Immersive Engineering guide for All the Mods 10: To the Sky 1.1.1 to 1.2.1

Immersive Engineering is a tech mod built around realism-inspired, retro-futuristic machines. Instead of glowing tubes you get actual hanging powerlines, and instead of one block that magically spits out dust you get big multiblock machines. The pack includes version 12.4.2-194.^[1][2]

It uses the Forge Energy API, but power doesn't travel through lanes of blocks. You span cables between connectors. Generation comes from waterwheels, windmills, biodiesel and more. The mod can be played fully standalone, so you don't need other tech mods to get going.^[1]

Who it's for

This one is for you if you enjoy building. Many machines are multiblocks, like the Crusher (5x3x3) and the Excavator (3x7x8), and the Excavator is described as resource intensive. The pack's quest chapter warns you'll be building a lot of them.^[1][3]

If you get stuck, the mod has its own in-game documentation, the Engineer's Manual. You craft it with a book and a lever.^[1]

Where it fits in the pack

The pack has a dedicated Immersive Engineering quest chapter, and it starts with the Engineer's Hammer in "Immersive Engineering" quest. The hammer makes plates and dust and is used to assemble multiblocks.^[3]

From there the chapter branches into a few threads. For power, "Immersive Engineering Power!" quest has you grab the Engineer's Wire Cutters to snip plates into wires, and "Wire Coils" quest covers attaching wire coils to machines. For item and fluid movement, "Immersive Engineering Logistics" quest introduces the Engineer's Screwdriver for configuring machine inputs and outputs.^[3]

For materials, "Crude Blast Furnace" quest gives you a simple 3x3x3 way to make steel. Per the quest, it takes an iron ingot plus charcoal or coal coke. Each steel ingot takes 60 seconds to bake, with charcoal covering 15 seconds of that and coke covering all 60.^[3]

Unverified How this mod connects to the rest of the pack's progression beyond its own quest chapter is not confirmed by the available sources.

Immersive Engineering is a retro-styled tech mod where power travels through hanging wires and many machines are multiblocks. In this pack it has its own quest chapter, and the first quest sends you to the Engineer's Hammer. The mod's own documentation is the in-game Engineer's Manual, so use it whenever you want a detailed look at a machine.^[1][3]

Start with the Engineer's Hammer

Everything begins with the Engineer's Hammer, as the first quest "Immersive Engineering" quest explains. You use it to make plates and dust, and to build your multiblocks, and you will be building a lot of those. The pack's Iron Plates quest "Iron Plates" quest also accepts this hammer as its task item.^[3][4]

Build the Coke Oven

Next up is the Coke Oven, covered by the quest "Coke Oven" quest. It turns logs into charcoal and coal or coal blocks into Coal Coke, and both jobs also produce creosote oil. It is a 3x3x3 of Coke Brick. Right-click the middle block of the front side with your hammer to form it.^[3]

3× Coke BrickMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any clay	any brick	any clay
any brick	any block sandstone	any brick
any clay	any brick	any clay

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/cokebrick

Build the Crude Blast Furnace for steel

The Crude Blast Furnace is the simple way to get steel, per the quest "Crude Blast Furnace" quest. It is a 3x3x3 of Blast Brick, formed by right-clicking the front middle block with your hammer. You feed it an iron ingot plus charcoal or coke. Each steel ingot takes 60 seconds to bake: charcoal covers 15 of those seconds, and coke covers the full 60. That is why the coke from your oven is worth having.^[3]

3× Blast BrickMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any nether brick	any brick	any nether brick
any brick	Magma Block	any brick
any nether brick	any brick	any nether brick

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/blastbrick

Build the Alloy Kiln

The Alloy Kiln combines two metals into an alloy, and the quest "Alloy Kiln" quest asks for 8 Kiln Brick. It is a 2x2x2 of Kiln Bricks. Right-click the top right block with your hammer to form it, then put the two metals in the top slots and a furnace fuel in the bottom slot.^[3]

2× Kiln BrickMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any block sandstone	any brick
any brick	any block sandstone

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/alloybrick

The pack also has its own Create item application route for Kiln Bricks, and it is marked as changed by the pack.^[5]

Kiln BrickChanged by the pack

Item Application (create)

• Brick
• any block sandstone

Recipe id: createaddition:compat/immersiveengineering/item_application/kiln_brick

Treated wood and small machines

Not every machine is a multiblock. The quest "Small Machines" quest points you at Treated Wood Planks for the single-block machines. In this pack, Create's spout can turn any planks into Treated Wood Planks, and that recipe is marked as changed by the pack.^[3][5]

Treated Wood PlanksChanged by the pack

Filling (create)

• any plank

Recipe id: create:filling/compat/immersiveengineering/treated_wood_in_spout

Get power and logistics going

For energy, grab the Engineer's Wire Cutters from the quest "Immersive Engineering Power!" quest. You use it to snip plates into wires, which go into coils. It also removes wires from connectors. You attach a wire by right-clicking one part with the coil and then the second part with the same coil, and the path between them cannot be obstructed. Higher wire tiers carry more, and HV moves the most. A simple first generator is the Kinetic Dynamo, which needs a water wheel or windmill attached to its open side.^[3]

For configuring machine inputs and outputs, the quest "Immersive Engineering Logistics" quest points you at the Engineer's Screwdriver. The quest also mentions that you might need the hammer too, but for something different.^[3]

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

Immersive Engineering plays differently from most tech mods, and the key ideas are simple. It uses the Forge Energy API, but power doesn't travel through lanes of adjacent blocks. You span actual cables between connectors, so your factory ends up with hanging powerlines. Many of the machines are multiblocks, which are big structures you build from several blocks.^[1]

The mod's project page says it can be played fully standalone, and that its in-game documentation is the Engineer's Manual, crafted with a book and a lever. When you're unsure how a machine is built, open the manual first. It is the mod's own reference.^[1]

Multiblocks

The project page gives two examples of the scale involved. The crusher is a 5x3x3 multiblock with rotating wheels. The excavator is a 3x7x8 multiblock that digs ores out of the ground with a big rotating bucketwheel, and it is resource intensive to build.^[1]

The mod also tracks you forming a few key machines: the Crude Blast Furnace, the Improved Blast Furnace, the Arc Furnace, the Metal Press and the Diesel Generator. These make good milestones as you progress.^[6]

Power

Power generation comes from waterwheels, windmills, biodiesel and more. The mod also has a Kinetic Dynamo and a Diesel Generator. Energy is measured in Flux.^[1][6]

The mod can report what your network is doing. Storage blocks show the energy stored out of their capacity in Flux. You can also check the average energy transferred over a number of ticks in Flux per tick, and the average loss between points on a wire. Use these readouts when a line isn't delivering what you expect.^[6]

Machine settings and redstone

Several machines have settings you can toggle. Redstone control can be inverted or not, and some blocks can also switch a strong redstone signal on or off. The Bottling Machine can either hold containers until they're full or allow partial filling. Pumps can be set to replace fluid blocks with cobblestone, but the game warns that this can cause lag with large amounts of fluid.^[6]

Fluid containers can also refuse certain contents. Some will tell you they can't store gases.^[6]

Item handling and automation

The mod has its own logistics tools. The Conveyor Belt comes with Dropping and Extracting variants, and the Extracting Conveyor Belt reports how many items per second it will extract. You also get the Item Router, the Item Batcher and Sheetmetal Chutes. These cover most of what you need for moving items between machines.^[6]

Mineral veins and core samples

Ore generation is tied to mineral veins. You take a core sample with a drill, and it either finds a vein or reports that no minerals were found. If it finds one, it also tells you the vein's integrity. Survey hints point you toward nearby veins. A core sample only works on a map from the same dimension, and only if the sample lies within that map's borders. You can also buy a Mineral Deposit Map from the Structural Engineer villager.^[6]

Unverified Pack-specific numbers such as machine energy use, wire transfer rates and vein sizes aren't confirmed here. No config files for this mod were available, so check the in-game Engineer's Manual for exact values.

Everything in Immersive Engineering starts with the Engineer's Hammer. The opening quest says it makes plates and dust and builds the mod's many multiblocks. For plates, the Iron Plates quest confirms that the hammer turns 1 Iron Ingot into 1 Iron Plate at the cost of durability.^[3][4]

Step 1: Logistics and power basics

Two early quests set you up for the rest of the mod. One covers moving things around, and the other covers energy.^[3]

• Engineer's Screwdriver: machines have default inputs and outputs, and you can reconfigure them with this tool. The Moving Fluids, Moving Items and storage quests all come after this logistics quest.^[3]
• Engineer's Wire Cutters: you snip plates into wires with it, put the wires into coils, and later use it to take wires off connectors.^[3]
• Conveyor Belt and Fluid Pipe: these are the basic item and fluid movers. The Types of Belts quest adds the dropping, vertical, splitting and extracting belts, plus covered versions made with steel scaffolding.^[3]
• Wooden Storage Crate holds 27 slots. Wooden Barrel and Metal Barrel each hold 12 buckets. Per the quest, wooden barrels can't take warm fluids or gases, but metal ones can.^[3]

Step 2: Fuel and steel

Steel is the first big gate. The Coke Oven quest has you build a 3x3x3 of Coke Brick, then right-click the middle block of the front side with the hammer. It smelts logs into charcoal, and coal and coal blocks into coke, and both jobs also produce creosote oil.^[3]

3× Coke BrickMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any clay	any brick	any clay
any brick	any block sandstone	any brick
any clay	any brick	any clay

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/cokebrick

The Alloy Kiln quest asks for 8 Kiln Brick and builds a 2x2x2. The pack changed how Kiln Bricks are made: there is now a Create Additions item-application recipe for them. The standard crafting recipe is still in the recipe list too.^[3][5]

Kiln BrickChanged by the pack

Item Application (create)

• Brick
• any block sandstone

Recipe id: createaddition:compat/immersiveengineering/item_application/kiln_brick

The Crude Blast Furnace quest is the simple route to steel. It's a 3x3x3 of Blast Brick, and you feed it an Iron Ingot plus charcoal or coke. The quest says each Steel Ingot takes 60 seconds to bake, with charcoal covering 15 seconds of that and coke the full 60. The pack also changed the Reinforced Blast Brick: it gets a Create Additions item-application recipe, and a shapeless crafting recipe is also listed.^[3][5]

3× Blast BrickMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any nether brick	any brick	any nether brick
any brick	Magma Block	any brick
any nether brick	any brick	any nether brick

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/blastbrick

Reinforced Blast BrickChanged by the pack

Item Application (create)

• Blast Brick
• any steel plate

Recipe id: createaddition:compat/immersiveengineering/item_application/reinforced_blast_brick

Step 3: Engineering blocks and the first big machines

The Light Engineering Block and Redstone Engineering Block both unlock after the opening quest. The quest calls the Redstone one the simplest, and says the only awkward part is the Iron Sheetmetal. The Squeezer, Assembler and Mixer quests all come after both blocks, so these two are the real gate to the machine tier.^[3]

The Squeezer mainly turns seeds into plant oil, and it also makes HOP Graphite Dust from coke dust. The Assembler works mostly through its GUI, where you set up 3 recipes in priority order.^[3]

Step 4: Power tiers

Power is split into Low, Medium and High Voltage (LV, MV, HV). Higher voltage moves and uses more energy, and some machines need a higher tier. The Wire Coils quest uses LV Wire Coil, MV Wire Coil and HV Wire Coil for the three tiers, and Transformers bridge between them.^[3]

Each tier has its own wire connector, and the recipe list shows them as separate recipes.^[5]

4× LV Wire ConnectorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	any copper ingot	Empty slot
any connector insulator	any copper ingot	any connector insulator
any connector insulator	any copper ingot	any connector insulator

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/connector_lv

4× MV Wire ConnectorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	any electrum ingot	Empty slot
any connector insulator	any electrum ingot	any connector insulator
any connector insulator	any electrum ingot	any connector insulator

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/connector_mv

4× HV Wire ConnectorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	any aluminum ingot	Empty slot
any connector insulator	any aluminum ingot	any connector insulator
any connector insulator	any aluminum ingot	any connector insulator

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/connector_hv

Three generators branch off the Power quest. The Kinetic Dynamo needs a water wheel or windmill and has no internal storage. The Thermoelectric Generator makes more energy the bigger the temperature difference between its sides. The Lightning Coil is built from HV coil blocks, HV accumulators and steel fences, and lightning strikes on the steel fences become stored energy.^[3]

HV AccumulatorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any aluminum ingot	1000× any redstone acid	any aluminum ingot
any aluminum plate	Basic Engineering Block	any hop graphite plate

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/capacitor_hv

The HV Accumulator is one of the blocks the Lightning Coil quest asks for.

Step 5: Small machines and blueprints

The Small Machines quest is checked off with Treated Wood Planks. The single-block machines that come after it are the Garden Cloche, Electromagnet, Turntable, Charging Station and External Heater.^[3]

Treated Wood PlanksChanged by the pack

Filling (create)

• any plank

Recipe id: create:filling/compat/immersiveengineering/treated_wood_in_spout

The recipe list also shows separate Engineer's Blueprint crafting recipes for components, molds, bullets, banner patterns and warning signs.^[5]

Immersive Engineering doesn't live in its own bubble in this pack. Most of its links to other mods run through metals from All the Ores, plus a few side connections to Farmer's Delight, Productive Bees and Oritech. Here's what the in-pack recipes and quests show.^[5]

Plates from All the Ores

The Engineer's Hammer turns ingots into plates, and the pack changed these recipes so the plates you get are the All the Ores versions. Hammering gives you Iron Plate, Copper Plate, Gold Plate, Aluminum Plate, Constantan Plate, Electrum Plate, Lead Plate, Nickel Plate, Silver Plate, Steel Plate and Uranium Plate. Each recipe takes any ingot with the matching metal tag.^[5]

Iron PlateChanged by the pack

Crafting Shapeless

• any iron ingot
• Engineer's Hammer

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/plate_iron_hammering

The other plates follow the same pattern: the hammer plus an ingot of that metal.

The early "Iron Plates" quest quest accepts the Engineer's Hammer, but it also accepts Forge Hammer or Manual Rolling Machine. It then asks for an Iron Plate. So you aren't locked into Immersive Engineering's hammer for plates.^[4]

Those plates matter later. The "Immersive Engineering Power!" quest quest has you use Engineer's Wire Cutters to snip plates into wires, which then go into coils.^[3]

Storage slabs back into blocks

Immersive Engineering's metal storage slabs can be crafted back into All the Ores blocks, and the pack changed all of these recipes. They cover aluminum, constantan, electrum, lead, nickel, silver, steel and uranium. For example, Steel Slab becomes Steel Block.^[5]

Steel BlockChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Steel Slab

Steel Slab

Recipe id: immersiveengineering:crafting/storage_steel_from_slab

The steel version of the slab to block recipe.

Recycling gear into All the Ores nuggets

Old Immersive Engineering gear can be melted down in a furnace or a blast furnace. The pack changed these recipes so the nuggets come from All the Ores.^[5]

• Steel tools and armor give Steel Nugget. That covers the Steel Axe, Steel Pickaxe, Steel Shovel, Steel Sword, Steel Helmet, Steel Chestplate, Steel Leggings and Steel Boots.^[5]
• Faraday armor gives Aluminum Nugget. That covers the Faraday Helmet, Faraday Chestplate, Faraday Leggings and Faraday Boots.^[5]

Farmer's Delight seeds in the Squeezer

Farmer's Delight adds Squeezer recipes that connect Cabbage Seeds and Tomato Seeds with Plant Oil. The pack changed both recipes. The Moving Fluids quest also names Plant Oil, alongside Creosote Oil, as a fluid you will be piping around.^[3][5]

Bees and Oritech: HOP Graphite and carbon fibre

Productive Bees has a centrifuge recipe that produces HOP Graphite Dust and Wax. The recipe dump lists no item inputs for it, and the pack changed it.^[5]

Oritech then has a centrifuge recipe that turns that HOP Graphite Dust into Carbon Fibre Strands. The pack changed this recipe too. Put the two together and you get a route from a bee centrifuge to carbon fibre that runs through an Immersive Engineering item.^[5]

Carbon Fibre StrandsChanged by the pack

Centrifuge (oritech)

• HOP Graphite Dust
• Empty

Recipe id: oritech:centrifuge/compat/immersiveengineering/carbon_fibre_strands

HOP Graphite Dust is the Immersive Engineering item that feeds this Oritech recipe.

Immersive Engineering has its own quest chapter in this pack, called "Immersive Engineering". The quests are linked by prerequisites, so you can follow them like a tech tree. Here is how it's laid out, as far as the chapter data I have shows.^[3]

Where you start

The chapter opens with "Immersive Engineering" quest, which asks for the Engineer's Hammer. The quest text describes it as the tool that makes Plates and Dust and builds your multiblocks. Three more quests sit at the same entry level with no prerequisite listed: "Immersive Engineering Logistics" quest (the Engineer's Screwdriver), "Immersive Engineering Power!" quest (the Engineer's Wire Cutters) and "Small Machines" quest (the Treated Wood Planks).^[3]

After the Engineer's Hammer

• "Crude Blast Furnace" quest asks for the Blast Brick and covers the early way to make Steel.^[3]
• "Coke Oven" quest asks for the Coke Brick. This is how you make Coal Coke.^[3]
• "Alloy Kiln" quest asks for 8 Kiln Brick to build the Alloy Kiln.^[3]
• "Redstone Engineering Block" quest and "Light Engineering Block" quest ask for the Redstone Engineering Block and the Light Engineering Block. These two are the building blocks for the bigger machines below.^[3]

Big multiblocks

Once you have both engineering blocks, the larger machine quests unlock: "Squeezer" quest, "Assembler" quest, "Mixer" quest and "Crusher" quest. Each one lists the full set of materials for its multiblock as a task. The Crusher, for example, asks for 10 Light Engineering Blocks and 9 hoppers.^[3]

Power branch

"Immersive Engineering Power!" quest leads into "Wire Coils" quest, where you can hand in an LV, MV or HV coil. It also leads into the generator quests "Energy from Temperature" quest (Thermoelectric Generator) and "Energy from moving things!" quest (Kinetic Dynamo), as well as "Lightning Coil" quest, the Lightning Coil build. After Wire Coils come "Tiered Voltage" quest, which wants one of each wire coil tier, and "Transformers" quest, which takes a Transformer or HV Transformer.^[3]

Logistics branch

• "Moving Fluids" quest asks for the Fluid Pipe. It unlocks "Fluid Pump" quest and "Fluid Outlet" quest.^[3]
• "Moving Items" quest asks for the Conveyor Belt. It leads to "Types of Belts" quest, where any one belt variant counts.^[3]
• "Storing Items" quest accepts either the Wooden Storage Crate or the Reinforced Storage Crate.^[3]
• "Storing Fluids" quest accepts the Wooden Barrel or the Metal Barrel. It leads on to "Tank" quest.^[3]

Small machines and defence

After "Small Machines" quest you get a set of single-block machine quests. These ask for the External Heater, the Garden Cloche, the Electromagnet, the Turntable and the Charging Station. Their quest ids are a quest in "Immersive Engineering", a quest in "Immersive Engineering", a quest in "Immersive Engineering", a quest in "Immersive Engineering" and a quest in "Immersive Engineering".^[3]

A separate group of quests follows a prerequisite called "Offense and Defense". They ask for the Gun Turret (a quest in "Immersive Engineering"), the Chemthrower Turret (a quest in "Immersive Engineering"), the Tesla Coil (a quest in "Immersive Engineering") and the Razor Wire (a quest in "Immersive Engineering").^[3]

Unverified The quest data I was given is cut off partway through the chapter. I can't confirm the other quests listed in the reference data, such as the Refinery, Arc Furnace, Revolver, Railgun, Mining Drill and the blueprint quests. I also can't confirm their order, their requirements, or whether other chapters in the pack, such as "Chapter 2: The Cool Parts", involve this mod.

All the Mods 10: To the Sky 1.2.1 ships Immersive Engineering 12.4.2-194, and the mod has been in the pack since 1.0 or earlier. The changelog for that build is below, grouped into what's new, what changed and what was fixed.^[2]

New in 12.4.2-194

• The item router can now filter by mod, on top of filtering by tags.^[7]
• Cloche recipes can have an optional "fluid" element. If a recipe doesn't specify one, it uses water. Crimson and warped fungi are now grown with lava.^[7]
• A new item hatch lets you pull a single stack from an inventory.^[7]

Changes

• Extracting conveyors now have a configurable stack size instead of a configurable tick rate. Your existing conveyors need to be adjusted again.^[7]
• The storage shelf has new insertion logic. It tries to fill slots that already hold the same item, and otherwise places the item in the slots right after it. This keeps the individual crates on the shelf more organized, and it works for both shift-clicking and automatic insertion.^[7]
• Illager loot tables changed. Fusiliers and bulwarks now respect looting, and commandos no longer drop emeralds.^[7]

Fixes

• The mixer no longer accidentally crafts a lingering awkward potion.^[7]
• Catwalks now work properly when you use a hammer on them.^[7]
• Shift-click behavior in the Engineer's Crafting Table is fixed.^[7]
• Chutes now accept item input from the side.^[7]
• Engineer illagers now drop their raid banner.^[7]
• Shelves no longer crash the game when accessed from unexpected sides.^[7]
• Windows used in multiblocks are less directionally dependent.^[7]
• The backpack antenna now visually disconnects from wires.^[7]