Tinkers' Construct 3 FAQ
This FAQ is for questions related to Tinkers' Construct 3 gameplay. For questions related to Tinkers' Construct 2, see Tinkers' Construct 2 FAQ. For questions not related to gameplay, see General FAQ
If you were told to read this page to see if your answer is questioned, at minimum please read the question titles to check if any are your problem, if so click the link and read the answer.
Download Just Enough Items. It allows viewing nearly all recipes in the mod. Until in game documentation is done, it is the best way to determine recipes.
Note that you can view recipes for tool parts (including in the part builder and casting), melting recipes, alloying, and entity melting. In addition, you can look up modifier recipes by looking up usage on a tool, or view all recipe tabs.
Tinkers' Construct 3 has many many gameplay changes, and is also incomplete. Refer to What's New? for a summary of what changed in Tinkers' Construct 3, and Roadmap for a summary of what is currently complete and what is planned for future updates.
For to the fluid changes Mojang made in 1.13+, we cannot add liquid physics to our blocks without declaring them 100% equivalent to water or lava, which both breaks other mods and causes some undesired behaviors to be added. As a result, we are waiting on Forge to add proper fluid support.
The stencil table was merged with the part builder in an interface similar to the stonecutter. This means you can craft tool parts using only the part builder instead of needing two blocks.
Modifiers are divided into 4 major types:
- Traits: Inert abilities based on the tools construction. Most small tools gain 3 traits from the materials, and large tools 4 traits. In addition, some tool types have additional traits, such as cleavers granting beheading or pickaxes piercing.
- Upgrades: Classic type of modifier slot from previous versions; many classic modifiers such as quartz and haste use this slot type. Most small tools start with 3 upgrade slots, large tools start with 2 upgrade slots, and more can be added through other modifier types.
- Ability: More limited slot slot type for stronger, more exclusive modifiers such as silk touch, autosmelt, or unbreakable. Most tools start with 1 ability slot, and an additional ability slot can be added to all tools though a slotless modifier.
- Slotless: Modifiers that can be added to a tool through recipes. Unlike upgrades or abilities, there is no limit to the number of slotless modifiers a tool may have.
There are 4 ways to get additional upgrade slots:
- All small tools start with 3 upgrade slots, as opposed to large tools which start with only 2.
- Adding a book an quill, a music disc, a mob head, or a end crystal to a tool will each give you +1 upgrade slot for a total of +4 upgrade slots.
- Rose gold grants +1 upgrade slot per rose gold tool part
- The gilded modifier uses a golden apple to trade 1 ability slot for 2 upgrade slots. This can be done multiple times.
Ability slots can only be increased in 1 way: the draconic modifier allows giving a tool an extra ability slot. Note draconic has two recipes.
This means most tools have a maximum of 10 upgrade slots and 2 ability slots, or 14 upgrade slots if gilded is used.
First, refer back to How do I craft X? and actually use JEI to look up recipes. If you are still confused, check JEI for usages of lapis blocks, the recipe will show under the modifiers tab. There is a different recipe for each level, so its easiest to refer to JEI.
Unlike in 1.12 where reinforced V would make a tool unbreakable, in 1.16+ unbreakable is a modifier that requires netherite, reinforced V, and an ability slot to apply. Check JEI for the recipe, and for other recipes that increase upgrade slots so you can reach the 7 upgrade slots needed for reinforced V and netherite.
The tool forge was replaced with the Tinker's Anvil. Combine any 3 metal alloy blocks and 4 seared blocks to create an upgraded tool station that can craft all broad tools.
First, create a seared melter and place it above either a seared heater or a seared tank filled with lava. Next, use it to melt 4 ingots worth of molten copper, and pour those on seared bricks (or seared heater in 1.18.1 and earlier) in a casting basin. Note after melting the copper, you can immediately reuse the heater you used to melt the copper.
Cobalt ore is found in the nether at lower elevations. You need a tool with a mining level level of diamond or higher to mine it. This can be accomplished using materials such as tinker's bronze, pig iron, slimesteel, and nahuatl. Alternatively, you can use the diamond modifier to boost a tools mining level.
In order to craft manyullyn, you need to alloy cobalt with molten debris. Melting ancient debris and alloying manyullyn, hepatizon, or queens slime requires use of a hotter fuel such as molten blaze in place of lava. For best results, either create a second smeltery or remove all lava from the smeltery.
There are three ways to get molten blaze:
- Melt a blaze in a smeltery or foundry. You can do this either by carrying the blaze with tools such as the piggybackpack, or by building a smeltery or foundry under a spawner. Note you cannot have the spawner in the smeltery, it must be outside the structure.
- Apply the melting modifier to a tool using the recipe shown below, then use it to attack blazes. This will cause the tool to fill with molten blaze, which can then be used on a seared tank or a smeltery drain to empty it.
- When bartering with piglins, they have a chance to offer a scorched lantern filled with molten blaze. This lantern can be emptied into any regular tanks
You can either use a bucket on the drain, or use a faucet to fill either a casting table containing a bucket or a tank.
The alloyer must be place above a scorched tank or a heater. Additional tanks or melters must be placed on the sides or top. The side and top tanks are filled with alloy inputs, and the alloyer itself will be filled with the alloyed fluid.
The foundry is an alternative to the smeltery for melting items and entities. Unlike the smeltery, it cannot alloy, however ores melted in the foundry produce byproducts, and the structure has a higher capacity for fluid.
To build the foundry, you need to use scorched blocks instead of seared blocks, and the structure must include the corners, as shown in the image below.
Also, because people keep assuming things we never said, the foundry does not have to be build in the nether, nor is there anything stopping you from building a smeltery in the nether. It is a smeltery alternative.
Tool leveling was added by an addon, it was never part of the base mod. The mod is not updated to 1.16+, as its main developer is no longer active. The current Tinkers' Construct team has no plans to update the mod, but we expect another author will update it in the near future. If you are interested in the idea, a couple of our developers have ideas for tool leveling we are willing to discuss on our Discord
Discord command
!armor
The armor with multiple material variants was from an addon called Constructs' Armory, which is made by TheIllusiveC4. It was never part of the base mod. C4 has no current timeline, but has discussed some plans for the mod's future on his discord.
Tinkers' Construct adds armor that is quite similar to the armor from Tinkers' Construct 1 for 1.7.10 and below. Its not the same as Constructs Armory: instead of having one set with many materials, there are three sets made of a single material balanced around different amounts of protection, durability, modifier slots, and starting traits. We have no plans to add armor with arbitrary material variants; however if you just want the textures to look like other metals see the embellishment modifier.
Shovels were replaced by the pickadze and the mattock, both of which can break dirt blocks but have an extra feature on top. Since the mattock was in the mod as effectively a stronger shovel, the shovel felt out of place. Rather than making up some arbitrary ability to justify shovels, we opted to remove the shovel in favor of shovel alternatives. If you really want a tool that looks like a big spoon, consider the excavator.
No, we do not need to have shovels just because vanilla does, we can make our own design choices. And no, this is not up for debate. Dislike that there are no shovels? Write an addon that adds shovels.
Slime boots are not ruined. Firstly, while at first glance it may appear they are gated behind the end, you can get the bouncy modifier for your plate or travelers boots as early as the nether. Secondly, while the boot physics are a bit different than before, the primary reason for the change was to prevent bugs with infinite momentum that existed both on 1.12 and with new 1.16 features such as dolphins grace.
Discord command
!islands
As of 1.18.2, datapacks have a lot more control over structures. You can find our placement settings for islands in the mod JAR, and copy them into a datapack to replace our settings. To disable, make the structures array empty. See The Minecraft Wiki for more info, such as how to make them more or less common.
Yes, we know there are still config options for geodes, that is because geodes are features while islands are structures. Its incredibly difficult to add config for a structure outside of datapacks, and its impossible to add config for a feature through datapacks and remain compatible with other mods.
Any mods using the Forge system for fluid pipes will automatically work with the smeltery, foundry, tanks, faucets, and channels. In addition, any mod that adds a common ore (copper, tin, lead, aluminum, etc.) will get melting and casting compatibility for the ore, and some of those will also get tools. These days the question is really not hat mods are compatible but what mods are not compatible, as Forge lets most mods work together rather seamlessly.
Tinkers specifically has special recipe compatibility for mods such as Ceramics, Immersive Engineering, and Create. In addition, mods such as Thermal Foundation, Immersive Engineering, and MineColonies have special compatibility for Tinkers.
Note that while we add materials for some common ores, you do not need to install a mod to get the ores for the full experience. Tinkers is designed to work with what ores you have, rather than including a bunch of ores that just exist for tools and end up cluttering your inventory. If you don't care about clutter and just want the ores, literally any mod that just adds ores will work, for instance Thermal Foundation.