Mix Up Your Minecraft: Thaumcraft 4

Hello everyone! Welcome to the next post in my series 'Mix Up Your Minecraft'. Today I'm going to talk about a mod called Thaumcraft 4. Thaumcraft 4 adds a magic system to Minecraft. Yes, you heard me correctly: MAGIC! :D

It all begins simply. First, you make a magic wand. Second, you right click on a bookshelf to receive the Thauminomicon (basically a guide to the mod). Next, you build a research table and a thaumometer. The thaumometer lets you scan blocks and items in the world. That will give you 'research points' which you use to conduct research and discover various magical creations that you can make.

In order to actually do any magic, you will need to find various aura nodes that are scattered throughout the world. Normally, the are very faint spots of light that are difficult to see. However, if you are looking through your thaumometer, they will be reveal as small glowing stars. You can use your wand to drain energy from them (called vis) which you can then harness to do various magical things.

Aura node as seen with the naked eye

Aura node seen through a thaumometer

In the beginning, there are small things that you can do. You can create foci (focus plural) for your wand which will let you channel the energy in your wand to do other things. For example the flame focus lets you take ignis vis (fire) and actually shoot flames at your enemies. Eventually you have the ability to create various magical pieces of armor, and even small golems that can carry out various tasks for you.

Aren't golems cute?

For me, the most visually impressive part of the game is the infusion enchanting. It requires a special magical construct with pillars, a strange looking cube object, and a number of pedestals arranged just so. It also requires you to break down objects into pure bits of magical energy that represent different aspects of the Minecraft universe. Finally when everything is gathered, you can start the process and watch as the cube/matrix thing absorbs all of the ingredients and creates a brand new magical item. The process is not without risk. Each item has a certain degree of instability that comes with it. When the cube is working, strange purple liquid can appear, the player can be struck by lightning, or explosions can go off. If care isn't taken to quickly correct any problems, the cube will quickly go out of control and cause even more problems.

 Overall, it's a really fun mod. It can be difficult to troubleshoot why things aren't working, but the end results make me feel like I've accomplished something. Personally, my favorite part of the mod is creating farming golems and a wand focus that lets me shoot lightning like I was a Sith from Star Wars.

 I've done a short video sort of highlighting a mod. Hope you enjoy!



If you're interested, more information on the mod can be found here.