Quest — Applied Energistics 2

Applied Energistics 2

This chapter walks you through the basics of Applied Energistics 2 — the endgame digital storage-and-autocrafting system covered in Tech & Automation Mods. By the end you should have basic AE power generation and a working ME storage system started. It assumes you can mine Sky Stone (Iron Pickaxe or better) and have a little early-game power on hand (even a Wooden Crank works to start).

Walkthrough

The questline is roughly ordered as: charge crystals → find meteorites → make processors → build a network → set up storage.

1. Preparing to Find Meteorites — Craft a Charger and use it to make a Meteorite Compass from a normal compass. The compass can be charged very early with a Wooden Crank. It points toward the nearest Meteorite within ~2,700 blocks: spinning rapidly means Sky Stone is in your chunk, spinning slowly means you’re out of range and should explore more.
2. Your First Meteorite — Bring an Iron Pickaxe or better (Sky Stone is hard). Mine to the center to collect Certus Quartz Crystals, Certus Quartz Blocks, and the Inscriber Presses from the Sky Chest — the presses are the whole reason you came.
3. Charge Certus & make Fluix — Toss Certus Quartz Crystals into the Charger to make Charged Certus Quartz. Craft Fluix Crystal by dropping Charged Certus, Nether Quartz, and Redstone Dust into water.
4. Processors — Use the Inscriber (each op needs 1k AE charged) with the presses to make Calculation, Logic, and Engineering Processors. Silicon comes from smelting Certus Quartz Dust.
5. Power the network — Options in the chapter: the Vibration Chamber (1–10 AE/t from solid fuel), the Energy Acceptor (converts external power, 2 FE = 1 AE), and the novelty Crystal Resonance Chamber. Add Energy Cells (200,000 AE) and Dense Energy Cells (1.6M AE) for buffer storage.
6. Storage & access — Build Storage Cells (items, fluids, or spatial), an ME Chest for direct access, and eventually an ME Controller (the routing hub — without it only 8 devices work, and you can only have one per network). A Drive Bay holds 10 cells in a tiny footprint. Portable Cells work like a backpack early-game.

Notable rewards & tips

• The Crystal Growth Accelerator (consumes 8 AE/t) massively speeds growing Certus/Fluix crystals from seeds in adjacent water — build one early to escape the crafting bottleneck.
• Fluix ME Glass Cable is the cheapest cable, carries power + up to 8 channels, and dyes to any of 16 colors.
• Grab all the Inscriber Presses on your first meteorite trip; they’re not consumed and you never want to hunt for a second one.

Links

• Applied Energistics 2 · Tech & Automation Mods
• Storage overview: Storage & Inventory Mods
• The Enchanting chapter’s Enchanting Library can be read by an AE2 Storage Bus.

Anticipated questions

• Do I need AE2 to beat the pack? No — it’s a parallel long-term goal. Treat it as the answer to “how do I stop drowning in chests.”
• Why won’t my network work past 8 devices? You need an ME Controller; without one the network caps at 8 interacting devices.
• Where do processors come from? Only the Inscriber + presses, and presses only come from meteorite Sky Chests.
• Exact recipes/costs? Check JEI/EMI in-game — this guide is grounded in the quest text, which describes function more than exact recipes.