Modern Industrialization Complete Beginners Guide

Welcome to the complete beginner’s guide to Modern Industrialization! This guide covers version 1.21, but the information applies to all versions you may be playing. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the introduction, getting started with the mod, and progressing through the steam age. By the end of the steam age, you’ll have a solid understanding of the mod’s core mechanics.

What Is Modern Industrialization?

Modern Industrialization is a tech mod similar to Greg Tech or IC2, but it’s significantly simpler and more straightforward. It removes much of the tedium found in other industrial mods while maintaining deep automation and progression mechanics.

Getting Started: The MI Guidebook

The first item you should craft is an MI Modern Industrialization guidebook. You’ll need copper nuggets and a book to create it. This guidebook provides comprehensive information about the mod, though having this guide will help you get started quickly.

Before you begin, gather substantial amounts of three key materials:

Iron

Tin

Copper

Understanding Progression: Steam Age to Electric Age

Modern Industrialization has two main progression phases relevant to this beginner’s guide:

The Steam Age

The steam age serves as a gateway to the electric age. All machines you craft during this phase will eventually be replaced with their electric counterparts, so don’t worry about making them permanent.

The Electric Age

Once you reach the electric age, your machines won’t need replacement. You can then feel confident building your final, permanent setups.

The Forge Hammer: Your First Machine

The forge hammer is the first machine you’ll want to construct. You’ll need iron ingots and heavy-weighted pressure plates to build it.

To use the forge hammer, place it down and right-click to open its interface. Place the item you want to process in the left slot. For example, one iron ore produces two raw iron when processed.

The forge hammer has a dedicated slot for hammer tools. These come in four varieties:

Iron hammer

Netherite hammer

Steel hammer

Diamond hammer

The only difference between hammers is durability.

Crafting an Iron Hammer

Creating an iron hammer requires 32 iron ingots—a significant investment. Here’s the breakdown:

Iron hammer recipe: sticks + iron large plates

Iron large plates recipe: 4 iron plates

Iron plates recipe: 2 iron ingots per plate (forge hammer required)

Total: 32 iron ingots needed

However, the investment pays off significantly. When you place an iron hammer in the forge hammer, it increases output by 50%. This means instead of getting 2 raw iron from one ore, you’ll get 4 iron dust, which can be smelted into ingots. You’ve effectively quadrupled your ore efficiency.

Processing Other Materials

When you place copper ingots into the forge hammer, you can create numerous components:

Copper bolts

Curved plates

Double ingots

Dust

Rods

Rings

Tip: Use JEI (Just Enough Items) to explore recipes. Press R to see how to craft items and U to see their uses.

The Steam Mining Drill: Getting Silk Touch Early

You can obtain silk touch very early in the game using a steam mining drill. This machine requires large iron plates and a copper drill head.

The copper drill head appears complex, requiring plates, curved plates, bolts, and gears. However, you can craft all these components in the forge hammer by working backward from the ingredients.

Operating the Steam Mining Drill

Once crafted, the steam mining drill requires two inputs:

Water (right-click over water to fill)

Combustible fuel like coal (hold the drill and right-click coal in your inventory)

Additional features:

Press Y to toggle free mining on and off (indicated by a black outline)

Shift right-click to enable or disable silk touch without leaving it permanently active

Creating Steam: The Foundation of the Steam Age

Steam powers all bronze-tier machines. To generate steam, you’ll need:

A bronze boiler (to heat water)

A bronze water pump (to supply water)

Fluid pipes and item pipes (to transport resources)

Bronze machines (to use the steam)

Crafting Bronze Components

Bronze is your primary material for the steam age. To make bronze:

Bronze dust recipe: 3 copper dust + 1 tin dust

Smelt bronze dust to create bronze ingots

You’ll also need fire clay bricks for the boiler structure:

Fire clay dust + clay bricks = fire clay dust mixture

Smelt to create fire clay bricks

The Bronze Boiler and Water Pump

The bronze boiler converts water into steam using heat. Place a bronze boiler and a bronze water pump adjacent to each other, connected by fluid pipes.

The boiler displays:

Temperature bar

Water level

Steam output

Fuel slot (coal)

Getting Your First Steam

Initially, you need steam to operate the water pump—a chicken-and-egg problem. Solve this by:

Taking a water bucket and placing it in a furnace

Smelting the water bucket to produce a steam bucket

Left-clicking the steam bucket into the bronze water pump

Connecting Fluid Pipes

To automate the system:

Shift right-click the water pump with a fluid pipe to attach it

Right-click the fluid pipe to set its priority and direction

Set the water pump output to “extract only”

Connect the output to the boiler’s water input

Connect the boiler’s steam output to other machines or a bronze tank

Automating Coal Supply

Use an item pipe connected to a chest to automatically feed coal to the boiler:

Attach an item pipe to the boiler’s fuel slot

Connect it to a coal storage chest

Right-click the item pipe and set it to “blacklist mode” to allow all items except those you blacklist

One bronze boiler running at full capacity can supply steam to four machines simultaneously.

Bronze Machines Overview

Five main bronze machines are available during the steam age:

The Bronze Compressor

The compressor improves efficiency compared to the forge hammer. Example: one bronze ingot makes one bronze plate (versus two in the forge hammer).

The Bronze Mixer

The mixer combines materials with improved efficiency. Example: three copper dust + one tin dust = four bronze dust (crafting table only makes three).

Other mixer recipes include:

TNT creation

Wood pulp processing

Dirt to mud conversion

The Bronze Macerator

The macerator breaks down materials into dust or smaller components. Examples:

Glowstone → 4 glowstone dust

Cobblestone → gravel

Bone → 6 bone meal

Excess bolts → 5 tiny dust (9 tiny dust = 1 dust)

The Bronze Cutting Machine

The cutting machine cuts materials with high efficiency. It requires:

Steam input

Lubricant input

Example efficiency: one iron ingot produces two iron rods (versus one in the forge hammer).

Making Lubricant

Lubricant is created in the mixer using:

Creosote (from the coke oven)

Redstone dust

The Bronze Furnace

This furnace operates twice as fast as a normal furnace and uses one steam boiler’s output.

The Coke Oven: Unlocking the Next Phase

The coke oven is a multi-block structure that produces coke and creosote. It requires:

Coke oven bricks (controller)

Regular bricks (structure)

Bronze fluid input hatch

Bronze fluid output hatch

Bronze item input hatch

Bronze item output hatch

Building the Coke Oven

Construct the coke oven as a hollow 3x3x3 structure (or similar dimensions):

Place the coke oven controller in the center

Place the four hatches on the structure’s exterior

Fill remaining spaces with regular bricks

Use a wrench to visualize hatch placement constraints

Operating the Coke Oven

Once complete, the structure is valid when the hatches turn the same color as the controller. To run it:

Pump steam into the fluid input hatch

Pump coal into the item input hatch (or bucket it manually)

Coke will be produced in the item output hatch

Creosote will be produced in the fluid output hatch

📸 [ASSISTANT: TAKE SCREENSHOT AT SNAPSHOT 18:18]

The coke oven processes at 2 EU per tick, which your steam boiler can sustain.

Making Steel: The Steam Blast Furnace

Steel is the next tier material. Create it using a steam blast furnace, which is similar to the coke oven but with different dimensions and requirements.

Steam Blast Furnace Structure

The structure is 3 blocks wide, 4 blocks tall, and open at the top (no ceiling). It requires:

Steam blast furnace controller

Fire clay bricks (structure walls)

Steel item input hatch

Steel fluid input hatch

Steel fluid output hatch (recommended for future recipes)

Creating Steel Ingots

To produce steel ingots, you need uncooked steel dust, which is crafted in the crafting table using:

Iron dust

Coke dust

Coke dust is produced by macerating coke in the bronze macerator. Iron dust can be obtained from:

Iron ore (4 dust per ore via macerator)

Iron ingots (1 dust per ingot via forge hammer)

Operating the Furnace

Pump steam into the fluid input hatch

Pump uncooked steel dust into the item input hatch

Steel ingots are produced (30 seconds per ingot)

Overclocking with Gunpowder

Right-click gunpowder into the furnace to activate an overclock, doubling processing speed for a limited time.

Upgrading to Steel Machines

Once you have steel ingots, you can upgrade your bronze machines to steel versions. Steel upgrades require:

Fire clay bricks

Fluid pipes

Bronze components

Steel machine casing (made from steel plates and steel gears)

Each recipe produces two steel upgrades.

Two Upgrade Methods

Method 1: Direct Upgrade

Shift right-click a steel upgrade onto a bronze machine to upgrade it directly.

Method 2: Crafting Table

Combine a bronze machine with a steel upgrade in the crafting table to create the steel version.

Machine Performance Changes

When upgraded to steel, machines typically:

Require more steam (doubled steam consumption)

Process at twice the speed

Require steel boilers (which can supply up to twice the steam)

Additional Steel-Tier Machines

The Steel Packer and Unpacker

These machines pack items together (e.g., 9 nuggets into 1 ingot) or unpack them. They’re primarily for automation rather than efficiency gains.

The Automatic Trash Can

Voiders for items and fluids, allowing you to dispose of unwanted materials.

The Steel Quarry: Automated Mining

The quarry is an essential machine for resource gathering. It requires:

Steel quarry controller

Steel machine casings

Steel pipe machine casings (for vertical sides)

Chains (vanilla Minecraft chains)

Steel item input hatch

Steel item output hatch

Steel fluid input hatch

Quarry Structure

Place the quarry controller at the front center

Surround it with steel machine casings (one on each side, going up)

Build vertical walls using steel pipe machine casings

Place chains running from the ground up through the center

Cap the top with a machine casing

Attach hatches for fluid and item input/output

Operating the Quarry

The quarry requires bronze drills as input. Drills are made from:

Item pipes

Iron gears

Bronze drill heads

Once you’ve supplied bronze drills and steam to the quarry, it begins mining ores. The unique advantage is that the quarry mines ores from thin air without depleting any blocks, meaning you never need to relocate it.

Bronze drills are extremely durable, so crafting just one or two will provide ores for an extended period.

Summary: Completing the Steam Age

You’ve now completed the steam age progression in Modern Industrialization. Here’s what you’ve accomplished:

Forge Hammer: Crafted your first machine for material processing

Steam System: Built a boiler, pump, and fluid pipes to generate and distribute steam

Bronze Machines: Created compressors, mixers, macerators, cutting machines, and furnaces

Coke Oven: Constructed a multi-block that produces coke and creosote

Steel Production: Built a steam blast furnace to create steel ingots

Machine Upgrades: Upgraded bronze machines to steel equivalents

Quarry: Automated ore mining with a steel quarry

By mastering these systems, you’ve developed a solid foundation in Modern Industrialization. The next phase—the electric age—will introduce more advanced machines and power generation, but the fundamentals you’ve learned here will serve as the basis for all future progression.

Next Steps

Check out the ultimate guide and individual machine tutorials on the channel for deeper dives into specific systems. Modern Industrialization modding tutorials are available for many other mods as well, with both beginner and advanced guides.

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