Enchanting: Application and Manipulation
Last updated
Last updated
Vanilla Enchanting is a well documented subject at this point, so we won't cover it directly. However, several mods in the pack do offer enhanced or alternate means of enchanting which are worth pointing out.
Let's go over them.
Apotheosis heavily tweaks the concepts of Vanilla enchanting, while bringing some extra utility to the process.
The first time you place down a Vanilla Enchanting Table, you may notice things are... changed. Eterna? Quanta? Arcana? What are these? Well, think of them as modifiers to your enchanting.
Eterna increases the basic 'level' of enchanting. Where Vanilla stops at level 30, Apotheosis and it's special bookshelves allow us to go up to level 100, making it possible to reach much higher levels with certain enchants, such as Looting and Fortune. Generally speaking more Eterna is better, but it may become impossible to obtain some enchants at high levels. So playing around with the level of the table can be worthwhile.
Quanta is basically a measure of randomness in the enchanting process. Once you've clicked the enchant you want to apply from the list, it will kick into action, either raising or lowering the level of the enchant. This may sound bad but it gives you a chance at getting much higher levels than are otherwise obtainable directly from the Enchanting Table.
Arcana modifies your ability to get certain rare enchantments. With none, it will be entirely impossible to get rare enchants. While at high levels it flips and becomes impossible to get some common enchants. Further, at 25% and 75% it guarantees an extra enchant. So you'll always get three enchants with 75% or higher.
Getting all of these at the levels you desire can be a bit of a puzzle, since each bookshelf has it's own unique set of stats. Some grant bonuses, while others lower the stats. These can all be seen on the tooltip, however. Eterna maxes out at 50 points and both Quanta and Arcana max at 100 percentage points. Furthermore, each bookshelf will have a limit on Eterna. For example, Hellshelves contribute 1.5 Eterna per shelf, but cannot contribute beyond 22.5. So having more than 15 won't have any impact. But adding a single End Shelf will stack on top of that and contribute up to it's limit of 40.
The Altar of the Sea is a simple recycling method. Have some old unwanted enchanted gear lying around? Rather than tossing them, they can be put to use. Place any four enchanted items on the Altar and they'll be consumed along with some of your own XP to produce an enchanted book with random enchants. The higher the level of enchants on the consumed gear, the higher level the resulting book will be. This does consume the items in the process, not just the enchants on them.
Apotheosis also tweaks Anvils a fair bit, allowing them to be enchanted. Unbreaking on an Anvil is already pretty nice, but two more unique enchants are available too. Splitting and Obliteration.
An Anvil enchanted with Splitting will cause an enchanted book with multiple enchants on it to be split apart into multiple books, each with a single enchant on it. This process can fail, causing enchants to be lost, but that chance is reduced with higher levels of the enchant.
Similarly the Obliteration enchant causes a book with a single enchant on it to be split into two lower level enchants. So Looting III would become two Looting II books instead. This also has a chance of failure, however.
The Anvil's level cap has also been removed by Apotheosis. Meaning that items can be combined well beyond the Vanilla limit of 35 levels. Combining this with the various other methods of manipulating enchants discussed below can be a great way to obtain enchanting levels that are otherwise unobtainable, like Looting VII or Sharpness VII. This can become very costly in terms of XP, however, sometimes costing 100 levels or more. To get those sorts of levels will require not only a decent mob farm, but also some special tools provided by Apotheosis and other mods.
The Soul Enchanter's interface may look a bit like the Vanilla Enchanting Table, but bit it functions much differently. First, no bookshelves are required. Second, it consumes Soul Shards in place of traditional Lapis. XP is still consumed. Third, it only gives one enchant at a time and always starts at level 1 of that enchant. Starts? Yes, you can continue to add enchants to already enchanted gear, as well as level up existing enchants.
Place a sword in there and you'll be presented with a list of three randomly selected enchants. Maybe Sharpness I, Unbreaking I, and Fire Aspect I, for example. Pick one and it'll consume one level of XP and one Soul Shard, apply the enchant, then shuffle the list.
If the newly shuffled enchants happen to land on an enchant that already exists on the sword, it'll level up that enchant instead. So if we already had Sharpness I on the sword, the table will present Sharpness II as a choice. Applying this costs two levels and one Soul Shard. The level cost is effectively whatever the final level of the enchant is.
Vanilla limits still apply here, so bear that in mind. Still, it can be a powerful tool for picking exactly the right enchant for the job.
The list may also be reset if nothing seems interesting. Let's say you've gotten a very unlucky re-shuffle that's got Fire Aspect for all three slots. Well, if you don't want that, simply enchant another item with whatever it gets and try the primary item again. The list will reset with each enchanting.
Soul Shards
These are obtained through a special ritual that instantly destroys all undead creatures in the area, dropping a single Soul Shard for each mob killed.
The ritual itself is simple enough. Place a Brazier and two Stone Hands. The placement doesn't matter much, just that they're all within a few blocks of each other. Right-Click a Redstone Dust into each Hand and a Bone Meal into the Brazier. Finally, light the Brazier with a Flint and Steel. Once the fancy animation finishes, all of the undead in the area will be killed at once. Combining this with a Skeleton Spawner makes for a very nice little setup for obtaining Soul Shards and the XP needed to use the Soul Enchanter.
See it in Action: https://streamable.com/3dcmsr
Botania's Mana Enchanter doesn't actually enchant items in the same way as a standard Enchanting Table. Rather, it applies the enchants from books dropped nearby onto the item placed on the altar. The books and their enchants are not consumed in this process, but only the first enchant from each book is applied. It can also apply enchants of any level. Find a Sharpness X book? It'll do that. Lastly, it will not apply enchants to an already enchanted item.
This process understandably requires a lot of Mana, with the cost increasing based on the number of books being used and the level of the enchants.
To actually used the Enchanter, build it as shown in the Lexica Botania and Right-Click the Lapis Block to set the multi-block. Set a spark on the new block that has appeared where the Lapis once was to supply mana quickly. Then right click any enchantable item into the altar.
Next, drop the Enchanted Books you wish to apply on the ground in the Obsidian area and Right-Click the altar once more. A blip sound will be played as it detects and counts each book to apply, then an animation will begin playing. At this point the books may be safely collected without impacting the ritual.
Once enough Mana has been provided, the animation will end and the newly enchanted item may be retrieved. This process can take a good deal of time if you're attempting to generate mana on-demand, so having pools pre-filled is recommended.
See it in action: https://streamable.com/sbosl3
The Pressure Chamber is a versatile crafting tool and has special support for enchanting. Insert any enchantable item and any enchanted book and it will attempt to transfer one enchant from the book to the item. The enchant is simply moved over, leaving any remaining enchants on the book or converting it to a regular book if it has moved the last enchant. This method does respect what enchants can go on an item, but it also preserves levels that are beyond vanilla limits. So it can easily place Sharpness X on a sword, but not on a bow.
By placing a Vacuum Pump between a Compressor and a Pressure Chamber, we can extract all of the air from the Chamber and create a nice vacuum. This has the opposite effect on enchanted books and items alike, pulling the enchantments off one at a time and moving them to a regular book. This can be a great way to get an unwanted enchant off of an item by cycling the item through until the unwanted enchant is removed, then re-applying the enchants that were removed but still desired.
The EXP Anvil is a handy device that works like an automated Vanilla Anvil and can be used both to combine enchants and repair tools. For repairing tools, only the EXP Anvil itself and XP is required. Items placed in the barrel below the Pedestal are automatically drawn into it and repaired.
For Combining, however, the four extra blue pedestals are needed. By placing enchanted books on these pedestals and then placing an item in the Barrel, the enchanted books will be applied to the item as it is drawn up through the central Pedestal. Any same level enchants will be combined up to the next level in the process.
Normally, this combination ends at Vanilla limits. However if Diamonds are supplied in one of the outer Pedestals as shown above, then same level enchants may be combined beyond the Vanilla limits up to an XP cost of 105 levels. For example, Fortune VIII would be available this way. Higher combinations require more diamonds and XP.
The EXP Enchanter is set up similarly to a Vanilla Enchanting Table, meaning it needs book shelves around it to give it power. Any modded item that counts as a standard bookshelf will do, however. Including things like Botania Pylons and Quark Candles. Shelves may be placed three high and all around.
Quark Candle
1
Bookshelf
2
Mana Pylon
16
Natura Pylon
30
Gaia Pylon
30
Alfsteel Pylon
30
Note: Apotheosis Bookshelves are incompatible, but all bookshelf variants from other mods work fine.
To get it working, link the EXP Enchanter to your Pedestals Network so that XP is being transferred to it. If it has sufficient XP, it will automatically pull any items from the inventory it's placed on, enchant them, and display them in the Pedestal. From there they can be easily sent to another Pedestal and Exported. In the setup above, un-enchanted items go into the right most barrel and come out enchanted in the left most barrel.
It's important to note that the Enchanter will always attempt to enchant at it's maximum level of power provided from shelves, so if you exceed it's hard cap of 105 levels of power, it won't be able to enchant anything at all. The above setup is at the maximum power level, but this isn't the only way to achieve it. Six Mana Pylons, four Shelves, and a Candle would also get you there. With only bookshelves, the max one could reach would be 96.
Since the above methods all require some amount of XP, it should be noted how to actually get XP into the Pedestals network. There are currently three ways.
Like a Vanilla Grindstone, this will remove all enchants from any items it processes. The XP created in the process is not tossed on the ground, however, but stored in the Pedestal where it can be sent to an EXP Tank Pedestal. This doesn't return much XP, however.
A Pedestal with a Fluid to XP Conversion upgrade can be placed on a fluid tank containing Essence, Memory Essence, or Lava to convert those fluids into stored XP. Lava is very inefficient, but Essence and Memory Essence work quite well, allowing this to be paired with Industrial Foregoing, Modular Routers, or PneumaticCraft with ease.
An EXP Magnet Pedestal will absorb XP orbs from the world or from players standing too close to it. This would be an ideal way to collect XP from a mob farm using an Auto Attacker Upgrade, for instance.
One of the primary crafting mechanics for Ars Nouveau, the Enchanting Apparatus also serves to apply a very special enchant to any item. Sticks, cobble, armor, tools. Anything.
The Reactive enchant is effectively a way to place any spell the item. The spell will be randomly cast whenever the item is used, or in the case of armor, whenever you are struck.
This means that armor could be enchanted to cast Launch, for instance, to toss mobs or players away that are bothering you. A pick could be given a light spell so that lights are randomly placed while mining. A sword could be given a heavily amplified Harm spell so that it randomly causes massive damage. There's a lot of flexibility here, so take the time to explore and test.
The recipes used to make this enchant are shown in the Worn Notebook. Be prepared to supply a substantial amount of mana for the highest tier.
The Enchantment Factory is an automated Enchanting Table. Provide it with Power, Essence, and something to enchant like a book or a tool, and it'll randomly enchant it for you. There's no control over the enchantment power; it's always at level 30.
The Enchantment Extractor does pretty much what you'd expect: Remove enchants. You get to keep them, of course. Just supply it with power and an enchanted item and a regular book and it'll randomly pull one enchantment off at a time, transferring it to the book.
The Applicator functions like an automatic anvil for applying enchants. An item and an enchanted book are required, in addition to Power and Essence. Any compatible enchants from the book are transferred to the item, while the book and the rest of the enchants are lost.
The constellations of Astral Sorcery hold a great deal of power, some of which can be accessed through the Stellar Refraction Table. By placing an Infused Glass into the Table and some Parchment we can begin to sketch out the constellations in order to etch the glass.
Only the constellations currently in the sky will be available for etching. Once three of them have been drawn onto the parchment, the Infused Glass will be etched.
Take care with your Etched Glass. They have limited use, though they too can be enchanted with Mending and Unbreaking to prolong their life.
With an Etched Glass installed in the table, any enchantable item may be inserted, from books to armor, weapons and more. Each constellation will impart specific enchants, but they may also impart special non-enchant bonuses that are unique to Astral Sorcery, such as faster mining speed or greater critical damage.
Once an item is enchanted in this way, it may never be re-enchanted through this system. Even though the traditional enchants may be removed, there's no way to reset the bonus stats imparted in the process. So take caution and experiment on disposable gear.
For a rough idea what each constellation has to offer, refer to the constellation section of your Astral Tome.
This system is not limited to enchants either, but can also be used to make some potent potions as well.
While not directly related to enchanting, it's worth noting that the Resplendent Prism can greatly improve the enchants on your gear. When crafted, random enchants and bonuses are chosen for the trinket. It could give +1 Sharpness, +2 Looting, or can even effect all enchants with a rare + to All. The bonuses can be re-rolled infinitely but will be random every time.
Similarly to the Resplendent Prism, Attunement Perks don't directly impact Enchanting, but they can increase the potency of the Resplendent Prism itself. A few perks in the middle of the tree directly increase the power, while many other perks sprinkled throughout the tree increase the power of all other perks, allowing one to stack a large bonus if desired.
