Gelid Cryotheum - glaciers in buckets

[Curunir]

There are many reasons to love Thermal Expansion, but I only recently found out about the (literally) cool things you can do with its anti-lava, Gelid Cryotheum. First off, allow me to recap how to obtain it.

 

1. Blizzes!

TE adds a new mob that is an icy counterpart to the Blaze - the Blizz. Blazes drop Blaze Rods, so Blizzes drop... surprisingly, Blizz rods. They spawn rarely in icy biomes, i.e. in Taigas or the fabled ice plains, which I never saw so far. Rare means rare, so unless you really like playing the hard way, a Peaceful Table will eventually earn you some rods if placed in a Taiga biome.

Pulverize the rods to get... Blizz Powder.

 

1b. No Blizzes!

If that all sounds tedious to you, just get yourself some snowballs. Easy, right? If not, find yourself someplace snowy and whip out a shovel. Note that they only stack 16 balls high.

Now place the snowballs in a Fluid Transposer, melt Redstone in a connected Magma Crucible for Destabilized Redstone, and be amazed. TE apparently included this recipe to allow for late-game mass production, but it will save you the need to hunt for Blizzes altogether.

 

2. Mix It

Apart from the powder, you need (more) Redstone dust, (more) snowballs and Niter. The latter can be obtained as a byproduct of pulverizing Sandstone blocks. You will get enough sand back to reconstruct half of the Sandstone, and one stack will usually yield 8-10 Niter.

If you got it all, just place the stuff in any 2x2 crafting grid. Profit!

 

3. Melt It

Gelid Cryotheum is a dust that does not do much, so you first need to melt it in a Magma Crucible (yields 250mB, so 4 dusts to a bucket).

 

4. But What Is It For?

If placed on the ground, Gelid Cryotheum acts much like a turquoise variant of lava, and will hurt you just the same. It will obviously not set you on fire, but that frostburn hurts, so be careful. It will destroy grass blocks around it just like lava, but it will (of course) not set fire to anything. In the open (not tested indoors yet), it will also spontaneously generate a snow cover on surrounding blocks. Which is a nice way to get more snowballs in a hurry, although a TE Glacial Precipitator is a lot better at generating them.

 

4a. Make Traps!

Cryotheum is a nice filling for drop-to-your-death traps, as it will kill anything unlucky enough to fall in, and has the added bonus of not setting fire to its surroundings. Build a nice wood-framed trap and snigger if somebody falls into it because they thought that there could be no lava here, or it would have burned... waaaaa!

 

4b. Cool Things

As of the latest patch, Big Reactors finally acknowledge that the icy stuff is indeed a hyper coolant. I think it surpasses Resonant Ender now, although test results are still pending. It also looks damn cool (pun intended) inside that reactor casing.

 

4c. Decoration

A very slow-flowing icy waterfall may be just the thing to top off your Taiga fortress. Or how about a moat of icy death around your compound?

 

Feel free to add anything else that can be done with it, or point out if I got something horribly wrong. I am picking this up on the fly, and sometimes I tend to be stupid. Credit goes to KingLemming and the awesome TE crew, and all the helpful people from whom I picked up all those information snippets.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Curunir

[Curunir]

Some more fun facts:

 

1. Gelid Cryotheum actually falls down if placed above empty space (air), although it falls just as it flows... sloooowly.

2. This means it cannot be placed inside a Yellorium Reactor the regular way, but has either to be filled layer for layer, or with some tricky arrangement, maybe flowing over mineral blocks (which are accepted as coolant inside the reactor).

3. Buildcraft pumps will pump Cryotheum just fine. So emptying your reactor for changes or maintenance is easy. Yay!

[Darth Crater]

I played around with it a bit. Apparently the interaction between cryotheum and lava sometimes produces free Obsidian in non-source-block spaces, instead of just cobblestone. I haven't figured out exactly what the conditions are, yet.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Darth Crater

[Kezr]

What happens when you drink it?

[Curunir]

Still looking for a straw to imbibe it. But I guess most people won't be cool enough to survive.

 

P.S.: That was a serious question? You can drink stuff in Tekkit?

Learning something new every day.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Curunir

[Darth Crater]

So, that obsidian I mentioned? I found a reliable way to duplicate it.

 

http://imgur.com/a/b9VPu#0

 

 

What happens when you drink it?

Apparently, 7.5 hearts of damage, and 8 minutes of fire resistance.

[Cancro_Senzafine]

I never noticed that they added that recipe. Thank you for the information.

[Darth Crater]

I've now used the free-obsidian-creating (bug? feature?) in a fully automatic generator. Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/2OLuD#0

 

Basically, a six-block-long trench. Lava at one end, cryotheum at the other. Terrain smashers on a 5-second Project Red sequencer clear out the blocks/liquid each cycle. Sometimes you'll randomly get a second cobblestone instead, but usually you get an obsidian block every 5 seconds. Did I mention it's completely free?

[rogueclon946]

 

I've now used the free-obsidian-creating (bug? feature?) in a fully automatic generator. Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/2OLuD#0

 

Basically, a six-block-long trench. Lava at one end, cryotheum at the other. Terrain smashers on a 5-second Project Red sequencer clear out the blocks/liquid each cycle. Sometimes you'll randomly get a second cobblestone instead, but usually you get an obsidian block every 5 seconds. Did I mention it's completely free?

 

I'd prefer if you double the tv offer.

 

I'd look into doing this but i tend to have more trouble finding blizzes than I do finding lava for obsidian lol

Edited March 23, 2014 by rogueclon946

[Curunir]

I can confirm that the usual "Cobblestone Generator" formula will yield obsidian instead of stone if you use Cryotheum instead of water. This seems intentional.

So you can forego lava pumps and Igneous Extruders for Obsidian generation and instead generate it with lava and cryo... which seems very fitting to whip up obsidian for EE3 alchemy.  :-)

Edited March 23, 2014 by Curunir

[Dash16]

Sorry for resurrecting a zombie thread but I tried out this build last night.

 

I found the Cobblestone/Obsidian generator to be too unreliable, occasionally the Cryotheum creeps all the way across and consumes the lava source block.  MFR's Lava Fabricator + TE Igneous Extruder/Aqueous Accumulator is a much better solution for infinite obsidian, given a stable power source.

[Curunir]

I fail to see how a thread becomes a zombie in just two or three weeks.

 

It is tricky to get Cryo and Lava to behave, especially since Cryo can freeze lava even if they do not touch directly. Make sure you have enough room between the two.

 

Also, it is hardly infinite if you need to supply energy. No matter how high-yield nuclear power may be, it is still finite. Reliable - yes. Infinite - no.

[viesiu]

Well, if u're having issues finding Blizzes, or don't want to melt your precious redstone, why not a Cryotheum Age?

Good ol' Mystcraft h4xes. Did this in creative as a test, if it's even possible. Turns out it is. U can even make a Mob Essence age ;>

btw. that's how gelid cryotheum looks in Sphax.

Edited April 8, 2014 by viesiu

[jakalth]

what's more fun then that?  Making a resonant ender age, and jumping into it.

[Kotja]

I found pink slime age. That is even better because it took ages to produce even one bucket of it in slaughterhouse.

[M1r077]

 

I've now used the free-obsidian-creating (bug? feature?) in a fully automatic generator. Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/2OLuD#0

 

Basically, a six-block-long trench. Lava at one end, cryotheum at the other. Terrain smashers on a 5-second Project Red sequencer clear out the blocks/liquid each cycle. Sometimes you'll randomly get a second cobblestone instead, but usually you get an obsidian block every 5 seconds. Did I mention it's completely free?

 

I try to do this setup, even though we have the igneous extruder for that but your solution was a way to produce obsidian without using power. So i gave it a try but ..

unfortunately it didn't work, I mean that the terrain smasher wasn't breaking the obsidian block nor the cobblestone ones ..

Any idea why ? 

[Dash16]

I fail to see how a thread becomes a zombie in just two or three weeks.

 

It is tricky to get Cryo and Lava to behave, especially since Cryo can freeze lava even if they do not touch directly. Make sure you have enough room between the two.

 

Also, it is hardly infinite if you need to supply energy. No matter how high-yield nuclear power may be, it is still finite. Reliable - yes. Infinite - no.

Fusion power is, for all intents and purposes, infinite.  Considering it turns water into fuel for the reactor, and water source blocks are infinite when used with an aqueous accumulator, once you have enough resources to get a fusion reactor with tons of turbines online, infinite power.  At least, the setup on my server requires no maintenance and no outside tweaking to keep running once its going.

[HeatHunter]

I found pink slime age. That is even better because it took ages to produce even one bucket of it in slaughterhouse.

 

^ this nearly killed my server as all pink slime (liquid) wanted to morph into pink slime (mob) at once...

[Kotja]

I had peaceful and i was fast with buckets.

[jakalth]

Using the design above, I've figured out a more reliable way to do the lava + gelid cryotheum obsidian generator.  If you leave a spacer block between the gelid and the lava, you more consistantly get obsidian without loosing the lava.

 

1: Start out making a trench 3 blocks long, then leave a single block in place, and dig a single hole next to that.  Dig two holes connected to one side the the 3 long trench, near the spacer block.  Place a terrain smasher and a chest in the side channel with the front animated end of the terrain smasher facing the 3 block trench.  Make sure your terrain smasher is set to low signal for it's redstone setting.  Now add lava to the far end of the 3 block trench.

 

Looks like this when this is done.

 

2: Now start by making a 2 block tall box around the area your obsidian will be created.  Have this box cover all areas where light could come in from the sides, but not block the lava from flowing under it.  With the box being two blocks long, place a project red light sensor inside the box as shown so that it's redstone output is pointing towards the back or side of the box.  Also make sure it is set to fully open position.

 

Looks like this when this part is done.

 

3: Finally cover the top of the box so no light can come in from above, and run a line of redstone or some type of redstone signal transmitting wire from where the light sensor's output is touching the side or back of the box, to the block touching the terrain smasher.  With this setup, the redstone should have a signal going through it right away, and your terrain smasher should stop auto cycling. 

 

Looks like this when it is finished.

 

How it works is, when the lava is flowing, it gives off light that the light sensor can see.  When it sees light, it outputs a redstone signal.  The redstone signal tells the terrain smasher to stop.  But when the gelid ticks, it will freeze the lava next to the spacer block, usually into obsidian.  When the lava turns into obsidian, it stops giving off light, so the sensor stops emitting a redstone signal.  Without the signal, the terrain smasher starts to auto cycle again, breaking the obsidian and letting the lava low back under the box.  The lava emits light that trips the light sensor causing it to emit a redstone signal that turns off the terrain smasher again.

 

It's not very fast at making obsidian, but you'll end up with a fully automated, reliable, obsidian generator.  It should require no maintenance to keep it working.  And most of its production will be obsidian with only the occasional cobblestone.

[Curunir]

 

I had peaceful and i was fast with buckets.

Buckets?

This is Tekkit. Use a pump, man. ;-)

Edited April 11, 2014 by Curunir

[Kotja]

1) Pink slime don't last long enough for pump.

2) I need only a few buckets of it (for Laser drill precharger and maybe one to make pink slime to autospawner)

[EvilOwl]

Another fun fact: you cannot swim upwards in gelid cryotheum - learned the hard way. Jet boots ain't going to help you at all, and your stuff is gone now...

Edited April 29, 2014 by bochen415

[Curunir]

Not against a current for sure. Although I think you could get out of a pool.

My disaster insurance for these cases is carrying my important stuff around in a Strongbox. Even if you die in lava/cryo and drop it, you can return later to retrieve the Strongbox. Apparently they don't even despawn.

Can't help you with armour and tools/weapons, but this saved my quarry, pump, tanks, pipes and whatever else I take with me a few times. 

 

And supposedly, a Golden Bag of Holding can be upgraded to respawn with you. The upgrade wears off and has to be renewed when it actually does respawn, but still worth something. I still prefer my Strongbox, though.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Curunir

[jakalth]

swim assist module and rocket jetpack module combined, and active, together have enough thrust to lift you up through flowing cryothium.  But the speed you move at is still slower then trying to swim up in flowing water with no assistance...  So you might not be able to get out quick enough even with this help.  Gelid Cryothium is some dangerous stuff to work with.  IMO, it is more dangerous then Lava cause at least with lava it is easier to get out before dieing so your stuff does not fall back in when you die.  And with lava, there are fire protection potions that negate it.  There is nothing to completely protect you from cryothium.

Edited April 30, 2014 by jakalth