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Tutorial:Getting Started with Feed The Beast


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GUIDE: Starting a new modpack can be a daunting new experience, but with a little bit of know how you can start to do amazing things. This article will give you the basics to get started in order to maximize your starting income.

Early on, things are much the same as normal Minecraft play; nothing important will actually change until you have progressed to an iron pickaxe . Getting one should be your first priority after you have secured shelter and food. It is invaluable in your first mining expedition because of redstone, which you will need for many different machines and other things added by mods.

Starting Off[edit]

Aim to acquire:[edit]

Before you go for any large amount of mining, it is a good idea to create an Iron Furnace using the recipe below.

GUI Crafting Table.png
Iron Ingot


Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot
Furnace
Iron Ingot
Iron Furnace (IndustrialCraft 2)

Iron Furnaces burn 10 items per Coal/Charcoal, which allows you to save more coal or charcoal for essential Torches (a creeper could turn your machine into a Machine Block just as easy as your pickaxe) and Generator Fuel. To maximize efficiency, only smelt the first eight iron ore in a regular furnace with one piece of coal or charcoal, then immediately break it and use five of the iron to craft the iron furnace. You should also store up any extra iron ores and other ores for now in Chests or Barrels, because you will soon have access to a machine that can double your ingot production (the Macerator).

Preparing for the Electrical Grid[edit]

This stage requires a significant resource investment. It is strongly advised that you read the entire section before you attempt it.

First, you must gather something you will need a lot of for a long time.

Aim to acquire:[edit]

Rubber is an essential material for Industrial Craft machines. You will probably need to go quite far to find it, so it is recommended that you establish an easy way to find your base again or relocate to the area you find rubber in; you can open Rei's Minimap with the "C" key (Or whatever you made the Waypoint button on the keyboard) to leave a waypoint anywhere you want to be able to find again (such as your current base). You need to find Rubber Trees, which are found in small clusters in swamp biomes. You need to look for a dark tree with a line of leaves sticking straight up from the top. To harvest the rubber, you will need a Treetap

GUI Crafting Table.png
Wood Planks


Wood Planks
Wood Planks
Wood Planks
Wood Planks


Treetap

Right click on the yellow spots on the Rubber Tree log to make Sticky Resin come out. You can right click again to try to get extra resin, but it has a chance of permanently removing that resin spot, which would otherwise replenish its resin. Since you will need a lot of Rubber, it is strongly recommended to chop down the Rubber Trees. Rubber tree logs have a chance to drop resin when chopped, and you can bring back saplings to start a rubber tree farm closer to your base.

Smelt 9 or 10 Sticky Resin in your Iron Furnace to produce Rubber. Rubber may not seem important now, but it will be required soon.

GUI Furnace.png
Sticky Resin
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)

Initial Electrical Grid[edit]

Aim to acquire:[edit]

Now that you have acquired Rubber, it is time for some mining to get the other materials needed to start with machines. You will need at least 10 pieces of Redstone. While you hunt for Redstone, you should be on the lookout for an orange colored ore (Copper), which may only be in layers 40-70 in certain ore generation setups, and a greyish-white ore (Tin). These two ores are very important to beginning with the more powerful machine-based mods. You need at least 10 Redstone, 6 Copper Ore, 4 Tin Ore, and 17 Iron Ore before you leave the mine or cave. Coal is strongly recommended. You now have all of the ore you need to start with IndustrialCraft2 beyond the Iron Furnace. Although it is possible to start with any mod, IndustrialCraft 2 is by far the most useful at this stage.

Remember that you do not want you smelt more ore blocks than absolutely necessary until you have a Macerator, because it doubles ingot yields from most ores.

Smelt 17 Iron, 6 Copper, and 4 Tin . After the Iron is smelted, smelt 12 of the ingots again to make 12 Refined Iron.

Making the Generator[edit]

You now need an RE-Battery. To make this, you first need at least one piece of copper insulated cable. Craft the Insulated Copper Cable as shown below.

GUI Crafting Table.png
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Copper Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Copper Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Copper Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Rubber (IndustrialCraft 2)
Insulated Copper Cable
GridNumbersCSS.pngGridNumbersCSS.pngGridNumbersCSS.png

Now, to craft the RE-Battery as shown.

GUI Crafting Table.png
Insulated Copper Cable


Tin Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Redstone Dust
Tin Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Tin Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
Redstone Dust
Tin Ingot (IndustrialCraft 2)
RE-Battery

The next thing you need is a Generator. It will supply energy to all of your machines, allowing them to function. The generator can be crafted with two recipes that are the same in material cost, but one of them uses 5 Iron instead of 5 Refined Iron, which reduces Coal consumption. To craft it with this cheaper recipe, make a second Iron Furnace, then craft it with three refined iron in the middle row, it in the bottom middle, and the RE-Battery top middle.

GUI Crafting Table.png
RE-Battery


Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron


Iron Furnace (IndustrialCraft 2)


Generator (IndustrialCraft 2)

To power the Generator, use coal or charcoal in its bottom slot just like a furnace. To transfer energy from a generator you can place the machine you want to power next to the generator, or use cables to transfer energy

Making the Macerator[edit]

The Macerator doubles ingot production (of most ores) by producing two dusts per ore block, because each dust can be smelted into an Ingot. Dust is only used for an intermediate between ores and ingots, or to craft certain blended metals (which are rarely needed).

Because the Macerator requires an Electronic Circuit and a Machine Block, you must make them before the Macerator.

GUI Crafting Table.png
Insulated Copper Cable
Insulated Copper Cable
Insulated Copper Cable
Redstone Dust
Refined Iron
Redstone Dust
Insulated Copper Cable
Insulated Copper Cable
Insulated Copper Cable
Electronic Circuit

GUI Crafting Table.png
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Refined Iron
Machine Block

You make the Macerator by making an Electronic Circuit, which is crafted with top and bottom rows of copper insulated cable, a refined iron ingot in the center, and a Redstone on each side of it.

GUI Crafting Table.png
Flint
Flint
Flint
Cobblestone
Machine Block
Cobblestone


Electronic Circuit


Macerator

You can place the Macerator right next to the generator to power it, or with copper insulated cables connected to both.

Tips[edit]

  • Do not remove machines with pickaxes; you will need to use a Wrench, or it will drop a Machine Block. However, machines can sometimes drop Machine Blocks even with the wrench, therefore it is recommended to not move them unless necessary until you get the Electric Wrench.
  • You may be tempted to use tin cables to power your machines due to their low energy loss. This is a very bad idea because tin will vaporize and possibly electrocute you if it is ever hooked up to even a generator. Only use tin cables to connect a small number of basic solar panels, water mills, or windmills to a BatBox or machines, and never connect tin to other cables that connect with power sources tin cannot handle.

You now have the basics of efficient ore smelting taken care of. Later, you may want to replace these machines with Pulverizers and Induction Furnaces (they slightly more than double production, and double production even for certain ores like aluminum and lead).