Tinkers' Construct 3 Overview
This page is about the mod since 1.16. For 1.8 to 1.12, see Tinkers’ Construct 2 Overview.
For answers to frequently asked questions, see Tinkers’ Construct 3 FAQ.
To see a summary of changes since Tinkers’ Construct 2, see What’s New.
Tinkers’ Construct is a mod about creating tools, then modifying them to make them better. The tools will never permanently break, allowing you to tinker with a design until you are satisfied, or recycle them into new tools. After creating your first tools, create a smeltery to upgrade your tool creation, and explore the world to unlock more powerful materials and modifiers.
Guidebooks
Upon spawning, you will be given a copy of materials and you, which is your in game guide to the mod. It will explain the details of the mod more in-depth than this page, and will automatically adapt to the list of materials available in your pack.
Getting Started
To get started with the mod, you will need to craft a part builder and a tinker station.
The part builder will let you turn raw materials into tool parts, though right now you can only work with basic materials such as wood or stone. To create a part, simply place patterns in the left slot and an appropriate material in the right slot, then click a stencil button to select the part you want.
Once you have a few parts, you can combine them in the tinker station to create tools. There are many different options for mining, melee combat, ranged combat, and armor to choose from.
As you explore the world, you will gain materials which can be used to modify tools, giving them new abilities. Many modifiers can be applied in the tinker station directly.
On your travels, you may also encounter some slime islands and slimy geodes. Different colors of slime each have their own purpose in the mod, so try to collect them all.
Tier 2 - Melter
After you have gathered some basic ores, it is time to upgrade your tools using the melter. It is crafted using seared bricks, which can be made from grout. Grout is a mixture of equal parts sand, gravel, and clay.
The melter can be fueled using furnace fuels, though stronger ores may require fueling the melter using liquid lava. After melting some ores, you can use a casting table to turn them into tool parts. Temporary casts can be created using sand, and permanent casts made using gold.
You can also use seared bricks to construct the modifier worktable, which allows configuring more advanced modifiers and removing modifiers from tools.
Tier 3 - Smeltery
Once you collect enough lava and grout, you are ready to create a smeltery. Start by casting molten copper on some seared bricks to create a smeltery controller. After that, you will also need a few seared drains, and a lot of seared bricks to make a good smeltery. Take advantage of the melter to optimize seared brick production.
The smeltery allows melting down many ores at once, along with creating alloys from mixing different molten metals.
Alloys notably allow you to upgrade your tinker station to make broad tools, which have features such as mining multiple blocks at the same time and attacking large numbers of enemies in an area. The anvil also allows applying more powerful modifiers which require more slots.
Tier 4 - Blazing Blood
Upon reaching the nether, its time to explore for new resources. The first one you will want is cobalt, which is typically found at lower levels near lava but can appear at any height.
The nether also gives you access to the foundry, which is an alternative to the smeltery. It will not alloy, allowing for bulk storage of ores without worrying about accidental mixtures. In addition, ores melted in the foundry will produce byproducts, granting a more valuable resource than the original ore.
To make more advanced materials from cobalt, you will want to acquire some blazing blood from melting a blaze. The easiest way to do this is to trick newly spawned blazes into a smeltery, though you can also craft weapons capable of extracting blazing blood from live blazes.
Another way to obtain blazing blood is by melting down ichor. You will need a bit of blazing blood to get started, but I heard you can obtain some from bartering with piglins.
More to Explore
There is a ton more to explore in Tinkers’ Construct. For a full guide on the mod, check out the in game books, which are also available online. It is also recommended to install Just Enough Items to make it easier to look up recipes in game.