Okay, so you want to make LED blocks (now live…) – but what do you need? Here’s a run-down!
First you need to craft the LED blocks themselves, and then you need a changer chisel to select the lighting pattern.
To craft the blocks, you’ll need the Decorative Crafting III skill, along with a refinery and bunch of spark, as follows (with Tech Crafting Epic and 12 Advanced Coils):
Single (1): Refined Gleam x 1, Any Base Metal x 2, Ancient Tech Remnant x 3, Spark x 188
Bulk (10): Refined Gleam x 8, Any Base Metal x 16, Ancient Tech Remnant x 24, Spark x 1879
Mass (50): Refined Gleam x 36, Any Base Metal x 72, Ancient Tech Remnant x 108, Spark x 9397 (20,000 spark with no power coils)
The crafting time ranges from 28s for Single, 4m 41s for Bulk and 23m 29s for Mass.
Note that the colour of the LED block will match the colour of the Refined Gleam that you use. It’s not too tricky to obtain enough materials and bulk craft the LED blocks, if you’re so minded.
Arguably, the light activation is trickier – when you craft the blocks they won’t light up at all when placed, and you need to use a changer chisel to choose from one of 16 lighting patterns. These patterns are represented in the UI by a row of four letters where X is lit up and O is not through a 4-frame animation, so XOXO is two equal flashes, while XXXX would be permanently on.
You can cycle through the 16 permutations of lighting patterns with each hit of the chisel; the 17th hit therefore would bring you back to the first pattern (which is XOOO).
To make a changer chisel you need a Centraforge and the following ingredients (maxing out skills for Forging in this example with Vitality, Power, Intelligence and Forging Epic):
- Effect Gum x4
- Pure Boon Compound (any of these, but the higher ones will be more efficient) x 10 or so
- Setting Resin x1
- A chisel (any one will do, even a copper one… EDIT: Stone also works!)
Add the chisel to the forge, then hit Begin Forging.
Next up, add your Effect Gum and activate four times. This gives you the best chance of getting the Effect result (of which Transformation I) is an example.
Then, add your Pure Boon Compound. If you’re using higher levels, you shouldn’t need as much, though if you’re using tier I you might need up to 20. You’ll see Effects appear, so keep going until you get Transformation I and you’ve locked it in (the little yellow bar maxes out and you level up that effect).
There’s only one level of Transformation, so as soon as you lock it in, you can finish up with the Setting Resin. And once you’ve done that, it will add it to the queue, and take around 20 minutes to finish.
Now you have a ‘changer chisel’ and can start using it to choose the lighting patterns on your LED blocks!
EDIT: Disco music optional; please LED responsibly.
