PAO Alchemy

PAO Alchemy replaces potion making with cauldrons that sit on a campfire. You fill one with water, throw in ingredients, wait for it to boil and then stir the brew yourself before you can bottle it.

Cauldrons
There are four cauldrons: copper, iron, amethyst and netherite. A bigger cauldron needs more buckets of water, takes more ingredients and can mix more effects into one potion (one effect in copper, up to four in netherite). It only boils on a lit campfire and only when it is full. If a mix is too unstable the cauldron shakes, smokes and can blow up when it finishes.

Ingredients
More than 70 items work as ingredients. Each one adds effects, length, strength or instability. Some are there just to adjust the mix: redstone makes effects last longer, glowstone makes them stronger and amethyst calms an unstable brew. The mod also adds 16 effects of its own, like Stoneskin, Lifesteal, Magnetism, Echolocation or Blink. Ingredients are defined in a datapack, so modpacks can add their own.

Stirring

When a brew is done you have 30 seconds to start stirring with a ladle, or it is ruined. Stirring is a short minigame and the cauldron picks it:
- copper: a timing bar
- iron: press the letter shown on screen
- amethyst: bar, letters or a rhythm game
- netherite: switches between all four, including a memory game

Three mistakes ruin the potion. The camera moves above the cauldron while you stir; you can turn that off in the client config.

Bottles
Potions can only be taken out with vials, flasks or jugs. A vial is one sip at half duration, a flask is two sips, a jug is four sips at full duration and takes longer to drink.

Anvil and hammer
The Smith's Hammer works on any anvil. Hold the piece in your offhand, the hammer in your main hand and right click the anvil. With it you can:
- upgrade ladles (wood, copper, iron, amethyst, netherite); better ladles make stirring easier
- forge the iron, amethyst and netherite cauldrons
- repair worn ladles
- temper a finished potion once, for longer or stronger effects

Forging is done in heats. You strike the hot metal while the target moves around, then cool the piece in water by keeping a marker inside a moving band. Forging and tempering recipes are also datapack files.

Books
The Alchemy Guide explains the mechanics and shows every crafting and anvil recipe with item icons. The Alchemy Recipe Book saves each formula you record from a finished cauldron.

Multiplayer
Install the mod on both the server and the client. Minigames run on the client and the server checks the results, so they respond right away even.

Requirements: Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge 21.1