Silent Gear

Overview

Silent Gear is a modular gear crafting mod that completely overhauls how you make tools, weapons, and armor. Instead of the standard vanilla recipes, every piece of equipment is assembled from individual parts, each crafted from a material of your choice using blueprints or templates. The result is a deeply customizable system where you control exactly what goes into your gear, from the blade material on your Sword to the grip on your Pickaxe.

The mod adds over 20 tool and weapon types, custom ores found in the Nether and End, an alloy system for creating advanced materials, material grading for squeezing extra performance out of your ingots, and a full repair system that prevents your gear from ever being permanently lost. You can browse every item and recipe using the tabs at the top of this page.

One of Silent Gear's best features is that gear never disappears when it breaks. Instead, it enters a "broken" state and can be repaired using Repair Kits. Combined with the ability to swap out individual parts as you find better materials, a single tool can carry you from early game to endgame without ever needing to be replaced entirely.

The Parts System

Every Silent Gear item is built from parts, and understanding this system is the key to the entire mod. The main part determines the bulk of the tool's stats: a Sword Blade, Pickaxe Head, or Armor Plate. The Rod provides the handle. Beyond these required parts, you can add optional upgrade parts that further enhance your gear.

Main Parts

The main part (blade, head, plate) is what defines the core stats of your tool or armor piece. When you craft a main part, the number of materials used matters. A Sword Blade takes 2 materials, a Pickaxe Head takes 3, and armor plates take even more. You can mix different materials in a single part for blended stats, though using the same material throughout produces better synergy bonuses.

Upgrade Parts

Several optional parts can be added to gear for bonus stats and traits. A Tip Upgrade is one of the most important: applying a single Diamond as a tip to an Iron Pickaxe raises its harvest level to Diamond tier, letting you mine Obsidian for just one Diamond instead of three. A Grip (made from Leather, Wool, or similar) adds attack speed and the Flexible trait. A Binding provides minor stat bonuses and is required for crafting an Elytra. A Coating applies a material layer over the tool for significant stat boosts and unique traits (a Netherite Coating makes gear fireproof). Coatings can also be applied via a Smithing Table with a Coating Smithing Template.

Swapping and Upgrading Parts

One of Silent Gear's best features is part swapping. Place your existing tool in a Crafting Table alongside a new part of the same type, and the old part gets replaced while the new one is installed. The old part is returned to you. This means you can start with a Stone Sword Blade and upgrade to Iron, then Diamond, then Crimson Steel, all on the same weapon, keeping any enchantments and upgrades you've added along the way.

Tools and Weapons

Silent Gear adds a wide variety of tools and weapons beyond the vanilla set. Each follows the same blueprint-and-parts crafting system and can be made from any compatible material.

Mining and Digging Tools

The standard Pickaxe, Shovel, and Axe work as expected. The Hammer mines a 3x3 area of stone, making tunneling dramatically faster. The Excavator does the same for dirt and gravel. The Paxel combines the functions of a Pickaxe, Axe, and Shovel into one tool, requiring 6 materials for its head. The Mattock works as a combined Shovel and Axe. The Saw is a tree-felling tool that chops an entire tree from the bottom log, using very little hunger compared to Vein Mine.

The Prospector Hammer

The Prospector Hammer deserves special mention. Right-clicking with it scans up to 16 blocks (configurable) in the direction you're facing and reports what ores are nearby. This makes Diamond hunting trivial: just walk through a cave right-clicking periodically until it reports Deep Slate Diamond Ore, then mine toward it. The Prospector Hammer Blueprint requires an Iron Ingot in addition to the standard Blueprint Paper and Sticks.

Melee Weapons

Beyond the standard Sword, the mod adds several weapon types. The Katana swings faster than a Sword but deals slightly less damage per hit. The Machete is slower but hits harder and can harvest Wood. The Dagger has very high attack speed but low damage, great for applying potion effects. The Spear trades damage for extended reach, keeping you safer in combat. The Sickle harvests crops and plants in an area.

Ranged Weapons

The mod adds modular versions of the Bow, Crossbow, Slingshot, Shield, and Arrow. All follow the same blueprint system and benefit from material stats. A Crimson Steel Bow will have higher range damage and durability than an Iron one. Custom Arrows can be crafted with different head materials for varying damage output.

Repair System

Silent Gear items never vanish when their durability hits zero. Instead, they enter a broken state and stop functioning until repaired. This is a huge improvement over vanilla, where a momentary lapse in attention can cost you a fully enchanted Diamond Pickaxe. The primary repair method is through Repair Kits, portable containers that hold repair materials.

To use a Repair Kit, first fill it by placing the kit in a Crafting Table surrounded by the appropriate material (Iron Ingots for Iron gear, for example). The materials must match what your gear is made of. Then place the filled Repair Kit alongside your damaged tool in the Crafting Table to repair it. The kit consumes stored materials based on how much durability needs restoring, factoring in the kit's efficiency rating.

To empty a Repair Kit of its current materials (so you can refill it with a different material), place it with a Stick in the Crafting Table. You can also repair gear in a standard Anvil at 50% effectiveness.

Materials and Progression

Silent Gear supports all vanilla materials plus several custom ones that define its progression path. The materials you use directly determine your gear's durability, mining speed, attack damage, armor value, enchantability, and traits. Understanding what each material offers is critical for making the right gear at each stage of the game.

Early Game: Vanilla Materials

You start with the same materials as vanilla Minecraft. Stone gives 131 durability and harvest level 1. Iron is the first major upgrade at 250 durability, harvest level 2, 6.0 mining speed, and 2.0 melee damage. Gold has terrible durability at just 32 but offers the best enchantability (22) and a surprisingly fast 12.0 mining speed, plus 4.0 magic damage. Diamond remains strong at 1561 durability, harvest level 3, 8.0 mining speed, and 3.0 melee damage.

Nether Tier: Crimson Iron and Blaze Gold

Once you reach the Nether, you'll find Crimson Iron Ore abundantly in Netherrack. It generates in veins of 8 between Y-levels 24 and 120, making it very easy to stockpile. Crimson Iron offers 420 durability, 18 armor, 2 armor toughness, harvest level 3, 10.0 mining speed, and 3.0 melee damage plus 3.0 magic damage. This makes it a significant step up from Iron and roughly comparable to Diamond in many stats while being far more abundant.

Blaze Gold is crafted from 1 Gold Ingot and 4 Blaze Powder. With only 69 durability, it is fragile, but its 15.0 mining speed, 5.0 magic damage, and 24 enchantability make it a specialist material. Its high enchantability means gear made with Blaze Gold components receives better enchantments from an Enchanting Table.

Mid Game: Crimson Steel

Crimson Steel is the first major alloy. It requires 4 Crimson Iron Ingots, 2 Blaze Rods, and 1 Magma Cream. The Alloy Forge variant is cheaper, needing only a Block of Crimson Iron, Magma Cream, and Blaze Rods. With 2400 durability, 22 armor, 4 armor toughness, harvest level 4, 15.0 mining speed, and 6.0 melee damage, Crimson Steel surpasses Diamond in every category. It also grants the Flame Ward trait on armor, making a full set provide fire immunity. This is your best mid-game material and will carry you until you reach the End.

End Game: Azure Silver and Azure Electrum

Azure Silver Ore spawns exclusively in The End, embedded in End Stone in veins of 6 between Y-levels 16 and 92. You need a Netherite-level pickaxe (harvest level 4) to mine it. Azure Silver by itself has low durability (197) but exceptional mining speed (19.0), high magic damage (7.0), and very high enchantability (29). Its real value is as a crafting ingredient for Azure Electrum.

Azure Electrum is crafted from 4 Azure Silver Ingots, 2 Gold Ingots, and 1 Ender Pearl. It boasts 1259 durability, 19 armor, 4 armor toughness, harvest level 5, a blazing 29.0 mining speed, 7.0 melee damage, 11.0 magic damage, and 37 enchantability. The Moonwalker trait on Azure Electrum Boots reduces gravity, and the material's extraordinary speed stats make it the fastest mining material in the mod.

Material Grading

The Material Grader is a machine that assigns a quality grade to raw materials before you craft them into parts. Higher grades boost the material's stats, making your final gear significantly stronger. This is where the difference between good gear and great gear is made.

To use the Material Grader, craft it from Quartz, Iron Ingots, an Advanced Upgrade Base, and Blaze Gold Ingots. Place raw materials (ingots, gems, etc.) in the input slot and a Grader Catalyst in the catalyst slot. The grading process takes about 5 seconds per item. The machine assigns a grade based on a weighted random system influenced by the catalyst tier.

Grades and Bonuses

Grades range from E (1% stat bonus) through D (2%), C (3%), B (4%), A (5%), S (10%), SS (15%), to the maximum SSS (25% bonus). A SSS-graded Crimson Steel Ingot will produce noticeably better tools than an ungraded one. Importantly, materials can only go up in grade when re-processed. If the grader rolls a lower grade than what the material already has, it keeps its current grade and tries again. This means you can safely keep running materials through until they hit the grade you want.

Grader Catalysts

There are three tiers of catalyst, each improving your odds of landing higher grades. Glowing Dust (Tier 1) is made by crushing Glowstone Dust and Nether Quartz with a Hammer. It mostly produces grades in the C to B range. Blazing Dust (Tier 2) is crafted from Blaze Gold Dust and Glowstone Dust. It gives better odds at A and S grades. Glittery Dust (Tier 3) is the premium catalyst, crafted from Popped Chorus Fruit, Emerald Nuggets, Glowstone Dust, and a Nether Banana. It provides the best chance at S, SS, and SSS grades.

The Alloy Forge

The Alloy Forge lets you combine different materials to create alloys with blended properties. This is where modpack integration really shines. If you're playing a pack with Mekanism, Create, or other tech mods installed, their ingots can often be combined with Silent Gear materials in the Alloy Forge to create unique alloys with synergy bonuses.

Synergy is a key concept: materials with similar rarity values mix better, producing higher stat bonuses (shown as a percentage on the alloy). Experimenting with different combinations and even different slot orders can yield different results. Alloys often inherit traits from their component materials, so combining Crimson Steel (Flame Ward) with Azure Electrum (Moonwalker) can give you gear with both properties.

The Alloy Forge also makes some recipes cheaper. For example, Blaze Gold normally costs 1 Gold Ingot and 4 Blaze Powder in a Crafting Table, but only 1 Gold and 2 Blaze Powder in the Alloy Forge. Crimson Steel can be made with a Block of Crimson Iron instead of 4 individual ingots, saving materials.

The Salvager

The Salvager is a machine that breaks down Silent Gear items and compound parts back into their component materials. Place any Silent Gear tool, weapon, or armor piece into it, and it will return the materials used to craft each part. Compound parts (like a Pickaxe Head made from 3 Iron Ingots) return material fragments, where 8 fragments combine back into 1 full material in a Crafting Table.

There is a loss rate that scales with the item's remaining durability. A fully repaired item loses between 0% and a maximum of 50% of its materials when salvaged. This means you should always repair gear before salvaging it to minimize waste. The Salvager also works on vanilla tools and armor, returning their base materials (an Iron Sword returns 2 Iron Ingots, a Diamond Chestplate returns 8 Diamonds, etc.).

Other Additions

Netherwood Trees

Silent Gear adds Netherwood Trees to the Nether, generating naturally across Nether biomes with about 8 trees per chunk. These acacia-like trees provide a full wood set: Netherwood Logs, Planks, Slabs, Stairs, Fences, Fence Gates, Doors, and Trapdoors. Netherwood can be used as a material in gear crafting with low stats but unique properties. The trees occasionally drop Nether Bananas, a key ingredient for Glittery Dust.

Wild Flax and Sinew

Wild Flax Plants spawn in Extreme Hills and Plains biomes. Harvesting them yields Flax Fiber, which can be crafted into Flax String (2 Flax Fiber = 1 Flax String). Flax Flowers can be turned into Blue Dye (4 flowers = 1 dye), providing an alternative source for Blueprint Paper crafting.

Sinew drops from Cows, Pigs, and Sheep at a 20% base rate, increasing by 20% per Looting enchantment level (80% with Looting III). Raw Sinew is smelted into Dried Sinew, which is then crafted into 3 Sinew Fiber. Sinew Fiber is used as a Bowstring material.

Blueprint Book and Mod Kit

As your blueprint collection grows, a Blueprint Book (Book + Wool + Gold Ingot + 3 Template Boards) acts as portable storage for all your blueprints. The Mod Kit (Template Boards + Iron Ingot + Stick) lets you remove specific part types from gear. Set the Mod Kit to the part type you want to remove, then combine it with the gear in a Crafting Table to extract that part.

Configuration

Silent Gear has extensive configuration options. The most impactful ones include: gearBreaksPermanently (default: false) which, if enabled, makes gear vanish on breaking like vanilla tools. blueprintTypes controls whether Templates, Blueprints, or Both are available (default: Both). spawnWithStarterBlueprints toggles the Blueprint Package spawning in new player inventories. prospectorHammerRange adjusts the scan range from 0 to 64 blocks (default: 16).

The mod also includes a "nerfed items" system that can reduce vanilla tool durability and mining speed to encourage switching to Silent Gear tools. This is disabled by default but modpack creators often enable it. If your vanilla tools feel weaker than expected, check your modpack's Silent Gear config.