Summary
Base Metals adds historically common metals to Minecraft, specifically silver, copper, tin, lead, zinc, mercury, and nickel, as well as the fantasy metals cold-iron, mithril, adamantine, and star-steel. For most of these metals, you can craft all of the standard Minecraft tools and metal-related blocks. Base Metals also adds a new tool, the crack hammer (aka sledgehammer). The crack hammer lets you pulverize ores and items into powders. Just like the Crusher in the Metallurgy 3 mod, pulverizing an ore block with the crack hammer will double your metal production.
Related Mods
Modern Metals
JRIwanek's Modern Metals: Modern Metals Website
Nether Metals
KnoxHack's Nether Metals: Nether Metals Website
Metals
Regular Minecraft Materials
For reference, here's the properties of plain Minecraft materials:
Wood
- Hardness: 2
- Durability: 2
- Enchantibility: 6
Stone
- Hardness: 5
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 2
Iron
- Hardness: 8
- Durability: 8
- Enchantibility: 4
Gold
- Hardness: 1
- Durability: 1
- Enchantibility: 10
Diamond
- Hardness: 10
- Durability: 15
- Enchantibility: 4
Elemental Metals
These metals spawn naturally as ores in the Overworld.
Zinc
- Hardness: 1
- Durability: 1
- Enchantibility: 1
Zinc is worthless on its own and is not even strong enough to forge into tools, but can be used to make the metal alloy brass by combining it with copper.
Tin
- Hardness: 3
- Durability: 1
- Enchantibility: 2
Tin is an extremely soft metal that is not very useful by itself, but can be combined with copper to make bronze.
Copper
- Hardness: 4
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 5
Copper is soft, easy to work, and fairly abundant. It is needed to make bronze and brass metal alloys.
Silver
- Hardness: 5
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 6
Silver is a soft, shiney metal that is valued for both is beauty and its alchemical uses.
Lead
- Hardness: 1
- Durability: 1
- Enchantibility: 1
Lead is a very soft metal that is best known for being very heavy and somewhat toxic. Lead tools are fragile, but can dish out a lot of damage when used as weapons.
Nickel
- Hardness: 4
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 7
This metal is as soft as copper, but it has alchemical properties and forms the metal alloy Invar when mixed with iron.
Mercury
- Hardness: —
- Durability: —
- Enchantibility: —
Mercury metal is a liquid, so it cannot be used like other metals. However, it is an essential ingredient for making the fantasy metal alloy Mithril.
Metal Alloys
These metals cannot be mined. Instead, they are crafted from other metals.
Brass
- Hardness: 3
- Durability: 3
- Enchantibility: 9
This alloy of copper and zinc (2:1 ratio) is soft, but has a beautiful golden color.
Bronze
- Hardness: 8
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 4
This alloy of copper and tin (3:1 ratio) is as hard as iron, but not quite as durable.
Steel
- Hardness: 8
- Durability: 15
- Enchantibility: 2
This alloy of iron and carbon (8:1 ratio) is as hard as iron and much more durable.
Invar
- Hardness: 9
- Durability: 10
- Enchantibility: 3
This alloy of iron and nickel (2:1 ratio) is slightly harder than steel, but somewhat less durable. Invar pickaxes can mine blocks that normally requires a diamond pickaxe (such as obsidian)
Electrum
- Hardness: 5
- Durability: 4
- Enchantibility: 10
This alloy of silver and gold (1:1 ratio) can be enchanted like gold, but is a little more durable.
Fantasy Metals
These metals have magical properties and cannot be found in the Overworld. Some of these metals can be mined in other dimensions while others are alloys crafted using other fantasy metals or magical ingredients.
Cold-Iron
- Hardness: 7
- Durability: 7
- Enchantibility: 7
Cold-Iron is a magical metal that is nearly as strong as iron. Tools made from cold-iron are extra effective against denizens of the Nether and any other creature that is immune to fire. A full suit of cold-iron armor will protect you from harm by fire and lava.
Adamantine
- Hardness: 12
- Durability: A lot!
- Enchantibility: 0
Adamantine is a rare magical metal that is stronger than diamonds! Armor made from Adamantine make you practically invulnerable. Tools made from adamantine are extra effective against monsters that have more than 10 hearts of health.
Mithril
- Hardness: 9
- Durability: 9
- Enchantibility: 9
Harder than steel and stronger than iron, Mithril is a magical alloy of silver, mercury, and cold-iron (2:1:1 ratio). Mithral weapons are extra effective against undead.
Aquarium
- Hardness: 4
- Durability: 10
- Enchantibility: 15
Aquarium is a magical alloy of copper, zinc, and prismarine crystals (2:1:3 ratio). Aquarium weapons are extra effective against aquatic creatures and wearing a full suit of aquarium armor will allow you to breathe underwater and provides extra protection while submerged in water.
Star-Steel
- Hardness: 10
- Durability: 25
- Enchantibility: 12
Star-Steel is a mysterious material that can only be found in the Ender dimension. It defies standard physics and pushes the limits of the mind. Armor made from Star Steel reduces the weight of the wearer, allowing the wearer to jump higher and fall slower. Star-Steel tools slowly repair themselves while held.
The Crack Hammer
Also known as a sledgehammer, the crack hammer is a geologist tool used to pulverize rock into smaller pieces. Using this tool on ores will cause them to drop powdered metal instead of the standard ore block. Use can then use the powdered metals to make metal alloy mixes or just smelt the powder into ingots. You can crush items by dropping them on the ground and then right-clicking on the ground beneath the items.
Better Ore Generation
Base Metals add a spawning mechanism that is much more flexible than in vanilla Minecraft. You can make any block spawn as ores and even add ore spawns to the Nether and the End.
Quick tutorial on how to configure your config file can be found here.
Mod API
Universal Bucket
As of version 2.0.2, Base Metals has a universal bucket that can handle any liquid that has been registered as a bucket fluid in the Forge Fluid Registry. Therefore if you make an add-on mod that adds a custom fluid, you don't need to add your own bucket.
Tutorial
Description coming soon.