Using the version for Minecraft v1.18.2

The instant mine uses ingredients accessible from the Overworld surface. But the wand necessary to activate it requires a block of Redstone, which isn't available on the Overworld surface, and isn't found in loot chests or villager trades.

This means I must cheat in a wand in order to use the mine. The starter wand doesn't have enough charge to build the starter house and also a mine.

Possible solutions

• Make the recipe for the starter wand use a block of copper, which is common enough to be an alternative to just digging straight down with a stack of ladders. It would also give some purpose to the otherwise useless copper ore.
• Make the starter wand contain enough charge to activate the starter house and an instant mine
• Change the method of charge to be one unit of charge for each use of the wand

Balancing is still a pretty large issue with the mod altogether - wand charges don't exactly equate to what you're getting, infinite lava, schematics. The mod, with how it is now, already feels like a cheat, I'll admit.

We're currently reworking the wand system from durability to rechargeable tool(s) for the next major release. The idea is to feed the wand building materials in sort of a point system rather than requiring the exact materials (i.e. cobble would equal planks). The wand(s) will be simple to craft, since all the power will come from feeding the wand instead. Although this isn't a perfect balancing solution, I'm trying to keep it from being too burdensome.

The starter wand will be given enough charge for the house materials and an average height mining ladder, as per your suggestion. I also like the idea of feeding copper ore, and other useless materials, to the wand(s).

As for a temporary solution, the mod adds configuration options for modifying required charges per block (cloth-config and modmenu are required if you're running fabric or quilt).

I'd love to hear more suggestions in regards to balancing. Either way, we'll keep this issue open until we release the wand rework.

I like the notion of feeding the wand materials, and have a suggestion for pricing: Use the EMC values from ProjectE
This will create compatibility from the start while simultaneously saving a lot of effort.

ProjectE has one small defect in that the EMC values are represented with integers, which becomes an issue when turning 6 EMC of glass blocks into 16 glass panes. Just use doubles instead of integers and the problem goes away.

Here's my take on Minecraft progression, in terms of where the player is and what's available there.

• Overworld surface; recipes that don't require deep mining
• Overworld mines; ingredients that don't require a trip to the Nether
• Nether beginning; things that don't require finding a fortress
• Nether late: Fortress supplies
• End

And finally, when thinking about balancing costs, consider them in terms of what could be substituted instead of using this mod. Does Vanilla offer a similar thing, and if so how much does that cost in supplies & effort? Are there popular mods that do similar things, and what would it cost in supplies & effort to use those instead? In this way we recognize that players will shop around for solutions, and position ourselves to be a competitive option.

And that's pretty much all I can think of on the subject atm XD