The Ultimate Guide to Theurgy – Complete Beginner’s Tutorial (Minecraft 1.20+)

Theurgy is one of the most fascinating magic–alchemy mods in modern modded Minecraft. It’s all about transmutation: taking one material and, through a chain of machines and chemical processes, converting it into something new. Whether you’re aiming to automate logistics, produce rare materials, duplicate resources, or build a full alchemical factory, Theurgy offers a deep yet understandable progression system.

This guide walks you step-by-step through:

• Heat & logistics
• Mercury production
• Filters, inserters, and transport
• Sal Ammoniac
• Alchemical Sulfur
• Alchemical Niter
• Digestion & fermentation
• Reformation
• Incubation (turning formulas into real items)
• Supporting tools (Divination Rod, crystallised water, etc.)

Prefer a video Explanation? Click here -

1. Heat & Logistics – Your First Steps in Theurgy

Many Theurgy machines require heat and item transport, so that’s where your journey begins.

The Pyromantic Brazer – Your Heat Source

You cannot use vanilla heat sources. Furnaces, campfires, and torches won’t work.

You must use the Pyromantic Brazer from Theurgy.

Place it down, right-click coal into it, and it will automatically consume fuel only when needed.

Machines requiring heat include:

• Mercury Distiller
• Liquefaction Cauldron
• Calcination Oven
• Incubator

… and others later in progression.

2. Producing Mercury – Core Fuel for the Mod

Mercury is one of the most essential materials in Theurgy. You’ll need it for:

• Mercurial copper wire
• Inserters, extractors, filters
• Catalysts
• Flux emitters

Mercury Distiller

Place a Mercury Distiller directly above a Pyromantic Brazer so it receives heat.

You can throw almost any item inside. The amount of Mercury Shards you receive depends on the item’s rarity:

• Diamonds → ~10 shards per item
• Stone → ~1 shard per 10 items
• Nether Stars → extremely high yield

Right-click to insert items → wait → right-click to pull shards out.

3. Logistics: Inserters, Extractors & Filters

To automate your distillers, cauldrons, vats and tanks, Theurgy provides a surprisingly robust logistics system.

Core Components

• Mercurial Item Extractor – pulls items out
• Mercurial Item Inserter – puts items in
• Mercurial Copper Wire – links machines
• Attribute Filters – filter based on properties
• List Filters – whitelist/blacklist exact items
• Connection Nodes – extend wire distance
• Mercurial Wand – wrench for configuring sides

Attribute Filter – One of the Best Filters in Modded Minecraft

The attribute filter can match:

• “Is Furnace Fuel”
• “Can be Smelted”
• “Has Tag X”
• And dozens more attributes

This allows conditional automation instead of basic item matching.

Example: Automating a Mercury Distiller

• Chest → Extractor → filter (only furnace fuel) → Inserter → Brazer
• Chest → Extractor → filter (diamonds) → Inserter → Distiller
• Distiller → Extractor → filter (mercury shards) → Chest

Wire them all together with copper wire.

At this point you officially have a fully automated Mercury production line.

4. Sal Ammoniac – A Major Alchemical Ingredient

You’ll find Sal Ammoniac Ore and Deepslate Sal Ammoniac Ore in the world.

To refine it, build:

• Sal Ammoniac Accumulator (top)
• Sal Ammoniac Tank (bottom)

Insert:

• Water
• Sal Ammoniac Crystals

You can automate water using:

• Mercurial Fluid Inserter
• Mercurial Fluid Extractor
• Any modded infinite water source (e.g., Cooking for Blockheads sink)

The accumulator dissolves the crystals into liquid Sal Ammoniac, which flows into the tank.

5. Making Alchemical Sulfur – The First Stage of Transmutation

Place a Liquefaction Cauldron above a Pyromantic Brazer for heat.

Add:

• Sal Ammoniac (fluid)
• One input item, such as:
• Potato
• Diamond
• Beetroot
• Redstone
• Apricot
• Rice

…or items from other mods!

The result is Alchemical Sulfur, and its type depends on the item’s assigned tags:

• Crops → Abundant Crops Sulfur
• Metals → Precious Metals Sulfur
• Minerals → Common Minerals Sulfur
• Gems → Rare Gems Sulfur

This is your first step toward eventually transmuting one material into another.

6. Fermentation – Turning Sulfur into Niter

Next, craft a Fermentation Vat.

Insert:

• Alchemical Sulfur
• Water
• A fermenting agent
• Leaves
• Saplings
• Or Fermentation Starter, which you can make from sugar + plant matter + Sal Ammoniac

Close the lid (shift-right-click).

After a short time, you receive Alchemical Niter.

Unlike Sulfur, Niter has far fewer variations (only one per material class). It is used for duplication and upgrading.

7. Digestion – Upgrading or Downgrading Niter

The Digestion Vat allows you to:

• Convert 4 lower-tier Niter → 1 higher-tier Niter, or
• Convert 1 higher-tier Niter → 4 lower-tier Niter

Some categories include:

• Abundant → Common → Rare → Precious
• Mob Drops (Abundant/Common/Rare/Precious)
• Metals
• Gems
• Minerals
• Logs
• Crops
• Animal Parts

Purified Gold

Required for digestion recipes.

Made in the Digestion Vat using:

• Water
• Salt
• Gold

(You’ll learn salt production next.)

8. Producing Salt – Required for Higher Processing

Salt has several types:

• Strata Salt
• Mineral Salt
• Plant Salt
• Creature Salt

Use a Calcination Oven above a Brazer and insert appropriate items:

Salts become important in the Incubator stage.

9. Reformation – Converting One Material Into Another

Now the magic begins.

You will need:

• Mercury Catalyst (provides power)
• Sulfuric Flux Emitter (links catalyst → pedestals)
• Reformation Pedestals:
• Source
• Target
• Result
• (Optionally more Sources for recipes needing multiple inputs)

Reforming Sulfur

1. Place Alchemical Sulfur A in the source pedestal.
2. Place Sulfur B in the target pedestal.
3. Power the emitter with Mercury Crystals.
4. The result pedestal outputs the converted sulfur.

Target Sulfur is never consumed.

Source sulfur is consumed.

Reforming Niter

This is how you duplicate materials:

• Niter → produces more sulfur than you started with
• Great for expanding a material class
• Allows conversion between categories (e.g., turning “other materials” into “gems”)

10. The Incubator – Turning Formulas Into Real Minecraft Items

This is the final step in Theurgy’s alchemical pipeline.

You need:

• Incubator (with heat under it)
• Sulfur Vessel
• Salt Vessel
• Mercury Vessel

Insert:

• Sulfur (the type determines what you're creating)
• Salt (category must match the target item: mineral, plant, crop, etc.)
• Mercury Shards

The incubator will slowly transform your sulfur into actual, physical in-game items.

Example:

• Using Alchemical Sulfur – Certus Quartz
• With Mineral Salt
• Creates Certus Quartz (real item)

This is the heart of Theurgy’s transmutation system.

11. Additional Tools in Theurgy

Divination Rod

Attune it to any block and right-click to locate the nearest instance.

Useful for finding ores, resources, or modded materials.

Crystallised Water / Crystallised Lava

Solid forms of fluids for easier storage or transport.

Created with water/lava + salt.