All the varieties of Golems in a row
Golems are small utility mobs that the player can create. They are composed of a "golem body", an "animation core", and optionally various upgrades and accessories. To use golems effectively, the player needs an additional tool, the "Golemancer's Bell".
Golem Bodies[]
All golem bodies are produced in the Crucible (or Thaumatorium), from a block of material and equal amounts (either 4 or 8 points apiece) of the aspects Humanus, Spiritus, and Motus. The different bodies provide very different levels of durability, carrying capacity, speed, and healing. All of these capacities can be increased with upgrades (see below).
| Material | Block | Durability | Strength | Self-repair | Carry Limit | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straw | Hay Bale | Very Low | Very Low | Average | 1 | Fast |
| Wood | Greatwood | Below Average | Low | Average | 4 | Above Average |
| Flesh* | Block of Flesh | Low | Low | Very Fast | 4 | Above Average |
| Clay | Bricks | Average | Average | Slow | 8 | Average |
| Tallow* | Block of Tallow | Average | Average | Average | 8 | Average |
| Stone | Stone Bricks | Above Average | Above Average | Slow | 16 | Slow |
| Iron | Block of Iron | High | High | Very Slow | 32 | Very Slow |
| Thaumium* | Block of Thaumium | Very High | High | Slow | 32 | Slow |
- Starred bodies require 8 points essentia per aspect, and can accept a second elemental upgrade.
- The Flesh body is considered "forbidden knowledge".
- Clay, Stone, Iron, and Thaumium are fireproof, and can also walk under water. (The others float.)
Golem Cores[]
Besides a body, a functional golem requires an Animation Core, which gives it one of several specific functions. There can be up to three stages to produce a golem core:
- A blank core is produced in the crafting table from 4 bricks and Nitor.
- The basic cores are produced with crucible recipes (or in the Thaumatorium), by combining a blank core with 5 points apiece of two aspects of essentia, with the particular aspects determining their function.
- The advanced cores are produced from basic cores by arcane infusion.
- In 4.2, the Butcher core (life the Flesh body) is considered "forbidden knowledge". It is also produced from the Guard core, but in the crucible rather than by infusion.
| Basic Cores | Aspect 1 | Aspect 2 | Function | Base For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gather | Lucrum | Terra | Collects loose items and stores them in a home inventory. | |
| Fill | Fames | Vacuuos | Takes items from marked inventories to home inventory. | Sort |
| Empty | Lucrum | Vacuuos | Takes items from home inventory to marked locations or inventories | Use, Sort |
| Harvest | Messis | Meto | Harvests crops | Chop, Fishing |
| Guard | Telum | Vinculum | Attacks mobs | Butcher* |
| Decanting | Aqua | Vacuuos | Fills containers with fluid | Alchemy |
| Butcher* | Bestia | Corpus | Slaughters domestic animals |
| Advanced Cores | Function |
|---|---|
| Chop | Chops down trees (top-down). |
| Fishing | Placed near water, will automatically fish in it (catches anything a player can!). |
| Use | Can use most tools or trigger machines at specific locations. |
| Sort | Takes items from home inventory to only those marked inventories that contain the same item. |
| Alchemy | Takes essentia from a furnace or other device and stores it in a bank of warded jars. |
Golem Upgrades[]
There are six "elemental" upgrades, of which any given golem type can only have one or two attached. There are also another eight "accessory" upgrades which do not count toward this limit, each adding new capabilities or enhancements. Many of the accessories apply primarily to combat golems.) There is also an "Advanced Golem" infusion (forbidden knowledge in 4.2), applied to any golem body, which provides multiple enhancements, including an extra slot for elemental upgrades.
| Upgrade | Effects |
|---|---|
| Air | Movement, Ranged attack speed |
| Earth | Increases Strength: Carry Limit (by 4-16 depending on original), Melee damage, harvesting etc. |
| Fire | Adds more interface slots, melee attacks set target on fire |
| Water | Vision: Increases activity range, also range & accuracy for Ranged attacks. |
| Order | Allows use of colored markers, unlocks various features for different cores. |
| Entropy | Adds "Thorns" effect. Can work more categorically with items, optionally ignoring "damage" value, ignoring NBT data, or checking ore dictionary for similar items. |
| Advanced Golem | Slightly faster, slight increase to vision, adds one slot for elemental upgrades. |
| Tiny Hats | Increases health, vitality (healing). |
| Tiny Spectacles | Increases vision range. |
| Tiny Bowties | Increases speed. |
| Tiny Fezzes | Rapid healing. |
| Golem Dart Launcher | Gains a ranged attack. Guard golems only. |
| Golem Visor | Kills drop experience and "player-only" drops. Slight armor increase. (Guard or butcher golems.) |
| Golem Iron Plating | Heavy armor, slower. Won't fit on Iron or Thaumium golems. |
| Golem Mace | Increases melee damage (Guard or Butcher golems). |
Golem Range[]
Golem Ranges are somewhat complex -- each core has a natural base range, which can be affected by the Advanced upgrade, one or two Water upgrades, and Spectacles. The following table, which needs much completion, attempts to list the known ranges for various cores. Golems can also go beyond these ranges if they note a new target while already some distance from their home location
| Core | Base | W | WW | S | WS | WWS | A | AW | AWW | AS | AWS |
AWWS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gather | 16 | 20 | 24 | 17 | 22 | 26 | ||||||
| Fill | 16 | 20 | 24 | 17 | 22 | 26 | ||||||
| Empty | 16 | 20 | 24 | 17 | 22 | 26 | ||||||
| Sort | 16 | 20 | 24 | |||||||||
| Butcher | ||||||||||||
| Harvest | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||||||
| Use | ||||||||||||
| Chop | ||||||||||||
| Fishing | ||||||||||||
| Guard | ||||||||||||
| Decanting | ||||||||||||
| Alchemy |
Golem Control[]
"Point me in the Right Direction..."[]
Whenever a golem is placed, the block face it was placed on becomes its "home" location. The home location is remembered even if the block is removed, and can only be changed by picking the golem up (left-click with the Golemancer's Bell), and placing it somewhere else. Any time a golem has no other task visible, it will do its best to return to this location. For some cores (Harvest, Fishing, Guard, Butcher, Chop), this is the only location they care about; these cores look for tasks in the environment, and do not work with inventories. For other cores, this location must be an inventory block such as a chest or hopper, which becomes the golem's "home inventory", where it will either place items in, or take them out. (The Use-core golem can operate with or without an inventory, depending on what it's intended to do.) Note that most golem cores can only work with one side of a double-chest, whichever side it was placed on.
Some golem cores have GUIs: After being placed, right-clicking on a golem without the Bell will open the golem's GUI, to allow the player to set any control options, and/or specify particular items to work with.
Once placed, right-clicking on a golem with the Bell will show its home location as a glowing ring, and also allows working with "marks", if that core uses marks. Marks appear as runed circles, with a string of runes connecting them to the golem; they must initially be placed on block faces, but like the home location, these will be remembered even if the block is later removed. A golem will remember its mark locations even if it is picked up and placed elsewhere. (Of course, it may no longer be able to reach those locations!) With the Order upgrade, marks can be assigned a color, which can be matched up to items in their GUI by using the tiny scrollbars which appear above their item slots. For most cores which use marks, these must be on inventories, but there are exceptions: Empty golems can drop items into the world; For Use golems, marks indicate where to use a tool, place a block, or trigger a device; For Decanting golems, marks indicate the liquids to fill its home container, and for the Alchemy cores, they mark banks of jars or other essentia containers to fill. This table summarizes home and mark usage, and whether item slots are available:
| Core | Home Inventory? | Mark Inventories? | Item Slots? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gather | In | No | Yes |
| Empty | Out | Maybe | Yes |
| Fill | In | Yes | Mandatory |
| Use | Out or none | No | Yes |
| Sort | Out | Yes | No |
| Decanting | In (liquid) | No | Yes (1) |
| Alchemy | Out (essentia) | Yes (essentia) | No |
Harvest, Fishing, Chop, Guard, Butcher: Home location only, no marks, no GUI (except Guard+Order, which offers options).
"Don't go There!"[]
Unlike most mobs, golems can open doors and fence gates (they also shut them behind themselves). Unfortunately, their pathfinding seems to be better when "outbound" (going to a target mob, item, or chest) than "inbound" (returning to their home inventory or location). On the return trip, they are prone to getting stuck on fences or walls, even when a door or gate is just a block or two to one side. Also, golems can always see any items or mobs they would work on, regardless of barriers or line-of-sight, and may target them hopelessly (spinning in place or staring through a fence) even if there is work closer to hand. These issues can make managing them somewhat difficult. There are a number of ways to control golem activity:
- Golems cannot walk over a Paving Stone of Warding, though like other mobs they can be pushed over one.
- There is a special "Golem Fetter" block, which, when powered with redstone, will deactivate any golem, freezing it in place until the power is turned off, or the golem is pushed off the fetter).
- Many golems have "item slots", limiting their activity to particular items. You need to double-click on the box (it's a bit tricky) with one of the item in question, but you keep the item. (You may need to double-click again to get it back in your inventory.)
- Most golem cores come with six item slots, but the Fire upgrade can increase the number. If any item slots are used, any items not appearing in a slot will be ignored. Fill golems must have at least one item; unlike other cores, they default to "no items" instead of "any items".
- The "entropy" upgrade can make their item choice more generic, allowing you to ignore damage to tools, or NBT values (such as enchantments or names).
- For items such as wool or mana beans which come in multiple colors, click on the border of the the box to choose "any color" -- when hovering there, you will see a message to that effect. (This is for 4.11; in 4.0 the Entropy upgrade automatically chose any color.)
- The Order upgrade can connect different items to differently-colored marks, for example telling an Empty golem to put wheat and seeds in one chest, but carrots and potatoes in another. The color of the item box is selected with a tiny scroll-bar above the box.
Traveling Trunk[]
The research tree for golems leads early to creation of the Travelling Trunk, a chest that follows you around carrying its contents. It can teleport after you similarly to dogs and cats, and can even follow you between dimensions. It can be picked up with the Golemancer's Bell, but normally drops its contents when you do so. The trunks are sturdy but not invulnerable. If damaged, they can be healed quickly by feeding them, or slowly on their own. Each Trunk can accept one of the elemental upgrades used for golems, with each element giving a different enhancement:
- Air: Moves faster.
- Earth: More item slots.
- Fire: Attacks hostile mobs, setting them on fire.
- Water: Nearly invulnerable. In SMP, can only be used by the player who placed it.
- Entropy: Sucks in loose items nearby (if it has room for them).
- Order: Can be picked up with its contents, as an item.
See their own page for more details.