Source
r/Blightfall•
dangercrow

Advice on early game

Any tips on solving the following problems:

  • I'm struggling to create a good variety of food
  • I don't have enough ore to create a decent amount of armour
  • I'm struggling to increase my reputation (my team-mate is a scout with not a lot of food or armour, see above)

I'm not familiar with the mods as much as I could be, so any links to other tut's would be handy. I have seen: http://blightfall.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Thaumcraft and https://www.reddit.com/r/Blightfall/comments/3ppg98/blightfall_tips_and_tricks/ and try to use the wikis where possible, but it's still tough.

Posted Sep 14, 2017, 2:31 PM UTC · edited

419
SerdarCS•

Get a farm as early as you can and request seeds. Then, look for recipes you can make with the things you get.

4
WhiteYoshi_YL•

Need armor but don't have any ore and you're at the very beginning of the game?

Make Oak Wood Armor. If you have 24 Oak Wood Logs, you can shape them into armor pieces. This doesn't protect you very well (it's even less protective than leather), but it's better than nothing.

If you don't have a lot of reputation, it's okay. Talonos (Blightfall's creator) said it was meant to be a sort of currency in the game, not really a high score.

Therefore, using it to request Emergency Nutrient Bars isn't shameful in the slightest. Not only does Spice of Life (the mod that makes food less effective the more you eat it) completely ignore these bars, they also count towards the 200 hunger meter, meaning you'll make already-consumed food regain its original restoration faster.

I guess I'm kind of just restating what's been put in the Blightfall Tips n' Tricks section, but it's good advice that you shouldn't be shy in utilizing.

I didn't have any experience in any of the modpacks except maybe a bit of Thermal Expansion, and from that perspective, I don't think the in-game missions and tutorials do a complete job explaining certain things. You'll definitely have to look up the mods Blood Magic: Alchemical Wizardry and Applied Energistics 2, as those two in particular are very helpful for completing Blightfall.

4
dangercrowOP•

By I don't have a lot, I mean my mate died 62 times and we were on -132... xD

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

2
CorenMajere•

Can you do the repeatable colonist quest turning in 256 bread for +9 rep?

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

I don't know about you, but that's a loooooot of bread... especially for the beginning of the game.

2
CorenMajere•

It's definitely a lot of bread, but bread is ridiculously easy to make in large quantities without leaving the biodome. Plant 20-30 barley and some trees for charcoal. Run multiple (at least 4) furnaces in parallel, alternating between 1 stack of flour and 16 logs to maintain charcoal reserves.

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

1
dangercrowOP•

By I don't have a lot, I mean my mate died 62 times and we were on -132... xD

1
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

2
CorenMajere•

Can you do the repeatable colonist quest turning in 256 bread for +9 rep?

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

I don't know about you, but that's a loooooot of bread... especially for the beginning of the game.

2
CorenMajere•

It's definitely a lot of bread, but bread is ridiculously easy to make in large quantities without leaving the biodome. Plant 20-30 barley and some trees for charcoal. Run multiple (at least 4) furnaces in parallel, alternating between 1 stack of flour and 16 logs to maintain charcoal reserves.

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

1
Taggerung559•

Requesting seeds fairly frequently until you have a good variety will help with the food, as will cleansing out a small area so animals can spawn. The cooking for blockheads items are quite useful as they auto-detect what recipes you can make.

For armor, there should be a mining and resources book that tells you where all the ores (that you can currently mine) can be found, as what height they can be found at. Should help out with ore collection. Getting a tinkers construct smeltery going asap is also good as it doubles ingots per ore. Swamp delta is a good place to get clay for it, and the volcano is good for lava to fuel it.

Scouting is generally the best source of early game reputation, so keep working at it. I would definitely suggest picking up a tinkers construct longsword to help with that, as the lunge feature is amazing. If timed right it will extend your jumps, which can be used to cross gaps you otherwise wouldn't be able to, tree hop (tree leaves generally aren't tainted), and jump higher than normal (I believe you can get three blocks high if timed correctly, but it could just be two). For most scouting locations, I found it to be best to just use the longsword to rush past any enemies you might find (circling around taintacles as they can mess up your jumps with the little tendrils they can sprout) and activate and use the teleporter to get out, then coming back later when you want to clear out any nearby valuables (if there aren't any enemies apparent you can obviously just loot it immediately). Using boats to scout is also a good idea (no taint on water), getting as close to the location as you can before getting on land.

3
Taggerung559•

I would also suggest requesting saplings when you can, as while a lot of them aren't very useful, there are a few that can be very helpful. Fusewood and bloodwood are both effectively growable ores that can can be used to make tools without requiring casts (which is significant until you get a good amount of gold or copper+aluminum). The slime tree is also nice as it's an easy source of slime, and its leaves make amazing fletching for arrows and bolts.

3
Taggerung559•

I would also suggest requesting saplings when you can, as while a lot of them aren't very useful, there are a few that can be very helpful. Fusewood and bloodwood are both effectively growable ores that can can be used to make tools without requiring casts (which is significant until you get a good amount of gold or copper+aluminum). The slime tree is also nice as it's an easy source of slime, and its leaves make amazing fletching for arrows and bolts.

2
Bananawamajama•

As far as scouting/travelling goes, is there a thaumcraft or botanist item that will protect me from taint poisoning? I can't go anywhere without losing half my health to sickness, let alone dealing with monsters

2
Taggerung559•

Not that I know of (though there probably is one somewhere), but it's manageable if you go about it the right way. First off, use waterways as often as you can. They aren't tainted and are thus safe to use. If you're in an environment with trees, stay on the treetops as often as possible, as they're also generally untainted (longsword helps with getting onto the trees and hopping between them). Always have a stack of cheap blocks (I usually use dirt) on you as in addition to helping you get up to places or across gaps you can build a small tower under your feet to give yourself a rest and heal up some. Since they're newly placed it will take a while for the taint to crawl up them. When confronted with a hill or cliff I suggest digging a staircase up rather than finding a way to jump up. It's generally a b it slower, but you'll be standing on freshly uncovered blocks so they also won't be tainted. Finally, jump while moving. Like, a lot. It takes up more hunger, but taint poisoning can only be appied while you're touching the fibrous taint. The more often you're in the air the less often you'll be taint poisoned. Another useful thing is to place a waypoint at the coordinates the scout quest gives you. This will place a marker in the world there that you can see on your minimap and visually see through terrain. This will help you head directly to the teleporter location, which will minimize time spent out in the taint. You can come back and more thoroughly explore when you're better equipped.

2
munkieman07•

Don't underestimate the old faithful digging to the locations via underground, as long as you make a flint pickaxe, and carry extra flint and your tool bench you could be unstoppable.

1
fishnorfowl•

Don't underestimate the value of a berry bush - I think there should be one on one of the swamp islands, next to a pure daisy (grab that too). You can eat the berries, of course, but you can also turn them into juice and smoothies, and eventually jelly or even yogurt once you get a few cows going, all with relatively easy-to-get cooking tools and ingredients. And there's three kinds you can do this with, each of which can grow to provide plenty of berries. The whole kitchen setup (including the fridge, sink, etc) is useful for food too, but more for convenience than actually providing more food, so that can wait until you're not hurting for metal.

On that note, the wooden armor advice is good, but the regenerative properties of manasteel might interest you, if you've touched Botania at all. It makes good tools, too. Takes a while to get to that point by yourself, but there are some pre-made mana generating flowers here and there to help with that if you're exploring. I don't know how you feel about spoilers, so I'll just say this - if you find any weird flowers (weirder than the good ol' anti-taint ones), grab them and immediately go store them in your base. Then look up what they do.

For reputation, probably the easiest early reputation is to be gained from the Scout quests. Using a boat makes getting to some of these trivial, and others... Less so. Hopefully, you've gotten a smeltery going, both for the reputation and for the ore doubling, but also for making a crossbow to kill (and eventually turn in drops from) enemies at a safe distance.

When you find them, plant the enderlily seeds on end stone, not dirt. Took me a lot longer than it should have to figure that one out.

You can always eat bread. Even when Spice of Life is being an absolute jerk, bread will always give you a tiny amount of hunger restoration.

3
fishnorfowl•

Oh, and be sure to plant a Greatwood sapling (if you can get your hands on one) once you clear an area outside a dome. It can't be bonemealed, so you'll have to be patient, but between that and a Tinkers Construct lumber axe, your supply of wood will basically be accounted for indefinitely.

3
fishnorfowl•

Oh, and be sure to plant a Greatwood sapling (if you can get your hands on one) once you clear an area outside a dome. It can't be bonemealed, so you'll have to be patient, but between that and a Tinkers Construct lumber axe, your supply of wood will basically be accounted for indefinitely.

2
Taggerung559•

Requesting seeds fairly frequently until you have a good variety will help with the food, as will cleansing out a small area so animals can spawn. The cooking for blockheads items are quite useful as they auto-detect what recipes you can make.

For armor, there should be a mining and resources book that tells you where all the ores (that you can currently mine) can be found, as what height they can be found at. Should help out with ore collection. Getting a tinkers construct smeltery going asap is also good as it doubles ingots per ore. Swamp delta is a good place to get clay for it, and the volcano is good for lava to fuel it.

Scouting is generally the best source of early game reputation, so keep working at it. I would definitely suggest picking up a tinkers construct longsword to help with that, as the lunge feature is amazing. If timed right it will extend your jumps, which can be used to cross gaps you otherwise wouldn't be able to, tree hop (tree leaves generally aren't tainted), and jump higher than normal (I believe you can get three blocks high if timed correctly, but it could just be two). For most scouting locations, I found it to be best to just use the longsword to rush past any enemies you might find (circling around taintacles as they can mess up your jumps with the little tendrils they can sprout) and activate and use the teleporter to get out, then coming back later when you want to clear out any nearby valuables (if there aren't any enemies apparent you can obviously just loot it immediately). Using boats to scout is also a good idea (no taint on water), getting as close to the location as you can before getting on land.

2
Taggerung559•

I would also suggest requesting saplings when you can, as while a lot of them aren't very useful, there are a few that can be very helpful. Fusewood and bloodwood are both effectively growable ores that can can be used to make tools without requiring casts (which is significant until you get a good amount of gold or copper+aluminum). The slime tree is also nice as it's an easy source of slime, and its leaves make amazing fletching for arrows and bolts.

3
Taggerung559•

I would also suggest requesting saplings when you can, as while a lot of them aren't very useful, there are a few that can be very helpful. Fusewood and bloodwood are both effectively growable ores that can can be used to make tools without requiring casts (which is significant until you get a good amount of gold or copper+aluminum). The slime tree is also nice as it's an easy source of slime, and its leaves make amazing fletching for arrows and bolts.

2
Bananawamajama•

As far as scouting/travelling goes, is there a thaumcraft or botanist item that will protect me from taint poisoning? I can't go anywhere without losing half my health to sickness, let alone dealing with monsters

2
Taggerung559•

Not that I know of (though there probably is one somewhere), but it's manageable if you go about it the right way. First off, use waterways as often as you can. They aren't tainted and are thus safe to use. If you're in an environment with trees, stay on the treetops as often as possible, as they're also generally untainted (longsword helps with getting onto the trees and hopping between them). Always have a stack of cheap blocks (I usually use dirt) on you as in addition to helping you get up to places or across gaps you can build a small tower under your feet to give yourself a rest and heal up some. Since they're newly placed it will take a while for the taint to crawl up them. When confronted with a hill or cliff I suggest digging a staircase up rather than finding a way to jump up. It's generally a b it slower, but you'll be standing on freshly uncovered blocks so they also won't be tainted. Finally, jump while moving. Like, a lot. It takes up more hunger, but taint poisoning can only be appied while you're touching the fibrous taint. The more often you're in the air the less often you'll be taint poisoned. Another useful thing is to place a waypoint at the coordinates the scout quest gives you. This will place a marker in the world there that you can see on your minimap and visually see through terrain. This will help you head directly to the teleporter location, which will minimize time spent out in the taint. You can come back and more thoroughly explore when you're better equipped.

2
munkieman07•

Don't underestimate the old faithful digging to the locations via underground, as long as you make a flint pickaxe, and carry extra flint and your tool bench you could be unstoppable.

1
fishnorfowl•

Don't underestimate the value of a berry bush - I think there should be one on one of the swamp islands, next to a pure daisy (grab that too). You can eat the berries, of course, but you can also turn them into juice and smoothies, and eventually jelly or even yogurt once you get a few cows going, all with relatively easy-to-get cooking tools and ingredients. And there's three kinds you can do this with, each of which can grow to provide plenty of berries. The whole kitchen setup (including the fridge, sink, etc) is useful for food too, but more for convenience than actually providing more food, so that can wait until you're not hurting for metal.

On that note, the wooden armor advice is good, but the regenerative properties of manasteel might interest you, if you've touched Botania at all. It makes good tools, too. Takes a while to get to that point by yourself, but there are some pre-made mana generating flowers here and there to help with that if you're exploring. I don't know how you feel about spoilers, so I'll just say this - if you find any weird flowers (weirder than the good ol' anti-taint ones), grab them and immediately go store them in your base. Then look up what they do.

For reputation, probably the easiest early reputation is to be gained from the Scout quests. Using a boat makes getting to some of these trivial, and others... Less so. Hopefully, you've gotten a smeltery going, both for the reputation and for the ore doubling, but also for making a crossbow to kill (and eventually turn in drops from) enemies at a safe distance.

When you find them, plant the enderlily seeds on end stone, not dirt. Took me a lot longer than it should have to figure that one out.

You can always eat bread. Even when Spice of Life is being an absolute jerk, bread will always give you a tiny amount of hunger restoration.

2
fishnorfowl•

Oh, and be sure to plant a Greatwood sapling (if you can get your hands on one) once you clear an area outside a dome. It can't be bonemealed, so you'll have to be patient, but between that and a Tinkers Construct lumber axe, your supply of wood will basically be accounted for indefinitely.

3
fishnorfowl•

Oh, and be sure to plant a Greatwood sapling (if you can get your hands on one) once you clear an area outside a dome. It can't be bonemealed, so you'll have to be patient, but between that and a Tinkers Construct lumber axe, your supply of wood will basically be accounted for indefinitely.

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

Need armor but don't have any ore and you're at the very beginning of the game?

Make Oak Wood Armor. If you have 24 Oak Wood Logs, you can shape them into armor pieces. This doesn't protect you very well (it's even less protective than leather), but it's better than nothing.

If you don't have a lot of reputation, it's okay. Talonos (Blightfall's creator) said it was meant to be a sort of currency in the game, not really a high score.

Therefore, using it to request Emergency Nutrient Bars isn't shameful in the slightest. Not only does Spice of Life (the mod that makes food less effective the more you eat it) completely ignore these bars, they also count towards the 200 hunger meter, meaning you'll make already-consumed food regain its original restoration faster.

I guess I'm kind of just restating what's been put in the Blightfall Tips n' Tricks section, but it's good advice that you shouldn't be shy in utilizing.

I didn't have any experience in any of the modpacks except maybe a bit of Thermal Expansion, and from that perspective, I don't think the in-game missions and tutorials do a complete job explaining certain things. You'll definitely have to look up the mods Blood Magic: Alchemical Wizardry and Applied Energistics 2, as those two in particular are very helpful for completing Blightfall.

2
dangercrowOP•

By I don't have a lot, I mean my mate died 62 times and we were on -132... xD

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

2
CorenMajere•

Can you do the repeatable colonist quest turning in 256 bread for +9 rep?

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

I don't know about you, but that's a loooooot of bread... especially for the beginning of the game.

2
CorenMajere•

It's definitely a lot of bread, but bread is ridiculously easy to make in large quantities without leaving the biodome. Plant 20-30 barley and some trees for charcoal. Run multiple (at least 4) furnaces in parallel, alternating between 1 stack of flour and 16 logs to maintain charcoal reserves.

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

1
dangercrowOP•

By I don't have a lot, I mean my mate died 62 times and we were on -132... xD

1
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

2
CorenMajere•

Can you do the repeatable colonist quest turning in 256 bread for +9 rep?

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

I don't know about you, but that's a loooooot of bread... especially for the beginning of the game.

2
CorenMajere•

It's definitely a lot of bread, but bread is ridiculously easy to make in large quantities without leaving the biodome. Plant 20-30 barley and some trees for charcoal. Run multiple (at least 4) furnaces in parallel, alternating between 1 stack of flour and 16 logs to maintain charcoal reserves.

2
WhiteYoshi_YL•

._____.

well jeez okay.

You can cook bread again to make Toast. Have you done that yet? It's another food you can use.

1
TCloudGaming•

If you have the research done for the ring of nutrition I would highly recommend making one. It gives plus 1 hunger and 4 saturation to any food item you eat, regardless of diminishing returns. I always rush it and just eat berries after that.

As far as armor goes your just gonna wanna make a really good set and enchant it with repair. The enchant will use vis from your wand to repair your armor.

2
dangercrowOP•

How is enchanting done?

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

1
dangercrowOP•

How is enchanting done?

1
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

1
XygenSS•

Do some work and set up a farmland, request bunch of seeds, plant what you can, profit.

Also, if you go mining under the dome there is a good chance some animals will spawn by the time you get back up.

Speaking of Reps, Scout mission is the best for early game. Make a TiCon Longsword and Traveller's gear set(with upgrades!). They will IMMENSLY improve your mobility and will minimize exposure to tainted land while you are zipping through an area for a scout mission.

2
TCloudGaming•

If you have the research done for the ring of nutrition I would highly recommend making one. It gives plus 1 hunger and 4 saturation to any food item you eat, regardless of diminishing returns. I always rush it and just eat berries after that.

As far as armor goes your just gonna wanna make a really good set and enchant it with repair. The enchant will use vis from your wand to repair your armor.

1
dangercrowOP•

How is enchanting done?

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

1
dangercrowOP•

How is enchanting done?

1
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

2
TCloudGaming•

You could try your luck with the vanilla enchanter, but that's very inconvenient. In the Thaumic tinkerer tab you can research the osmotic enchanter. It does custom enchants and spends vis to do them.

1
XygenSS•

Do some work and set up a farmland, request bunch of seeds, plant what you can, profit.

Also, if you go mining under the dome there is a good chance some animals will spawn by the time you get back up.

Speaking of Reps, Scout mission is the best for early game. Make a TiCon Longsword and Traveller's gear set(with upgrades!). They will IMMENSLY improve your mobility and will minimize exposure to tainted land while you are zipping through an area for a scout mission.

1