Hephaestus Forge & Rituals Tutorial – Forbidden & Arcanus Mod Guide

If you want to progress in the Forbidden & Arcanus mod, building the Hephaestus Forge is one of the most essential steps. This forge unlocks powerful rituals, elemental crafting, and unique items you simply can’t get anywhere else. In this guide, we’ll walk you through building the forge from scratch, filling it with the required resources, performing your first ritual, and understanding the upgrade system — all in beginner-friendly steps.

Building the Hephaestus Forge

Materials You’ll Need

The Hephaestus Forge is built using a specific multiblock structure. The main materials you need are:

Polished Dark Stone — the primary building block

Gilded Chiseled Polished Dark Stone — placed at eight specific positions (the four sides, each with a length-of-three row)

Chiseled Arcane Polished Dark Stone — four pieces placed around the center

Smithing Table — placed in the very middle of the structure

To craft these blocks, you’ll need Polished Dark Stone and Deorum Ingots. Deorum Ingots are made from Mundabit Dust, Charcoal, and Arcane Crystal Dust.

Laying Out the Structure

Pause and take a good look at the shape before you start placing blocks. The structure follows a clear pattern:

Place the Gilded Chiseled Polished Dark Stone at eight positions — one on each of the four sides, following a pattern of one block inside, then going left and up, back to the middle, then left and up again.

Place one additional Gilded Chiseled Polished Dark Stone block right in the center.

Surround the center with four Chiseled Arcane Polished Dark Stone blocks.

Place a Smithing Table in the very middle of the structure.

Activating the Forge

Once the structure is laid out, grab your Mundabit Dust and right-click the Smithing Table in the center. A bolt of lightning will strike it, transforming the entire structure into the Hephaestus Forge.

Adding Dark Stone Pedestals

Next, craft some Dark Stone Pedestals and place one on each of the eight outer Gilded Chiseled Polished Dark Stone positions — that’s positions one through eight around the outside of the forge. Once all eight pedestals are placed, your Hephaestus Forge is fully built and ready to use.

Filling the Hephaestus Forge with Resources

Right-clicking the Hephaestus Forge opens a detailed UI. To power the forge and perform rituals, you need to fill four resource bars: Experience, Souls, Aurel, and Blood.

Experience

Place Xpetrified Orbs into the bottom-right slot of the forge UI to fill the Experience bar. A stack of 16 orbs will fill it up considerably — a full stack of 64 is recommended for larger rituals.

Souls

Place the Souls you’ve collected into the bottom-left slot of the forge UI. This fills the Soul resource bar.

Aurel

There are two ways to fill the Aurel bar:

Manual method: Craft Potion of Regeneration II and surround it with Arcane Crystal Dust to create Aurel Bottles. Place these into the top-left slot of the forge UI.

Passive method (recommended): Craft an Arcane Crystal Obelisk by combining an Arcane Polished Dark Stone block with two Arcane Crystal Blocks (each made from nine Arcane Crystals) on a pedestal, then strike it with Mundabit Dust. Remove one of the outer pedestals, place the obelisk there, and it will passively feed Aurel into the forge automatically.

Blood

There are two ways to fill the Blood bar:

Test Tube method: Craft Test Tubes using Rune (mined from the world) and a Glass Bottle. Hold a Test Tube in your offhand while killing mobs — blood will be collected directly into the tube. Then use the filled test tube to add blood to the forge.

Kill-near-forge method: Simply kill any mob near or on top of the forge. A portion of blood will automatically be added to the forge’s blood bar with each kill.

Either method works well. One filled test tube provides a solid amount of blood, but killing mobs nearby is very convenient if you’re farming in the area anyway.

Performing Rituals with the Hephaestus Forge

Finding Recipes

Open JEI (Just Enough Items) or your preferred recipe viewer, hover over the Hephaestus Forge, and press U to see all available rituals. The first tab shows the upgrade chain from Tier 1 to Tier 5. The second tab lists every item you can craft using the forge.

Example Ritual: Crafting the Quantum Catcher

A great introductory ritual to practice with is crafting the Quantum Catcher. Here’s what you’ll need according to the JEI recipe:

Central item: Quantum Core (crafted from Mundabit Dust, Rune, and Flint)

Pedestal items: 4x Spawner Scraps (obtained by mining a spawner without Silk Touch)

Resources required: 200 Aurel, 5 Souls, 1,200 Blood, and 155 Experience

Setting Up the Ritual

Place the Quantum Core into the central item slot of the Hephaestus Forge UI.

Place one Spawner Scrap on each of four pedestals surrounding the forge (positions one through four).

Once the correct items are placed, the forge will light up to confirm the ritual is valid.

Completing the Ritual with a Gavil

To actually trigger and complete the ritual, you need a Gavil. Craft it as follows:

Craft Gav Clay.

Combine the Gav Clay with Wood, Iron, or Diamond materials plus Sticks to create a Blacksmith Gavil Head.

Assemble the Gavil Head into a complete Gavil.

Right-click the Hephaestus Forge with the Gavil to begin the ritual.

All of the items will animate into the forge, and after approximately 30 seconds, the ritual will complete and your crafted item will appear.

What Does the Quantum Catcher Do?

The Quantum Catcher allows you to capture mobs by right-clicking on them. However, you must have Aurel in your inventory for this to work. The higher the mob’s health, the more Aurel is consumed per capture. Right-click the mob again to release it. It’s an incredibly useful tool for mob collection and mob farm setup.

Upgrading the Hephaestus Forge

Inside the forge UI you’ll notice four upgrade slots, locked at Tiers 2, 3, and 4 respectively. These slots allow you to enhance the forge’s capabilities over time.

Elementarium

The first and most important upgrade is the Elementarium. This item enables the creation of elemental items in the forge. You can find Elementariums naturally in:

Jungle Temples

Desert Pyramids

Underwater Ruins

At Tier 3, you can also craft additional Elementariums at the forge itself. Place the Elementarium into the first upgrade slot of the forge.

Elemental Prisms

With the Elementarium installed, you unlock the ability to craft Elemental Prisms. These are powerful relics that slot into the dedicated relic slots on the left side of the forge UI. The prisms available are:

Smelt-up Prism (Fire Prism): Requires 4x Blaze Powder, 2x Coal, and 1x Arcane Crystal Block in the center. Needs an Elementarium-Enhanced Relic placed in the relic slot. Available at Tier 1.

Wild Wind Prism: Requires a Tier 2 forge upgrade.

Sea Prism: Requires a Tier 3 forge upgrade.

Once you have the correct enhanced relic slotted and the right ritual items on the pedestals, simply right-click with your Gavil to complete the ritual — exactly the same process as any other forge ritual.

Summary

The Hephaestus Forge is a cornerstone of progression in Forbidden & Arcanus. By building the multiblock structure with Polished Dark Stone variants, activating it with Mundabit Dust, and keeping it fueled with Experience, Souls, Aurel, and Blood — you’ll unlock a wide range of powerful ritual crafting options. Start with an easy ritual like the Quantum Catcher to get comfortable with the process, then work your way up through the upgrade tiers to unlock the Elementarium and Elemental Prisms. Good luck, and happy forging!

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