Mods/Thaumcraft/Crucible

The crucible is a basic tool of Thaumcraft, allowing the manufacture of several special materials, and the production of various metals from raw essentia. The crucible is created by placing a cauldron and right-clicking it with a wand of any type. The cauldron will be permanently transformed into a crucible, which can then be picked up (by mining it with a pickaxe) and placed elsewhere like any other block.

Use
For use, a crucible needs to be placed over some heat source, and filled with water. This can include a fire block (such as from burning netherrack), a lava block, or the magical flame Nitor. Once the water begins boiling, the crucible is ready for use. (Note that the water will be partially consumed with each recipe.) Having researched a recipe, you can use it by throwing in items to be broken down into the essentia needed by the recipe (phials work fine), and immediately following this with the recipe's "catalyst" item. (Note: For speed, use the control key with your "drop" command (default ) to throw a pre-counted stack of items all at once.)  Recipes can (and sometimes must) be done in multiple, but be careful not to overload the cauldron! If essentia is left in the cauldron more than a few seconds, it will begin to break down, point by point. Compound aspects will break down into their components, while primal aspects will vanish and produce flux (see below).

If a crucible is loaded with too much essentia, or essentia is left to break down, it will overflow with liquid and/or gaseous flux. It will also release flux if it is explicitly emptied by right-clicking with a wand. Gaseous flux will float up to the ceiling, possibly tainting the blocks there. If there is no ceiling, it will float up into the sky and dissipate harmlessly. Liquid flux will flow over the area. If there is enough of it, it can form ../Thaumic Slime/s, aggressive mobs which can grow to amazing size if there is enough flux for them to absorb. If liquid flux is left sitting for long enough, it has a faint chance of tainting the area. Both gaseous and liquid flux are difficult to handle; they can be destroyed only by replacing their block with another block such as dirt or a water source. (Note that flowing water will hide the flux it flows over, but not destroy it.)

Throwing a loaded wand into a crucible will produce a lot of flux, and huge Thaumic Slimes!

Recipes
The recipes available for the crucible are as follows:
 * Metal transmutation - 1 Metallium, and (except iron) 1 of another aspect, + metal nugget.
 * Essentia can be used to multiply nuggets of various metals, including several which are not found in basic Thaumcraft, but may be provided by other mods. (You will only see the recipes for the metals present in your game.)  Iron requires only Metallum, while other metals require additional aspects:  Lucrum for gold or silver, Praecantio for copper, Vitreus for tin, and Ordo for lead.  In all cases, one point of each aspect is needed for each nugget to be duplicated.  This can be used to directly scavenge material from iron, gold, or chain armor, swords, or tools, but this will leave extra aspects in the cauldron, especially if the items were enchanted.  This extra essentia will eventually become flux as it breaks down.  It is safer to use an Arcane Furnace to break the items down to essentia, and then use phials of the essentia for the recipes, 1 phial of each type for 8 nuggets.  The essentia used is the same as found in the nuggets themselves, so simply tossing in a pair of nuggets will get the pair back -- one used as essentia, the other duplicated.


 * Gunpowder - 4 Ignis, 4 Perditio + gunpowder.
 * Gunpowder can also be produced similarly to metal. Normally this will be done with essentia, 1 phial of each type for each 2 gunpowder to be duplicated.  Again, tossing in a pair of gunpowder will get the same back.


 * Thaumium - 4 Praecantio + iron ingot.
 * The first of the overtly magical products, thaumium is a versatile and useful metal which can be used for tools, swords and armor. The resulting items alike rival diamond for durability, and approach it for effectiveness.  The tools and swords can also be ../Infusion/-crafted into various special items with unique abilities.  Normally this recipe will be done with phials of Praecantio, 1 phial for each 2 ingots of iron.


 * Magical Tallow - 2 Praecantio + rotten flesh
 * Like thaumium, this will normally be produced with phials of Praecantio, 1 phial for 4 pieces of flesh. The tallow can be crafted into magical candles, which help reduce instability in ../Infusion/.


 * Nitor - 3 Ignis, 3 Potentia, 3 Vis + glowstone dust.
 * This eternal flame can provide both light and heat, with no risk of being set afire. It is notably useful for heating the crucible itself, as Nitor is unaffected by flowing water.  The essentia amounts are awkward, but this recipe can be done by tossing in 3 (char)coal and 6 torches for each 2 glowstone dust to be converted.


 * Alumentum - 3 Ignis, 3 Potentia, 3 Perditio + 1 coal or charcoal
 * This mystical fuel will make furnaces and Arcane furnaces run much faster. The recipe can be done with 3 phials of Perditio and 20 lumps of coal or charcoal -- 12 of them will go for essentia, the other 8 will be transformed.  An alternate recipe would be 3 phials of Potentia and 6 pieces of gunpowder, followed up with 8 pieces of coal.  Naturally, 3 phials of each essentia type will also convert 8 pieces of coal.

Flux Farming
Advanced players can use a crucible to farm Thaumic Slimes, for both experience and their "flux goo" drops. The drops are difficult to handle (if kept in a player's inventory, they will slowly dissolve over time, tainting the player with each dissolution), but they are the primary source of the otherwise-rare aspect Vitium. For Flux farming, the crucible should be placed in a large pit, at least 4 blocks deep and 9 or more across. The pit should be placed well away from lairs or any other territory that might be at risk. It should also be equipped with several safety features: An escape tunnel with a door (and a pressure-plate to close it behind you), hoppers or chests to collect flux goo, and several Brains In a Jar to collect the multitude of experience orbs, and thus prevent them from producing lag. A wand with several offensive foci will be useful for fighting the slimes, and a Thaumostatic Harness is also useful for escape or firing from a distance. Suitably arranged alcoves can let you fight the smaller slimes up close, while screening out the larger ones. (Thorns-enchanted armor is helpful here.) Optional features include a flood system to wash drops into hoppers, and even a system to remotely drop TNT into the pit. (If you use TNT, the floor needs to be obsidian and/or flooded to protect the BIJs and other equipment. The cauldron is probably a write-off for this case....)

Once the flux farm is set up, fill the cauldron with water, and dump in a bunch of trash -- anything will do, as long as there's enough to overload the cauldron. And let the battle begin! Once you have finished off the slimes, use blocks to remove any remaining flux. Then check the blocks for possible taint, and mine any tainted blocks to prevent it from spreading (unless, of course, you're trying to create a tainted area!