Certus Quartz is a core resource in AE2. It is grown from Budding Certus Quartz blocks, similar to how Amethyst buds grow.

• Buds sprout from Budding Certus Quartz.
• Breaking before maturity drops Certus Quartz Dust (fortune has no effect).
• Breaking a fully grown Cluster drops 4 Certus Quartz Crystals (fortune increases yield).

Degradation Every time a bud grows to the next stage, the budding block has a chance to drop one tier until it becomes a normal Certus Quartz Block.

Repair/Creation Toss the budding block (or a normal Certus Quartz Block) into water with one or more Charged Certus Quartz Crystals to repair or convert.

• Buds grow very slowly by default.
• Growth Accelerators placed adjacent to budding blocks massively speed up growth.
• Early-game option: power them with a Wooden Crank if you don’t yet have an Energy Acceptor or Vibration Chamber.

Automatic harvesting uses ME Annihilation Planes and ME Storage Busses:

• Annihilation Plane breaks clusters automatically.
• Storage Bus (filtered) ensures only Certus Quartz Crystals are accepted.
• Growth Accelerators make the process fast enough for continuous supply.

Note: Non-mature buds drop Certus Quartz Dust instead of nothing, making filtering reliable.

Configuration:

1. ME Annihilation Plane – no GUI, can be enchanted with Fortune.
2. First ME Storage Bus – filtered to Certus Quartz Crystal, outputs into a barrel.
3. Second ME Storage Bus – also filtered to Certus Quartz Crystal, but set to higher priority than main storage.

Process:

1. The Annihilation Plane attempts to break blocks in front of it.
2. Because the subnet only sees Certus Quartz Crystals (via the filtered Storage Bus), it only breaks Clusters, ignoring buds.
3. The first Storage Bus pushes harvested Crystals into the barrel.
4. The second Storage Bus shares those Crystals with the main network but keeps them preferentially in the barrel due to priority.

• With Flawless Budding Certus – farm runs indefinitely without maintenance.
• With Flawed/Chipped/Damaged Budding Certus – blocks will eventually break and must be replaced, either manually or with advanced setups.