Malum in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Malum is a dark magic mod built around spirit arcana, a study of soul magic. You work through it with spirit infusion, spirit focusing and totem magic, and it gives you new gear such as trinkets, armor, tools and weapons. It also adds Runewood trees and its own ores, and it lets you pick your own order of progress instead of forcing one path.^[1]

This pack ships Malum 1.8.2. Its quest book has a "Malum" chapter in the "Magic Mods" group, chapter 19 of 31 in the book, with 40 quests. The notes below only describe what those quests ask of you and how the book orders them, not everything the mod can do.^[2][3]

How the Malum chapter is laid out

As the book lists them, five quests have no earlier quest: "Soulstone" quest, "Runewood" quest, "Brilliance" quest, "Cthonic Gold" quest and "The Weeping Well" quest. The other quests shown here are listed after one or more of the quests around them.^[3]

• "The Reaping of Souls" quest asks you for the Crude Scythe and is listed after Soulstone. "Spirit Altar" quest asks for the Spirit Altar and a Runewood Obelisk, and is listed after both Soulstone and Runewood.^[3]
• "Hex Ash" quest, "Rocks of Taint and Twist" quest and "Spiritual Metallurgy" quest are each listed after both the Scythe quest and the Spirit Altar quest. "Spirit Crucible" quest is listed after Rocks of Taint and Twist.^[3]
• "Weaver's Workbench" quest and "Runeworking" quest are listed after Spiritual Metallurgy. "Soulwoven Silk" quest is listed after the Spirit Altar quest, and "Soulhunter Set" quest is listed after that.^[3]
• "Totemic Rites" quest is listed after Runewood and another quest, Aspects of the Soul. "Brilliant Obelisk" quest is listed after Brilliance.^[3]
• "The Well's Returns" quest and "Spirit of Sacrifice" quest are listed after The Weeping Well. "Malignant Pewter" quest, "Mnemonic Hex Staff" quest and "Conscious Weapons" quest are listed after The Well's Returns, and "Encyclopedia Unveiled" quest is listed after Spirit of Sacrifice.^[3]

The quest book holds 16 more quests in this chapter whose text is not covered here, so check them in the book as you go.^[3]

Malum is a magic mod about spirits. In this pack its quest chapter sits in the Magic Mods group, chapter 19 of 31 in the book. The first quest tells you to find or form Soulstone, then use it to make the two keystone items: the Spirit Altar and the Crude Scythe. Here is the order I'd follow.^[3]

First, get soulstone

The "Soulstone" quest quest asks for Raw Soulstone and Refined Soulstone. Refined soulstone goes into both the scythe and the altar recipes, so get a good supply. The pack adds a Create haunting recipe that turns soulstone into a Block of Raw Soulstone. Washing crushed soulstone gives you 2 refined soulstone plus some Hex Ash.^[3][4]

Block of Raw SoulstoneAdded by the pack

Haunting (create)

• Soulstone

Recipe id: ftb:create/haunting/soulstone_to_raw_soulstone

This haunting recipe is added by the pack.

2× Refined Soulstone, Hex AshMod recipe

Splashing (create)

• Crushed Soulstone

Recipe id: malum:create/washing/crushed_soulstone

Washing crushed soulstone gives Hex Ash and 2 Refined Soulstone.

Next, craft the Crude Scythe

With soulstone in the blade, the Crude Scythe tears through body and soul when it slays creatures. Spirit forms and is drawn to you. It also sweeps across multiple targets. Make it early, because collecting spirit is the heart of the mod. The pack changed this recipe, so use the one below rather than the mod's default.^[3][4]

Crude ScytheChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Refined Soulstone
Empty slot	any wooden rod	Iron Ingot
any wooden rod	Empty slot	Empty slot

Recipe id: malum:crude_scythe

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Then, find runewood

The "Runewood" quest quest wants a Runewood Sapling or Azure Runewood Sapling, a Runewood Log and Runic Sap. The quest says you might find these trees on floating chunks of land, or you can trade for a sapling in the Market. The Market recipe for the azure sapling is below.^[3][4]

Azure Runewood SaplingMod recipe

Market (farmingforblockheads)

Recipe id: malum:market/azure_runewood_sapling

A Market trade for the azure sapling.

Finally, build the Spirit Altar

In the quest book the Spirit Altar comes after both Soulstone and Runewood. It holds a focus item and anchors the spirits used on it, while other focus materials go on pedestals within 4 blocks. Once everything is in place, crafting starts by itself. Up to four Runewood Obelisk blocks in that range speed it up. The pack changed this recipe too.^[3][4]

Spirit AltarChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Refined Soulstone	Empty slot
Gold Ingot	any runewood plank	Gold Ingot
any runewood plank	any runewood plank	any runewood plank

Recipe id: malum:spirit_altar

This recipe is changed by the pack.

Where to go next

Once the altar is up, the quest book opens several branches. "Hex Ash" quest and "Spiritual Metallurgy" quest both come after the scythe and the altar, and "Soulwoven Silk" quest follows the altar. Soulwoven silk is a spirit infusion recipe.^[3][4]

4× Soulwoven SilkMod recipe

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 2× any string
• 2× any wool

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/soulwoven_silk

Soulwoven silk is a spirit infusion recipe.

Silk leads on to the "Soulhunter Set" quest and the "Soulwoven Pouch" quest, which funnels spirit and certain other drops into itself. The "Aspects of the Soul" quest quest says Arcane spirit is the most essential aspect, and a reliable supply of it is all but mandatory for further creations.^[3]

Good to know

The option codex.enableCodexDrop is set to false in this pack, so one of the first undead enemies you slay will not drop the Encyclopedia Arcana for you.^[7]

Malum is a dark magic mod built around spirit arcana, and its own in-game guide is the Encyclopedia Arcana. The mod is quite open ended and doesn't force a strict order on you. One pack detail to know: codex.enableCodexDrop is false here, so the early undead drop of the Encyclopedia Arcana is switched off.^[1][7]

Spirit infusion and spirit focusing

Spirit infusion is the core system for using spirit arcana. The recipe dump shows two big groups of spirit infusion recipes: 59 that take only Malum ingredients, and 49 that mix Malum and vanilla ingredients. Accelerating Inlay is a good example.^[1][4]

Accelerating InlayMod recipe

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 4× Alchemical Calx
• 2× Astral Weave
• 2× Refined Soulstone

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/accelerating_inlay

A spirit infusion recipe in the pack that makes Accelerating Inlay.

Spirit focusing is the other main system. It lets you materialize new resources out of raw spirit matter. In the recipe dump these recipes use the type spirit_focusing, and the one shown here has an id that starts with spirit_crucible.^[1][4]

4× Blazing QuartzMod recipe

Spirit Focusing (malum)

• Alchemical Impetus

Recipe id: malum:spirit_crucible/blazing_quartz

A spirit focusing recipe in the pack that makes Blazing Quartz.

Other recipe types

Besides infusion and focusing, the recipe dump shows several more Malum-only recipe types. Each one is a separate crafting process, not a normal crafting table recipe.^[4]

• Runeworking: the recipe for Rune of Ailment Cleansing uses this type.^[4]
• Soul binding: the recipes for oath_of_the_overburdened_mind, authority_of_the_gleeful_target and pact_of_contentedness use this type.^[4]
• Void favor: Encyclopedia Arcana is turned into Encyclopedia Esoterica this way.^[4]
• Unchained transmutation: Soulwood Door becomes Bolted Soulwood Door through this type.^[4]

Rune of Ailment CleansingMod recipe

Runeworking (malum)

• 16× Aqueous Spirit
• 4× Tainted Rock

Recipe id: malum:runeworking/rune_of_ailment_cleansing

Encyclopedia EsotericaMod recipe

Void Favor (malum)

• Encyclopedia Arcana

Recipe id: malum:void_favor/encyclopedia_esoterica

Not all Malum crafting needs a special process. The dump counts 202 shaped crafting recipes and 148 stonecutting recipes that go from Malum items to Malum items. For example, Cut Tainted Rock can be stonecut into Checkered Tainted Rock.^[4]

Checkered Tainted RockMod recipe

Stonecutting

• Cut Tainted Rock

Recipe id: malum:checkered_tainted_rock_stonecutting_from_cut_tainted_rock

Soul ward, malignant aegis and staffs

Malum has its own defensive layers and attributes, such as Soul Ward Capacity, Malignant Aegis Capacity and Charge Capacity. The Geas Limit attribute caps how many active Geas Bindings you can have sworn at once.^[8]

• While soul ward is active, magic damage is multiplied by 0.10000000149011612 and physical damage by 0.699999988079071. Both are the mod defaults, so the pack hasn't changed them. See soul_ward.soulWardMagic and soul_ward.soulWardPhysical.^[7]
• One point of soul ward takes a base of 100 ticks to recover (soul_ward.soulWardRate).^[7]
• One point of malignant aegis takes a base of 200 ticks to recover (malignant_aegis.malignantAegisRate).^[7]
• One segment of a staff charge takes a base of 100 ticks to recover (staff_charge.staffChargeRate).^[7]
• magic_damage.magicDamageReducedArmorPiercing is true. Damage types tagged malum:bypasses_half_armor then pierce only half of your armor stat, and armor takes no durability damage from them.^[7]

Spirits and soul damage

These pack settings affect how spirits drop. Entities without their own spirit data use the default data for their category (spirit.defaults.defaultSpiritValues is true). Spirits drop in their fancy form, because spirit.noFancySpirits is false. Mob spawners work normally, because spirit.spawner.lameSpawners is false.^[7]

Iron's Spellbooks magic damage does not count as Soul Damage here, whether a player or a non-player deals it. Both compat.irons_spellbooks.ironsSpellbooksPlayerSpiritDrops and compat.irons_spellbooks.ironsSpellbooksNonPlayerSpiritDrops are false.^[7]

progression.hide_recipes is false, so Malum does not hide parts of its content. The config describes hiding as the intended way to play the mod.^[7]

What the pack changes

The pack removes Malum's own node smelting and node blasting recipes and replaces them. Smelting a node of aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, osmium, silver, tin, uranium or zinc gives 6 nuggets of that metal and 0.25 xp, and takes 200 ticks. Blasting gives the same 6 nuggets and 0.25 xp in 100 ticks. The cobalt node and cobalt impetus are hidden from recipe viewers.^[9][10]

Runewood, azure runewood and soulwood leaves only drop themselves when you break them with shears or a Silk Touch tool.^[11]

Stripped Runewood LogAdded by the pack

Cutting (create)

• Runewood Log

Recipe id: create:cutting/runtime_generated/compat/malum/runewood_log_to_stripped_runewood_log

The pack adds this Create cutting recipe: Runewood Log to Stripped Runewood Log.

Arcane CharcoalMod recipe

Smelting

• any runewood log

Recipe id: malum:arcane_charcoal_from_runewood

Any runewood log can be smelted into Arcane Charcoal.

The Weeping Well

The Weeping Well structure is enabled (weeping_well.weeping_well is true). Its placement uses a spacing of 24 and a separation of 18 (weeping_well.spacing and weeping_well.separation), with a salt of 546451665 (weeping_well.salt).^[5][12]

The pack's quest book gives Malum its own chapter in the Magic Mods group. The quests branch out from a few starting points, and the stages below follow those branches.^[3]

Stage 1: Soulstone, Runewood and the Altar

The chapter opens with "Soulstone" quest, which asks for Raw Soulstone and Refined Soulstone. Its text says to find or form Soulstone to create the two keystone features of the mod, the Spirit Altar and the Crude Scythe.^[3]

Block of Raw SoulstoneAdded by the pack

Haunting (create)

• Soulstone

Recipe id: ftb:create/haunting/soulstone_to_raw_soulstone

Added by the pack.

"Runewood" quest asks for a Runewood Sapling or an Azure Runewood Sapling, a Runewood Log and Runic Sap. Its text says you might find Runewood growing on floating chunks of land, or trade for a sapling in the Market. In the book, "The Reaping of Souls" quest comes after Soulstone, and "Spirit Altar" quest comes after both Soulstone and Runewood.^[3]

The pack changes both of these recipes, so go by the recipes below rather than what you remember from the base mod.^[4]

Crude ScytheChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Refined Soulstone
Empty slot	any wooden rod	Iron Ingot
any wooden rod	Empty slot	Empty slot

Recipe id: malum:crude_scythe

Changed by the pack.

Spirit AltarChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Refined Soulstone	Empty slot
Gold Ingot	any runewood plank	Gold Ingot
any runewood plank	any runewood plank	any runewood plank

Recipe id: malum:spirit_altar

Changed by the pack.

Stage 2: What opens up after the Scythe and Altar

• "Hex Ash" quest asks for Hex Ash and recommends having a sizable handful ready for crafting. One in-pack source of Hex Ash is washing Crushed Soulstone, which also gives 2 Refined Soulstone.^[3][4]
• "Aspects of the Soul" quest comes after the Scythe. Its text says spirit is collected from creatures slain by a Crude Scythe or another appropriately attuned tool, and that a reliable supply of Arcane spirit is all but mandatory for further creations.^[3]
• "Rocks of Taint and Twist" quest asks for Tainted Rock and Twisted Rock. In the book, the Spirit Crucible quest comes after it.^[3]
• "Spiritual Metallurgy" quest asks for a Hallowed Gold Ingot and a Soulstained Steel Ingot. Several equipment quests come after it in the book.^[3]
• "Soulwoven Silk" quest comes after the Altar. In the book, the Soulhunter Set and Soulwoven Pouch quests come after it. Soulwoven Silk is made by spirit infusion, shown below.^[3][4]

4× Soulwoven SilkMod recipe

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 2× any string
• 2× any wool

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/soulwoven_silk

The pack also changes the Hallowed Gold Ingot spirit infusion recipe.^[4]

Hallowed Gold IngotChanged by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• Gold Ingot
• 4× Quartz

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/hallowed_gold_ingot

Changed by the pack.

Stage 3: Metallurgy, the Crucible and totems

After Spiritual Metallurgy the book lists "Weaver's Workbench" quest (the Weaver's Workbench), "Runeworking" quest (the Runic Workbench), "Malum Trinkets" quest, "Soulstained Equipment" quest and "Soulstained Armor" quest. "Soulbinding Pacts" quest comes after Metallurgy, Runewood and the Rocks quest, and asks for the Soulbinding Brazier and a Paracausal Flame. The Tyrving has its own quest in the Gearing Up chapter, listed after Soulstained Equipment.^[3][13]

The Crucible branch starts at "Spirit Crucible" quest, which asks for the Spirit Crucible and an Alchemical Impetus. Its text says blazing quartz cannot otherwise be found in the void. In the book, "Repair Pylon" quest, "Spirit Catalyzer" quest and "Crucible Augments" quest come after it.^[3]

4× Blazing QuartzMod recipe

Spirit Focusing (malum)

• Alchemical Impetus

Recipe id: malum:spirit_crucible/blazing_quartz

Alchemical ImpetusMod recipe

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 4× Alchemical Calx
• 2× Hex Ash
• 4× Refined Soulstone

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/alchemical_impetus

The pack changes the Aluminum Impetus recipe, so check its in-pack recipe before you plan around it.^[4]

The totem branch starts at "Totemic Rites" quest, which comes after Aspects of the Soul and Runewood and asks for a Runewood Totem Base. After it in the book come "Unchained Blight" quest (asking for a Soulwood Log and a Soulwood Sapling) and "Automating Spirits?" quest. "Large Strange Crystal" quest comes after Unchained Blight. The Automating Spirits quest text says a Wicked-aligned runewood spirit rite can help with collecting Spirit.^[3]

The Weeping Well branch

"The Weeping Well" quest has no prerequisite listed in the chapter. Its tasks are an observation of the structure out in the void and an Encyclopedia Esoterica, which the pack has as a void favor recipe from the Encyclopedia Arcana.^[3][4]

Encyclopedia EsotericaMod recipe

Void Favor (malum)

• Encyclopedia Arcana

Recipe id: malum:void_favor/encyclopedia_esoterica

"The Well's Returns" quest comes after it and asks for Null Slate, Void Salts, Mnemonic Fragment and Malignant Lead. In the book, "Malignant Pewter" quest, "Mnemonic Hex Staff" quest (the Mnemonic Hex Staff) and "Conscious Weapons" quest come after it. "Malignant Weapons" quest and "Malignant Armor" quest come after Malignant Pewter. Separately, "Spirit of Sacrifice" quest also comes after the Well, and the Weapons of Sacrifice, Umbral Runes and Encyclopedia Unveiled quests that follow it ask for items from another mod.^[3]

The pack changes the pewter ingot recipe, so use this one.^[4]

Malignant Pewter IngotChanged by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• Malignant Lead
• 8× Null Slate
• 4× Iron Ingot
• 2× Netherite Scrap

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/malignant_pewter_ingot

Changed by the pack.

Resource quests and the pack's end goal

"Brilliance" quest asks for Raw Brilliance and Refined Brilliance, and in the book "Brilliant Obelisk" quest comes after it. "Cthonic Gold" quest asks for Cthonic Gold, and its text says it cannot be created through any crude means and must be found around the void, barring a deep dive into technological or arcane resource generation.^[3]

Malum also reaches into the pack's main questline. The Piña Colada chapter (Main Questline) has "Realized Transcendence" quest, which asks for Fused Consciousness. Its quest text says you can farm spirits by hand, or use a Malum ritual that automatically harvests low-health nearby mobs.^[6]

Malum connects to the rest of the pack through recipes: a Malum item goes into another mod's machine, or Malum's spirit crafting makes something from another mod. In the quest book, the Malum chapter sits in the Magic Mods group, chapter 19 of 31. 23 of its 40 quests are not covered by the sources here, so check the quest book itself for those.^[3][4]

Metals and ores

• The pack adds smelting and blasting recipes that turn Malum nodes into 6 nuggets each. Aluminum Node, Copper Node, Lead Node, Nickel Node and Osmium Node give the matching nugget, for example Aluminum Nugget. In total 9 node types have these recipes.^[4]
• Washing a Copper Node in Create gives 6 Copper Nugget and a Clay Ball, and washing a Zinc Node gives 6 Zinc Nugget and Gunpowder. The pack changed both of these recipes.^[4]
• Crushing Cthonic Gold Ore in Create is changed by the pack: you get 6 Nugget of Experience, 4 Gold Clump and 4 Cthonic Gold Fragment. Crushing Cthonic Gold itself gives 15 gold clumps, also a pack change.^[4]
• Malum's brilliance and soulstone ores crush into Nugget of Experience plus their crushed forms. Washing Crushed Brilliance gives 2 nuggets of experience and 2 Refined Brilliance.^[4]
• The pack adds a Create haunting recipe that turns Soulstone into a Block of Raw Soulstone.^[4]
• The pack also adds a Modern Industrialization quarry recipe, shown below, built around the Sentient Pickaxe. Its results include the Malum ores Blazing Quartz Ore and Soulstone Ore, as well as Kivi from XyCraft.^[4]

Blazing Quartz Ore, Brilliant Stone, Cthonic Gold Ore, Soulstone Ore, Kivi, Blue Xychorium Ore, Dark Xychorium Ore, Green Xychorium Ore +2 moreAdded by the pack

Quarry (modern_industrialization)

• Sentient Pickaxe

Recipe id: ftb:modern_industrialization/quarry/magical

Quarry recipe added by the pack.

Impetus metals

The pack changed the spirit infusion recipes for the aluminum, lead, nickel and osmium impetuses. They now use ingots from the pack's own materials, with Alchemical Impetus and Cthonic Gold as Malum inputs. Here is the aluminum one.^[4]

Aluminum ImpetusChanged by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 6× Aluminum Ingot
• Alchemical Impetus
• Cthonic Gold
• 4× any gunpowder

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/aluminum_impetus

Gear from other mods

Malum's spirit infusion and runeworking are used to make items from the Gaze mod: 9 spirit infusion recipes and 6 runeworking recipes have Gaze results. Examples are Spirit Saber, Splintered World and the runes. The pack changed the Soul Rapier recipe.^[4]

Soul RapierChanged by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• Fused Consciousness
• 4× Malignant Pewter Plating
• Soulstained Steel Sword
• 8× Tainted Rock
• 8× Quartz

Recipe id: malum:spirit_infusion/soul_rapier

Changed by the pack.

Rune of EirMod recipe

Runeworking (malum)

• Umbral Spirit
• 16× Wind Charge

Recipe id: malum:runeworking/rune_of_eir

The runes need Umbral Spirit. In the quest book, "Spirit of Sacrifice" quest comes after "The Weeping Well" quest and has Umbral Spirit as a task. Its text says you get the spirit by sacrificing living souls, for example by throwing yourself into the Weeping Well.^[3][4]

Apprentice Codex also uses Malum spirit infusion, for example for the Soulcollector armor such as Soulcollector's Hat. The Soulstained Steel Spell Amplifier is a shaped crafting recipe that also draws on Malum, including Hex Ash and a Soulstained Steel Ingot.^[4]

Soulcollector's HatMod recipe

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• 8× Crystalline Arcane Shard
• 2× Arcane Cloth
• 4× Refined Soulstone
• Soulhunter Cloak

Recipe id: apprenticecodex:malum/spirit_infusion/soulcollector_hat

Soulstained Steel Spell AmplifierMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Hex Ash	Arcane Ingot	Hex Ash
Empty slot	Soulstained Steel Ingot	Empty slot
Empty slot	Soulstained Steel Ingot	Empty slot

Recipe id: apprenticecodex:soulstained_steel_spell_amplifier

The pack adds a spirit infusion recipe for Worm Scarf, shown below. Its inputs come from several mods, among them Malum's Astral Weave, the Worm, the Evil Infused Iron Ingot and the Mithril Weave.^[4]

Worm ScarfAdded by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• Worm
• 2× Evil Infused Iron Ingot
• 2× Mithril Weave
• 2× Astral Weave

Recipe id: ftb:compat/fargostalismans/malum/spirit_infusion/worm_scarf

Machines and the rest of the pack

The pack added two recipes for Ankh Shield, one in the Modern Industrialization mixer and one in the Advanced AE reaction chamber. Both are fed by Malum's Shielding Apparatus and Liquid Echo.^[4]

Ankh ShieldAdded by the pack

Mixer (modern_industrialization)

• 3000× Liquid Echo
• Shielding Apparatus

Recipe id: ftb:compat/fargostalismans/modern_industrialization/mixer/ankh_shield

Ankh ShieldAdded by the pack

Reaction (advanced_ae)

• 3000× Liquid Echo
• Shielding Apparatus

Recipe id: ftb:compat/fargostalismans/advanced_ae/reaction_chamber/ankh_shield

The Advanced AE reaction chamber version.

Realized Transcendence is made in Cognition's molecular metamorphosis, which also uses Malum's Fused Consciousness. Purified Spirit is a pack-added spirit infusion recipe, shown below.^[4]

Realized TranscendenceAdded by the pack

Molecular Metamorphosis (cognition)

• Cognitive Crystal
• Realized Transcendence
• Fused Consciousness
• Nether Star

Recipe id: ftb:cognition/molecular_metamorphosis/realized_transcendence

Purified SpiritAdded by the pack

Spirit Infusion (malum)

• Impurity Stabilizer
• 4× Paracausal Flame
• Stellar Mechanism

Recipe id: ftb:malum/spirit_infusion/purified_spirit

Mekanism crushing recipes added by the pack turn Runewood Leaves, Azure Runewood Leaves and Soulwood Leaves into 2 Bio Fuel each. Farmer's Delight cutting recipes added by the pack let you use an axe on runewood and soulwood logs to get Tree Bark and the stripped or revealed log.^[4]

The quest book gives Malum its own chapter, called Malum. It sits in the Magic Mods group (chapter 19 of 31) and lists 40 quests. Malum items also appear in two other chapters, covered at the end.^[3]

Where the chapter starts

The book lists no prerequisite for five quests, so these are the entry points:^[3]

• "Soulstone" quest asks for Raw Soulstone and Refined Soulstone. Its text points you to Soulstone for the Spirit Altar and the Crude Scythe.^[3]
• "Runewood" quest asks for a Runewood Sapling (or an Azure Runewood Sapling), a Runewood Log and Runic Sap.^[3]
• "Brilliance" quest asks for Raw Brilliance and Refined Brilliance.^[3]
• "Cthonic Gold" quest asks for Cthonic Gold.^[3]
• "The Weeping Well" quest has an observation task plus an Encyclopedia Esoterica. The Weeping Well branch is listed after it, described below.^[3]

The spirit branch

Most of the chapter is listed after Soulstone and Runewood. This is the order the book gives:^[3]

1. "Brilliant Obelisk" quest is listed after Brilliance and asks for the Brilliant Obelisk.^[3]
2. "The Reaping of Souls" quest is listed after Soulstone and asks for the Crude Scythe.^[3]
3. "Spirit Altar" quest is listed after Soulstone and Runewood and asks for the Spirit Altar and a Runewood Obelisk.^[3]
4. "Aspects of the Soul" quest and the untitled quest a quest in "Malum" are listed after the scythe quest. "Hex Ash" quest (Hex Ash), "Rocks of Taint and Twist" quest (Tainted Rock and Twisted Rock) and "Spiritual Metallurgy" quest (Hallowed Gold Ingot and Soulstained Steel Ingot) are listed after both the scythe and the altar.^[3]
5. "Soulwoven Silk" quest is listed after the altar. "Soulhunter Set" quest (the four Soulhunter pieces) and "Soulwoven Pouch" quest are listed after it.^[3]
6. Five quests are listed after Spiritual Metallurgy: "Weaver's Workbench" quest, "Runeworking" quest (asks for the Runic Workbench), "Malum Trinkets" quest, "Soulstained Equipment" quest (asks for the Soulstained Steel Scythe and Tyrving) and "Soulstained Armor" quest.^[3]
7. "Spirit Crucible" quest is listed after Rocks of Taint and Twist and asks for the Spirit Crucible and an Alchemical Impetus. Three quests are listed after it: "Repair Pylon" quest, "Spirit Catalyzer" quest and "Crucible Augments" quest.^[3]
8. "Totemic Rites" quest is listed after Aspects of the Soul and Runewood and asks for the Runewood Totem Base. "Unchained Blight" quest (Soulwood Log and Soulwood Sapling) and "Automating Spirits?" quest (a checkmark quest) are listed after it, and "Large Strange Crystal" quest is listed after Unchained Blight.^[3]
9. "Soulbinding Pacts" quest is listed after Spiritual Metallurgy, Runewood and Rocks of Taint and Twist. It asks for the Soulbinding Brazier and the Paracausal Flame.^[3]

The Weeping Well branch

These quests are listed after The Weeping Well. "The Well's Returns" quest asks for Null Slate, Void Salts, Mnemonic Fragment and Malignant Lead. Three quests are listed after it: "Mnemonic Hex Staff" quest (the Mnemonic Hex Staff), "Malignant Pewter" quest (Malignant Pewter Ingot and Malignant Pewter Plating) and "Conscious Weapons" quest (Sundering Anchor and Unwinding Chaos).^[3]

Two quests are listed after Malignant Pewter. "Malignant Weapons" quest asks for the Edge of Deliverance, Weight of Worlds and Erosion Scepter. "Malignant Armor" quest asks for the Malignant Stronghold Helmet, Malignant Stronghold Chestplate, Malignant Stronghold Leggings and Malignant Stronghold Boots.^[3]

The other quest listed after the Well is "Spirit of Sacrifice" quest. It asks for the Umbral Spirit plus an item from the Gaze mod. "Weapons of Sacrifice" quest, "Umbral Runes" quest and "Encyclopedia Unveiled" quest are listed after it, and all three ask for Gaze items rather than Malum ones.^[3]

Malum in other chapters

In the Piña Colada chapter (group Main Questline, chapter 6 of 31), "Realized Transcendence" quest asks for Fused Consciousness together with a pack item called Realized Transcendence. Its text mentions farming spirits by hand, or a Malum ritual that automatically harvests low-health nearby mobs. The chapter lists it as a prerequisite of "Artificial Fruits" quest.^[6]

The Gearing Up chapter (group Exploration & Combat, chapter 14 of 31) has "Tyrving" quest, which asks for Tyrving and is listed after the Soulstained Equipment quest. Five of that chapter's 94 quests aren't shown in the sources here, so check the quest book for them.^[13]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Malum has a client config, a common config and two structure configs in this pack. The only values the sources explicitly label as matching the mod default are the two Soul Ward multipliers. For every other option the mod default isn't stated, so I can't tell you whether the pack changed it. What follows is exactly how the pack sets each option.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Codex and progression

• codex.enableCodexDrop is false in this pack. When it's true, one of the first undead enemies a player slays drops the encyclopedia arcana, so you shouldn't count on that drop here.^[15]
• progression.hide_recipes is false, so the pack does not hide that part of Malum's content. The option's own description says turning it on is the intended way to play the mod.^[15]

Unverified How you obtain the encyclopedia arcana in this pack, now that the undead drop is disabled, isn't confirmed by the available sources.

Soul Ward, Aegis and staffs

• soul_ward.soulWardMagic is 0.10000000149011612 and soul_ward.soulWardPhysical is 0.699999988079071. Both are multipliers for damage taken while Soul Ward is active, and both match the mod default (range 0.0 to 1.0).^[15]
• soul_ward.soulWardRate is 100 ticks per point of Soul Ward recovered.^[15]
• malignant_aegis.malignantAegisRate is 200 ticks per point of Malignant Aegis recovered.^[15]
• staff_charge.staffChargeRate is 100 ticks per segment of staff charge recovered.^[15]
• magic_damage.magicDamageReducedArmorPiercing is true. Damage types tagged malum:bypasses_half_armor pierce only half of the player's armor stat instead of all of it, and armor takes no durability damage from them.^[15]

Spirits and compat

• spirit.defaults.defaultSpiritValues is true, so entities without spirit JSONs use the default spirit data for their category.^[15]
• spirit.noFancySpirits is false, so dropped spirits keep their normal form instead of becoming plain items.^[15]
• spirit.spawner.lameSpawners is false, so mob spawners do not create soulless mobs.^[15]
• compat.irons_spellbooks.ironsSpellbooksPlayerSpiritDrops and compat.irons_spellbooks.ironsSpellbooksNonPlayerSpiritDrops are both false. Iron's Spellbooks magic damage does not count as Soul Damage, whether a player or something else deals it.^[15]

Weeping Well generation

The Weeping Well is enabled through weeping_well.weeping_well, set to true. Its placement uses weeping_well.spacing = 24, weeping_well.separation = 18 and weeping_well.salt = 546451665.^[16][17]

Client options

• ui.shieldX is 0 and ui.shieldY is 47. They set the offsets for the Soul Ward and Malignant Aegis HUD elements: X from the center of the screen, Y from the bottom.^[14]
• scarf.scarfLength is 30 and scarf.scarfOpacity is 0.4. Length affects every rendered Malignant Stronghold Scarf, not just yours. Opacity is how visible your own scarf is in first person.^[14]
• codex.bookTheme is DEFAULT (EASY_READING is the other allowed value), and codex.scrollDirection is false, so page scrolling in codex entries isn't reversed.^[14]

FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 ships Malum version 1.8.2 (the file malum-1.21.1-1.8.2.jar). The mod was already in the pack by Aero 1.0.3 or earlier, so it has been part of the pack for a long time.^[2]

The Malum 1.8.2 changelog itself doesn't list any changes in the sources I have, it only points to the mod's CurseForge page. There are also no pack changelog entries for this mod, so I can't tell you what changed for Malum between pack releases.^[18]

Unverified The specific changes in Malum 1.8.2, and any pack-specific changes to the mod across Aero releases, could not be confirmed from the available sources.