Tutorial:Getting Started (IndustrialCraft 2 Experimental)

This article is part of the Modded Minecraft Wiki's Tutorials section.

A Bit About IC2

Getting Started in IndustrialCraft 2 is often slower and less forgiving than in other technology mods, however the pay-off is often worth it. In the late game you expect to have powerful utility items such as the Mining Laser, powerful mining options such as the Advanced Diamond Drill or the Advanced Chainsaw and Ore Tripling (vs. the Ore Doubling of many other mods).

However getting there requires working your way up through a long tech tree. This mod is one of the few that tries to encourage you finding some way to automate crafting. This can simply be crafting in large batches, or it can be using other mods to aid in automation.

Of particular note, most players will make hundreds of Electronic Circuits, RE Batteries and many Basic Machine Casings. In packs of yore, Project Tables were commonly used to make crafting these items quick and painless. In more modern packs there are many options - from AE2's ME Crafting Terminal to Logistics Pipes autocrafting options, and many more besides. If all else fails, the Worktable from Tinker's Construct can act as a way to easily automate the crafting of items using an external inventory when placed next to a vanilla Chest.

It is not advised to play IndustrialCraft 2 without finding some way to automate parts of the otherwise lengthy crafting chain required to craft many items.

Getting Started

Progressing through the IndustrialCraft 2 tech tree typically requires moving up through the various power tiers, establishing a comprehensive power network, and moving on to automate many basic tasks. IndustrialCraft 2 typically expects the presence of other mods, but can be automated with vanilla mechanics (e.g. Hoppers). The "Getting Started" section is a brief explanation of progressing through the first "power tier" within IC2.

Starting Materials

IndustrialCraft 2 has a tiered power setup which requires a hefty resource investment before beginning down its tech tree. Before you begin work on the mod, you will need a reasonable supply of:

• Tin Ingots (obtained from Tin Ore).
• Copper Ingots (obtained from Copper Ore).
• Rubber (acquired via Sticky Resin)
• Sticky Resin (taken from Rubber Trees via a Treetap)
• Iron Ingots.
• Wood Planks

Starting Tools

With these you will want to craft some basic tools:

• A Forge Hammer. The Forge Hammer is used to create metal plates.
• A Wrench or an Electric Wrench. The Wrench is used to pick up or rotate IC2 machines.
• An Cutter. This is used to create your first wires - e.g. Tin Cable and Copper Cable
• Multiple Treetaps or an Electric Treetap. These are used to harvest Sticky Resin from Rubber Trees

Starting Power

To start out in IC2, you will want:

• Some form of power generation (e.g. a Generator)
• Some form of power storage (e.g. a BatBox)
• Some form of cable (e.g. Insulated Tin Cable)

Starting Machines

After you have your basic power network set up and generating power, you will want some way of spending that power. Below are some of the entry-level machines available in IC2:

• Electric Furnace (More efficient way of smelting items)
• Extractor (Useful for creating Rubber efficiently)
• Compressor (Useful for many more advanced processing tasks)
• Macerator (IC2 ore doubling)
• Metal Former (A machine to remove the need of a Forge Hammer and Cutters)

Most players will want at least one of each of these machines before moving onto more advanced game concepts.

Advanced Ore Processing

<Needs work>

Macerator / Rotary Macerator -> Ore Washing Plant -> Thermal Centrifuge -> Electric Furnace / Induction Furnace

Byproducts useful for creation of CF Powder, and often provide additional secondary products - e.g. gold, silver, lead, iron, nickel.

Note that macerator in this scheme is not compatible with other mod equivellants (e.g. Pulverizer).

General Concepts

Below are a brief explanation of basic concepts from within IC2:

Cable Insulation

Cables may be insulated to be used in the world. In previous versions this lowered the EU loss noticeably and also prevented the player from being shocked (and potentially killed) when coming into contact with powered cable. Noticeably touching EV cable could instantly kill a player in many/most forms of armour.

It is unknown if insulation currently increases cable efficiencies in IC2 Exp, but it does removes player shocking in current mod versions.

Wrenches and Explosions

In (most modern versions of) IC2 Experimental, using a conventional Wrench no longer has a chance of destroying a machine. In older versions of IC2, conventional Wrenches (and Electric Wrenches that weren't in lossless mode) would have a small chance of destroying machines that you pick up using them.

Note that if you use a pickaxe to mine an IC2 machine, it will typically break - a Wrench of some description is still required.

Wrenches can also be used to change the facing of a block - either by shift-clicking or regular clicking. Shift + right clicking will make the block face away from you. Either shift + right clicking (when it is already facing away from you), or right clicking (when it is facing towards you) will make a machine drop.

Charging Items

Items that can take a charge (e.g. batteries, energy crystals) can only be charged and discharged at a machine of the same tier as it or higher. This means that Energy Crystals can only be charged in MFE's and MFSU's (for example). A common mistake people make when playing IC2 is trying to run machines using their battery slot using a more advanced battery.

Very few machines can accept anything beyond an RE-Battery.

Power Tiers

Within IC2, power comes in tiers. All tiers are inclusive of those below - so Tier 2 cables can carry Tier 1 power (but will do so less efficiently). You can connect multiple machines of different types to the same cable at the correct voltage (voltages are not additive). This means a Tin Cable (maximum power = 32 EU/packet) could carry hundreds of EU per tick providing no one source was outputting at more than 32 EU/p. For example, you could connect multiple BatBoxes in parallel to a single tin cable to power multiple machines further down that cable.

To change between power tiers, you typically need one of three main transformers - LV-Transformer, MV-Transformer and HV-Transformer. You can toggle whether they react to redstone, and whether they step-up or step-down the power. By default they will buffer power until they reach power of the required packet size before outputting an EU packet. For example, stepping 32 EU/t up to 128 EU/t will buffer four 32 EU packets before outputting a single 128 EU packet. Note that this means the highest output (per tick, per side) will be 32EU/t. Since multiple sides can output simultaneously this also means that if you have a step down transformer from 128 -> 32 EU/t, you could connect four sides to the transformer and output power at the full 128 EU/t that it could be provided at.

Power Tier	Maximum EU per Packet	Cable Type	Storage Block	Portable Storage
Low Voltage	32 EU	Insulated Tin Cable	BatBox	RE-Battery
Medium Voltage	128 EU	Insulated Copper Cable	CESU	Advanced Battery
High Voltage	512 EU	Insulated Gold Cable	MFE	Energy Crystal
Extreme Voltage	2048 EU	Insulated HV Cable	MFSU	Lapotron Crystal
Insane Voltage	8192 EU	Glass Fibre Cable	N/A	N/A

Cable Losses

Cable Type	Maximum Travel Distance	Loss Per Block	Loss Per Block (Percent of Max.)
Insulated Tin Cable	1,280 blocks	0.025 EU	0.07%
Insulated Copper Cable	640 blocks	0.2 EU	0.16%
Insulated Gold Cable	1,536 blocks	0.4 EU	0.07%
Insulated HV Cable	2,560 blocks	0.8 EU	0.04%
Glass Fibre Cable	327,680 blocks	0.025 EU	0.003%

Example: A Tin Cable operating at 32 EU/p (e.g. output from a BatBox) that travels 100 blocks will lose 2.5 EU in the packet, causing just 29.5 EU to arrive at its destination. This means that cables are the least lossy (percentage-wise) when used at their maximum capacity. To achieve optimum efficiency, this often means using storage blocks or transformers to input into a system.