Thaumcraft Research Solver
Worked research examples
See why an aspect chain works, what its placements cost, and how a different priority can change your choice.
Try these notes yourself
These are original tutorial exercises, not screenshots or research recipes taken from Minecraft. They use the solver’s built-in aspect relationships and deliberately small sets of usable cells. Choose Open example below to load an exercise directly into the solver. Review the confirmation before replacing your current note and availability settings; export your own note first if you want to keep it. Downloadable JSON files are also available for manual import.
Coordinates below use the exported graph format: q,r. Each listed step is an adjacent hex. Fixed endpoints are already printed on the exercise; every interior step is a new placement. The paths are checked examples, not a promise that the bounded search will return every illustrated alternative.
1. Aer to Ignis: cheap versus common
The fixed endpoints are Aer at -1,0 and Ignis at 1,0. This note leaves the center cell and a three-cell detour usable; all other cells are gaps.
Download the Aer–Ignis exercise (JSON)
Gold, solid outlines and the FIXED label identify existing endpoints. Green, dashed outlines and ADD identify placements to copy. Crossed hexes are gaps; EMPTY cells are usable but not needed by that plan.
Aer (−1,0) connects through Lux (0,0) to Ignis (1,0). The three usable detour cells stay empty.
Aer (−1,0) connects through Motus (−1,1), Ordo (0,1), and Potentia (1,1) to Ignis (1,0). The center stays empty.
| Route | Aspect and cell sequence |
|---|---|
| Center | Aer (-1,0) → Lux (0,0) → Ignis (1,0) |
| Detour | Aer (-1,0) → Motus (-1,1) → Ordo (0,1) → Potentia (1,1) → Ignis (1,0) |
Lux = Aer + Ignis, so it connects to both endpoints. On the detour, Motus = Aer + Ordo and Potentia = Ordo + Ignis. Every neighboring pair therefore has a direct component relationship. Aer and Ignis do not connect directly.
| Route | Placements | Estimated craft cost | Different types | Common score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Center: Lux | 1 | 2 | 1 | 80 |
| Detour: Motus, Ordo, Potentia | 3 | 5 | 3 | 92 |
Among these two plans, Cheapest and Simplest favor the center. Common favors the detour: its default scores are 91, 100, and 86, whose rounded average is 92. It takes more placements, but uses aspects rated more common by this tool. The scores are editable estimates, not a measurement of what your player owns.
Try disabling Lux and clicking Find routes. The detour still connects the endpoints. Re-enable Lux to restore the short option. Availability removes a placement option; it does not change which aspect combinations are valid.
2. A narrow corridor: fewer types can cost more
Here the only usable cells are -2,0 through 2,0. Aer and Motus are fixed at opposite ends. Aer, Motus, Ordo, and Volatus are the only enabled placement aspects. Both plans below use the same three interior cells, in left-to-right order.
Download the Aer–Motus corridor (JSON)
Between fixed Aer (−2,0) and Motus (2,0), add Motus at (−1,0), Aer at (0,0), and Volatus at (1,0). All cells outside this row are gaps.
Between the same fixed endpoints, add Volatus at (−1,0), Aer at (0,0), and Volatus at (1,0). This uses two placement types, at a higher estimated cost.
| Plan | -1,0 | 0,0 | 1,0 | Craft cost | Types | Common score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower cost | Motus | Aer | Volatus | 6 | 3 | 87 |
| Fewer types | Volatus | Aer | Volatus | 7 | 2 | 79 |
Motus = Aer + Ordo, so its estimated cost is 2. Volatus = Aer + Motus, so its estimated cost is 3. The lower-cost plan adds 2 + 1 + 3 = 6. The fewer-types plan adds 3 + 1 + 3 = 7, but you only need to select Aer and Volatus while copying it into the game. Both are valid because Aer connects to Motus and Volatus, and Volatus connects to Motus.
This explains why Simplest means fewer distinct aspect types, rather than always the lowest cost or fewest occupied cells. These comparison plans explain the ranking criteria; the search can return other valid assignments and is not guaranteed to include both.
What if Volatus is unavailable?
Disable Volatus and run the exercise again. No solution exists within this particular corridor and remaining enabled set. The remaining compatibility graph is Aer ↔ Motus ↔ Ordo: every step alternates between Motus and one of the other two aspects. Starting at Aer, four steps cannot end at Motus. Re-enabling Volatus supplies the extra relationship needed for a four-step chain.
That proof applies to this restricted exercise. A general “no route found” result from the solver is not a proof of impossibility for an arbitrary note, because its search is bounded.
How to read the numbers
A primal aspect costs 1 in this model. A compound costs the sum of its parents’ costs, recursively. Costs are summed only for newly placed cells, including repeated placements; existing endpoints cost nothing in the displayed estimate. Common score is the rounded average commonness of new placements. Neither metric models inventory quantities, item scanning, or the actual effort of obtaining an aspect in your modpack.
The exercises explicitly set their enabled aspects and commonness values so earlier slider changes do not alter these calculations. For a real note, compare the recipe reference with your installed pack, then set availability and commonness to match your own resources.