Settling Down: The basics

As of version 3.0 some of the information in this starting guide is outdated and needs rewriting - keep that in mind when reading the information below.

The Bronze Age
Progression has changed slightly from your regular vanilla experience. Depending on how much or how little Iron Ore you find, Bronze gear will be an important stage. To get started you will need to mine Copper ore and Tin Ore to craft a Copper and Tin ingot, which is made with one (1) Tin ingot and three (3) Copper ingots. Next, you will want to place the Copper and Tin ingot onto a Multipurpose Stone Anvil and use a hammer to break the ingot into pebbles. Lastly, you will want to smelt the pebbles into Bronze ingots by placing them in to a Kiln, as a furnace will be unable to smelt them.

Mechanical Age
After acquiring a basic house, you will start noticing that you don't have too many options to start producing resources other than venturing in the very dangerous caves and caverns underground. As mining and caving can be too hazardous for players just starting out (other than to find some copper and coal for torches), a good alternative to start working on is creating some more advanced machinery in your base. In the case that you need more info, you can create an in-depth machinery encyclopedia by putting a single gear and a book together in the crafting grid.

Millstone and fiber
You can start by creating a Millstone. A millstone will let you grind materials into other useful components such as dust or dough. What your hands can't do, thanks to mechanical power, the mill can! attach a Hand Crank block to the side of your millstone and start working that lever to pulverize items!

Cauldron
The Cauldron is a bulk cooking device that can cook massive amounts of food and other crafting recipes. With this, you can toss massive amounts of foodstuffs into it at the start of a new day, go out and do digging work, and come back to most of your foodstuffs cooked.

It’s important to note that additional fires in a 3x3 underneath the cauldron will make it cook food and other recipes much faster than if you were to just use one flame! This also applies to when you have Stoked the Cauldron as well; The stoked flame of the Hibachi will apply its effects better if the entire 3x3 under it is filled with hot fire.

Lava will  NOT  work with the Cauldron. It simply lacks the ability to heat it up uniformly, and the radiated heat is much, much lower overall. Remember, the block directly underneath the Cauldron must be fire for it to function. If you need the cauldron on early, placing a log on it’s side with fire on it is enough to keep the cauldron going for a few items… Making an everlasting fire before you enter the nether is possible only with charcoal blocks. Not coal! Charcoal only. How to get it? Look charcoal up in JEI. "R" key will give you recipes to get what your cursor is at.

You also do not need water for the recipes inside the cauldron; The bone and water bucket you used to craft it with is the “stock” your food and items go into. The open top means you can also have stuff drop into it without having to directly access it’s inventory. Fluids and such will NOT go into it, meaning that if you use water flows or an item dropper, you could feasibly automate say, a mob farm, animal farm, and so much more.

To go with the above, applying mechanical power to the cauldron will tip counterclockwise to the axle.

Tipping it will dump out it’s contents into the block space it’s open side is facing. Utilizing this, one could make an automatic cooker with the Hibachi and some Pistons. How you, the player, can utilize this, is entirely left to you to experiment with.

In simpler terms: The cauldron tips to the left of whichever way the axle is powering from. Experiment with it to find a good automated setup for dumping out of the pot.

Kilns
There are two kinds of kiln currently in Rebirth of the Night, the Stone/Brick kilns and the multiblock kiln, the first kind can be found on its own page

The second kind of kiln is a multiblock structure that is used as an in-world crafting device for many advanced materials.

The fundamental requirements to form are Kiln are as follows:
 * Four  of any valid Brick Block (only Vanilla clay bricks by default).
 * The first block  must  be over a valid heat source, Fire or Stoked Fire. (Netherrack does not count as a valid permanent fire source. Charcoal blocks, braziers, and fire bowls all work.)
 * The first block  must  have an air block directly above it.
 * The other three must surround that air block in any of the possible permutations.

To use the Kiln, you need to place the material block on top of the bottom Brick Block. If the Kiln was built correctly - the material will start breaking slowly. When it breaks completely - it will drop its product.

The multiblock Kiln can be used for:
 * Firing Pottery
 * Baking Bread more efficiently

When the multiblock Kiln is powered with a stoked hibachi fire using a bellow, it gives up the uses listed above and instead:
 * Cooks Sandstone into Crystal Salt
 * Bakes Fiery Ash into Hellfire Stone

Crucible
The Crucible is a very, very important crafting pot, created from smelting an unfired crucible in a Kiln. This pot enables the creation of Soulforged Steel and the smelting of manufactured tools and armor down into their components, enabling recycling from say… Mob traps. Or nearly-broken armor/tools you’ve been using for a while now.

The Crucible is also unique in that the majority of its functionality is locked behind having a steady stoked flame.

Like it’s iron brother, the Cauldron, the Crucible benefits from having more fire underneath it in a 3x3 area. The details on that are talked about on its page, but will be repeated here for clarity and having to save you from clicking more:  Needs a fire directly under it. Each additional fire in the 3x3 ring below the Crucible increases its speed. If you’re using stoked fire, then make sure the fire sources come from Hibachis, or else the fire will get blown out.

Sustainable power
Next, you can make continuous Mechanical Power through a Windmill so you don't have to overwork your hands and back, to do this a strong fibrous material is necessary. Hemp is exactly that, put this plant into the Millstone to create Hemp Fibers, useful to make Rope or Fabric and it even grows in any season; there are other options too, including cotton, flax, sisal and Jute. Hemp Seeds can be obtained from tall grass and they need sunlight or a Light Block directly above them, the other crops can be grown by normal means but are limited to their respective seasons.

As you can see, in order to create continuous power you will need to establish a steady source of durable fibers, so a farm would come in handy. If climate is a problem for your crops then consider using some Greenhouse Glass. Keep in mind that the types of crops you can grow will change throughout seasons and biomes. There may be other methods to obtain the needed resources though, so keep an eye open...

