How to Get Started with Ex Deorum: Your First Barrel, Sieve, and Crucible

Gather the basics

Start by punching trees for logs and breaking leaves, since leaves drop saplings and sticks you will need for crafting. Collect gravel, sand, and dirt from the ground. Craft a Crook from sticks — it lets you break leaves faster and increases sapling drops, which matters because wood is your main building material here.

Craft your first tools

Place logs in a crafting grid to make planks, then build a Barrel (planks arranged in a ring shape). Craft a Sieve by combining planks and sticks in the standard sieve pattern. For a Crucible, you typically need a barrel-like shape of planks or a similar wooden container recipe — check JEI/REI in-game for the exact layout, since it varies by wood type.

Start producing resources

Fill the Barrel with water (right-click with a water bucket, or let rain fill it). Put dirt, gravel, or sand into the Sieve and right-click it repeatedly to sift out pebbles, ore chunks, and other drops. Place the Crucible over a heat source (like a torch or lava) and add cobblestone or gravel to melt it into lava, which you can then bucket out. These three blocks form the core loop: sift for ores, melt for lava, and use barrels for composting and fluid crafting.