Theurgy

Overview

Theurgy introduces a unique take on alchemy in Minecraft, inspired by classical alchemical traditions rather than the well-worn "four elements" approach. The mod revolves around three fundamental principles: Sulfur (the essence of a material's identity), Salt (the body or physical form), and Mercury (the spirit or binding force). By separating materials into these three components and recombining them, you can replicate and even transmute matter.

The core gameplay loop involves a set of specialized apparatus machines that perform Spagyric processes: Calcination breaks materials down to extract Salt, Liquefaction dissolves them to extract Sulfur, Distillation extracts Mercury, and Incubation recombines all three principles to create new items. Along the way, you'll use Divination Rods to locate ores and a network of fluid tanks and accumulators to produce the Sal Ammoniac solvent that powers Liquefaction.

All in-game documentation is provided through The Hermetica, a guidebook crafted from a Book and two Sand. You can also browse all of Theurgy's recipes and items using the tabs on this page.

The Three Alchemical Principles

Everything in Theurgy revolves around separating materials into their three alchemical components and recombining them. Understanding these principles is essential to mastering the mod.

Alchemical Salt (The Body)

Salt represents the physical form of a material. It is extracted using the Calcination Oven, which burns away impurities to leave behind pure Salt. There are three types of Alchemical Salt: Strata (from earth-type blocks like Dirt, Stone, Sand, Cobblestone, Gravel, Sandstone, and Clay), Mineral (from ores, ingots, gems, raw materials, and other minerals), and Crops (from crop items). Clay blocks yield 4 Alchemical Salt Strata, while individual Clay Balls yield 1. Ingots, gems, and other minerals yield 2 Alchemical Salt Mineral each, while ores and raw materials yield 1. Alchemical Salt Strata can also be further calcinated to produce Alchemical Salt Mineral.

Alchemical Sulfur (The Soul)

Sulfur represents the unique identity or "essence" of a material. It is extracted using the Liquefaction Cauldron, which dissolves materials in Sal Ammoniac solvent to isolate their Sulfur. Each material produces its own unique Alchemical Sulfur (Alchemical Sulfur of Iron, Alchemical Sulfur of Diamond, etc.). The jar visually displays the source item's icon so you can tell them apart at a glance.

Sulfurs are classified into four rarity tiers: Abundant (common materials like Copper, Coal), Common (Iron, Gold), Rare (Diamond, Emerald, Lapis), and Precious (Netherite and certain modded materials). Processing ores gives more Sulfur than processing ingots: ores typically yield 3x for metals and 4-10x for gems, raw materials yield 2x, and ingots yield just 1x. This makes it far more efficient to liquefy ores directly rather than smelting them first.

Mercury (The Spirit)

Mercury is the binding force that holds Salt and Sulfur together. It is extracted as Mercury Shards using the Distiller. Almost any common material can be distilled: Logs, Planks, Stone, Sand, Wool, food items (Beef, Chicken, Bread), Flowers, Dyes, and more. Each distillation yields 1 Mercury Shard from common materials. However, certain ores and metals classified as having high, medium, or low Mercury content yield significantly more: low-Mercury sources give 1 shard, medium sources give 5, and high sources give 10. Ores are even more generous, with low-Mercury ores yielding 5 shards, medium ores 25, and high ores a massive 50 shards per operation. Mercury Shards can be further crafted into Mercury Crystals.

The Apparatus Machines

Theurgy's machines are called "apparatus" and each performs a specific Spagyric process. All apparatus except the Sal Ammoniac Accumulator require heat from a Pyromantic Brazier placed adjacent to them. The default processing time for all recipes is 200 ticks (10 seconds) unless the recipe specifies otherwise.

Pyromantic Brazier

The foundation of your alchemical setup. This Copper and Stone device burns any vanilla fuel item (Coal, Charcoal, Wood, Blaze Rods, etc.) and provides the Heat capability to adjacent blocks. When lit, it produces light level 14, making it a decent light source. You'll need at least one Brazier for every apparatus you operate. Place it directly adjacent to (or below) the machine it should heat.

Calcination Oven

The Calcination Oven burns materials down to their base Salt component. Insert earth-type blocks (Dirt, Stone, Sand, Cobblestone, Gravel, Clay) to get Alchemical Salt (Strata), or insert ores, ingots, gems, and raw materials to get Alchemical Salt (Mineral). Some recipes require multiple input items per operation. The oven needs heat from a Pyromantic Brazier to function.

Liquefaction Cauldron

This is the heart of material transmutation. The Liquefaction Cauldron dissolves materials in a solvent (Sal Ammoniac fluid) to extract their unique Alchemical Sulfur. It has an internal tank holding 2,000 mB of solvent. Place your material in the input slot, ensure the cauldron has solvent and heat, and it will produce the corresponding Sulfur. The solvent is consumed during the process, so you'll need a steady supply from your Sal Ammoniac Accumulator setup.

Distiller

The Distiller extracts Mercury Shards from materials. It accepts an enormous range of inputs: common blocks (Logs, Planks, Stone, Sand, Wool, Glass, Cobblestone), food items (Beef, Chicken, Pork, Fish, Bread), organic materials (Flowers, Dyes, Crops, Leaves, Saplings), and mineral sources. Common materials yield 1 Mercury Shard each, but mineral sources tagged with Mercury content levels yield much more.

Sal Ammoniac Accumulator and Tank

The Sal Ammoniac Accumulator is unique among apparatus because it does not require heat. It takes Water and a Sal Ammoniac Crystal as inputs, evaporating the water to produce Sal Ammoniac fluid. The Accumulator has a 10,000 mB internal Water tank. Place a Sal Ammoniac Tank directly below the Accumulator to collect the output fluid. The Tank holds the Sal Ammoniac fluid and can supply it to a Liquefaction Cauldron. This two-block fluid system is essential: without Sal Ammoniac solvent, Liquefaction cannot happen.

The Incubator (Multiblock)

The Incubator is Theurgy's endgame machine and the key to actual transmutation. It is a multiblock structure consisting of four blocks: the central Incubator block and three specialized vessels: a Mercury Vessel, a Salt Vessel, and a Sulfur Vessel. Place the three vessels adjacent to the central Incubator block. Each vessel accepts only its corresponding alchemical principle (enforced by item tags). When all three vessels are loaded and heat is provided, the Incubator combines the principles to produce a new item.

This is where the real magic happens. By providing the right combination of Mercury, Salt, and Sulfur, you can recreate any material that has a Liquefaction recipe. For example, to transmute Iron into Gold, you would extract Alchemical Sulfur of Gold from Gold Ore via Liquefaction, combine it with generic Alchemical Salt (Mineral) and Mercury Shards in the Incubator, and receive Gold Ingots as output. The Sulfur determines what you create, the Salt provides the physical form, and Mercury binds them together.

Divination Rods

Divination Rods are Theurgy's ore-finding tools. They come in four tiers that determine which blocks they can scan for, plus specialized Sulfur-Attuned variants. To use a rod, first right-click the block type you want to search for to attune it (if the rod supports attuning), then hold right-click to scan. The rod indicates the distance to the nearest matching block with a visual indicator that shows six proximity levels.

All standard rods scan within a 96-block range and take 40 ticks (2 seconds) per scan. The key difference between tiers is durability: T1 (Stone tier) has 8 uses, T2 (Iron tier) has 16 uses, T3 (Diamond tier) has 32 uses, and T4 (Netherite tier) has a generous 128 uses. Higher tiers also expand which blocks they're allowed to detect, controlled by block tags. The distance indicator shows values from 0 (within 6 blocks) to 5 (45-65 blocks away), or "not found" beyond 65 blocks.

Sulfur-Attuned Divination Rods

These specialized rods are crafted using Alchemical Sulfur instead of standard materials, and they come pre-attuned to find the ore corresponding to the Sulfur used in crafting. Unlike standard rods, Sulfur-Attuned rods cannot be re-attuned to different blocks. They come in four variants matching the Sulfur rarity tiers: Abundant and Common variants have 16 uses, while Rare and Precious variants have 32 uses. The Rare variant uses T2-tier block tags, and Precious uses T3-tier tags, giving them access to detect a wider range of blocks.

There is also an Amethyst Divination Rod, a special variant crafted with Purple Dye that has 16 uses. This is useful as an early-game option for finding Amethyst Geodes.

Sulfur Rarity Tiers and Transmutation

The Sulfur rarity system is central to understanding what you can transmute. Materials are organized into three categories (Metals, Gems, Other Minerals) and four rarity tiers (Abundant, Common, Rare, Precious). Within the same rarity tier and category, materials can be freely transmuted. This is the core power of Theurgy: turn an excess of one material into a shortage of another.

Theurgy supports a large number of materials from other mods. The Sulfur Registry includes entries for vanilla materials like Iron, Copper, Gold, Diamond, Emerald, Lapis, Quartz, Amethyst, Redstone, Coal, and Netherite, but also entries for modded materials like Silver, Zinc, Osmium, Nickel, Lead, Uranium, Tin, Cinnabar, Crimson Iron, Platinum, Azure Silver, Iridium, Allthemodium, Unobtainium, Vibranium, Ruby, Sapphire, Apatite, Peridot, Fluorite, and Sulfur. These modded Sulfurs only appear in the creative tab and JEI if the corresponding mod is installed and provides Liquefaction recipes.

To transmute, extract the Sulfur of your target material, then provide Salt and Mercury in the Incubator. The Sulfur determines the output. For example, if you have an abundance of Iron but need Gold, extract Alchemical Sulfur of Gold from a single Gold Ore (yielding 3 Sulfur), and each Incubation with that Sulfur, appropriate Salt, and Mercury will produce Gold. Combine this with bulk Calcination of cheap blocks for Salt and Distillation of common items for Mercury, and you have an efficient transmutation pipeline.

Sal Ammoniac: The Essential Resource

Sal Ammoniac is the lifeblood of Theurgy's alchemy. It exists as an ore, a crystal, and a fluid, and serves as the solvent required for all Liquefaction recipes.

Finding Sal Ammoniac Ore

Sal Ammoniac Ore generates throughout the Overworld with 20 veins per chunk, each containing up to 9 blocks. It spawns across the full height range from Y -64 to Y 200 using a trapezoid distribution, meaning it's most common around the middle of the range. Both standard Stone and Deepslate variants exist. The ore drops Sal Ammoniac Crystals when mined and gives 2-5 experience points. Deepslate Sal Ammoniac Ore has slightly higher blast resistance (4.5 vs 3.0) but drops the same items.

Producing Sal Ammoniac Fluid

The Sal Ammoniac Accumulator takes Water and Sal Ammoniac Crystals and evaporates them together to produce Sal Ammoniac fluid. The Accumulator has a large 10,000 mB internal Water tank and outputs the produced fluid downward into a Sal Ammoniac Tank placed directly below it. Importantly, the Accumulator does not require heat, so it runs autonomously once supplied with water and crystals. You can pick up Sal Ammoniac fluid with a Bucket, creating a Sal Ammoniac Bucket for transport.

Modded Material Compatibility

One of Theurgy's greatest strengths is its extensive cross-mod compatibility. The Sulfur Registry includes pre-defined entries for materials from many popular mods: Silver, Zinc, Osmium, Nickel, Lead, Tin, Uranium, Platinum, Iridium, Cinnabar, Crimson Iron, Azure Silver (from Silent Gear and similar mods), and even extreme materials like Allthemodium, Unobtainium, and Vibranium from All The Mods packs.

For gems, support includes Ruby, Sapphire, Peridot, Fluorite, Apatite, and Sulfur (the mineral, not the alchemical principle). Theurgy also supports non-standard crops like Wheat through dedicated Sulfur entries. All of these entries use Forge's tag system (e.g., forge:ingots/silver, forge:ores/zinc), so any mod that properly tags its items will automatically work with Theurgy's recipes. If a modded material's Sulfur doesn't appear in your creative tab or JEI, it means no Liquefaction recipe exists for it in your current modpack.

Configuration

Theurgy provides three configuration files: Server, Common, and Client.

The Server Config contains the sulfurSourceToBlockMapping setting, a list of mappings that tell Divination Rod recipes how to translate a Sulfur's source material into a scannable ore block. For example, if a modded material doesn't have a standard ore block name, you can add a custom mapping like "modid:raw_custom_metal=modid:custom_ore" to make Sulfur-Attuned Divination Rods work with it.

The Client Config has a renderSulfurSourceItem toggle (default: true). When enabled, Alchemical Sulfur jars render the icon of their source item. Disable this for a minor performance boost if you store many Sulfur types.