Getting Started (Mystcraft)

Overview:

Mystcraft is a mod that provides you with the ability to create new dimensions to play in.

These dimensions can look very close to the overworld (almost identical, in fact), somewhat similar to the Nether, or the End, or very, very different from anything you've seen before.

Safely using Mystcraft requires knowing how to make Linking Books and Descriptive Books, as well as what to keep in your hotbar.

It is possible to get stuck in an age, and be unable to return to the Overworld, or any other dimension, without cheating. This is both known, and intentional; this mimics the source material the mod is based on.

Necessities
In order to start creating new ages you will need:
 * A steady supply of sugarcane for paper
 * A large supply of cows or leather for books
 * A nearby water source capable of spawning squids for ink sacs
 * A couple of glass bottles for Ink Vials

Safety
BEFORE you do anything else, you will want to make linking books.

Linking books are the only way back to where you were before. Descriptive books, or age books, will let you go to new worlds. Linking books are how you return back to where you came from.

To make a linking book, you need an Ink Mixer to make linking panels, and then you combine link panels and leather to make an unlinked link book.

Video showing the creation and use of linking books

Warning to server operators: Linking books permit extremely cheap and almost unrestricted teleportation between any place your players have been to. If you want to restrict the free teleportation, look into Linking Tweaks

Bookstands, and Lecterns
Bookstands and Lecterns serve to hold books in safety. When you link through a book, the book you use will stay behind.

A book on the ground may take damage; a book that gets wet, including on the ground when it rains, will take damage. There is no repair for books at this time.

New worlds
Once you have linking books to get home, you can begin to consider going to new worlds. A random world can be made by putting a linking panel and leather into a Book Binder. Additional pages can be added if you want to influence the resultant world, but are not needed.

For safety, you want your inventory to contain at least the following:
 * 1. Three return linking books home. Two in the hotbar, one in inventory.
 * 2. Two bookstands or lecterns, in hotbar.
 * 3. A chest, in hot bar.
 * 4. Lighting sources -- torches, glowstone, etc., in hotbar.

All of the above should be considered mandatory.

Recommended:
 * 5. A potion of night vision. Just in case you find yourself in complete darkness with no light or view of sky. These worlds are called Cave Worlds, and look like the nether -- but without the natural background lighting, and usually without any glowstone.

On arrival, plan to plop down some lighting, a bookstand/lectern, one of the books from your hotbar, then move a short distance, and place a chest, the spare linkbook from your inventory, and spare bookstand/lectern in that chest.

'''Never remove the last return home linkbook from your hotbar. Keep it available at all times. Regard this as the number one of rule of this mod in all cases.'''

Video showing safe travel to a random world

Emergency Get-Home
If you get into trouble, this is what you want to know.

First, about one age in 10 will randomly have a Star Fissure. You may be able to find a page for a Star Fissure in a library; if so, you can use that in a book binder to force an age to have a way home. Star Fissures will return you to the overworld spawn.

This is the in-game mechanism for getting home, without cheating.

If you need to cheat to get home, the command to use is "/tpx 0". If you are in single player, and cannot normally use cheats, you can "Open to LAN", and enable cheats there.

If a server op needs to get someone else home, then "/tpx playername 0" will work.

Instabilities
Occasionally, random things may be found in a world that provide you with extra resources; these extra resources will generate instability. An example of this would be Coal Tendrils. A tendril is similar to a small cave system, but made from some material, typically wood, instead of air.

The more valuable the resource, as well as the more common it is, will determine the amount of instability.

Badly written worlds (if you are using the book binder to make customized worlds) can also cause instability.

The most common source of instability will be oceans of some mod-added liquid. These will generally be so unstable that the world will just need to be abandoned.

Some of the possible instabilities are:
 * Blindness
 * Nausea
 * Crumble: Turns dirt into sand, ore into stone, and stone into gravel
 * Black Decay: Generates black blocks that spread outward causing the blocks on top to fall into the void
 * Red, Blue, and Purple Decay: Turns the world into the decay block
 * White Decay: Turns the world into a decay block that damages any moving mobs, including the player, however by standing still you will remained unharmed
 * Enemy Regeneration: Mobs have health regeneration
 * Erosion: Same effect as Crumble though only occurs around water
 * Explosions: Frequent spontaneous explosions occur randomly throughout the world
 * Mining Fatigue
 * Hunger
 * Lightning
 * Meteors: Frequent meteors fall from the sky creating large explosions and fires while dropping ores
 * Poisoned Surface: Poisons you while walking on the surface
 * Scorched: Will catch fire if exposed to the sun
 * Slowness
 * Weakness

Most potion effects can be sheltered by having a roof over you. The exceptions are mining fatigue and hunger.

Additional fun can be with with More Mystcraft Decays -- be sure to read the "how to configure for 1.6.4" instructions over there. The current version is SSP/LAN only.