Do you like tech? Magic? Plants? Minecraft? If yes, then Botania is the mod for you. Created by Vazkii, Botania aims to enhance gameplay and get players thinking outside the box. It's not just an endless grind to get the most of something - it's an experience which should be treasured and enjoyed.
There's a lot to do in Botania, and it can look a little intimidating to start. But if you take it slow and go one step at a time, you'll be an expert before you know it.
6 Make A Book
Botania is fairly simple but can be hard to start. What can you do to make it easier? Get a book!
The Lexica Botania is easy to acquire, simply place a book and a tree on the crafting table, and unlock all of Botania's secrets! In stages, of course. The initial batch of chapters will help you with getting started, learning what the difference is between flowers, how to generate mana, etc.
The book has answers to most of your burning Botania-related questions. If you hold the book and hover over something from the mod, you can sneak+ctrl to open the book straight to that item's page.
5 Collect All The Flowers
Botania comes with 16 unique flowers which spawn in the overworld, known as mystical flowers. They're different shapes and colors to make them stand out amongst the other plants in Minecraft, and you'll want to try and grab every single one you see.
Do you think you have enough flowers? You don't. That goes for all supplies, but more on that later, for now, focus on finding flowers.
They're pretty easy to come across, and also very easy to ignore. Try and get yourself a flower pouch as fast as possible, and it'll make storing flowers a lot easier.
"I won't need that red flower", you think as you pass it by. You will need that red flower, go back and get it.
4 You Can Never Have Enough
In the same vein as flowers, you will always have more supplies, so you'll want to start by collecting a lot of wood and stone. The early stages of Botania involve converting wood and stone to new materials, but Botania also makes use of the most mundane materials, like grass
Make sure you have a pair of sheers for that. If you don't know how to make farms, this is a great time to learn.
You may eventually reach a point where you feel like you have enough, but you don't, and a lot of vanilla materials are converted to new materials for Botania, like iron ingots to manasteel ingots, and you'll always need more than have. Learn how to farm, and collect everything you see, it's the only way to stay ahead.
3 Details Are Important
One of the good things about Minecraft is its flexibility, since you can use any type of wood to make most things. Botania, however, does not offer that flexibility.
To make Livingrock (one of the early staples of the mod), you'll need stone, not cobblestone, stone. If a recipe says it requires a red petal, two brown petals, and two yellow petals, then make sure you have those specifically, as you can't substitute different colors.
This is why it's important to make sure you're following the book, because the recipes are picky sometimes, and substitutes just won't work. Maybe write the recipe down somewhere if it's something you'll be using a lot, so you don't have to refer back to the book over and over.
2 Making Your First Craft Station
You have your book, you have your supplies, and it's time to start working on the first craft station. You'll start with a petal apothecary, which you can use to make a pure daisy.
The petal apothecary is used for making all the flowers you'll need for generating mana and other functions. The pure daisy is for making Livingwood and Livingrock.
Once you have enough mana and Livingrock, you'll make a Runic Altar for getting into the more complicated recipes, and this is where things get really magical. Runes use everything from grass to cake in their recipes and are the first big mana-consuming tool.
1 Know Your Flowers
There are three important types of flowers. Mystical Flowers, which generate in the Overworld and are used in crafting, Generating Flora, which are used in generating mana, and Functional Flora, which use mana to provide other utilities, such as acting as a hopper or defending against mobs.
When first starting out, you'll make an Endoflame - a generating flower that creates mana by absorbing fuel sources (wood, coal, etc.). You can also make the Hydroangeas, which produces mana from water source blocks, but much slower than an Endoflame, and it'll decay after an hour.
As you unlock more chapters, you'll get into more complicated flowers, like the Rosa Arcana, which uses experience to make mana, or the Gourmaryllis, which uses food, and you'll get a chance to explore the vast range of Functional Flora. There's a flower for everything (including deterring Endermen and Creepers), and it's worth saving up the mana and supplies to make them.