Mana beans are a food item that are obtained from mana pods, magical plants that grow similarly to cocoa beans. Mana pods can be found growing on the underside of tree branches in the magical forest biome.
Both beans and pods are attuned to a single aspect, which determines their color. The outside surface of mana pods has a pulsing texture and is slightly translucent. Inside each pod is an undulating sac that grows and shrinks with a regular rhythm.
Obtaining[]
Breaking[]
Mana pods can be broken with any tool. A mana pod in growth stages 3 through 7 will always drop exactly 1 mana bean attuned to the same aspect as the pod. A fully-grown mana pod has a 33% chance to drop an additional mana bean. Tools enchanted with Fortune do not affect these drop rates.
Breaking the log block the pod is attached to will cause it to immediately break.
Natural generation[]
Trees in the magical forest biome have a rare chance to generate with mana pods growing on the undersides of tree branches. These pods will be in various stages of growth from stage 2 to fully grown and have a random chance to be attuned to any of the primal aspects or Herba, with all seven choices being equally likely.
Mob loot[]
Pech may randomly drop mana beans when killed, regardless of the contents of their inventories.
Chest loot[]
Thaumcraft adds mana beans attuned to random aspects to the loot table for dungeons, allowing mana beans to potentially be found in any place where dungeon loot is available. This includes structures from vanilla Minecraft such as dungeons, abandoned mine shafts, and strongholds, structures and methods added by Thaumcraft such as hilltop stones, mounds, opening treasure bags, and breaking old urns/abandoned crates, and even structures added by other mods that also use this loot table.
Trading[]
Mana beans may show up as a potential trade item when trading with pech or thaumic villagers.
Usage[]
Mana beans can be eaten to restore 1 point of hunger. When a player consumes a mana bean, they have a 1/4 chance to acquire a research point of the same aspect the bean is attuned to. That player will also randomly receive a potion effect from all available potion effects (those added by vanilla Minecraft, Thaumcraft, or others), with all potion effects being equally likely. If the potion effect has a time duration, it will be added as level 1 for a random duration of time lasting 8 to 12 seconds. One should be careful to note that this includes Instant Harming, which could instantly kill the player.
Distilling a mana bean into essentia by means of a crucible or alchemical furnace will yield a single point of essentia of the aspect the bean is attuned to.
Light source[]
Mana pods emit light at a level equal to their current growth stage minus 1. A fully-grown mana pod emits a light level of 7, equivalent to a redstone torch.
Farming[]
A mana bean farm.
Mana beans can be planted to grow mana pods, which can be harvested to slowly multiply a player's collection of beans and create beans with new aspects.
To plant a mana bean, a player must right-click on the underside of a log block while holding the mana bean to be planted. This will only succeed if the log block is currently in a biome with the Minecraft Forge BiomeDictionary.Type of MAGICAL. This includes the magical forest, tainted land, and eerie biomes. If the biome of an already planted mana pod changes to a non-magical biome, it will pop off and drop as an item the next time it receives a random block tick. Any block registered in Minecraft Forge as a log can have a mana pod planted on it, including the logs of all vanilla Minecraft trees as well as silverwood logs and greatwood logs.
Mana pods have eight stages of growth. In the first two stages, a pod will be seen only as a short vine. From the third stage onward, a pod at the end of the vine will be present, growing progressively larger with each growth stage. Every time the pod receives a random block tick, it has a 1/30 chance to grow to the next stage. When the pod has fully matured, magical vision from Goggles of Revealing or similar will show the pod's aspect when it is targeted. This can be a useful way to determine when a pod has reached full maturity.
A Lamp of Growth can be used to speed up the growth rate of mana pods.
Cross pollination[]
It is possible to "cross pollinate" two or more mana beans by growing them directly adjacent to one another. A planted mana bean will typically grow up to be attuned to the aspect of the bean it was planted from, but if it is planted next to one or more pods of different aspects, the pod may contain one of those aspects instead. If any of the aspects among the group can be combined to create a compound aspect, the pod also has a chance to contain that compound aspect.
When the pod advances from growth stage 2 to growth stage 3, it will check all of the four directly adjacent blocks for other mana pods. Each of the aspects from the neighboring pods (the growth state of the adjacent pods does not matter) as well as the pod's own current aspect are added to a weighted list of potential aspects that the pod may take on, with each aspect in the list having a weight equal to the number of pods in the group attuned to that aspect. Each pair of aspects on the list that can combine to create a compound aspect will add that compound aspect to the list with a weight equal to the product of the two component aspects' weights times 4. Once all aspects have been added to the list, the pod will permanently assume one of those aspects at random.
For example, consider four mana pods growing in a plus-shape pattern with a gap in the center. Two pods are attuned to Ordo and the other two are attuned to Aer. In the gap, a mana bean attuned to Ignis is planted.
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
When the Ignis pod reaches growth stage 3, it will check all of its neighbors and create the following weighted aspect list:
- Ignis (1)
- Ordo (2)
- Aer (2)
Ignis and Ordo can be combined to create Potentia, Ignis and Aer can be combined to create Lux, and Ordo and Aer can be combined to create Motus. Each of these compounds are added to the weighted list using the above formula to yield this final weighted list:
- Ignis (1)
- Ordo (2)
- Aer (2)
- Potentia (4 x 1 x 2 = 8)
- Lux (4 x 1 x 2 = 8)
- Motus (4 x 2 x 2 = 16)
One aspect from the weighted list will be selected at random. The Ignis pod will become attuned to whichever aspect is selected. In this case, Motus is the most likely with a 16/37 (43.24%) chance.
If a certain compound aspect is desired, it is advantageous to plant only beans attuned to the compound's composite aspects if possible. Planting the maximum number of beans to all four sides in equal ratios also helps increase the likelihood that the compound aspect is selected instead of one of the composites.
History[]
Old-style mana bean farm
| Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| 4.0.0 | Added mana beans and mana pods. |
| 4.1.0 | Mana pods now grow more slowly. Each random block tick will only have a 1/100 (1%) chance to advance a mana pod's growth stage, down from 1/15 (6.67%). Azanor notes this was done to push players to use the Lamp of Growth. |
| 4.1.1.10 | Salis mundus can no longer be crafted from mana beans. |
| 4.2.0.0 | Completely reworked mana pods. |
| Mana pods now have 8 stages of growth, up from the original 4 (which was similar to cocoa beans). Each growth stage now has a 1/30 (3.33%) chance to grow, up from a 1/100 (1%) chance.
Light given off by mana pods is now equivalent to their growth stage minus 1. Previously, it was equivalent to their growth stage times 3. | |
| Mana pods must now be planted on the undersides of log blocks. Previously, mana pods could be planted on the sides of blocks, similar to coca beans. | |
| Mana pods are now attuned to a single specific aspect and are colored to match that aspect. Beans dropped from a broken pod will exclusively be of the pod's aspect. Previously, all mana pods were green in color, and beans dropped from broken pods were assigned at random, with each individual bean dropped having a 1/3 chance to be randomly attuned to one of the primal aspects and a 2/3 chance to be randomly attuned to any of the aspects (including primals). | |
| Mana pod cross-pollination mechanic is introduced. | |
| 4.2.1.2 | Wild mana pods attuned to Herba now generate less often than before. |
| 4.3.1.3 | Increased odds of a fully mature mana pod dropping 2 beans from 1/2 (50%) to 2/3 (66.7%). |
| Mana pods broken by means other than players will now drop mana beans with the correct aspects. |
Trivia[]
- All mana pods control their flashing and pulsation with the same global timer, so all mana pods in the world will flash and pulse simultaneously.
- Scanning a mana pod with a thaumometer will not yield any research points, but scanning a mana bean will.
Thaumonomicon entry[]
This strange, pod like plant is only found growing on trees in magical forests. They grow very slowly and when harvested usually only yield one or two beans.
These beans, known as Mana Beans, contain concentrated amounts of essentia. They can also be consumed, though the results are often a bit unpredictable.
They can be replanted, but cultivation is difficult and time-consuming.
Wild mana pods usually only produce primal aspects, though it is said that planting beans adjacent to existing ones sometimes results in beans with compound aspects.
--- Plants & Trees, Thaumonomicon