User:Scimiguy/Guides/1.12.2/Getting Started

Information
This guide is designed as a general-purpose introduction to Advent of Ascension (AoA). Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game that is based on the premise of exploratory gameplay, and by extension; so is AoA. With that in mind, consider this guide a recommendation, not an exact plan.

Version
This guide is considered up to date as of version: 3.3.6

Configuration
AoA is designed to run as-is when installed as a mod and it is recommended that it be played with the default options, but there are a number of configurable options to change gameplay. At this point, the two primarily relevant options here are the ore-generation customisation, and the structure-generation customisation. These two options allow you to increase or decrease the frequency of ores and structures spawning across the various dimensions. If you want to have an easier time finding resources and locations, you may want to increase the rates.

The Wiki
The Advent of Ascension Wiki is an essential source of information, and information on just about everything in the mod can be found here. AoA offers an ingame easy-access method for the wiki via the /aoawiki command. Search for a given topic in-game with the command and you'll be given a clickable link straight to the page you're looking for, or a search page with similar results if it could not be found.

Mod Pairing
While AoA can be played without any other mods, it is heavily recommended that players install JEI alongside AoA when played. This is because there is a huge amount of items, blocks, and recipes in AoA that players can easily find themselves lost without easy and instant access to all of the available items and their usages.

Another useful mod is Phosphor. This mod fixes up several key issues with Minecraft's native lighting engine, significantly improving performance particularly in floating-world dimensions such as Celeve or Haven.

Leading Information
There are a few things worth noting before you begin AoA for the first time. Let's go over a few of the important ones:

Entity Attributes Melee_Immunity.png
Various creatures throughout the mod have special attributes that define certain combat-related abilities that the entity carries. The majority of these attributes are related to invulnerabilities - certain types of damage that the entity is immune to. These creatures are identified with overhead icons that display at all times above the entity.

It is worth familiarising yourself with these icons before beginning, as you may find yourself attempting to attack an enemy that is completely immune to your damage. Read more on this here: Mob Attributes.

Hunter Creatures Hunter_Entity_Unavailable.png
Certain mobs throughout AoA are considered to be what is called hunter creatures. These mobs require a certain level of Hunter to be able to attack. Attempting to attack them by any means without having the prerequisite Hunter level will cause the attack to fail, having no effect and dealing no damage.

For the most part, these mobs will pose little threat to unaware players, as any player that does not have the required level of Hunter will not be targeted by free-roaming Hunter mobs. The exception to this is Hunter mobs that are spawned from spawner blocks. These are nearly always found inside some sort of structure, and so simply avoiding that structure until you have the Hunter level to attack them will suffice.

Hunter mobs can be identified by the green or red crossed swords icon hovering above them. This is part of the entity attributes function described above, and the icon for Hunter creatures can be viewed in the Mob Attributes page of this wiki.

Skills Hauling_Icon.png
Advent of Ascension adds 15 different 'skills' to the game. No pre-existing content is locked behind any skill, and so if they do not interest you, you can feel free to ignore them entirely. With that being said however, the skills themselves do sometimes lock some AoA content behind leveling them up. A notable example of this is Hunter creatures, in that you will be unable to attack them until you have reached the pre-defined level required to do so.

Each skill has its own functions and training methods, so we won't go into how they work on this page, but more information can be found on this page: Skills.

Resources
Within AoA, there are five primary resource types available to the player for performing various actions. These resources are visible in-game by displaying the resources GUI. By default, this is toggled with the O key, but may be changed in the controls menu. These four resources from left to right on this gui are as follows:
 * [[File:TributeIcon.png]] Tribute
 * [[File:RageIcon.png]] Battle Rage
 * [[File:EnergyIcon.png]] Energy
 * [[File:CreationIcon.png]] Creation Points
 * [[File:SoulIcon.png]] Soul Power

Each of these resources form some part of various content within the mod, but we won't go too far into that here.

More information can be found on the resources page.

In addition to the five primary resources, there is a fifth icon that can appear to next to the resources GUI on occasion. This is the symbol for revenge. When this appears, a target has recently attacked you and has been tagged for vulcane targeting. More information can be found on the Vulcanes page.

The Advent GUI
Most of the personal data used within the mod is contained within the Advent GUI. This includes things like current skill levels, resource values, tribute points, the mod's version, and helpful links.

By default, this GUI is accessible by pressing Delete, but this may be changed in the controls menu.

Familiarise yourself with this GUI if you're new to AoA, and you'll know where to go in the future to find valuable info.

Gearing Up
Generally speaking, combat in Minecraft is fairly simplistic, but AoA does add several new equipment types and mechanics that are worth taking into account when playing. Ignoring these mechanics is sure to cause numerous deaths.

Equipment
AoA adds several new equipment types to the game, each with their own pros and cons.

Guns
Guns are more or less what you'd expect, based on the name. These are ranged-weapons that fire bullet type projectiles from a distance. They generally have a moderate-to-high firing rate, with middling damage. They are excellent for medium-ranged combat or for dealing additional damage while recovering from some tough hits. They do take some time to unholster however when switched to, so not ideal for quick-combat scenarios.

Blasters
Blasters are similar to guns in that they are ranged-weapons that fire projectiles from a distance. There are a few key differences however; first, blasters do not consume any physical ammunition, and instead rely on the player's Energy reserves. Running out of energy prevents you from firing any more shots. Secondly, blaster shots are energy-based damage, and will not penetrate through blocks, plants, or liquids. Additionally, while they require significantly less unholster time on average than guns, they do cause the user to slow down while firing them, making the user vulnerable.

Snipers
A sub-type of guns, Snipers fire slugs instead of bullets, with projectiles that move significantly faster than normal guns. When firing a sniper, the user must crouch to scope in and gain stability. If the user doesn't crouch, the gun will recoil uncontrollably, and very likely miss the shot.

Shotguns
Another sub-type of guns, these weapons fire spreadshots instead of bullets. Shotguns fire much slower than normal guns and have much stronger recoil, but fire a volley of pellets at short-range rather than a single bullet. They excel at dealing out damage at short distance, but be entirely useless at medium-to-long distances.

Cannons
Cannons are technically a sub-type of gun, firing cannonballs instead of bullets, having an unholster time, and dealing gun damage, however it is unlikely you would substitute a cannon in for a situation in which you would normally use a gun. Cannons excel at dealing damage to particularly tough targets, especially armoured targets. Cannons deal hefty damage in exchange for a slow fire-rate and strong recoil. Their large cannonball projectiles offer bonus damage against armoured enemies, which can be invaluable.

Greatblades
Greatblades could be considered a relation to normal swords in that they are large usually-bladed weapons that deal melee damage when swung at targets. The key distinction here however is that greatblades are significantly larger than normal swords, deal much higher damage per swing at the expense of slower swings, and carry an extended reach. Targets can be hit from further away than normal when using a greatblade, and this simple fact gives greatblades a uniquely useful position in combat.

Mauls
Mauls are also similar to swords in that that deal close-range melee damage when swung, but mauls are traditionally used for keeping stronger targets at a healthy distance instead of general combat. Mauls deal very strong knockback to targets, and swing slightly slower than swords do, but also deal slightly more damage per-hit than swords do.

Use it as a utility weapon, or as an oversized baseball bat, your choice!

Staves
Staves are magical utility items that vary greatly in usage. Some staves fire magical projectiles in a similar manner to blasters, others strengthen the user, deal AoE poison damage, heal friendly players and minions, and more various effects. Projectiles fired by staves deal armour penetrating magic damage against enemies, but not against players. Like blasters, these projectiles also cannot penetrate blocks, plants, or liquids.

Staves require that the user have Runes in their inventory to cast spells from them. Each staff lists their required per-cast runes in the description tooltip.

Archerguns
Archerguns are a gun-bow hybrid weapon. They fire arrows like bows do, but fire them in an automatic fashion similar to guns. Archerguns are great if you need to deal ranged damage to gun-immune targets, or for any other circumstance in which ranged damage is preferable over gun damage (such as ranged-damage boosting armour items).

Archergun holly arrows can be picked up after firing, but due to the volatile firing process, will strip any tipped arrow fired of its magical effects, converting it into a normal holly arrow.

Throwables
AoA also adds some non-traditional throwable weapons, similar to how snowballs work. These weapons are cheap, simple, and easy to use, requiring only themselves as ammo, and offering varying effects. These are great for quick and easy ranged damage, but are not ideal when compared to high damage output weapons from other categories.

Advent Armours
Advent of Ascension adds more armour to the game on top of Minecraft's usual selection. AoA armour scales up depending on how far into the mod's progression the item is obtained, resisting more and more damage, especially against hard-hitting enemies.

Additionally, AoA armours come with a vast array of special effects. These effects can manifest as a per-piece effect (in which the effect is gained cumulatively per piece of a given armour set is worn), or as a full set-bonus (giving an ability when an entire matching set is worn). The various armour effects and how they work can be viewed on the description tooltip of the armour items, and more info can be found on the Armor page.

A New World
Playing Minecraft with Advent of Ascension is fairly similar to playing 'vanilla' Minecraft at first, with the first priorities being to gather some food, a rudimentary shelter, some basic equipment and tools, and a place to sleep. The first thing the player should be focusing on is setting up a stable place to stay and basic equipment. For the most part, AoA won't intrude much on the player's early gameplay, leaving the player to play as they normally would.

The main thing to be aware of with AoA installed is that while in standard Minecraft the daytime tends to be mostly safe, with AoA the daytime can occasionally come with some roaming hostile mobs. They can usually be dispatched fairly easily with some basic gear and shouldn't pose too much threat. You may also notice some additional hostile mobs during the night, adding to the threat of the darkness. These creatures tend to be marginally more dangerous than the daytime mobs, but should still be fairly easy to dispatch with some basic gear.

First Steps
After you've settled down into the basics of your Minecraft world, you're ready to begin hunting down AoA's content!

The Corrupted Traveller & The Portal
The first step involved in this is to track down a Ruined Teleporter Frame. These generate underground between Y10-Y20. Generally speaking, you'll have the best chances of finding one if you mine around underground at Y18. Additionally Ruined Teleporter Frames may be found generated under villages in the Overworld.

A minimap mod with support for underground view will assist greatly in location this structure, and there's a config option to give Corrupted Travellers a glowing effect when spawned if you want to get an extra helping hand.

You'll know you've found one when you run into a large black chunk of blocks; Ancient Rock. In the center of this structure, you'll find a Corrupted Traveller. He's the key to the beginning of your AoA journey. Trade with him and give him some food. Any food. In return, he'll give you one of his journals. Open up this journal and a Blank Realmstone will fall out. Inside it, you'll find a brief tale of the traveller's trip into insanity and corruption, and a cryptic description on how to construct a working portal frame, used to visit other dimensions.

For good measure, mine out a stack or so of ancient rock and take it with you, we'll need it later.

The Portal
To gain access to other dimensions in AoA, you'll need to construct a new ancient portal frame. These frames have a somewhat specific construction, and failing to meet the build criteria will earn you a non-functioning rectangle.

The easiest way to build a portal frame is to construct a vertically-oriented hollow rectangle out of ancient rock, 5 blocks wide, and 6 blocks tall. Unlike the nether portal frame, this frame must include the corner blocks.

Once you have done this, we'll need to insert the Carved Runes to make it functional. The first one is easy - we simply craft it with some Ancient Rock, an Eye of Ender, and some Unpowered Runes. Unpowered runes are obtained by throwing a Runium Chunk in a crafting grid. Runium Chunks spawn commonly as Runium Ore all over the overworld, so some quick mining should find some quite easily.

The other Carved Runes are not so simple. They can be found in a few different ways:
 * In Minecraft loot chests such as the starter chest, dungeon chests, igloos, desert pyramids, mineshafts, etc.
 * Generated uncommonly in a Ruined Teleporter Frame structure, in the portal frame itself
 * Sold by Realmshifters, which wander the Overworld randomly.

You'll need to collect one of each of the four below carved runes to move on:
 * Carved_Rune_of_Direction.gif Carved Rune of Direction
 * Carved_Rune_of_Space.gif Carved Rune of Space
 * Carved_Rune_of_Reality.gif Carved Rune of Reality
 * Carved_Rune_of_Travel.gif Carved Rune of Travel

Once you have each of the Carved Runes, we'll insert them into the portal frame to make use of them. The Carved Rune of Power is specifically placed at the bottom of the portal frame, in the center. The remaining four runes can be placed anywhere in the frame.

See the below diagram for a visual:



Dimensional Keys
Now that we have constructed a working portal frame, we'll need to activate it with a Realmstone. Realmstones can be thought of as the 'keys' to the portals. When a realmstone is used on the Carved Rune of Power, the portal will light up with the relevant portal blocks, allowing dimensional travel. This does not consume the realmstone, so it may be worth keeping a chest nearby to store your collection for later use.

Earlier, we collected a Blank Realmstone from the Corrupted Traveller's journal. This item is the key to all keys - it is the basis of all realmstones in the mod. If you use the blank realmstone at any time, it will bring up a dimension map, showing the various dimensions and their links. Hovering the mouse over any of these dimensional windows will bring up a tooltip explaining the required task to obtain the realmstone for that dimension. It is worth noting that all of the realmstone tasks require that you be carrying a blank realmstone with you in your inventory somewhere, so before setting off to complete a task; don't forget to take the blank with you!

Exploration
Gaining access to new dimensions via realmstones is the primary goal of any AoA player, but it's important to note before you venture off that the further into your journey you go, the more dangerous the creatures in these dimensions will become. This progression is covered on the Dimensional Tiers page.

Besides that, dimensional exploration follows similar guidelines to Minecraft in general:
 * Keep torches on you at all times
 * Keep a bucket of water on you at all times
 * Ensure you have a suitable supply of food before venturing off
 * Keep a quick escape method on you at all times (Ender Pearls or Rosidons are both very useful items for this purpose).

Item Infusion
There are a number of ways to obtain new gear in AoA, but in this guide we will just briefly go over the craftable items method.

The Frame Bench
The Frame Bench is the first stop on the road to crafting your own weapons and armour in AoA. This utility block allows you to craft 'item frames' (not to be confused with vanilla Minecraft's item frames!). These item frames are the base template for various items in AoA, such as guns, blasters, and armour.

To use a frame bench, we'll need to collect some Scrap Metal. Generally by this point in the game you will have already found some dropped by various mobs you've encountered in your travels. If you haven't, it's mostly just a matter of going out and killing any AoA mobs that cross your path. There are a few additional methods of obtaining scrap metal; these are covered over on the Scrap Metal page.

Once you've got yourself some scrap metal, interact with the Frame Bench and insert the scrap into the left slot. Select the frame you intend to craft with the buttons in the center, and the resulting frame will appear on the right.

The Infusion Table
To use the item frames we've just created, we'll need to get ourselves an Infusion Table. Due to the crafting requirement of this utility block, we'll need to do a few extra things before we can obtain one.

Pixons
One of the crafting components of the Infusion Table is an Infusion Stone of any type. To get an infusion stone we need to look into harvesting Pixons. Don't worry, this is actually a fairly simple task and shouldn't take too long to complete.

To begin, we'll need to craft ourselves a Stone Bowl. This item is used to siphon the energy off-of pixons, creating infusion stones. Once you have your Stone Bowl, we'll need to go looking for a Pixon. Assuming you've just started playing AoA, you'll only have level 1 Infusion, meaning that you'll only have the required level to be able to harvest a Glistening Pixon.

Finding a Glistening Pixon is fairly easy, we'll just need to roam the overworld until we find a bright green flashing entity sitting on the surface of the biome. They are very noticeable, so it shouldn't take long to spot one from a distance. They tend to be easier to notice in plains biomes due to the lack of obstructions in your view.

Once you find one, simply hold out your Stone Bowl and interact with the Pixon, holding down the interact button to siphon it until it dissipates. This should leave you with a Glistening Infusion Stone. Combine this with some Ancient Rock which you should have picked up from the Ruined Teleporter Frame from earlier, and some wool, and you'll have yourself an Infusion Table.

Infusing
Now that we have our Infusion Table, we can place it down anywhere and interact with it. Once you do this, a fairly simple GUI will open. This is where Infusion is performed.

This is the part where JEI is very useful, as knowing the required recipe for an item is crucial in actually crafting it. If you don't have JEI, this wiki will contain the crafting recipe for the item you are looking for.

All you need to do is insert your frame item in the left slot, the required infusing materials in the center grid, and your output item will appear on the right.

Afterword
That mostly covers the beginnings of AoA! This wiki covers every aspect of the mod, so don't be afraid to use it to figure out your next steps or any future actions.

Your primary goal through AoA will be to journey through the various dimensions, seeking out materials and building up your armoury, defeating tougher enemies and bosses, raising your skill levels, and collecting the more unique, rarer items strewn throughout the mod.

AoA, like Minecraft, is sandbox-oriented. There is no 'correct' next step to take, it's up to you to decide what to do next and where to go. But with so many new places and items, you'll have plenty of options to take!