Tips and Tricks

1. Get familiar with Just Enough Items.  The default keys to to show recipes (R) and show uses (U) for blocks and items integrates with all the included mods, and shows you how to make something or how to use it.  Some items can only be obtained by mob drops, but some can be created!  For example, you can obtain Blizz Powder by killing the Blizz mob, but they can be hard to locate.  Instead, you can place snowballs in a Fluid Transposer and pipe Destablized RedStone onto it to make Blizz Powder.  Use the @"mod name" search string to see all the items/blocks from that mod only.
2. Make a jetpack.  They are invaluable for navigating the Nether, reaching floating Slime Islands, and just getting away from enemies.  Craft some Slime Boots to wear while you are using your jetpack to negate all fall damage, and use the bounces to get around even more quickly that you would otherwise be able to with the lower tier jetpacks.
3. Build a Smeltery as soon as you can.  Start doubling all your ores, especially rarer ones like Gold.  You can also save some iron by casting gears in the Smeltery instead of crafting them.  Trust me, you'll need lots of iron for AE2, ExtremeReactors and Draconic Evolution.  Put Cobblestone in the Smeltery to make more blocks to expand the capacity of the Smeltery.  Place multiple Drains and Faucets going to multiple Basins and tables, to cast multiple pieces or blocks at a time.
4. Save Platinum in raw ore form until you have machines that can process it to double output.  Iridium doesn't spawn anywhere in the world, but can be created by processing Platinum the right way...
5. Build a Reactor.  Even a basic 3x3x3 reactor can output a decent amount of power early game, and can be scaled up over time to mid-late game use.  Use the Big Reactors simulator to play around with designs, or build my favorite design: a 7x7x7 (5x5x5 inside) Gelid Cryotheum-cooled reactor with 5 columns of fuel rods in a plus design.  Once you convert this to an actively cooled reactor be sure to use Super Laminated Fluiducts to input water and output steam.  A companion 7x7x7 (5x5x5 inside) Turbine will only use 25% of the steam generated, so set the fuel rods appropriately.  One 7x7x7 Reactor will support four 7x7x7 Turbines.
6. Build an animal farm and slaughterhouse.  You may also need to make an automated plant farm of some kind for breeding materials.  Industrial Foregoing has all the machines you'll need.  Save enough pink slime to fill a bucket, but wait until you have a Mob Imprisonment Tool to capture the Pink Slime mob that spawn when you dump the bucket in the world.
• Build a mob spawning room.  You can rely on vanilla mechanics, or use a Drop of Evil dropped from a Wither Skeleton to curse the grass and make Cursed Earth, which greatly increases spawning mechanics.  Use a Mob Crusher to kill and grab items and Essence, then pipe the essence into a Mob Duplicator.
• Gotta Catch Em All!  Try and capture at least one of every Mob, to throw into your spawner room as needed.  Throw your Pink Slime mob into the Mob Duplicator and watch it rain pink Slime drops.
7. Make a multi-block kitchen with Cooking For Blockheads.  Certain foods don't keep you very full, and leave you needing to eat again soon.  Variety is the spice of life!  Or just bypass eating altogether and make yourself a Meat Feeder, then use it on a container with Liquid Meat.  Put that Mob Slaughter Factory to use!   As long as you keep that item in your inventory, you'll automatically eat from it as needed.

Mod Documentation

Many of the mods included in AppleCrafters are extremely well documented by the developers.  Check out some of the wikis here.  Asterisks(*) denote mods which also contain in-game documentation.

• Thermal Series - https://teamcofh.com/docs/
• Applied Energistics 2: http://ae-mod.info/
• Extra Cells 2: https://github.com/ExtraCells/ExtraCells2/wiki
• *Extra Utilities 2: https://ftb.gamepedia.com/Extra_Utilities_2
• Extreme Reactors: http://wiki.technicpack.net/Big_Reactors

• Simulator - http://br.sidoh.org
• Reliquary: https://github.com/P3pp3rF1y/Reliquary/wiki
• *Tinkers' Construct 2: http://tinkers-construct-2.wikia.com/wiki/Tinkers%27_Construct_2_Wiki
• *Industrial Foregoing - https://ftb.gamepedia.com/Industrial_Foregoing
• *Draconic Evolution - https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/draconic-evolution

Cornerstone: Tinkers' Construct - Getting Started

The first thing you are going to want to build is a Smeltery, which can be used to double your ores, create alloys, and cast tool parts.  You can also skip right over the diamond requirement by casting obsidian blocks right in the smeltery, just combine 1 part lava and 1 part water!  Solid materials like ores and stone can be inserted into the Smeltery Controller, while liquids should be poured into a drain.  You can pour from a bucket, reservoir, or place a faucet over a drain.

Start off by collecting a stack or so of Clay, Gravel and Sand.  Combine to make Grout, then cook the Grout in a Furnace to make seared bricks.  Use the bricks to make a Seared Tank, Smeltery Controller, at least one Drain and one Faucet, a Casting basin and a Casting table.  Turn the rest of the bricks into blocks, then build a 3x3x1 multi-block structure including a drain, Smeltery Controller, and Seared Tank on any side.  Attach a faucet to the drain, then place up to 4 buckets of lava in the Tank.  You can also pipe lava into the tank using Hardened Fluiducts from Thermal Dynamics.

The Casting Basin can hold 9 ingots (in block form) of metals.  You'll need a Casting Table and an Ingot Cast in order to drain single ingots at a time, otherwise make sure to input metals in multiples of 9 and use your casting basin.  Casts are created by pouring 1 ingot of Aluminum Brass or 2 ingots of gold over a tool part that has been placed in the Casting Table; be warned this will consume the part so use cheap materials like a clay brick for an ingot and stone tool parts.  You can always drain any extra molten liquid into a Seared Tank, if you have too much and want to keep the material.  To drain from a Seared Tank back into the Smeltery, place the tank next to a drain, place a faucet on the tank so it is over the drain, and use the faucet and it should pour molten liquid right back into the Smeltery for use again.

You can melt different materials at a time, however be warned that some materials combine to make an alloy.  Some common alloys:

3 ingots Aluminum + 1 ingot copper = 4 ingots Aluminum Brass
3 ingots Copper + 1 ingot Tin = 4 ingots Bronze
1 bucket Lava + 1 bucket Water = 1 block of Obsidian
1 ingot Gold + 1 ingot Silver = 2 ingots Electrum
3 ingots Tin + 1 ingot Silver + 1 block of Glowstone = 4 ingots Lumium
3 ingots Copper + 1 ingot Silver + 4 pieces of Redstone = 4 ingots Signalum
3 ingots Lead + 1 ingot Platinum + 4 Ender Pearls = 4 ingots Enderium

There are many more, look up "Molten" in JEI/NEI to see their components.  Some math may be required to translate mB into ingots or blocks.

You can upgrade the Smeltery by increasing the size of the multi-block structure, but you don't need to make seared bricks with Grout!  Put cobblestone directly into the Smeltery and pour into casting basins and use the seared stone blocks to build the Smeltery even larger.  Seared Stone can be cast into ingots to form individual bricks if necessary.

Getting Started: Installing the client

The first thing you need to do is setup your computer with the AppleCrafters modpack.

1. Install Technic Launcher - https://www.technicpack.net/download (Make sure you have Java from Oracle https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp)
2. Launch Technic Launcher.  If this is your first time, Standard Install is fine.  (Mac users, right click the downloaded file and choose open, then approve the Gatekeeper dialogue)
3. Go to the “Modpacks” tab at the top of the screen
4. Type AppleCrafters into the search box
5. Install pack
6. Before launching the modpack, make sure your Launcher is using optimal RAM.  A general rule of thumb is to use at least half your system RAM.  Go to “Launcher Options”, then Java Settings and increase the default memory (1GB) using the pulldown.