Gadgets Against Grind guide for FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.0.3 to 1.7.1

Same as in the FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 guide

Gadgets Against Grind (GAG for short) is a utility mod built to cut down the grind of everyday modded play, while keeping a Vanilla feel and not feeling too cheaty compared to using commands. This pack ships version 1.21.1-5.2.0 of it.^[1][2]

The mod page lists a lot of tricks: an Escape Rope to get out of caves, Hearthstones that teleport you to your spawn point or world spawn (plus a variant you can bind to any location), and different types of Dynamite for mining and fishing. You also get Sacred Salt, Balm and Salve to stop mobs spawning near you for a while, and a Labeling Tool for renaming items without burning lots of experience.^[1]

Pack developers can configure most parameters of these items, and the mod author even suggests changing recipes or disabling features that don't fit a pack. So don't assume the mod's defaults are what you get here. Check the in-pack recipes and quests for the real values.^[1]

Where the quest book puts it

This pack's quest book covers two GAG items in the "Useful Items & Tips" chapter, which is chapter 2 of 31 in the book and holds 30 quests. The chapter's intro quest describes it as a place for useful items and tips for your playthrough. One of the 30 quests isn't covered in the sources I have, so check the quest book for it.^[3]

• "Temporal Pouch" quest is about the Temporal Pouch. It stores time while it is in your inventory, and you spend that time by sneak-using the pouch on something to increase its ticks. If a machine or crop is too slow, this is your speed-up.^[3]
• "No More Traders!" quest is about the 'No Solicitors!' Sign. The quest pitches it as the fix if you're sick of trader guys spawning and getting in your face.^[3]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 guide

Gadgets Against Grind doesn't have a tier ladder like a tech mod. It's a set of small utility items, and the pack's quest book only points you at two of them. The one real chain is the Sacred line, where each item is built from the one before.^[3][4]

What the quest book covers

Both quests sit in the "Useful Items & Tips" chapter, which is chapter 2 of 31 in the book and has 30 quests. It's a chapter of handy extras rather than a progression line for this mod.^[3]

• "Temporal Pouch" quest asks you to get the Temporal Pouch. The quest says it stores time while it's in your inventory, and you spend that time by sneak-using the pouch on something to speed it up.^[3]
• "No More Traders!" quest asks you to craft the 'No Solicitors!' Sign, the answer to traders spawning and getting in your face.^[3]

The pack changes the Temporal Pouch recipe from the mod's own, so don't rely on a recipe you remember from elsewhere. This is the one the pack uses:^[4]

Temporal PouchChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Raw Gold Block	Nautilus Shell	Raw Gold Block
Leather	Ender Eye	Leather
Leather	Leather	Leather

Recipe id: gag:time_sand_pouch

The sign uses the mod's own recipe:^[4]

'No Solicitors!' SignMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• any sign
• Emerald
• Flint

Recipe id: gag:no_solicitors

The Sacred line

This is the closest thing to tiers in the mod. You start with Sacred Salt, then move up to Sacred Salve and finally Sacred Balm. The pack leaves all three at the mod's own recipes.^[4]

4× Sacred SaltMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Gunpowder or Redstone or Glowstone Dust
• Fermented Spider Eye or Poisonous Potato
• Glow Berries

Recipe id: gag:sacred_salt

Sacred SalveMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Glow Ink Sac
• Honey Bottle
• any small flower
• Sacred Salt
• Sacred Salt
• Sacred Salt

Recipe id: gag:sacred_salve

You can make the Balm straight from Sacred Salt, or upgrade a Salve you already made.^[4]

Sacred BalmMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Honeycomb
• Phantom Membrane
• Sacred Salt
• Sacred Salt
• Sacred Salt
• Sacred Salt
• Bowl

Recipe id: gag:sacred_balm

Straight from Sacred Salt.

Sacred BalmMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Phantom Membrane
• Sacred Salve
• Bowl

Recipe id: gag:sacred_balm_from_salve

Upgrading an existing Sacred Salve.

Everything else

None of these items has its own quest in the chapter. Apart from the Labeling Tool, which the pack has changed, they use the mod's own recipes.^[3][4]

• Labeling Tool: the pack changed this recipe from the mod's.^[4]
• Hearthstone^[4]
• Escape Rope^[4]
• Mining Dynamite^[4]
• Fishing Dynamite^[4]
• Pigment Jar^[4]

Labeling ToolChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Paper	Paper
Paper	any wooden rod	Iron Ingot
Empty slot	Iron Ingot	Chain

Recipe id: gag:labeling_tool

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Same as in the FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 guide

This mod only shows up in one chapter of the quest book: "Useful Items & Tips". It's chapter 2 of 31 in the book and holds 30 quests, mostly one-off tips about handy items from many different mods. Two of those quests are about this mod.^[3]

Temporal Pouch

The quest "Temporal Pouch" quest asks you to get the Temporal Pouch. The quest describes it as a pouch that stores time as long as it's in your inventory. You then sneak-use the pouch on something to spend that stored time and increase the ticks of pretty much anything. If a machine or crop feels too slow, that's the idea: spend some stored time to speed it up.^[3]

No Solicitors Sign

The quest "No More Traders!" quest asks you to get the 'No Solicitors!' Sign. The quest pitches it as the fix if you're tired of traders spawning and getting in your face.^[3]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Good news: this pack leaves almost every Gadgets Against Grind option at the mod's own default. Only one option in the main config is flagged as changed by the pack, so you can mostly rely on the mod's normal behaviour. Here are the options you are most likely to care about and the values the pack uses.^[5]

The one thing the pack changed

temporal_pouch.level_filter is the list of levels where the Temporal Pouch will not work. The pack currently sets it to an empty list, and the config file marks it as changed from the mod default. temporal_pouch.invert_level_filter is currently false, so the empty list means no level is blocked by this filter.^[5]

Hearthstone

• misc.hearthstone.warmup is currently 100 ticks (5 seconds to use the stone) and misc.hearthstone.cooldown is currently 1,200 ticks (60 seconds between uses). Both are the mod defaults.^[5]
• misc.hearthstone.durability is currently 64, and misc.hearthstone.energized_durability for the energized hearthstone is currently 256. Both are the mod defaults.^[5]
• misc.hearthstone.range is currently -1, which means unlimited range.^[5]
• misc.hearthstone.dimension_multiplier is currently 2, the damage multiplier for travelling across dimensions. Setting it to -1 would disable cross-dimension teleporting, but the pack currently leaves it at 2.^[5]
• misc.hearthstone.allow_world_spawn is currently true, so the stone sends you to the spawn point if you have no respawn point. misc.hearthstone.ignore_spawn_block is currently false and misc.hearthstone.use_anchor_charge is currently true.^[5]
• On the client side, misc.hearthstone.hide_position is false. Turn it on if you stream and don't want to show your base coordinates in the GUIs.^[6]

Escape Rope

As the config currently stands, the rope takes 60 ticks (3 seconds) to use per misc.escape_rope.warmup, then has a 200 tick (10 second) wait per misc.escape_rope.cooldown. misc.escape_rope.durability is currently 512. All three are the mod defaults.^[5]

Dynamite

• Mining Dynamite currently has an explosion radius of 7 blocks (dynamite.mining_radius). With dynamite.mining_gives_haste currently true, it gives Haste to a player it hits.^[5]
• Fishing Dynamite currently has a radius of 4 blocks (dynamite.fishing_radius). dynamite.fishing_instakill is currently true, so fish die outright. If it were false, fish would take 2x damage instead.^[5]
• dynamite.fishing_damage_all is currently true, so Fishing Dynamite damages all entities, not just fish. Keep that in mind when you blast near other mobs or players.^[5]
• dynamite.fishing_additional_loot is currently 5, which sets how many extra fish from the vanilla loot table may drop. dynamite.fishing_targets is currently "hybrid", which combines the abstract fish check with the fish tag filter.^[5]

Temporal Pouch

• temporal_pouch.duration_per_use is currently 30 seconds of acceleration per use, and temporal_pouch.grains_used is currently 600 grains per click.^[5]
• temporal_pouch.max_rate is currently 8, which the config describes as a top speed of 2^8 = x256.^[5]
• temporal_pouch.allow_random_ticks is true, so the pouch can speed up crops and saplings. temporal_pouch.random_tick_chance is 4096.^[5]
• temporal_pouch.pouch_capacity is currently 2,147,483,647 grains, effectively the maximum.^[5]

No Solicitors sign

misc.no_solicitors_radius is currently 64 blocks in this pack, the radius in which the sign stops Wandering Traders from spawning. The config file lists 64 as the mod default, although its own comment text mentions 32.^[5]