Nature's Compass in All the Mons

Nature's Compass lets you search for a biome anywhere in the world and read information about it. If you've ever wandered for ages looking for one specific biome, this is the item that fixes that.^[1]

How it works

• Right-click with the compass to open the biome selection screen. From there you can search for a biome or view information about it.^[1]
• Shift-right-click to reset the compass's state.^[1]
• While it isn't pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn.^[1]
• It supports all registered biomes, vanilla and modded, so biomes added by other mods in the pack can be searched too.^[1]

Once a biome is found, information about it shows on your HUD. The mod's config file lets you adjust things like blacklisted biomes and the maximum search distance. I haven't confirmed the pack's values for those settings, so check the config yourself before relying on a particular search range.^[1]

Where it fits in the pack

The pack includes the NeoForge 1.21.1 build, version 3.4.0. It's an early tool rather than a late-game reward: the quest "Compasses for Searching" quest in the "Tips and Poke Tricks" chapter introduces it as a way to find biomes. You pick a biome from the list, hit Search, and the compass points you toward it with some info shown in the top left of your screen.^[2][3]

Unverified The crafting recipe for Nature's Compass in this pack is not confirmed in the sources, so check the in-game recipe viewer before planning around it. This site does hold All the Mons's own recipes, read from the pack itself: look the item up in the item browser.

Same as in the All the Mods 10: To the Sky 2.0.4 guide

Your first step in this pack is simple: make a Nature's Compass. It lets you search for a biome anywhere in the world and view information about it. It supports all registered biomes, both vanilla and modded.^[1]

Craft the Nature's Compass

The pack has its own shaped crafting recipe for the compass. Here is the exact in-pack version:^[4]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Compass	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

Pick a biome

Right-click with the compass to open the biome selection screen. From there you can search for a biome or just view information about it.^[1]

Once a biome is found, information about it is displayed on your HUD. While the compass is not pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn instead.^[1]

The repair recipe

The pack also includes a shapeless recipe for an existing Nature's Compass, listed as the repair recipe.^[4]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

Good to know

• The mod's config file can adjust things like blacklisted biomes and the maximum search distance.^[1]
• If you want a compass that locates structures instead of biomes, the mod's author points to a separate mod called Explorer's Compass.^[1]

Nature's Compass adds a single item, the Nature's Compass. It searches for a biome anywhere in the world and shows you information about it. The sources here describe no machines, multiblocks or power systems for it, so everything below is about how the compass behaves and what this pack changed.^[1]

Using the compass

• Right-click with the compass to open the biome selection GUI. From there you can search for a biome or just view information about it.^[1]
• Shift-right-click to reset the compass's state.^[1]
• When the compass is not pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn.^[1]
• It supports all registered biomes, vanilla and modded, apart from the ones this pack blacklists (see below).^[1][5]

Crafting and repair

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Compass	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

The basic crafting recipe for the compass in this pack.

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

Repairing is a shapeless crafting recipe.

What this pack changed

The pack makes the compass less free to use than the mod's default. General.compassDurability is 10 here, where the mod default is 0 (which disables durability). That means the compass breaks after 10 successful biome searches and has to be repaired.^[5]

General.defaultXpLevels is 1 here, where the mod default is 0. A search costs 1 XP level unless a biome has its own cost. The allowed range for this option is 0 to 3. General.perBiomeXpLevels is empty in this pack, so every biome uses the default cost.^[5]

How the search is tuned

The pack leaves the search settings at the mod defaults. The maximum search radius is the biome's size multiplied by General.radiusModifier, which is 2,500. The sample spacing is the biome's size multiplied by General.sampleSpaceModifier, which is 16. Lowering the sample spacing value makes the search more accurate but more resource intensive. General.maxSamples caps a search at 50,000 samples.^[5]

General.maxNextSearches is 25, the mod default. That is how many times you can search for the next instance of a biome you already located. Setting it to 0 would make the compass always find the nearest one.^[5]

HUD, teleporting and blacklisted biomes

General.displayCoordinates is true, so the HUD shows the precise coordinates and distance of a located biome instead of making you rely only on the compass direction. General.allowTeleport is false in this pack. That option controls teleporting to a located biome in creative mode, when opped, or in cheat mode.^[5]

The compass cannot search for the biomes in General.biomeBlacklist. In this pack that covers the Meneglin biome from IntegratedDynamics, the Archwood forest from Ars Nouveau, and from Ars Elemental the blazing, cascading, flashing and flourishing forests plus the vexing caves.^[5]

Good news: Nature's Compass is simple in this pack. The sources only show a single compass, with no upgrade tiers, so there is no tier ladder to climb.^[3][6]

The quest

The pack covers this mod with one quest, "Compasses for Searching" quest, in the Tips and Poke Tricks chapter. It is described as a way to help you find biomes and structures, and its task is to hand in either Nature's Compass or Explorer's Compass.^[3]

The quest text explains how it works. The compass gives you a list of biomes you can search for. You select a biome and hit Search. Some info shows up in the top left, and the compass points in the direction of that biome.^[3]

The Explorer's Compass works the same way, but it searches for structures instead of biomes.^[3]

Crafting it

The pack uses a mod recipe for the compass, which is a shaped crafting recipe. Here is the exact in-pack version:^[6]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Compass	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

Repairing it

The pack also has a separate shapeless recipe for repairing a Nature's Compass. It uses a regular compass together with your Nature's Compass.^[6]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

Unverified The sources don't show any upgrade tiers, stage gates or quest rewards for Nature's Compass in this pack, so none are described here.

Nature's Compass appears in a single quest in the pack, so this section is short. It sits in the "Tips and Poke Tricks" chapter, and the quest is "Compasses for Searching" quest.^[3]

Compasses for Searching

The quest is about finding biomes and structures. You complete it by handing in either Nature's Compass or the Explorer's Compass, and either one is enough.^[3]

The quest text explains how the compass works. It gives you a list of biomes you can search for. You select a biome and hit 'Search.' Some info appears in the top left, and the compass points in the direction of that biome.^[3]

The quest also says the Explorer's Compass works the same way, but it searches for structures instead of biomes.^[3]

Everything for Nature's Compass lives in one file, config/naturescompass-common.toml. Most of it is left at the mod's own values, but this pack changed two options that you'll feel the moment you start searching for biomes.^[5]

What this pack changed

• General.compassDurability is set to 10 here. The mod default is 0, which disables durability. With 10, the compass breaks after 10 successful biome searches and has to be repaired.^[5]
• General.defaultXpLevels is set to 1 here. The mod default is 0. Each search now consumes 1 XP level. The option accepts values from 0 to 3.^[5]
• General.perBiomeXpLevels is empty, so no biome has its own price. Every biome uses the default XP cost above.^[5]

Options left at the mod's values

• General.maxNextSearches is 25, the same as the mod default. It caps how many times you can search for the next instance of a located biome. At 0, the compass always finds the nearest one.^[5]
• General.maxSamples is 50,000, the mod default. It sets the maximum number of samples taken during one biome search.^[5]
• General.radiusModifier is 2,500, the mod default. Biome size multiplied by this value gives the maximum search radius. Raising it improves accuracy but makes the search heavier.^[5]
• General.sampleSpaceModifier is 16, the mod default. Biome size multiplied by this value gives the sample space. Lowering it improves accuracy but makes the search more resource intensive.^[5]
• General.displayCoordinates is true. You see the precise coordinates and distance of a located biome on the HUD, not just the direction the compass points.^[5]
• General.allowTeleport is false. Teleporting to a located biome is normally limited to creative mode, opped players, or cheat mode, and the pack leaves it off.^[5]

Blacklisted biomes

General.biomeBlacklist lists biomes the compass can't search for. This pack blocks these: integrateddynamics:meneglin, ars_nouveau:archwood_forest, ars_elemental:blazing_forest, ars_elemental:cascading_forest, ars_elemental:flashing_forest, ars_elemental:flourishing_forest and ars_elemental:vexing_caves. If one of those doesn't show up when you search, this is why.^[5]

All the Mons 1.3.0 ships Nature's Compass 1.21.1-3.4.0-neoforge. The mod has been in the pack since 0.3.0-beta or earlier, so you have had a compass for a long time. Below are the changes the mod's own changelogs list.^[2]

3.4.0 (the version in this pack)

The 3.4.0 changelog is made up of backported changes. Here is what it lists:^[7]

• A feature to search for the next instance of a biome you have already located.^[7]
• Config options that make the compass consume XP levels when it searches for a biome.^[7]
• A config option to give the compass durability, plus a recipe to repair a broken compass.^[7]
• A fix for biomes with the c:hidden_from_locator_selection tag not being hidden.^[7]
• Improvements to the biome selection GUI.^[7]
• Ecuadorian Spanish translations.^[7]

The XP cost and durability are config options in the mod's changelog, so they are not necessarily switched on. This changelog does not say what values the pack uses.^[7]

3.0.2

The 3.0.2 changelog has a single entry: the mod was updated to NeoForge 1.21.1.^[8]

Unverified The sources I was given contain no All the Mons changelog entries for Nature's Compass, so any pack-specific changes to the mod across pack releases are unverified.