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Description[]
If you think of Vis as the air, Taint can be likened to the smog that pollutes it. Technically speaking, it is *not* a somehow negatively charged form of Vis, but rather a completely separate type of magical energy. It can occur naturally or be created by thaumaturgic devices like the Crucible as a waste product during the process of converting matter into Vis. The rating of naturally occurring Taint is usually much lower than that of Vis. Unlike regular Vis, Tainted Vis spreads a lot more quickly into neighboring areas, however. As some chunks spawn with an unusually high rate of Tainted Vis, this can cause a natural Taint Zone (see below) to spawn, as the Tainted Vis quickly spreads to the neighboring areas, corrupting everything in its Path.
Unfortunately, the major source of Taint is caused by many of the thaumaturgic devices used in Minecraftia. The mystical processes that create the wondrous objects and other magical miracles occasionally cause Taint as a byproduct. A wise thaumaturge will make sure to take great care when palying his craft to prevent mishaps.
Tainted Vis[]
Like Vis can be found and stored in a pure, non-Aura form, so physical Taint can be found or created through magical processes. It occasionally forms into Tainted Crystals like pure Vis, but usually it is created as a byproduct of the crucible smelting process. If you have already researched the Concentrated Evil upgrade, you can also put Tainted Crystals into Vis Condenser to have them draw the Taint directly out of the atmosphere.
If stored in regular Vis Tanks, the Tainted Vis will slowly corrupt and damage the tank. If you want to draw Taint out of the atmosphere for later usage or to clean up a Taint Zone, you should consider storing the Taint in the much more durable Reinforced Tanks, especially if you want to store it for a long amount of time. Taint can also leak into the atmosphere if a pipe containing taint breaks.
Taint Gone Wild[]
An infected forest.
If the Taint rating in the local area ever rises high enough and the Aura rating is very low at the same time, strange things start happening. Plants and creatures begin to change as a strange, purple growth appears and subsequently spreads everywhere. The ground will become a nasty, purple mud that squishes under your steps. Strange, glowing weeds and purple gas pods that spew poisonous gas clouds will start to grow everywhere. The gas from those pods will negatively charge the Aura, which further increases the Taint rating and speed up the corruption of the surrounding terrain. Normally docile creatures like pigs, cows and chickens suddenly become aggressive and will attack all uncorrupted life forms, including you. This general phenomenon can be referred to as a local Taint infection, while the infected terrain will be referred to as a Taint Zone in this article.
Things tend to slowly return to normal once the Taint rating becomes low enough, but once a tainted area likes this takes hold it is hard to get rid of.
How Taint spreads[]
Taint infection always spreads over the surface and cannot affect player-made blocks.
Once the Taint has a hold in an area, it slowly spreads like a surface infection. A Taint infection can be considered severe once you have a local infection that encompasses at least three or four chunks, each of which has a Taint level above a rating of 7000 or more (you can see the exact amount of Vis and Taint in the atmosphere with the Goggles of Revealing). A local infection will not penetrate the ground and only infects the blocks on the surface. Note that while the Taint does not infect water itself, it can still infect the blocks underneath.And make arm
The infection also only spreads to the blocks next to other already infected blocks. This has important implications both for preventing a Taint infection from spreading as well as for cleaning up an existing infection.
If there are blocks the Taint cannot infect adjacent to infected blocks, the Taint will not be able to spread beyond them. As will be shown later, this can be used to create barriers that can temporarily stop a local infection from spreading.
There are a number of blocks that the Taint does not infect. It will mostly infect naturally occurring blocks:
- Dirt, Grass and Mycelium (the ground in the mushroom biome).
- (Regular) Stone.
- Wool (all Colors). Note that you cannot purify tainted wool with Potions of Purity.
- All types of Wood Logs as well as all types of Leaves. The infected trees will turn into Tainted Logs and Tainted Leaves.
- Sand.
- Sandstone (which turns into sand upon being cleaned).
- All ore blocks (including Iron, Gold, Coal, Diamond, Redstone and Cinnabar Ore). When tainted ore blocks are being mined with a Shovel of Renewal, they sometimes yield Congealed Taint.
- Netherrack, Soul Sand and Glowstone, which makes the Taint spread incredibly fast in the Nether.
- Vis Crystals, which will turn into Tainted Crystals that release Taint into the atmosphere.
It will not infect most player-made materials:
- Cobblestone.
- Wooden Planks.
- All types of Stone Bricks.
- (Regular) Bricks.
- Obsidian.
- End Stone.
- Glass.
- Bookshelves.
- Ice and Snow blocks.
- All types of slabs and double-slabs.
- All storage blocks (Gold, Iron, Lapislazuli).
Finally, the spread of Taint is affected by the Aura and Taint levels in the atmosphere, as the atmospheric Taint level is the cause of the infection, while the physical Taint (infected blocks) is merely a symptom. A barrier will stop the spread of physical Taint, but not of ambient Taint.
The table below applies to Technic 7.0.1+ and the latest versions of Thaumcraft 2. If you are using an older build, this table does not apply and Taint appears when Taint > Aura, spreading as described above.
|
Aura |
Taint | Effect (Technic 7.0.1+ / TC 2.1.3b+) |
|---|---|---|
| 1500+ | <3750 | Affected blocks will gradually recover, turning into normal, untainted blocks. Note: Some blocks, like Wool, will remain Tainted indefinitely and must be replaced manually. Crystals that were Tainted will remain Tainted. |
| N/A | 3750+ | Taint will spread from infected blocks to adjacent, uninfected blocks, as described above. Taint will not spread if there are no infected blocks to spread from (below 7500 Taint). |
| N/A | 7500+ |
Exposed blocks in the chunk will be spontaneously infected at a rapid pace. This does not require an adjacent infected block and cannot be prevented by constructing a barrier. This is how a physical Taint infection begins. Since ambient Taint spreads from areas of high Taint to areas of lower Taint, a chunk with a very high Taint level may spread Taint to adjacent chunks until their Taint levels reach this threshold, resulting in spontaneous infection, even if the high-Taint chunk is surrounded by a physical barrier. |
| N/A | 10000+ |
Spore pods (gasbags) will spawn. Spore pods will periodically spew more Taint into the atmosphere. This will inevitably result in the Taint spreading further outwards despite any physical barriers you may construct. Warning: If such a chunk is near your base, you must act to reduce Taint levels below this threshold, then destroy any spore pods (they are blocks) in the chunk (remember to check underground as well). If you lack the resources for this, you will want to relocate. |
(The default maximum Aura and Taint values are 15000 - if you change the maximum in the config it will alter these thresholds proportionally, as they are percentage-based)
Tainted Life Forms[]
Once infected by the Taint, all life forms will display increasingly aggressive behavior towards healthy, non-infected creatures, including the player. When attacking the player or another creature, the infected will sprint with great speed, making escape on feet almost impossible. The infected creatures also seem to have significantly more health than their uninfected, healthy counterparts.
If you do not have a large distance between you and the infected, you should not attempt to fight with bow and arrows, as you will most likely not have enough time to properly charge and aim your shots. If you kill an infected life form, it will sometimes drop a Taint artifact like Taint Spores or a Tainted Organ. You can use those as research material for the Quaesitum.
| Tainted Creeper | |
| The Tainted Creeper is quite a bit faster than his regular, uninfected counterpart. Its explosion radius is also slightly larger, but will not deal much damage to infected terrain, as infected blocks have quite a high explosion resistance. However, if a Tainted Creeper explodes outside of infected terrain, it will not only make a large crater, but will also directly corrupt some blocks adjacent to the explosion. This can be a serious drawback if you are trying to clean up an infected area, so keep your eyes open for the purple buggers. |  |
| Tainted Villagers | |
| May Notch help you if you ever encounter a Testificate village corrupted by the Taint. The Tainted Testificates are something like moving gas pods. They have quite a lot of health and periodically blast poisonous gas clouds into the atmosphere while they roam the corrupted terrain. The poison clouds increase the local Taint concentration in the air and further propagate the corruption. While the Tainted Testificates do not attack uninfected creatures, they react very aggressive to the player and will attack upon sight. They are relatively harmless when encountered alone, but a whole infected village can prove a deadly threat. |  |
| Tainted Cows | |
| Tainted Cows have more health than a regular cow and are significantly faster. They will attack the player and other uninfected creatures on sight. |  |
| Tainted Sheep | |
| Like other creatures infected by the Taint, the Tainted Sheep reacts very hostile to the player and other uninfected creatures. Whereas a normal sheep occasionally eats grass, tainted sheep instead vomit taint, spreading the infestation. It also has more health and is much faster than a regular sheep. Shearing one produces purple wool. |  |
| Tainted Pig | |
| Similar to other creates infected by the Taint, the Tainted Pig reacts very hostile to the player and other uninfected creatures. It has more health and is much faster than a regular pig. |  |
| Tainted Chicken | |
| The Tainted Chicken is the weakest of the creatures infected by the Taint. Its attacks don’t pack much punch and it also has very low health, however, it is incredibly fast. While one or two infected chickens may not be much of a challenge, you can get into serious trouble if you encounter four or five chickens simultaneously. |  |
| Tainted Crystal Wisp | |
| In a certain way, the Tainted Crystal Wisps can be considered the most dangerous infected creature. Its attacks may not do that much damage, but the one thing that really makes them dangerous to you is their ability to blind you. The status ailment “blind” envelops you in a sphere of darkness where you can only see within a radius of three or four blocks, everything else, including the wisp that just zapped you, is just black. Now this may last only for a couple of seconds, but in the instant the wisp will strike you again, you will lose your sight again.
This makes fighting back not only extremely difficult, but you will also not be able to see where you are going – for all things considered, you might be running straight into a chasm. And we haven’t even started talking about all the other tainted creatures that are chasing and trying to kill you as well. So, if you do not have a bow and some arrows with you, RUN, because you will not have any chance of killing the wisp then. If you DO have a bow and an arrow, you can fight back if you plan your actions carefully. First, place some blocks in front of you so that the Tainted Crystal Wisp cannot see you. It will only shoot if it has clear line-of-sight. Charge your bow, get out of your cover and fire an arrow. If you did not manage to kill the wisp, get back to cover immediately and repeat until the wisp is dead. If you have the Technic mod pack installed a good way to kill the Tainted Wisps is to use a Musket, as it is extremely powerful and accurate. The Musket allows the player to pick the Wisp off at Somewhat of a long distance. Tainted Crystal Wisps either drop a cracked wisp shell or a Tainted Crystal. | |
| Living Tainted Tree | |
The Living Tainted Tree is a hostile, stationary creature which resembles a regular tree infected by the Taint. Of all infected life forms, it is the most resilient and has the most health. If you attack it, several eyes will open on the surface of its bark and it will start trembling, upon which aggressive small, worm-like creatures drop from its leaves.
  Grub husks dropped from a Living Tainted Tree. The tree surrounds itself with a magical field that is able to repel all projectile attacks. Do not try to attack it with bow and arrows, as it will only throw your arrows directly back to you. You should rely on melee weapons or axes instead – it is a tree, after all. The Living Tainted Tree and its worm-like creatures sometimes drop Tainted Fruits and Tainted Branches upon death, both of which are classified as Uncommon Tainted Artifacts. They can be used to research Tainted Knowledge in the Quaesitum. |
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Cleaning up a Taint Zone[]
Once you are dealing with a severe Taint contamination, you will need to dedicate a significant amount of time and resources if you choose to do a cleanup. You should also note that the endeavor will be both dangerous and complicated. So basically you are facing the choice of either fetching all of your belongings and running to the hills – or preparing to mount a massive cleanup operation.
There are 3 phases in a cleaning operation:
Contention[]
Using easy-to-get materials (Cobblestone or Planks) you must make a barrier to stop taint for spreading to other areas and stop enemies from other areas entering the tainted zones, this is only to minimize the chance of infected fauna attacking you, if you have enougth confidence in your battle gear, you can skip this phase.
You dont need surround with tall walls all tainted zone at once, only the close area to your working zone, enemies far away from your don't move, using the normal render distance, if you cant see your working area, is far enougth to have a wall.
Special precaution is needed if an npc village becomes tainted, tainted villagers increase the local Taint, infect healty creatures and spread taint, all in a single attack. Kill on sight, but from distance. If you have researched Crucible of Souls use it with a Vortex Seal to get vis, and mantain the villagers in a controlled area.
Remove ambient Taint[]
Aura and Taint are independent, you can have high aura and high taint or have a tainted zone in a low taint area, Lowering the ambient taint prevent reinfections.
This is the longest phase, you must have researched Concentrated Evil and need at least 3 components: Vis Filter, Vis Condenser, Tainted Crystals, Having the Goggles of Revealing is convenient but not necesary, you can use the Thaumometer to detect the areas that need be cleaned.
To remove ambient taint, use Concentrated Evil on a Vis Condenser. This enables the condenser to equip tainted crystals to get taint instead of vis. The operation drains the taint from ambient, you need pass it throught a stack of filters to remove some, this operation removes some of the taint from the system. More filters = more taint removed, but slower operation, a stack of 3 filters can process the output from a condenser. This arrangement slowly remove taint from the ambient, but because the filters release some taint back to the ambient sometimes you see the taint raising.
A Vis Purifier and a Vis Pump in a ring configuration to slowly eliminate the taint from the tank, you need 3 rings of 2 purifiers to remove almost all taint from a single condenser, making this a expensive option. You also cannot use the reinforced tanks to store all taint and use a single filter over a very long period of time to remove all taint. This is a convenient method if you have many tanks. Remember: a Vis Conduit that contains 100% taint over a extended period of time explodes, just like a normal tank, you must make sure that all taint is stored in a reinforced tank or is moving across the conduits into some device(s), like a pump, filter, or a purifier.
There aren't many recipes of the Dark Infuser that need that much taint, all recipes need the double of vis that taint, then is not recomended make items to spend taint.
taint can power a thaumic duplicator to create diamonds gold anything thus clearing the taint (very fast actually) and giveing you valueable material to clean further. the thaumic crystalizer can also use taint to recharge or even turn tainted crystals into regular ones again (though taint comsumtion is a lot slower).
taint also can be used with a thaumic genarator.
Restoring the original biome[]
Tainted terrain does not disapear when removing ambient Tain. Tainted pods can't grow either if there isn't enough taint, and/or if taint spread is slowed down. Multiple Potions of Purity are required to remove tainted terrains, or you can use the Void Crusher to remove tainted terrain and put in healthy blocks from other areas.
This is only required if you wish to revert the tainted terrain back into it's original form, before the infection. There is no reward for doing this, unless you count restoration of beautiful terrain.
Containing a Taint Zone[]
If you either don't want to, or don't have the resources to clean up a taint zone, the next best option could be containment. Containment is a way of making sure that the taint cannot spread further. A good block to use for a containment wall is wooden planks as the taint cannot infect them and they are widely available (though in some biomes it would be better to use cobblestone).
Your wall does not need to be high, a single block will stop any taint from passing through that area, however there are several things you MUST look out for:
1.) Taint can spread diagonally, so you must make a solid wall with no corner-to-corner connections. Make sure every block is directly connected (ie face to face) with every other block of the containment wall.
2.) Taint can spread under walls if there is no block on the other side of the wall. Make sure that there is at least 1 block on the safe side of the wall below it, if you can see the block directly under the wall, the taint will spread through it.
Sequestering Taint[]
Taint is an inescapable part of the Thaumaturgy experience but can be dealt with before it even runs the risk of getting into the atmosphere. Even if all you have is the first crucible, you can sequester taint out of your Vis Tanks and dispose of it. As soon as you are able to, build a Dark Infuser and research Harnessed Rage from the Forbidden Knowledge Tier. Having Fiery Crystal growing out of Ore with a Crystalline_Bell is not essential but will make this a sustainable enterprise. Connect the Dark Infuser to a tank. If you're not using tanks, it's fine enough to use your crucible but this process works best in terms of purifying a large batch of Vis. Harnessed Rage requires a Fiery Crystal, a Stone Slab and a piece of Nether Rack. This means, despite the need for Fiery Crystals, it's a dirt cheap exchange of liquid taint into a solid object. Your dark infuser will suck the taint out of your tanks as long as you have materials for the Harnessed Rage. And when you have used up all the taint that could make a single object, your Dark Infuser will hold on to any taint it's used in progress to the next Harnessed Rage. What you end up with is a means to lock Taint into a solid object that will not release it into the Aura. You can hide these away in a chest, use them in object, or burn them all up in lava; eradicating it's influence from your world.
Pair this process up with a Vis Condenser equipped with the Concentrated Evil , and you can pull the taint out of your aura, lock it up in a Harnessed Rage and burn it away in lava.
Source from The Technic Pack Wiki