Understand Material Block Requirements

Why Blocks Instead of Items

The datapack changes Only Excavators recipes to use full material blocks instead of individual items. This means instead of crafting with 9 iron ingots, you might need 1 or more complete iron blocks. This design forces you to invest more time in mining and smelting before you can access excavators.

Converting Items to Blocks

If you have raw materials, you'll need to smelt or process them into ingots first, then combine 9 ingots in a crafting grid to form a block. Plan ahead—if a recipe needs 2 iron blocks, you're looking at 18 ingots minimum. Copper and diamonds follow similar logic, though diamonds cannot be crafted into blocks and must be gathered directly.

Planning Your Mining

Before attempting an excavator recipe, calculate how many blocks you need and work backwards to ore requirements. This prevents wasted trips to the mines. The block-based system naturally gates progression, ensuring you've spent adequate time gathering resources before accessing these powerful tools.