The Ultimate Guide to Mekanism

Welcome to the complete Mekanism mod tutorial! This guide covers everything from absolute basics to advanced end-game systems. Whether you’re just starting with osmium ore or building a fusion reactor, this tutorial will walk you through every step of your Mekanism journey in a clear, digestible format.

Getting Started: Mining Osmium and Making Power

Finding Osmium Ore

The first thing you’ll want to find in Mekanism is osmium ore. This ore spawns throughout the game at roughly the same frequency as iron ore, making it very easy to locate. Simply mine the osmium ore and smelt it to get osmium ingots, and you’re ready to begin.

Creating Your First Power Source: Heat Generator

Since Mekanism is a tech mod, power generation is essential. The heat generator is the easiest starting point for power generation. To craft a heat generator, you’ll need:

Iron ingots

Osmium ingots

Furnace

Copper ingots

Wood

The heat generator works by converting fuel (like coal) into lava, which then generates electricity. The power output port is located at the bottom of the machine.

Note: This tutorial assumes you’re familiar with JEI (Just Enough Items) for looking up recipes.

Alternative Power: Solar and Wind Generators

Solar generators produce power during the day and display their status (sunny/not sunny) when you interact with them. The power output is shown at the bottom.

Wind generators work better at higher altitudes and in windy biomes (like plains and savanna). The higher you place them, the more efficient they become. Their status interface shows whether the sky is blocked.

Both solar and wind generators require more complex crafting than the heat generator, as they need energy tablets and infused alloys. This is where we introduce the metallurgic infuser.

The Metallurgic Infuser: Your First Processing Machine

The metallurgic infuser is one of the most fundamental machines in Mekanism. It allows you to infuse items with various materials to create new compounds.

How the Metallurgic Infuser Works

The infuser has three main slots:

Power input (right side): Where energy enters the machine

Resource slot (yellow/left): Where you place the infusing material (like redstone dust or blocks)

Item slot (red/middle): Where you place the item to be infused

A simple example: Place redstone in the yellow (resource) slot and an iron ingot in the red (item) slot. The infuser will slowly infuse the iron with redstone, creating an infused alloy.

Creating Infused Alloys and Basic Control Circuits

For infused alloys: Put redstone in the resource slot and iron in the item slot.

For basic control circuits: Put redstone in the resource slot and osmium in the item slot.

These recipes are critical for advancing through Mekanism and are used extensively in upgrading equipment and crafting advanced machines.

Transportation and Storage Systems

Understanding Mekanism’s Four Cable Types

Mekanism provides four main transportation systems, each with basic, advanced, elite, and ultimate variants:

Universal Cables: Transport electricity

Mechanical Pipes: Transport fluids

Pressurized Tubes: Transport gases

Logistical Transporters: Transport items

Thermodynamic Conductors: Transport heat

Each tier uses different materials. For example, basic universal cables require two steel ingots and redstone dust.

Making Steel

Steel is required for most cable types. To make steel, you’ll use two metallurgic infusers and an energized smelter:

Put coal in the resource slot of a metallurgic infuser to create carbon

Infuse iron ingots with carbon to create enriched iron

In a second metallurgic infuser, infuse the enriched iron with more carbon to create steel dust

Smelt the steel dust in an energized smelter to get steel ingots

Storage Solutions: Energy Cubes, Chemical Tanks, and Fluid Tanks

Mekanism offers three types of storage, each with four tiers:

Energy Cubes: Store electrical energy. A basic cube stores 1.6 million FE, advanced stores 6.4 million, elite stores 25 million, and ultimate stores 102 million.

Chemical Tanks: Store chemical gases

Fluid Tanks: Store liquids

Upgrading to higher tiers follows the same pattern: use infused alloys for advanced, reinforced alloys for elite, and atomic alloys for ultimate versions.

Upgrading Cables and Storage: The Tier System

To upgrade basic equipment to advanced, elite, or ultimate versions, follow this progression:

Advanced: 8 basic items + 1 infused alloy

Elite: 8 advanced items + 1 reinforced alloy (made with diamond in infused alloy)

Ultimate: 8 elite items + 1 atomic alloy (made with refined obsidian in reinforced alloy)

Basic Machines and Processing

The Configurator: Your Essential Tool

The configurator is a wrench-like tool needed to manage machine I/O. It requires Lapis, an infused alloy, an energy tablet, and a stick. Use it to:

Shift-click to rotate between modes (wrench, item configuration, fluid configuration, etc.)

Configure which sides of a machine accept input or output items, fluids, or energy

Access machine settings like security levels and upgrade slots

Machine I/O Configuration

When you shift-click on a machine’s side with the configurator, you can set it to:

Input: Items/fluids enter from this side

Output: Items/fluids exit from this side

Input/Output: Bidirectional transfer

Energy: Power enters from this side

None: No function on this side

You can also access the machine’s side configuration menu by right-clicking to set automatic ejection and configure each face individually.

Machine Upgrades

Most Mekanism machines support upgrades, which you can install in the upgrade slot. Available upgrades typically include:

Speed Upgrades: Increase processing speed (up to 8 can be installed; effect is 10x with maximum upgrades)

Energy Upgrades: Increase energy storage and efficiency

Muffling Upgrades: Silence the machine

Install upgrades by placing them in the upgrade slot. You can install multiple upgrades simultaneously—up to 8 of each type per machine.

Common Basic Machines

Enrichment Chamber: Enriches items into other forms. JEI can show all recipes—for example, beetroot and poppies become red dye.

Crusher: Crushes items into dust or other forms. Ingots become dust, and plant matter becomes biofuel.

Combiner: Combines materials into their ore forms. Raw iron becomes iron ore, sweetberries become glow berries, and redstone dust becomes ores.

Energized Smelter: An upgraded furnace that smelts faster, especially with speed upgrades installed.

Precision Sawmill: Deconstructs items into components. Pressure plates and boats with chests can be broken down into planks.

Pump: Pumps fluids from the world. Power input at the back; place a mechanical pipe on top to output the fluid. Very efficient for water pumping. Can be upgraded with filter upgrades to pump heavy water instead of regular water.

Resistive Heater: Provides heat to machines. Supply power and set the energy level (higher values generate more heat and consume more power).

Fuel-Burning Heater: Burns materials like spruce wood to generate heat without electricity, using thermodynamic cables to transfer the heat.

Early Game Power Generation

Gas-Burning Generator

The gas-burning generator burns gases to produce power. To set it up:

Pump water into an electrolytic separator using an electric pump with power input

The separator produces hydrogen (left outlet) and oxygen (right outlet)

Pump hydrogen into the gas-burning generator at a burn rate of 2 millibuckets per tick

The generator converts the hydrogen into electrical energy

You can also use more advanced gases like ethylene for increased energy output (a separate tutorial covers ethylene production in detail).

Bio-Generator

The bio-generator burns biofuel for power:

Use a crusher to process organic matter (like leaves) into biofuel

Transport the biofuel using logistical transporters to the bio-generator

The generator burns biofuel and outputs power through the front port (shown as a green hole)

Advanced Systems: Factories, Robots, and Digital Mining

Machine Factories

Basic machines can be upgraded into factories, which have multiple processing slots:

Basic Factory: 3 slots

Advanced Factory: 5 slots

Elite Factory: 7 slots

Ultimate Factory: 9 slots

With auto-sort enabled, factories distribute input evenly across all slots, tripling (or more) your output. Upgradeable machines include enrichment chambers, crushers, osmium compressors, combiners, purification chambers, chemical injection chambers, metallurgic infusers, and precision sawmills.

You can upgrade machines using installers (basic, advanced, elite, ultimate) or by directly upgrading the machine block itself.

Creating Refined Obsidian

Refined obsidian is a critical material for end-game progression. To make it:

Crush obsidian in an enrichment chamber to create obsidian dust

Infuse the obsidian dust with diamond dust in a metallurgic infuser to create refined obsidian dust

(Optional) Compress refined obsidian dust into refined obsidian ingots using an osmium compressor with osmium ingots

Robit: Your Portable Companion

Robit is a cute robot companion that requires refined obsidian to craft. To activate Robit:

Craft the Robit in your crafting grid

Place a charge pad powered with energy

Right-click the charge pad with your Robit to set its home base

Robit can function as:

Crafting grid

Furnace

Anvil

Chest (with inventory)

Personal companion

Robit is immune to fire and will follow you around your base, making it invaluable as a portable crafting station. Use the Robit menu to toggle following, drop/pickup behavior, teleportation back home, or cosmetic changes.

Digital Miner

The digital miner automatically mines ores and blocks in a specified area without manual mining. Setup and configuration:

Power the miner from the green port at the side

Input fissile fuel through designated ports

Configure filters to specify what to mine (by mod ID or individual item)

Set the mining radius and vertical range (e.g., 0 to 60 blocks)

Optionally enable block replacement (e.g., replace mined ore with cobblestone) and silk touch

Mining output comes out the orange port at the back. Optional upgrades include stone generator (for automatic replacement blocks), anchor (to keep the chunk loaded), speed, and energy upgrades.

Quantum Entangloporter

The quantum entangloporter allows wireless transfer of items, fluids, gases, and energy between machines on the same frequency:

Set a frequency (e.g., “tutorial”)

Configure which sides handle which type of transfer using side config

All connected devices on the same frequency share that data

Example: Items exit the digital miner, enter a quantum entangloporter on frequency “tutorial,” and exit from another quantum entangloporter on the same frequency at your base

Teleporters

Teleporter portals allow instant travel:

Build a frame using teleporter frame blocks surrounding a teleporter block

Right-click to power it and set a frequency

Customize the color (gray, blue, lime, etc.) to match your frequency

Step through to teleport to another portal on the same frequency

You can have multiple portals at different locations and change which one is active by adjusting the frequency on the central portal.

Ore Processing: Doubling, Tripling, Quadrupling, and 5x

2x Ore Processing

Double your ore output with basic processing:

Feed ores into an enrichment chamber to create ore dust

Smelt the ore dust in an energized smelter to produce double the ingots

3x Ore Processing

Triple ore output using oxygen purification:

Feed ores into a purification chamber with oxygen to create ore clumps

Crush the clumps in a crusher to create ore shards

Enrich the shards in an enrichment chamber

Smelt in an energized smelter for 3x output

To generate oxygen: Pump water with an electric pump into an electrolytic separator. Oxygen exits the right side (blue pipe); dump excess and use what you need.

4x Ore Processing

Quadruple ore output by adding a chemical injection chamber:

Feed ores into a chemical injection chamber with hydrogen chloride

Continue through purification chamber (with oxygen), crusher, enrichment chamber, and smelter

To make hydrogen chloride, you’ll need a thermal evaporation tower (see section below).

Thermal Evaporation Tower Setup

The thermal evaporation tower converts water to brine using heat:

Build a 4×4 hollow tower (up to 17 blocks high) using thermal evaporation blocks

Place a controller for access and valves for fluid input/output

Use a resistive heater to supply heat (300+ FE/tick recommended)

Pump in water using a pump; brine comes out a valve at the top

Advanced solar generators can be placed on the corners for increased efficiency.

Making Hydrogen Chloride

To produce hydrogen chloride for 4x ore processing:

Separate brine in an electrolytic separator to produce sodium and chlorine (dump sodium)

Pump chlorine into one side of a chemical infuser

Pump hydrogen (from water electrolysis) into the other side

The infuser produces hydrogen chloride

5x Ore Processing

Achieve maximum ore yield by adding three additional machines after the chemical injection chamber:

Ores → Chemical Injection Chamber (with hydrogen chloride) → Purification Chamber (with oxygen)

Purification → Crusher → Enrichment Chamber → Smelter

Add: Chemical Crystallizer, Chemical Washer, and Chemical Dissolution Chamber

The solution becomes dirty ore slurry → washed with water → crystallized into solid ores → proceeds to 4x chain

To make sulfuric acid (required for the dissolution chamber):

Use hydrogen chloride with gunpowder in a chemical injection chamber to make sulfur

Oxidize sulfur in a chemical oxidizer to create sulfur dioxide

Combine sulfur dioxide with oxygen in a chemical infuser to create sulfur trioxide

Combine sulfur trioxide with water vapor (from a rotary condenser) to create sulfuric acid

Dissolve fluorite blocks in sulfuric acid using a chemical dissolution chamber

End-Game Power: Fission Reactors

Creating Fissile Fuel

Fissile fuel powers fission reactors and is made in an isotopic centrifuge:

Enrich uranium ingots in an enrichment chamber to create yellow cake uranium

Oxidize yellow cake in a chemical oxidizer to create uranium oxide

Create uranium hexafluoride by combining uranium oxide with hydrofluoric acid in a chemical infuser

Centrifuge uranium hexafluoride in an isotopic centrifuge to produce fissile fuel

Making hydrofluoric acid is complex and involves brine, electrolytic separators, chemical infusers, and a chemical dissolution chamber with fluorite blocks. See the detailed steps in the guide video for full instructions.

Building a Fission Reactor

Construct a fission reactor using these components:

Base: Fission reactor casings forming the bottom layer

Fuel Assemblies: Fission fuel assemblies arranged in a zigzag pattern from bottom to top

Control Rods: Control rod assemblies placed at the top of each fuel assembly column

Coolant Gaps: Leave spaces for water (or other coolant) to flow

Roof: Cover with reactor glass or casings

A small reactor might have 4 fuel assemblies on the corners and 1 in the center; larger designs are possible but more complex.

Configuring Reactor Ports

Use reactor ports to manage reactor input/output:

Water Input: Set to input-only for coolant supply

Waste Output: Set to output-waste; connect to a radioactive waste barrel

Fissile Fuel Input: Set to input-only

Heated Coolant Output: Set to output-coolant; connect to a turbine

CRITICAL: If waste or steam backs up, a nuclear meltdown occurs, destroying everything and creating radioactive pollution. Always ensure sufficient turbine capacity and coolant flow.

Turbine Setup

A turbine converts steam into water and generates power:

Base: Turbine casings in a 5×5 or larger pattern

Rotor: Turbine rotor in the center with turbine blades (2 per height block)

Top Assembly: Rotational complex on top of the rotor, surrounded by pressure dispensers

Coils: Electromagnetic coils above the pressure dispensers (these generate power)

Vents: Turbine vents to expel water and prevent backups

Shell: Complete with turbine casings and structural glass

Connect the reactor’s heated coolant output to a turbine valve. Connect the turbine’s power output via universal cables to an energy storage system. Water output should loop back to the reactor as coolant.

If the turbine backs up with steam or the energy storage fills up, pressure builds back into the reactor, causing a meltdown. Always build turbines large enough for your reactor size.

Induction Matrix: End-Game Energy Storage

The induction matrix is Mekanism’s ultimate energy storage solution, capable of storing tetrajoules of energy:

Building an Induction Matrix

Matrices range from tiny to massive (up to 17×17 blocks):

Shell: Induction casings and structural glass

Ports: Induction ports for energy input/output

Interior: Induction cells (for storage capacity) and induction providers (for transfer rate)

Understanding Cells and Providers

Induction Cells: Determine total storage capacity

Basic: 8 kilojoules

Advanced: 64 kilojoules

Elite: 512 kilojoules

Ultimate: 4 terajoules

Induction Providers: Determine input/output rate

Basic: 256 kilojoules/tick

Advanced: 2,048 kilojoules/tick

Elite: 16,384 kilojoules/tick

Ultimate: 131,072 kilojoules/tick

You can mix and match cell and provider tiers to customize capacity and transfer rates. Use many basic cells for large storage without expensive materials, or combine advanced and ultimate components for higher transfer rates.

Using the Induction Matrix

Right-click the matrix to:

Charge armor or tools directly

Use item slots for auto-charging equipment

View matrix statistics and energy levels

End-Game Power: Fusion Reactors

Polonium Pellets: The Gateway to Fusion

Fusion reactors require polonium pellets, which come from fission reactor waste:

Pump nuclear waste from your fission reactor into a solar neutron activator

This produces polonium gas

Pump the polonium into a pressurized reaction chamber with water and fluorite dust (crushed fluorite ore)

This produces polonium pellets (spent waste goes to a radioactive barrel)

Building a Fusion Reactor

Fusion reactors are built in a distinctive star shape:

Form a cross pattern with fusion reactor frames (frames alternate in corners to create the star shape)

Use reactor glass in the middle sections

Surround with more frames and casings to complete the star

Place a fusion reactor controller on top

Place a laser focus matrix on one side

Add reactor ports for fuel input (two types) and energy output

Starting the Fusion Reaction

To ignite the reactor, you need a holoarm and DT fuel:

Create a holoram using a metallurgic infuser with carbon (coal) and gold dust, filled with DT fuel

Make DT fuel: Combine deuterium and tritium in a chemical infuser

Build a laser amplifier chain to supply 1 gigajoule of energy to the laser focus matrix

When ready, fire the laser to ignite the reaction

Fuel Input: Deuterium and Tritium

Deuterium: Heavy water separated in an electrolytic separator

Pump water into an electric pump with a filter upgrade (gets heavy water)

Separate in an electrolytic separator

Deuterium exits the left side

Tritium: Made from lithium using the thermal evaporation tower and solar neutron activator

Create brine in a thermal evaporation tower

Separate brine to produce lithium

Condense lithium gas in a rotary condenser

Activate lithium in a solar neutron activator to produce tritium

Operating the Fusion Reactor

Once ignited:

Pump deuterium and tritium into separate ports at the injection rate you set (minimum 2)

The reactor generates massive amounts of power

You can water-cool by pumping water for extra cooling, but requires enormous turbine setups

CRITICAL: If you run out of fuel or the injection rate drops below 2, the reactor shuts down. You’ll need a new holoram and to refill the laser amplifier to restart

Alternatively, you can pump DT fuel directly (1 bucket/tick), but supply must be very fast

Fusion reactors don’t have meltdowns like fission reactors, making them much safer once operational.

Advanced Storage: QIO System

The QIO (Quantum Input/Output) system is a wireless storage and crafting solution that requires polonium to craft:

QIO Drive Array

The core of the QIO system. Place it down (no power required) and set:

Frequency (e.g., “tutorial”)

Whether it’s on the subscribed frequency or a specific number

Color (for visual organization)

Install QIO drives inside:

Basic Drive: 16,000 items, 128 types

Hyper-Dense Drive: Made from 4 basic drives; stores more

Advanced/Elite/Ultimate: Even larger capacity; ultimate requires anti-matter

QIO Dashboard

Access stored items and craft with a QIO dashboard (requires power):

View all stored items

Search and sort by name, count, or mod

Use crafting grids to craft items using stored materials

Withdraw items to your inventory

No power required for the drive array itself, making it incredibly efficient

QIO Importers and Exporters

Automatically move items in and out of the QIO system:

Importer: Pulls items from a connected chest into the QIO drive

Exporter: Pushes items from the QIO drive into a connected chest

Both support filters (mod ID, tags, or specific items)

Set frequency to link with the array

Portable QIO Dashboard

Right-click to access your QIO storage remotely. Set the frequency to match your drive array, and you can access all stored items and crafting anywhere.

HDPE Sheets and Pressurized Reaction Chambers

HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) sheets are critical for advanced machines like the SPS casing and solar neutron activator. Production is complex:

Step 1: Crush organic matter (e.g., melon slices) into biofuel using a crusher

Step 2: Feed biofuel into a pressurized reaction chamber with hydrogen and water to create substrate (also produces ethylene gas as a byproduct)

Step 3: Condense ethylene gas in a rotary condenser into liquid ethylene

Step 4: Feed substrate and liquid ethylene into a second pressurized reaction chamber with oxygen to create HDPE pellets

Step 5: Enrich HDPE pellets in an enrichment chamber to create HDPE sheets

Hydrogen and oxygen come from an electrolytic separator fed with water.

Anti-Matter and Super-Critical Phase Shifter

Making Anti-Matter

The super-critical phase shifter (SPS) converts polonium into anti-matter—the most exotic material in Mekanism:

Building the SPS

Structure (3×5×5 in the middle, expand as needed):

Base: SPS casings and reactor glass

Ports: SPS ports for power input (multiple required)

Supercharged Coils: Placed on ports above reactor glass

Fill: Add more SPS casings and glass as desired

When complete, the structure will glow red. Hook power to each port—the more power available, the faster it operates.

Operating the SPS

Input:

Polonium (via input port)

Power (hooked to all input ports)

Output:

Anti-matter (via output port with pressurized pipe)

Anti-matter is consumed in a chemical crystallizer to create anti-matter pellets, which are used for advanced items and supermassive QIO drives.

Anti-Protonic Nucleosynthesizer

Use anti-matter liquid to convert simple items into more valuable variants:

Obsidian → Crying Obsidian

Coal → Diamonds

Golden Apple → Enchanted Golden Apple

Skeleton Skull → Other skull variants

Flower Pots → Nautilus Shells

Chest → Ender Chest

Bed → Respawn Anchor

Meka-Suit: Wearable Equipment

The Meka-Suit is customizable powered armor made with polonium:

Modification Station

Use the modification station (powered from the back) to customize Meka-Suit pieces:

Place a suit piece (e.g., helmet) in the modification station

Install upgrade units into available slots (up to 8 units per piece)

Remove units by clicking them

Available Units

Energy Unit: Stores energy to power the suit

Gravitational Modulating Unit: Allows flight and gravity defiance (requires anti-matter pellets)

Teleportation Unit: Enable short-range teleportation

Light Draw Unit: Provides light sources

End-game units often require anti-matter pellets, making them the pinnacle of Mekanism technology.

Conclusion

You’ve now learned the complete progression through Mekanism—from harvesting your first osmium ore to building fusion reactors and anti-matter generators. This mod offers incredible depth, with interconnected systems that reward careful planning and automation. Whether you’re setting up your first heat generator or fine-tuning a quantum storage system, Mekanism provides endless possibilities for creative and efficient engineering.

Remember: progression in Mekanism is gated by materials like infused alloys, reinforced alloys, atomic alloys, refined obsidian, and ultimately polonium. Plan your factories accordingly, and don’t be afraid to automate every step of production—the mod is designed with automation in mind.

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