Silent Gear for Minecraft

Review Silent Gear

Discord server should NOT be used to report bugs! Use the issue tracker. Use the #silent-gear channel for questions.

Requirements

The following mods are mandatory. See "Add-ons" section below for optional mods.

• Silent Lib
• Forge

Introduction

Silent Gear is essentially the tool and armor system from Silent's Gems, moved to its own mod and rewritten from scratch. It shares many features of the Gems tool and armor system, but with a few changes and improvements. For example, gear crafting requires blueprints now (you could change this with a data pack). This prevents recipe conflicts.

The mod focuses on tools, weapons, and armor (collectively called gear). Recipes are modular, down to each individual piece used in crafting. Possible combinations for each gear type are practically unlimited.

In the base mod, gear can be made from all the vanilla materials you are familiar with, plus some extras. Data packs (config files if you are still playing 1.12.2 for some odd reason) can add additional materials, as well as other mods. See the wiki for details on creating data packs. It's easier than you might think!

See the Notes and General Tips section at the bottom for helpful tips and answers to common questions. Some sections also have a TLDR paragraph at the end, which summarizes the section.

Optifine users: Please test without Optifine before reporting issues. Optifine is known to cause rendering issues.

Key Features

• Tools, weapons, and armor. All of them share much of the same code. If you can do something with tools, odds are you can do the same with armor, and so on. They also extend vanilla classes, which means they should work with anything that requires vanilla tools (Ender IO farming stations, for example). They can be enchanted and repaired through normal means.
  • Tools - Includes pickaxe, shovel, axe, mattock (replaces hoe), prospector hammer (can search for ores), hammer (AOE pickaxe), excavator (AOE shovel), saw (formerly lumber axe), and sickle.
  • Weapons - sword, dagger, katana, machete, bow, crossbow, slingshot
  • Armor - In Silent's Gems, armor was kind of tacked on later in development, so it had some bugs and inconsistencies. In Silent Gear, armor was considered from the beginning.
• Gear Parts (Materials) 
  • Basic "vanilla" materials are included in the mod. These include wood, stone, flint, netherrack, iron, gold, diamond, emerald, obsidian, and more. Two new ores, crimson iron (in the Nether) and azure silver (in the End). Crimson iron can be crafted into crimson steel and azure silver can be crafted into azure electrum. Hover over the item and hold the ctrl key to see material stats.
  • Tweak everything! Modify existing materials or define your own. See the wiki for more info

Add-ons

Although much can be done with just data packs, sometimes mods are needed to add new features. These are some other mods you can optionally add (some may not be available for all versions).

• Dragon Gear (by Partonetrain) - Ice and Fire materials and traits
• Mana Gear (by Partonetrain) - Botania metals which can be repaired with mana
• Silent Addons (by gelonsoft2) - 5x5 hammers and excavators
• Silent's Gems - The classic mod where this all started. Adds a new mechanic, supercharging, as well as tons of gems and other features.

Material Packs

Here are some custom material packs. These are not mods, they are data packs. Simply drop them into your data packs folder!

Want your pack featured here? Send me a link on Discord (link to server at top) or in a private message on Curse. There is not really any standard format for packs at the moment. But a good solution is to use a GitHub repo. See my "Basic Mod Metals" pack below for an example. If you choose to include a license, I recommend The Unlicense.

Not all packs in this list are updated for newer versions.

• Basic Mod Metals (by me) - Includes some common metals added by mods. Based on Silent's Gems: Extra Parts. May modify and redistribute without credit.(No longer needed, integrated into the base mod in newer version)
• Just Gems (by me) - Includes a wide variety of gems. Use this if you want to use a gems mod other than Silent's Gems.
• Extreme Reactors Support (ByPaco10)
• Botania Materials (MuuKnew)

Crafting

The crafting system has changed considerably, but almost everything can still be done in any vanilla crafting grid.

NOTE: This mod has a JEI plugin. It can't show every possible combination, but it shows many examples.

Recipes can be changed by data packs. Check JEI if you are unsure of the recipe.

Blueprints and Templates

Blueprints are crafted with blueprint paper. Templates are crafted with template boards (or wooden slabs in older versions). See the next section for how to craft template boards.

Blueprints are required to craft all gear types. Templates serve the same purpose, but are single use and have some restrictions. For tools and weapons, the blueprint makes a "tool head", which you then need to craft with additional items. Or you can add a rod or bowstring into the crafting grid to craft the whole tool at once (check JEI). For armor, the blueprint crafts the armor directly.

Tools and Weapons

Blueprint to head to full tool with rod (shapeless, but order of mains does matter)

Or just use the quick recipe (available for most tools, shapeless)

Ranged Weapons

Bows and other ranged weapons also need a bowstring (again, check JEI for recipes)

Armor

Armor will first craft armor plates. The plates can then be crafted into armor. You can optionally add a lining part as well. Armor plates can also be swapped into existing armor items, just like tool heads.

In older versions, the first recipe directly crafts the armor item instead, which makes swapping main parts impossible.

Curios

Curios, like rings and bracelets, can be crafted and worn in Curios slots (if the Curios mod is installed). The main part (shank, band, etc) can only be crafted from materials in the metal category†. An adornment part can be crafted from certain materials using jeweler tools. The same tools can then be used to craft the completed curio out of both parts. The adornment is technically optional, but usually has the most useful traits.

† Some data packs may not yet have updated to include material categories. These are not detected automatically, so data packs must update.

Template Boards

Template boards are used to craft templates and crude repair kits. Craft a knife or dagger with a log to make template boards. A dagger can be crafted with one main material above a rough rod if you don't have a blueprint for it. For a knife, place the items diagonally instead.

Rough rods are be used to craft a limited number of tools without blueprints or templates.

Crude (rough) dagger recipe. Crude tools have some penalties, but they work in a pinch! The flint can be any main material.

And... template boards!

Vanilla Conversion

Placing a vanilla item into a crafting grid by itself will convert it into an equivalent Silent Gear item, assuming there is a recipe for it. Additional conversion recipes can be added via data packs.

Grades and the Material Grader

Known as the Part Analyzer in earlier versions.

Grades apply an additional multiplier on material stats Possible grades are E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS. Not all stats are affected by grades, but many are. The material grader requires catalyst to function (see below). The old part analyzer did not require catalyst.

Re-grading

Materials that are already graded can be placed back into the grader to re-grade them. If the material grader rolls a higher grader, the material gets the new grade. If it rolls the same grader or lower, nothing changes but catalyst is still consumed.

Catalysts

The second input slot is for "catalysts", the fuel for the grader. Catalysts are consumed when grading, but they increase the average grade based on the tier of catalyst. In other words, you have a higher chance of getting better grades. There are multiple tiers of catalysts, defined by item tags. There are five tiers, but only three have items by default. The default catalysts are glowstone dust (tier 1), blazing dust (tier 2) and glittery dust (tier 3). Just override the tags with a data pack if you want to change these.

Material Mixing

Note on 1.17.1 and later: Mixing materials in the crafting grid is now disabled by default. The config option was renamed to "allowLegacyMaterialMixing" if you want to re-enable it. Otherwise, you can only mix in compound making machines, like the metal alloyer and recrystallizer. This was done for balance reasons.

Classic/Legacy Mixing

Material mixing still exists, but the system is significantly different. These changes fix some exploits and issues with the old system. Also, there are no more restrictions on what can be combined! But just because you can doesn't mean you should... Mixing drastically different materials will reduce stats (see the synergy section below). The math is somewhat complex, so I won't go too far into the details.

The order of materials now matters. The first (leftmost on top row) will have the greatest effect on stats. This is called the primary material and also determines the texture. The second has no more than half the impact on stats, third is no more than one-third, etc. The bigger the difference in any stat between the primary part and another, the lower the effect of the other part on that stat.

In the example above, the diamond on the first row is the primary material, the other diamond is the second, and the emerald is third. It's left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

Mixing is allowed for any part type where the recipe requires more than one material.

Synergy

Mixing bonuses are now calculated with a "synergy" value. Synergy is increased with the number of unique materials (no limit), but the bonus is less for each additional one (it's logarithmic, for the mathematically-inclined). Synergy is reduced if materials have a different rarity or tier. The bigger the difference, the greater the reduction. Tier has a bigger impact than rarity. Note that tier is not the same as harvest level.

How To Mix Materials

When crafting an item with a blueprint, just use two or more types of materials instead of just one type.

Compound Making (Alloys)

Certain blocks can be used to craft compound material items (often called "alloys" by the community!) These blocks include the metal alloyer, recrystallizer, and refabricator. These blocks are more mid/late game, so don't expect to be able to craft them right away. They can combine up to four materials into a single compound. Place two or more unique, simple (not compound) materials into the input slots, then toggle the "Work" button when you are happy with the result preview.

Repairing

There are a couple of ways to repair gear, outlined below. Note that you cannot simply craft two similar gear items together. The vanilla "repair recipe" does not work for more complex items because it strips all their data. Repair methods from other mods can also be a bit hit-or-miss because of this. If something doesn't work, let me know. There's a good chance I can add support for other mods.

Also keep in mind that gear items have a hidden repair efficiency stat. For example, shovels get double the amount of most tools. Some upgrades and other parts may also increase/decrease repair efficiency.

Repair Kits (Quick Repairs)

Repair kits allow gear items to be quickly repaired in any crafting grid. The repair kit can either be filled with materials ahead of time, or place the gear item, repair kit, and materials into any crafting grid. But the tier of the material must be the same or higher than that of the gear's primary part. No repairing your emerald pickaxe with cobblestone, that would be silly!

There are several tiers of repair kits. Each has a different capacity and efficiency modifier. Higher efficiency means you get more out of the materials used during repairs. Both values can be controlled in the config file.

Not sure how to get template boards? Check the "Blueprints and Templates" section above.

Fill up a repair kit (be sure to check the tier of the material and your gear)...

And top it off!

Anvil Repairs

Quick repairs are convenient, but using an anvil will often get more out of the materials. Like with normal anvil uses, this will cost XP levels.

Grindstone (1.14+)

The grindstone is thankfully smarter than the old vanilla repair recipe, although it still has some issues. Please be careful when using the grindstone, but last I check the grindstone does not strip an item's NBT. Forge made a small improvement to the grindstone logic, but expect additional improvements in the future.

Upgrade Parts

Some parts serve as upgrades for existing gear. Some upgrades can be applied by simply crafting the upgrade item with the gear item. Some can only be applied in the smithing table. Note that you can only have one of each type per item for most types. Trying to apply another upgrade will replace the existing one. For example, if you replace a diamond-tipped upgrade with emerald-tipped, the effects of the diamond-tipped upgrade are gone.

These only work on Silent Gear items! These items will not work on vanilla items or items from other mods.

Tip Upgrades and Others

Tip upgrades work more or less the same way as they did in Silent's Gems. Applying will augment the stats of a tool, usually increasing durability and harvest level. Check the tooltip of the upgrade to see exactly what stats will be affected and how.

Other types of upgrades include bindings, grips, and coatings (1.16+)

Some types of upgrades may require a smithing table to apply, but many can be applied in any crafting grid.

Minecraft 1.16.x (Silent Gear 2.x)

Almost all parts are now compound parts, crafted with blueprints. They no longer have separate items for each type. To craft tip upgrades, craft the tip upgrade blueprint with one or two materials that support tip upgrades. Recipes are visible in JEI. Upgrade bases are no longer required, but recipes using them were added to guide players who have recently updated (so I don't keep getting this question twice a week).

Can also be applied in an anvil. Depending on settings, an anvil may be required.

Miscellaneous Upgrades

There are a couple of other upgrades that don't fit into any particular category. These tend to just add a new function to the item. Currently they can only be applied in a smithing table (or just normal crafting in older versions). Multiple misc upgrades can be put on a single item.

• Red Card - Allows the item to break permanently, regardless of config settings. By default, you can still repair an item after it "breaks", but the red card will undo this. Could be useful for automating machines that use tools?
• Spoon - Allows pickaxes (and only pickaxes) to mine anything a shovel can.

Stats

Upgrade stats tend to be a little more complex than main parts. While mains tend to "average out" stats, upgrades usually add or multiply stats.

Look for these ("..." means some number):

You mainly see MAX on harvest level. The difference between MUL1 and MUL2 are subtle, I'll spare you the details. Just know that +20% and x1.2 mean the same thing in most cases. The difference is whether the multiplies stack together (MUL2) or just affect the base value (MUL1).

World Generation

Silent Gear adds a few new things to the world, although it tries to be as unobtrusive as possible, keeping new ores and such to a minimum. These are some things you may find in the world, where to find them, and what you can do with them.

Note the new ores are named for the color of their alloy, rather than the base metal.

Wild Flax

Wild flax plants can be found in some biomes, usually mountainous and plains-like biomes. Breaking wild plants will yield seeds, but not fibers or flowers. The seeds will grow normal flax plants which drop fibers, flowers, and seeds.

Wild Fluffy Plants

Wild fluffy plants are found in less dry biomes, such as forests. Breaking wild plants will yield only seeds. The seeds will grow normal fluffy plants which will drop fluffy puffs and seed.

These should not be confused with the Silent's Gems equivalent. Fluffy puffs will be exclusively in Silent Gear starting in Minecraft 1.17.

Bort

Bort ore can be found deep underground in single blocks, not clusters. Mining yields one bort, or more with Fortune. These will be required to craft adornments in the future.

Crimson Iron

Crimson iron ore can be found in all Nether biomes at most heights. Mining requires a pickaxe with a harvest level of 2 or higher (iron, etc.) Processing (smelting, crushing, etc.) will yield crimson iron ingots, which can be used to make crimson steel (please use JEI to check recipes). Crimson iron ore chunks and dust are added for compatibility with Silent's Mechanisms and other mods.

Azure Silver

Azure silver ore can be found in the End at most heights. Mining requires a pickaxe with a harvest level of 4 (crimson steel, netherite-coated, etc.) Processing yields azure silver ingots, which can be used to make azure electrum (use JEI for recipes). Chunks and dusts are also added for mod compatibility, same as with crimson iron.

Netherwood

Netherwood saplings can be found in certain loot chests, mostly in the Nether. All Netherwood blocks (planks, etc.) are fire-proof. The leaves will drop saplings, netherwood sticks, and nether bananas. Smelting a log yields netherwood charcoal, instead of vanilla charcoal.

JEI Searches

JEI can search through item tooltips, but since most of the tooltip information added to materials is hidden until a key is pressed, it is not normally searchable. However, if you hold the keys (Ctrl + Shift or whatever they are bound to) to expand the tooltip as the world is loading, they will be searchable. Version 2.6.1 will make some terms searchable without that, but will require JEI's "SearchAdvancedTooltips" config option (in jei-client.toml) to be enabled.

Notes and General Tips (FAQ)

Here are some common questions and stumbling blocks players may encounter, and some general advice. I recommend reading this before doing anything else.

• Q: How to mix materials in the crafting table? (Legacy Material Mixing in 1.17 and higher)
  A: To re-enable the old material mixing system, you must change the allowLegacyMaterialMixing config option in silentgear-common.toml config file to true. If you do not know how to find or edit a config file, check out this video.
• Q: How do I mine azure silver ore?
  A: A pickaxe with harvest level 4 (crimson steel, anything with a netherite coating, etc.)
• Q: Where is the crafting station?
  A: It was removed, mostly due to a dupe bug and it not working out like I wanted. It is not required anyway, any crafting grid can serve the same purpose. What replaces it: The blueprint book provides blueprint storage. It acts like the selected blueprint in recipes. For viewing materials, search "#material" in JEI, or try the "/sgear_mats dump" command to export data for a spreadsheet.
• Q: Lucky trait does not work!
  A: Luck is not the same as Fortune! Luck is a vanilla attribute that usually just affects loot chests and sometimes mob drops, not ores. Most loot tables will be unaffected.
• Q: Then how do I get (insert enchantment name here)?
  A: Silent Gear items can be enchanted in the same ways as vanilla gear. Enchanting tables, grindstones, and anvils with enchanted books all work.
  
  • Q: Sinew?
    A: It occasionally drops from cows, sheep, and pigs by default. You can change this in the config file.
  • Q: What materials are available?
    A: The best way to check is to dump a spreadsheet with the "/sgear_mats dump" command. The resulting TSV file can be imported into any spreadsheet program. The easiest way to find out in game is to search in JEI. You can search tooltips by putting "#" (minus the quotes) before your search term. Try searching "#material".
  • Q: "Craft with...?"
    A: When I say "craft x with y", I mean put both x and y together in any crafting grid.
  • Q: I put the right number of materials in with the blueprint, but it doesn't do anything!!!!1
    A: Did you put each piece in a separate slot of the crafting grid? This is still the vanilla crafting system, it doesn't look at the number of items in each slot. Also, material mixing...
  • Q: How do I craft...?
    A: Install JEI, look up the recipe. Seriously, how do you play without the best mod ever made?
  • Q: Where my shinies at!?
    A: Silent's Gems still has all the gems, and it's compatible with Silent Gear! Just install both mods and you can craft gear from gems.