Lithium in All the Mods 10: To the Sky

Lithium is a behind-the-scenes optimization mod. It adds no items, blocks or machines. Its whole job is to make the game's logic run faster, covering things like game physics, mob AI and block ticking.^[1]

The key promise is that it does not change any vanilla mechanics. Your farms, mob behavior and redstone should work exactly as they would without it, just with less strain on your processor.^[1]

Who it is for

Everyone benefits. On a multiplayer server, it improves tick times, so the hardware can handle more loaded entities, chunks and players. In single-player, it speeds up the internal game server that ticks your world. That frees up CPU time for other tasks and can mean better frame rates and a more responsive game.^[1]

The project says it works on both client and server. A server can run it without every player installing it too, and the reverse is also true.^[1]

In this pack

The pack ships Lithium 0.15.4+mc1.21.1, using the NeoForge build of the mod.^[2]

Lithium has an unusual configuration system that lets you turn individual patches on or off. That helps if a patch ever causes a bug or a mod incompatibility. An empty config file is normal and simply means the defaults are in use, which are already tuned for the best performance the mod offers. The project page does not list any pack-specific changes to those defaults.^[1]

Unverified Progression: the sources I was given show no quests and no ATM Star path steps for Lithium. It does not appear to be something you unlock or work toward. It is simply active in the background.

Lithium is a game logic optimization mod, and its project page describes no items, blocks or recipes, so there is no first item to craft here. Nothing in the sources I have shows it adding any to this pack.^[1]

What it does is improve game logic behind the scenes, such as game physics, mob AI and block ticking. Its stated goal is to do that without changing any vanilla mechanics. The project page says it can improve frame rates and responsiveness even in single-player, and give servers better tick times.^[1]

What you actually need to do

1. Just play. The project page says you don't need to create a new world to benefit from the mod, so your existing worlds work fine.^[1]
2. If you run a server, you can expect better tick times, which lets the hardware handle more loaded entities, chunks and players. The mod works on both client and server, and a server can have it without every player installing it.^[1]
3. Only touch the configuration if something misbehaves. The project page says an empty configuration file is perfectly normal and just means the default options, which are set up for the best performance.^[1]

Here's the honest answer: Lithium has no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item handling for you to learn. It's a game logic optimization mod, so there's nothing to build or automate with it. It just runs in the background.^[1]

What it actually does

Lithium improves a number of systems, including game physics, mob AI and block ticking. Its stated goal is to not change any vanilla mechanics, so farms, redstone and mob behavior should work the way you already know from vanilla.^[1]

It works on both the client and the server. It can be installed on a server without clients needing it too, and the reverse also holds. On servers it aims to improve tick times. In single-player it optimizes the internal game server that ticks the world, which can mean better frame rates and responsiveness.^[1]

How its configuration works

Lithium uses a configuration system that lets you enable or completely disable individual patches. That gives fine-grained control over which parts of Minecraft's code it modifies, and it can be used to eliminate bugs or mod incompatibilities the mod introduces. An empty configuration file is normal. It just means the defaults are in use, and those are set up for the best performance the mod offers.^[1]

Unverified The sources for this guide include no Lithium config files from the pack, so which patches (if any) the pack enables, disables or changes from the defaults is unconfirmed. The same goes for any pack-specific behavior, and for whether the project page's Fabric installation notes apply to how the mod is loaded here.

This pack's quest book has no quest chain or tier ladder for this mod's own items, and no in-pack recipes produce them. So there is no tier breakdown I can confirm for you here, and I won't make one up.^[3][4]

Lithium does come up in the quest book, but as a material in the Mekanism chapters. If you're hunting for lithium in this pack, these are the quests to follow.^[3][4]

Where lithium shows up in the quests

• "Thermal Evaporation Plant" quest explains the Thermal Evaporation Plant, a multiblock that uses heat to turn water into brine, and then brine into Liquid Lithium. It has a 4x4 base, and the walls must be at least 3 blocks tall and at most 18.^[4]
• "Chemical Crystallizer" quest covers the Chemical Crystallizer, which can turn lithium into Lithium Dust.^[4]
• a quest in "Basic Logistics" points out that evaporation plants make lithium and need fluids flowing in through Mechanical Pipes.^[3]
• "Gas Pipez" quest says lithium is a gas-type material, so you need Gas Pipez to move it, since the other Pipez can't.^[3]

Unverified A tiered progression for the lithium mod itself (levels, upgrades or crafting stages) cannot be confirmed from the pack's quests or recipes.

Here is the honest picture: none of the quests in the sources I have ask you for an item from this mod's own registry (the lithium namespace). The Basic Logistics and Mekanism chapters are the ones I could read, and neither has a task for it.^[3][4]

What the quest book does mention is lithium as a Mekanism material, which is a different thing from this mod. You'll run into it in a few places, so here they are in the order they appear.^[3][4]

• In the Mekanism chapter, "Thermal Evaporation Plant" quest explains the multiblock that turns Water into Brine using Heat, and then turns that Brine into Liquid Lithium.^[4]
• In the Basic Logistics chapter, a quest in "Basic Logistics" says Mekanism's mechanical pipes carry fluids, and it names Evaporation Plants as a way to make Lithium.^[3]
• Also in Basic Logistics, "Gas Pipez" quest says that Hydrogen or Lithium can't be moved by the other Pipez, so you'll need Gas Pipez for them.^[3]
• Back in the Mekanism chapter, "Chemical Crystallizer" quest says the Chemical Crystallizer can turn Lithium into Lithium Dust.^[4]

Fourteen of the 90 quests in the Mekanism chapter, and the whole Mekanism: Reactors chapter, weren't available to me. If you want to see what they say, check the quest book in-game rather than relying on this page.^[4]

All the Mods 10: To the Sky 2.0.4 ships Lithium 0.15.4+mc1.21.1, using the NeoForge jar. Lithium has been in the pack since 1.0 or earlier. Here is what changed from Lithium 0.15.0 up to 0.15.4 for Minecraft 1.21.1, newest first.^[2][5][6]

0.15.4 (current in this pack)

This release for Minecraft 1.21 and 1.21.1 backports a few bug fixes.^[5]

• Fixed the supporting block movement shortcut not offsetting the VoxelShape.^[5]
• Fixed double inventory related inventory invalidation issues.^[5]
• No more crashing when modded levels with broken registries are created.^[5]
• Fixed missing comparator updates for furnaces and brewing stands.^[5]

0.15.3

• Added a missing palette crash recovery attempt.^[7]
• Cached false values are now used for the fluid hole search.^[7]
• Fixed negative indices caused by a byte to int cast, which crashed with modded fluids.^[7]

0.15.2

• Optimized non POI block searches.^[8]
• Fixed incorrect hopper sleeping when double chest halves are read by comparators.^[8]

0.15.1

This one backports several bug fixes, including better compatibility with NeoForge.^[9]

• Fixed missing initialization of block counting in empty sections.^[9]
• Fixed a mod compatibility problem between the raycast optimization and Ponder.^[9]
• Fixed NeoForge chunk load tricks compatibility.^[9]
• Fixed double inventory invalidation in the hopper optimization, and hoppers now unsubscribe from block entities and double inventories when those are invalidated.^[9]

0.15.0

The first release in this run, for 1.21.1, brought new optimizations and several bug fixes, including better compatibility with NeoForge inventories.^[6]

• Added explosion entity raycast optimizations and a sleeping crafter block entity.^[6]
• Fixed a crash with Create Pondering when entities are pushed by fluids.^[6]
• Fixed a crash when placing a block at the build limit in the End and then trying to spawn a dragon.^[6]
• Fixed hoppers sleeping even though interaction with NeoForge API block inventories is possible.^[6]
• Fixed sleeping hoppers being woken by moving item entities even when blocked with a full block.^[6]
• Fixed a broken state of ChunkAwareBlockCollisionSweeper in the entity nether portal positioning optimization and with TIS-Carpet.^[6]

Unverified No pack changelog entries for Lithium were available, so which pack release moved Lithium from one version to another is unverified.