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Insane Voltage (IV)

Insane Voltage (IV) is the fifth electric tier in GregTech: New Horizons. In this tier, multiple new multiblocks and mechanics are introduced, such as the Assembly Line, the Precise Assembler, and many more. This is also the tier where many parts of magic (Thaumcraft, etc.) are unlocked for players to use; however, as always, watch your warp effects if you have been getting warp. While transitioning from the old tier to a new tier is usually the hard part, the IV tier is by far the hardest tier to get through. If you managed to get through EV tier, prepare yourself because this tier requires a very heavy transition in almost every aspect of your base, including infrastructure and crafting. At this point, manual crafting is no longer a feasible option. With this being said, be prepared for a big change to your base!

Prerequisites before continuing

IV is a very tough tier which requires large amounts of infrastructure in order to progress smoothly. Some things you will want to have done in EV are:

  • A large AE2 system that can handle storage, automation, and autocrafting. (Some of the things in this list can be automated with AE2 by simply patterning them)
  • Automated the first part of the platline in order to have a large supply of Platinum available.
  • Automated Tungsten processing, as well as large amounts of raw/processed tungsten ores (Tungstate and Scheelite).
  • Automated plastics, including Polyethylene, PTFE, and Epoxid.
  • Automated Graphene for IV motors.
  • A robust automated power generation and distribution system that can support early IV infrastructure, and is easily expanded later in the tier.
  • Automated ore processing in order to easily obtain bulk basic resources.

If you find yourself not meeting some of these requirements, try going back and filling them out before coming back to IV progression. Some of the things on this list may be helpful for getting other things on this list (e.g getting Platinum is integral to AE2, and automated plastics means that you can do much more processing with virtually infinite LCRs and circuits)

Power

Storage and Distribution

Although it is possible to create centralized power storage and distribution infrastructure in earlier tiers, IV is the tier where any player who hasn't done so already should create said centralized power infrastructure. Although other approaches exist, the most common way to do so is to use a Lapotronic Supercapacitor (LSC) as the main battery, fed directly from power generation (to minimize cable loss), and then distribute power outwards from the LSC to the rest of the base using a "power spine". This power spine consists of a cable, or multiple cables if additional capacity is needed, with a high maximum amperage and a voltage usually greater than the player's current voltage tier. Power is transformed up when leaving the LSC to minimize cable loss and take full advantage of the cable's capacity, and transformed down for usage close to the actual machines. In IV, typical power spine cables are 16x versions of most LuV cables, such as Vanadium-Gallium, HSS-G, or Niobium-Titanium, depending on which is the easiest for the player to produce in bulk.

Generation

In order to take full advantage of this power storage and distribution infrastructure, it is necessary for the player to also greatly expand their power generation, usually to hundreds of thousands of EU/t by the end of the tier. In order to accomplish this, IV unlocks a wealth of new power generation multiblocks, as well as processing multiblocks that greatly simplify the process of generating fuel, while also saving on power compared to their singleblock counterparts. Players using Benzene should upgrade to Nitrobenzene if they have not already, upgrade to better turbine materials such as HSS-S or HSS-E, and use new multiblocks like the Industrial Electrolyzer and Dangote Distillus. Players using oil can benefit from the Extreme Combustion Engine by upgrading to High-Octane Gasoline as their fuel, and can use the Dangote Distillus to improve the speed and efficiency of making that fuel. Nuclear Reactors remain a viable means of generating power as well, and players using steam gain access to the XL Turbo HP Steam Turbine to generate power from Superheated Steam more compactly. In addition, many unconventional means of power generation unlock in IV, such as the Deep Earth Heating Pump, Rocketdyne F-1A Engine, and Solar Tower.

Infrastructure

IV is the first major "infrastructure tier", a term used for tiers that require the player to make especially large investments in expanding their infrastructure in order to complete the tier and be prepared for future tiers. As a result, the biggest focus of IV is in the many ways to improve said infrastructure that are unlocked in the tier.

New Multiblocks

IV unlocks most of the processing multiblocks not already available in EV, which can be used to greatly improve processing speed, simplify autocrafting with non-consumed items, bolster processing lines, and perform tier skips. As soon as the player is able to make IV singleblock machines, multiblock forms of the following machines open up:

The remaining multiblocks largely require the Alloy Blast Smelter (ABS), a new machine that can create various alloys in fluid form that are otherwise unobtainable. Notably, it cannot run higher-tier recipes by using multiple Energy Hatches like the EBF can, which means the player will need to either complete the platline or manually process iridium in order to run IV-tier recipes. The multiblocks made available by using the ABS are:

The Precise Assembler, a multiblock version of the Assembling Machine, is also unlocked in IV, although it requires the full platline as well as access to naquadah. Despite these costs, it is extremely worthwhile, due to its double speed, 16 parallels in IV, and ability to greatly simplify the need to manage programmed circuits for recipes.

On top of these processing machines, there are also new machines that can be used to gather resources for the ever-increasing demands of the tier:

The final multiblock in IV is the Assembly Line, which requires robust infrastructure in order to produce the 90 ZPM circuits needed for even the minimum viable length in a reasonable amount of time. It serves as the gate to the LuV tier, as well as a way to test if the player's infrastructure has been sufficiently developed.

Circuits

IV contains many improvements to circuit production, but this is paired with a circuit demand far exceeding any prior tiers. The new circuit line, Quantumprocessors, is available as soon as an IV Circuit Assembler is crafted, but they require large quantities of platinum and radon to be made in bulk. The Quantumprocessor Mainframe is also the first ZPM circuit available, and it is needed for machines like the Volcanus as well as the Assembly Line that gates LuV.

In addition to the new circuit line, lower tier circuits also get upgrades. Multiblocks like the Industrial Wire Factory, Hyper-Intensity Laser Engraver, and Precise Assembler greatly speed the process of making circuit components. Naquadah, which can be found either rarely in End asteroids or on the Asteroids dimension with a tier 3 rocket, can be processed slowly in the EBF to yield Naquadah Nuggets, which can be used to make the next tier of silicon boule and thereby unlock better wafer recipes. One of these recipes is SoC Wafers, which are used in better LV and MV circuit recipes. Advanced SMDs, although requiring advanced materials such as PBI and platline metals, can also be used to replace regular SMDs in earlier circuit recipes, allowing them to be crafted twice as fast and with a quarter of the SMD requirements.

Because of the very high circuit demands of late IV and LuV, it is highly recommended to parallelize circuit crafting by using multiple Circuit Assemblers, as the multiblock Circuit Assembly Line is unavailable until LuV.

Smelting

IV is a tier that demands a lot of capacity to smelt ingots in the Electric Blast Furnace and cool them in the Vacuum Freezer, but it is also a tier that unlocks major upgrades to meet this demand. HSS-G Coils are available as soon as the Assembling Machine is crafted, and should be a priority upgrade for the energy discounts, new recipes, and perfect overclocks they can reach. HSS-S Coils are not required, but are unlocked upon completing the platline, and are very valuable for the same reasons. IV is also a good time to look at upgrading beyond helium for those EBF recipes that require a noble gas; these gases can be made with liquid Overworld/Nether Air processing, bees, or the Radon loop. The more interesting upgrades, however, revolve around using better versions of the EBF and VF that allow greater throughput.

Volcanus

One of these upgrades is the Volcanus, a superior version of the EBF which is over twice as fast, supports up to 8 parallels, and has a 10% energy discount. However, it requires 10 L/s of Blazing Pyrotheum to run, which means that fluid needs to be automated before upgrading to Volcani; the main ways to do this are either to use the Pyrotheum Bee, or automatically mix coal dust, sulfur, blaze powder, and redstone into Pyrotheum Dust and fluid extract it. It's also worth noting that, unlike the regular EBF, the Volcanus does not receive a heat bonus from voltage, which means a few recipes can require a regular EBF to run.

Mega Vacuum Freezer

The Mega Vacuum Freezer (MVF) is an upgrade to the regular Vacuum Freezer which has greatly improved throughput: like most Mega multiblocks, it can run up to 256 recipes in parallel, and allows for multi-amp and laser hatches to get the power to run those recipes, as well as allowing tierskipping multiple tiers with sufficient amperage. Although mega multiblocks are generally not recommended to build until laser infrastructure is unlocked, the MVF is the exception to this. This is because Vacuum Freezer recipes generally require lower voltage tiers than their respective EBF recipes, meaning that it is possible to utilize all 256 parallels as early as IV with a multi-amp energy hatch.

Mega Electric Blast Furnace and Cryogenic Freezer

These two multiblocks are the counterparts of the Mega Vacuum Freezer and Volcanus, respectively, and can be used in IV to upgrade smelting, but are generally considered inferior to the options above. The Mega Electric Blast Furnace (MEBF or MBF) can run 256 parallels and use multi-amp and laser energy hatches, like the MVF, but unlike the MVF (which only requires aluminium) it requires a huge number of coil and tiered glass blocks to form, making it far more expensive. However, it does have the ability to tier skip multiple tiers, and receives heat bonuses for every tier, which can be valuable for smelting otherwise unavailable materials. The Cryogenic Freezer is a Vacuum Freezer with double the speed and 4 parallels, but it requires 10 L/s Gelid Cryotheum to run, which is an extra logistical challenge not present for the Mega Vacuum Freezer, and it lacks support for multi-amp energy hatches.

Progression Goals

The Platline

The Platinum Line, known as the Platline for short, is the central chemical line of IV, and is one of the most complex chemical lines in the entire pack, with approximately 50 steps in total. Although the first part of the platline, which yields Platinum itself, should be done already in EV, the rest, for Palladium, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Iridium, and Osmium, is required to progress into further tiers as well as for many useful upgrades and quality of life improvements within IV. These include the IV Energy Hatch, the Infinite Spray Can (a spray can with access to all 16 colors and infinite uses, for coloring cables), the Vajra (a tool to instantly break any block), and the HSS-S Coils for upgrading the Electric Blast Furnace and other multiblocks. It is possible to run the platline manually as well, in order to obtain small amounts of platline materials to afford key upgrades without needing to build the entire line immediately; for example, an IV Energy Hatch or two to be able to run certain otherwise impossible recipes, such as Nitinol 60 in an ABS to be able to make a HILE.

Other chemical lines

Polybenzimidazole

Although the platline is the foremost line in IV, it is not the only one. The other major lines introduced in IV are the plastic Polybenzimidazole (usually abbreviated to PBI) and various rare earth processing lines used to obtain otherwise rare materials. Although PBI is not strictly required in IV, it is needed for the Tier 2 Thermal Padding that almost every planet from Tier 3 and above demands, and can be used to greatly improve circuit production by making Advanced SMDs, and parallelize multiblocks with the Linked Input Bus.

Rare Earths

The rare earth lines are never required, beyond basic samarium processing (which is very short and easy to make, but has poor yield and no byproducts), but are useful for many otherwise rare materials. The simplest of these lines is advanced samarium processing, which greatly improves the yield from Samarium Ore Concentrate Dust and yields byproducts of Cerium, Neodymium, and Lanthanum, and can be upgraded in LuV to further double the Samarium yield. The other two rare earth lines are the Monazite Line (monaline) and the Bastnasite Line (bastline), which can convert the respective crushed ores into a variety of rare earths and other materials: Zirconium, Cerium, Lanthanum, Neodymium, Holmium, Terbium, Gadolinium, and Samarium for the Bastline, and Hafnia, Zirconium, Cerium, Europium, Gadolinium, and Samarium for the Monaline. Of these materials, only Samarium is required to enter LuV, but the others have a variety of uses in LuV and beyond. Note that all of these lines require automating the Dissolution Tank.

Rockets

Unlike most tiers, IV contains two different tiers of rockets and associated sets of planets that they unlock. The Tier 3 Rocket is available early in the tier, only being gated behind the IV Assembling Machine to make some of the parts. The Tier 4 Rocket, on the other hand, requires the Assembly Line, meaning it is unavailable until just before the start of LuV. In addition, both tiers require an upgraded rocket fuel, Dense Hydrazine, in order to use, which will require building a Chemical Plant for players who opted to use Cetane-Boosted Diesel for the first two tiers. Most planets from Tier 3 onwards also require an upgraded set of Thermal Padding, which needs PBI to make, and the Tier 4 planet Venus requires a full set of armor with the SpaceSuit property. For a full list of resources available on the Tier 3 and 4 planets, see the Planets page. The Tier 3 rocket also unlocks the ability to make a space station over Jupiter, although the Tier 4 rocket is required to make the Planetary Gas Siphon that makes such a space station useful.

Magic Mods

IV is also the point at which much of the lategame content in many magic mods becomes available to players willing to invest into them.

In Thaumcraft, most of the Kami equipment that requires Ichor becomes available with Osmiridium, an alloy that is made from Osmium and Iridium and smelted in an LuV-tier EBF. This includes the best available wand materials, a set of powerful tools and armor, and the Pure Tear and Purification Talisman, both of which can be used to solve warp (the former once and the latter continuously). The Pure Tear can also be obtained through the Quest Book using one Osmiridium Ingot, which can help players struggling with warp who aren't close to obtaining Ichor and being able to craft it themselves.

In Blood Magic, the tier 5 and 6 Blood Orbs can be crafted once platline materials are obtained, which unlocks the ability to summon many more meteors and to reach almost all of the mod's content, including advanced rituals and spell parts. Furthermore, some of the most useful meteors require IV machines or components to summon, such as the IV Scanner meteor, which contains huge amounts of platline dusts.

In Botania, IV is the first tier where it's possible to summon the Gaia Guardian, although the naquadah that is required can make it challenging to afford until a later tier.

Word of Caution

An important note to keep in mind when reaching this tier: This is another tier where most players get burnt out. If you managed not to get burnt out in the EV tier, you may have more chances to get burnt out in this tier. Compared to EV, this tier is much longer and resource-intensive, so do not rush into the IV tier if you want to avoid getting burned out. Take your time.