ae2_mechanics_certus_growth

Certus Quartz

Author Applied Energistics Team
Category Storage & Automation

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


Growth and Harvesting

  • 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).


Budding Block Tiers

Tier Behavior Notes
———————————————-
Flawless Never degrades Infinite certus supply. Cannot be crafted or mined, only moved with Spatial Storage.
Flawed Can degrade when buds grow Will eventually break down into plain Certus Quartz Block.
Chipped Same as flawed, weaker
Damaged Weakest form, fastest degradation

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.


Growth Speed

  • 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.


Automation

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.


Example Automated Setup

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.

Semi-Auto and Advanced Farms

  • 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.
ae2_mechanics_certus_growth.txt · Last modified: by jack