The Expansion

What it is

The Expansion (by VonLeipenstein) is the server's space-tech datapack — a complete progression game inside the game. Seven space dimensions (Space, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Europa and the Asteroid Belt), custom machines, spacesuits, three vehicles, weapons, and structures to raid. Nothing extra to install — textures arrive automatically.

Getting started

1. At night, look at the Moon through a spyglass while holding a Book & Quill in your offhand. The book transforms into your Guidebook and the questline begins.
2. Craft the Arc Furnace — the pack's only crafting-table recipe:
   copper ingot / coal / copper ingot
iron block / blast furnace / iron block
brick / brick / brick
3. Smelt Steel in the Arc Furnace (iron + coal).
4. Build your first Fabricator the weird way: throw 15 steel ingots, 2 diamonds, 5 copper ingots and a crafting table on the ground in one pile — they fuse into the machine.

From there the Guidebook and the machines carry you: everything past the Arc Furnace is crafted inside the pack's machines, not the workbench. That's by design.

Materials

• Steel — Arc Furnace, iron + coal. The early-game workhorse.
• Titanium — mined on the Moon (also Mars). Smelt with an amethyst shard in the Arc Furnace to make Amethonium, the mid-game metal everything important is made of.
• Cryonite — Mars ore; the cold element (cooling elements, cryo gear).
• Vulcanium — Venus ore; the heat element (warming elements).
• Lacrymae — liquid fuel squeezed out of crying obsidian in the Lacrymae Extractor. Powers the spaceship.
• Plates: 4 steel ingots → steel plate, 4 amethonium → amethonium plate (in the Fabricator).

The machines

The crafting chain runs crafting table → Arc Furnace → Fabricator → Assembler.

• Fabricator — the 3×3 machine bench. Crafts parts (gears, wire, mechanisms, circuit boards, monitors, thrusters), every other machine, suits, oxygen tanks, fuel cells, rocket and spaceship parts, and tools.
• Assembler — builds the big-ticket items: the buggy, the spaceship, the railgun, the cryoblaster and the pet drone.
• Compressor — refills oxygen tanks (only where there's air to compress).
• Oxygenator — scans an enclosed room and fills it with breathable air: your moon base's lungs.
• Terraformer — endgame (needs a nether star): slowly turns Moon/Mars terrain green and livable.
• Lacrymae Extractor — crying obsidian in, filled fuel cells out.
• Enhancer — installs armor modules (up to 5 per piece) and oxygen tanks into suits; repairs too.
• Modification Station — vehicle upgrades: speed and fuel modules and more.
• Tesla Coil — zaps nearby mobs, with fun side effects (creepers come out charged...).
• Planetarium — a gorgeous animated model of the solar system.

Suits, oxygen & temperature

Space wants you dead in two ways:

Oxygen — every space dimension is airless. Your suit's tank drains constantly (sprinting doubles it, sneaking halves it); empty tank = suffocation. Tanks come in mk1/mk2/mk3 (~40/60/80 minutes) and install into your chestplate at the Enhancer. Refill in a Compressor.

Temperature — each world has a temperature your suit must beat, or you take damage and your suit wears down: Moon −2 (ice caves −8), Mars −5, Space −5, Jupiter and Europa −10, Venus +8 (its caves +16, with lightning). Suits: the Diver suit (Europa's oceans, built-in tank), the NASA suit (amethonium; the all-round workhorse), and looted specialist suits — Trooper (Mars), Pilot (Jupiter), Hazmat (Venus heat). Stack warming/cooling modules via the Enhancer to tune any suit; one mk1 warming module on a NASA suit exactly offsets the Moon. Carry repair kits.

Vehicles

• The Rocket — fabricate bottom, cockpit and top sections, stack them, and assemble with the wrench. Launch needs a 3×3 pad of sturdy blocks, 16 blaze powder, a full suit, oxygen and repair kits — the cockpit shows a launch checklist. It flies Earth → Moon; on the Moon it becomes the Lunar Module for the trip home (which ends in a crash landing — recycle the capsule with your wrench).
• The Buggy — Assembler: 4 wheels, 2 electromotors, a complex mechanism, an oxygen tank and steel plates. A rover that shields you from vacuum and cold, refills your tanks while riding, and rams things.
• The Spaceship — the real endgame ride: five fabricated parts (nose, wings, cockpit, engines) assembled in a plus shape, fueled by lacrymae cells. Fly up from any planet into the Space dimension, cruise to another floating planet, and descend. Has a blaster. Short on parts? San Holo, the trader parked in the Millennium Falcon on the Moon, sells them for diamonds and crying obsidian.
• The Mech — a pilotable walker recovered on Mars, with swappable weapon arms.

The destinations

• Moon — low gravity, titanium, the Millennium Falcon (and its trader), crashed wrecks, hostile drones, and the eerie Event Horizon derelict with portal technology.
• Mars — cryonite, the Warbase, a buried nuke, and chests holding trooper suits, railguns and cryoblasters. The mech lives here.
• Venus — the hot one: +8 surface, +16 caves, random lightning. Vulcanium ore. Bring serious heat protection.
• Jupiter — brutal cold, heavy gravity, and a wrecked fleet + station holding pilot suits and tier-3 gear.
• Europa — an ocean moon with auto water-breathing in its seas and rich ore beds. Diver suit territory.
• Asteroid Belt — zero-G at the far edge of Space; magnetic boots recommended.

Weapons & gadgets

• Railgun — charge and fire; eats one iron ingot per shot.
• Cryoblaster — runs on water bottles (50 shots each); three modes including freezing enemies and placing instant ice walls.
• Pet Drone — a companion that scans for structures.
• Wrench (2 steel + a stick) — assembles rockets and recycles vehicles. Repair kit — fixes your whole suit. Thermometer — reads a world's temperature against your gear.

Tips from mission control

• Sneak on low oxygen. Park the buggy nearby — it refills your tanks.
• Stockpile blaze powder (rocket fuel) and crying obsidian (spaceship fuel) before every launch window.
• Ice caves and Venus caves are far more extreme than their surfaces — check the thermometer before going down.
• Vehicles fully shield you from vacuum and temperature.
• The deeper loot (tier-3 modules, pilot suits) only exists out at Jupiter — the ladder is meant to be climbed in order.