy Collector (the one ABOVE!), since you're probably running low on Fuel at this point.

(Remember to place it according to the green and yellow picture above!)

Take 1/2 (a right-click's worth!) of the Glowstone Blocks in your 1st Energy Collector out and use it as Fuel for the 2nd.

The next Diamond Block should be crafted into a Energy Condenser (the one after that into a Collector, after that into a Condenser...).

You can stop when you have 4 of each (if you would rather leave the game running when you leave) or keep going for 8, 12, 16... however many you want!

(If you're doing fine on fuel, you can craft another Condenser now, then a Collector, then a Condenser, etc.).

= Why? = If you're not a diamond-hoarder like most of us, you may be wondering why you would need so many Diamonds.

Here's why:

1. In an Energy Condenser a Diamond Block (after a long time) becomes a Dark Matter Block.

2. The Dark Matter Block, in an Energy Condenser, becomes a Dark Matter orb, which you will need below and to make Dark Matter Tools.

(3. In an Energy COLLECTOR (the one ABOVE this one) a Dark Matter becomes a Red Matter, used to make Klein Stars, Pedestals, and Red Matter Tools.)

= The Destruction Catalyst = (Akamaru12307 does not like. Too fuel-consuming. But hey, Reader might like it better. Time will tell.)

You can make 3 by 3 tunnels with ease with the Destruction Catalyst. You can craft it like this:

You've already seen Mobius Fuel. But now you're wondering what the TNT like things in the corners are. Those are Nova Catalysts, crafted like this:

Now that you have the Destruction Catalyst, you need to know how to use it! You can right click a wall to remove a 3 by 3 area but if you press V, it will start charging.

Now when you right click, you remove up to sixteen 3x3 panels in a row! However, it's not free to use:


 * It costs 1 Glowstone Block (you can use other things if you want) for every 27 blocks broken.
 * It costs 5.3~ Glowstone Blocks for every 16x3x3 area.

Don't worry about losing your fuel because you didn't destroy the maximum amount of blocks you could with it, it would be hard to use exactly 5.3~ blocks!

If you don't, the Destruction Catalyst will remember how many blocks you can still destroy with it, and take from that before using more fuel.

= Talisman of Repair: = Hey look, your diamond pick-axe just broke. You can prevent that with Covalence dust.

You can craft them like this:

More recipes can be found here.

(Akamaru12307 recommends skipping to the bolded text.)

You can repair your shiny diamond pickaxe like this:

And look at the link above for more recipes.

Sometimes you won't have time to repair your stuff yourself; this is where the Talisman of Repair comes in handy.

As long as you have Covalence dust, it will repair your stuff for you!

It will even work ANYWHERE in your inventory!

You can craft this amazing thing like this:

And if you put it in an Alchemical Chest, it repairs everything in it FOR FREE (at the rate of 1 point per second)!
(^ Akamaru12307 likes a lot. Free is GOOD. Alchemical Chest with huge storage space is also GOOD. ^)

You can craft the Alchemical Chest like this:

Knowing that your diamond pickaxe will never break again, it's time to collect 2 Dark Matter.

= The Gem of Eternal Density: = I knew you could make it!

You probably noticed by now that every time your inventory fills up, you had to craft stuff into different stuff which meant placing a Workbench down.

The Gem of Eternal Density will do this crafting for you!

I know it uses the Dark Matter that took so long to make but did you really expect such a thing to be cheap?

Press V to charge it and G to activate it.

Now with your new toy, go for 3 Dark Matter!

If you have Buildcraft, you can set up a diamond factory easily using this.

Just pipe the Cobblestone directly into an Alchemical Chest with a Gem of Eternal Density in it.

(Insert pic here).

= The Volcanite Amulet: = The Volcanite Amulet prevents damage from lava, creates lava, and allows you to walk on lava.

It can also fire lava projectiles and stop storms.

For more information click here.

= The Evertide Amulet: = The Evertide Amulet prevents you from drowning, creates water and allows you to walk on water.

It can also fire water projectiles and cause rain (or snow).

For more information click here.

= Swiftwolf's Rending Gale: = Having to walk everywhere and obey the laws of gravity is such a pain. And while you're protected from lava and water (and probably have a shiny set of diamond armor), you still have to watch out for long falls. It doesn't help that now and then a monster comes to interrupt your mining.

Swiftwolf's Rending Gale can help solve all those problems. It comes at a cost, though: You need 4 Dark Matter to craft it, as well as 8 Iron and 4 feathers.

First, you must assemble eight iron ingots into an Iron Band.

Now for the actual ring:

Swiftwolf's Rending Gale naturally protects you from fall damage just by being in your hotbar. In addition, you can use it to shoot projectiles which blow enemies away, strike lightning in outdoor areas when it's rainy or stormy, FLY, and erect a barrier around yourself that will prevent enemies and projectiles from getting near you!

With the Volcanite and Evertide Amulets and Rending Gale in your hotbar, you are basically untouchable: immune to fall damage, immune to lava, immune to drowning.

The only things that can damage you are flukes (sometimes enemies can get a hit in if they jump on you or you back them into a corner), suffocation, and falling out of the world.

(With a full set of Dark Matter Armor you are almost completely invincible.)