Advanced Tools: Automatic Tools from Any Material in Minecraft
Technical modpacks often suffer from a frustrating paradox: you have a dozen mods introducing copper, tin, bronze, and a dozen other metals, yet your pickaxe and sword remain stubbornly vanilla. Each mod gives you ingots and blocks, but rarely a matching toolset. This is precisely the void that Advanced Tools: Automatic Tools from Any Material in Minecraft (formerly known as AdvancedSticks) was designed to fill. Instead of waiting for mod developers to manually script recipes, this utility scans your installed mods and generates a complete toolset for every recognized material on the fly.
Think of it as a universal translator for crafting. The mod examines the item registry, identifies materials tagged with standard conventions like forge:ingots or forge:gems, and instantly produces rods, pickaxes, shovels, swords, hoes, and axes for each one. The result is a seamless integration that makes your modded world feel cohesive, regardless of how many content packs you have loaded.
How the Dynamic Tool Generation Works
The core engine of Advanced Tools operates at game launch. It performs a deep scan of all loaded mods and their associated item tags. If a material, say tin, appears under the forge:ingots/tin tag, the mod immediately creates the corresponding toolset. This is not a static list; it is a dynamic system that adapts to your specific mod configuration.
Each generated tool receives stats calculated from the source material's properties. Durability, mining speed, and attack damage are derived from formulas that factor in the material's hardness and tier. A tin pickaxe will naturally be weaker than an iron one but stronger than stone. A blade forged from uraninite might even apply a radiation effect, provided the source mod includes such a mechanic. The system is fully configurable, allowing you to enable or disable specific material types through the configuration files.
Supported Minecraft Versions and Loaders
Advanced Tools is available for a wide range of Minecraft versions, from legacy builds like 1.12.2 up to modern releases such as 1.20.1 and beyond. It primarily runs on the Forge loader, which remains the standard for technical modpacks. For versions preceding 1.18, an add-on called Advanced Sticks - Extra Resources extends support to materials from older mod editions. The mod's reliance on standard forge tags ensures broad compatibility with the modding ecosystem.
Key Features That Change Your Gameplay
The feature set of Advanced Tools goes far beyond simple recipe addition. It is a comprehensive toolkit designed to enhance the technical playstyle.
- Broad Mod Compatibility: By leveraging standard item tags, the mod works with materials from IndustrialCraft, Thermal Expansion, Mekanism, Create, Tinkers' Construct, and hundreds of other mods. The total number of possible tool and material combinations exceeds 4,000.
- Material-Specific Properties: Each tool inherits unique traits from its base material. Durability, efficiency, damage, and even special effects like glowing or radiation are all determined by the source. Holding the Shift key reveals a detailed tooltip with all relevant statistics.
- Recipe Viewer Integration: Full support for JEI, REI, and EMI means you can browse every generated recipe in-game without consulting external wikis. This makes crafting intuitive and reduces downtime.
- Emissive Textures: If you have MoreMcmeta or Continuity installed, certain tools will emit a subtle glow in dark environments. This is particularly striking with rare alloys like vibranium or element, making your weapons visually distinct.
- Built-in Datapacks: The mod ships with ready-made presets that you can modify or extend without touching the core code. This offers a high degree of customization for server administrators and pack creators.
Materials Supported: From Common to Exotic
The material list is staggering. You will find everyday metals like copper, bronze, brass, steel, and electrum, as well as exotic substances such as ununbium, adamant, terrasteel, and draconic alloys. The mod even recognizes niche materials like bone, amethyst, quartz, blaze rods, and ender pearls. The full catalog spans hundreds of entries, from aluminum to zinc, from netherite to obsidian.
Each material group—stone, metal, gemstone—receives automatically balanced parameters to avoid disrupting vanilla progression. This careful tuning ensures that a copper sword is not overpowered, while a draconic blade feels appropriately endgame. The visual design also respects the vanilla aesthetic; all tool textures adhere to a unified color palette, so they do not clash with the base game's look.
Practical Scenarios for Technical Builds
Imagine you are assembling a massive modpack with over 200 mods. Manually configuring recipes for each new metal would take hours. Advanced Tools eliminates this chore entirely. You install your favorite tech mods, and the tool generation happens automatically. This is especially valuable for players who frequently swap mods in and out of their packs, as the toolset updates dynamically with each change.
For players using a third-party launcher, the installation process is straightforward. Many modern launchers, including foxygame.net, offer integrated mod browsing. You can locate a technical-oriented modpack or add Advanced Tools manually through the built-in catalog. The launcher handles dependency resolution automatically, pulling in required libraries without manual file copying. This streamlined approach makes it easier than ever to get started.
Dependencies and Installation Requirements
Before you download Advanced Tools: Automatic Tools from Any Material in Minecraft, you must ensure you have the necessary prerequisites. The mod requires the Magma Core library, which provides the foundational functionality and update checks. It is highly recommended to also install JEI (Just Enough Items) for recipe display and information pages. For emissive textures, you will need either MoreMcmeta or Continuity; both work effectively with the mod.
The installation process is standard for Forge mods. After downloading the jar files for Advanced Tools and its dependencies, place them in the mods folder of your Minecraft directory. Launch the game, and the mod will automatically scan and generate tools on startup. For a detailed walkthrough on how to install, you can consult the mod's documentation or community guides. The process is identical across most launchers, making it accessible to players of all skill levels.
Why Advanced Tools Is Essential for Modpacks
The primary advantage of this mod is that it eliminates the need to hunt for separate tool mods for every new metal. You simply install your preferred technological add-ons, and Advanced Tools handles the rest. This is a massive time-saver in packs with hundreds of mods, where manual recipe configuration would be impractical.
Furthermore, the mod is exceptionally friendly to the vanilla experience. The textures are consistent, the balance is carefully maintained, and the integration with recipe viewers is seamless. It does not impose a new progression system; it enhances the existing one by filling in the gaps left by other mods.
Conclusion
Advanced Tools transforms the chaos of dozens of materials into a coherent tool system that adapts to your modpack. With intelligent tag recognition, support for special effects, and transparent customization options, it has become a staple for serious technical play. Whether you are playing with IndustrialCraft, Mekanism, or a custom collection of obscure mods, this tool generation utility ensures you always have the right equipment for the job. Try it alongside your favorite industrial mods, and you will wonder how you ever managed without it. For those ready to enhance their gameplay, you can download Advanced Tools: Automatic Tools from Any Material in Minecraft for Minecraft from the official CurseForge page or your preferred mod repository.