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Logo-TC 40 Taint contains information about the ThaumCraft mod.
Taint-zone1

A desert chasm infected by the Taint.

Taint is a polluting form of magical energy, making it the negative equivalent of Aura or Vis.

The Solution of the Ignorant[]

Many players say that throwing a nuke at any problem will solve it. Indeed, it works in the case of a zombie invasion, it works in the case of noisy neighbors, and it has even proved successful in the case of roaming Ender Dragons.

Taint, however, is not a physical object: it cannot be seen, it cannot be heard; a player can walk through concentrated Taint and not feel a thing. What you can and eventually will recognize is the effect that Taint has on the world. With enough Taint, everything in the infected chunk will turn purple.

What many players fail to understand is that Tainted objects, mobs and such do NOT represent Taint. They do not interact with Taint in any way, and breaking a Tainted block will not remove the Taint associated with that block.

With that understood, one will therefore understand that Taint cannot be defeated by simply demolishing everything in the Tainted chunk. Taint is like a poisonous gas; it makes the chunk itself sick. You can cut out the infected land, but as long as the gas remains, the diseases caused by it will, sooner or later, return.

2012-12-24 12.35

The puff of Taint that appears when destroying an object holding Vis.

Description[]

If you think of Vis as the air, Taint can be likened to the smog that pollutes it. Technically speaking, it is *not* a somehow negatively charged form of Vis, but rather a completely separate type of magical energy. It can occur naturally or be created by thaumaturgic devices like the Crucible as a waste product during the process of converting matter into Vis. The rate of naturally occurring Taint is usually much lower than that of Vis; however, Tainted Vis makes up for this by spreading much more quickly into neighboring areas. As some chunks spawn with an unusually high rate of Tainted Vis, this can cause a natural Taint Zone (see below) to spawn, as the Tainted Vis quickly spreads to the neighboring areas, corrupting everything in its path.

Unfortunately, the major source of Taint is caused by many thaumaturgic devices. The mystical processes that create the wondrous objects and other magical miracles occasionally cause Taint as a by-product. A wise thaumaturge will make sure to take great care when plying his craft to prevent mishaps.

Tainted Vis[]

Like Vis can be found and stored in a pure, non-Aura form, so physical Taint can be found or created through magical processes. It occasionally forms Tainted Crystals, like pure Vis, but usually it is created as a byproduct of the Crucible smelting process.  If you have already researched the Concentrated Evil upgrade, you can also put Tainted Crystals into Vis Condenser to have them draw the Taint directly out of the atmosphere.

However, there is another way of decreasing the Taint amount within a certain area. If, for example, your Crucible  let out enough Taint to pollute the area up to 45%, then you can place a Silverwood log two blocks above the Crucible to shrink down the amount to 35%. And, as time goes by, the Taint percentage may shrink even lower. In a minute or two, the Taint pecentage maay shrink to 27%, or even 17%. so, when using a thaumaturgic devices, always make sure you have a Silverwood log or two handy.

If stored in regular Vis Tanks, the Tainted Vis will slowly corrupt and damage the tank. If you want to draw Taint out of the atmosphere for later usage or to clean up a Taint Zone, you should consider storing the Taint in the much more durable Reinforced Tanks, especially if you want to store it for a long amount of time. Taint can also leak into the atmosphere if a pipe containing Taint breaks.

Taint Gone Wild[]

Taint-zone2

An infected forest.

If the Taint rating in the local area ever rises high enough and the Aura rating is very low at the same time, strange things start happening. Plants and creatures begin to change as a strange, purple growth appears and subsequently spreads everywhere. The ground will become a nasty, purple mud that squishes under your steps. Strange, glowing weeds and purple gas pods that spew poisonous gas clouds will start to grow everywhere. The gas from those pods will negatively charge the Aura, which further increases the Taint rating and speed up the corruption of the surrounding terrain. Normally docile creatures like pigs, cows and chickens suddenly become aggressive and will attack all uncorrupted life forms, including you. This general phenomenon can be referred to as a local Taint infection, while the infected terrain will be referred to as a Taint Zone in this article.

Things tend to slowly return to normal once the Taint rating becomes low enough, but once a Tainted area like this takes hold it is hard to get rid of.Keep in mind that this can be removable so keep trying to purify it.

How Taint spreads[]

Taint-spread

Taint infection always spreads over the surface and cannot affect player-made blocks.

Once the Taint has a hold in an area, it slowly spreads like a surface infection. A Taint infection can be considered severe once you have a local infection that encompasses at least three or four chunks, each of which has a Taint level above a rating of 7000 or more (you can see the exact amount of Vis and Taint in the atmosphere with the Goggles of Revealing). A local infection will not penetrate the ground and only infects the blocks on the surface. Note that while the Taint does not infect water itself, it can still infect the blocks underneath.

The infection also only spreads to the blocks next to other already infected blocks. This has important implications both for preventing a Taint infection from spreading as well as for cleaning up an existing infection.

If there are blocks the Taint cannot infect adjacent to infected blocks, the Taint will not be able to spread beyond them. As will be shown later, this can be used to create barriers that can temporarily stop a local infection from spreading.

There are a number of blocks that the Taint does infect. It will mostly infect naturally occurring blocks:

  • Dirt, Grass and Mycelium (the ground in the mushroom biome).
  • (Regular) Stone.
  • Wool (all Colors). Note that you cannot purify Tainted wool with Potions of Purity.
  • All types of Wood Logs as well as all types of Leaves. The infected trees will turn into Tainted Logs and Tainted Leaves.
  • Sand.
  • Sandstone (which turns into sand upon being cleaned).
  • All ore blocks (including Iron, Gold, Coal, Diamond, Redstone and Cinnabar Ore). When Tainted ore blocks are being mined with a Shovel of Renewal, they sometimes yield Congealed Taint.
  • Netherrack, Soul Sand and Glowstone, which makes the Taint spread incredibly fast in the Nether.
  • Vis Crystals, which will turn into Tainted Crystals that release Taint into the atmosphere.

It will not infect most player-made materials:

  • Cobblestone.
  • Wooden Planks.
  • All types of Stone Bricks.
  • (Regular) Bricks.
  • Obsidian.
  • End Stone.
  • Glass.
  • Bookshelves.
  • Ice and Snow blocks.
  • All types of slabs and double-slabs.
  • All vanilla Minecraft storage blocks (Gold, Iron, Lapis Lazuli, Diamond.).

Finally, the spread of Taint is affected by the Aura and Taint levels in the atmosphere, as the atmospheric Taint level is the cause of the infection, while the physical Taint (infected blocks) is merely a symptom. A barrier will stop the spread of physical Taint, but not of ambient Taint.

The table below applies to Technic 7.0.1+ and the latest versions of Thaumcraft 2. If you are using an older build, this table does not apply and Taint appears when Taint > Aura, spreading as described above.

Aura Taint Effect (Technic 7.0.1+ / TC 2.1.3b+)
≥1500 (≥10%) <3750 (<25%) Affected blocks will gradually recover, turning into normal, un-Tainted blocks. Note: Some blocks, like Wool, will remain Tainted indefinitely and must be replaced manually. Crystals that were Tainted will remain Tainted.
N/A ≥3750 (≥25%) Taint will spread from infected blocks to adjacent, uninfected blocks, as described above. Taint will not spread if there are no infected blocks to spread from (below 7500 Taint).
N/A ≥7500 (≥50%) Exposed blocks in the chunk will be spontaneously infected at a rapid pace. This does not require an adjacent infected block and cannot be prevented by constructing a barrier. This is how a physical Taint infection begins.

Since ambient Taint spreads from areas of high Taint to areas of lower Taint, a chunk with a very high Taint level may spread Taint to adjacent chunks until their Taint levels reach this threshold, resulting in spontaneous infection, even if the high-Taint chunk is surrounded by a physical barrier.

N/A ≥10000 (≥67%) Spore pods (gasbags) will spawn. Spore pods will periodically spew more Taint into the atmosphere. This will inevitably result in the Taint spreading further outwards despite any physical barriers you may construct.

Warning: If such a chunk is near your base, you must act to reduce Taint levels below this threshold, then destroy any spore pods (they are blocks) in the chunk (remember to check underground as well). If you lack the resources for this, you will want to relocate.







Note: This threshold applies for Technic 7.0.0 as well.

(The default maximum Aura and Taint values are 15000 - if you change the maximum in the config it will alter these thresholds proportionally, as they are percentage-based)

Tainted Life Forms[]

Once infected by the Taint, all life forms will display increasingly aggressive behavior towards healthy, non-infected creatures, including the player. When attacking the player or another creature, the infected will sprint with great speed, making escape on feet almost impossible. The infected creatures also seem to have significantly more health than their uninfected, healthy counterparts. Tainted life forms CANNOT be purified with a Potion of Purity.

If you do not have a large distance between you and the infected, you should not attempt to fight with bow and arrows, as you will most likely not have enough time to properly charge and aim your shots. If you kill an infected life form, it will sometimes drop a Taint artifact like Taint Spores or a Tainted Organ. You can use those as research material for the Quaesitum.

Tainted Creeper
The Tainted Creeper is quite a bit faster than his regular, uninfected counterpart. Its explosion radius is also slightly larger, but will not deal much damage to infected terrain, as infected blocks have quite a high explosion resistance. However, if a Tainted Creeper explodes outside of infected terrain, it will not only make a large crater, but will also directly corrupt some blocks adjacent to the explosion. This can be a serious drawback if you are trying to clean up an infected area, so keep your eyes open for the purple things.
Tainted-creeper
Tainted Villagers
May Notch help you if you ever encounter a Testificate village corrupted by the Taint. The Tainted Testificates are something like moving gas pods. They have quite a lot of health and periodically blast poisonous gas clouds into the atmosphere while they roam the corrupted terrain. The poison clouds increase the local Taint concentration in the air and further propagate the corruption. While the Tainted Testificates do not attack uninfected creatures, they react very aggressive to the player and will attack upon sight. They are relatively harmless when encountered alone, but a whole infected village can prove a deadly threat.
Tainted-villager
Tainted Cows
Tainted Cows have more health than a regular cow and are significantly faster. They will attack the player and other uninfected creatures on sight.
Tainted-cow
Tainted Sheep
Like other creatures infected by the Taint, the Tainted Sheep reacts very hostile to the player and other uninfected creatures. Whereas a normal sheep occasionally eats grass, Tainted sheep instead vomit Taint, spreading the infestation. It also has more health and is much faster than a regular sheep. Shearing one produces purple wool.
Tainted-sheep
Tainted Pig
Similar to other creatures infected by the Taint, the Tainted Pig reacts very hostile to the player and other uninfected creatures. It has more health and is much faster than a regular pig.
Tainted-pig
Tainted Chicken
The Tainted Chicken is the weakest of the creatures infected by the Taint. Its attacks don’t pack much punch and it also has very low health, however, it is incredibly fast. While one or two infected chickens may not be much of a challenge, you can get into serious trouble if you encounter four or five chickens simultaneously.
Tainted-chicken
Tainted Crystal Wisp
In a certain way, the Tainted Crystal Wisps can be considered the most dangerous infected creature. Its attacks may not do that much damage, but the one thing that really makes them dangerous is their ability to blind you. The status ailment given, called 'blind', envelops you in a sphere of darkness where you can only see within a radius of three or four blocks, everything else, including the wisp that just zapped you, is just black. Now this may last only for a couple of seconds, but the instant the wisp strikes you again, you will lose your sight again.

This not only makes fighting back extremely difficult, but you will also not be able to see where you are going – for all you know, you might be running straight into a chasm. And we haven’t even started talking about all the other Tainted creatures that are chasing and trying to kill you as well. So, if you do not have a bow and some arrows with you, or another ranged weapon, RUN, because you will not have any chance of killing the wisp then. If you DO have a bow and an arrow, you can fight back if you plan your actions carefully. First, place some blocks in front of you so that the Tainted Crystal Wisp cannot see you. It will only shoot if it has clear line-of-sight. Charge your bow, get out of your cover and fire an arrow. If you did not manage to kill the wisp, get back to cover immediately and repeat until the wisp is dead. If you have the Technic mod pack installed, a good way to kill the Tainted Wisps is to use a Musket, as it is extremely powerful and accurate. The Musket allows the player to pick the Wisp off at somewhat of a long distance.



Tainted Crystal Wisps drop either a Cracked Wisp Shell or a Tainted Crystal.

Living Tainted Tree
The Living Tainted Tree is a hostile, stationary creature which resembles a regular tree infected by the Taint. Of all infected life forms, it is the most resilient and has the most health. If you attack it, several eyes will open on the surface of its bark and it will start trembling, upon which aggressive small, worm-like creatures drop from its leaves.A good way to tell the difference between a reguler tainted tree and a living tainted tree is that you can walk straight through it. 
Taint-grub-husks

Grub husks dropped from a Living Tainted Tree.

The creatures resemble the silverfish from vanilla Minecraft, but their skin is entirely purple instead of gray and they also have a small leaf on their back as if they were a fruit. They will chase you and attack immediately. In an earlier version of Thaumcraft, those creatures were called “Grub Husks” and they were dropped from a so-called “Eldritch Tree” that closely resembled the Living Tainted Tree both in appearance and behavior.


The tree surrounds itself with a magical field that is able to repel all projectile attacks. Do not try to attack it with bow and arrows, as it will only throw your arrows directly back to you. You should rely on melee weapons or axes instead – it is a tree, after all.



The Living Tainted Tree and its worm-like creatures sometimes drop Tainted Fruit and Tainted Branches upon death, both of which are classified as Uncommon Tainted Artifacts. They can be used to research Tainted Knowledge in the Quaesitum.

Cleaning up a Taint Zone[]

Once you are dealing with a severe Taint contamination, you will need to dedicate a significant amount of time and resources if you choose to do a cleanup. You should also note that the endeavor will be both dangerous and complicated. So basically you are facing the choice of either fetching all of your belongings and running to the hills – or preparing to mount a massive cleanup operation.

There are 3 phases in a cleaning operation:

Containment[]

Using easy-to-get materials (Cobblestone or Planks) you must make a barrier to stop Taint for spreading to other areas and, if you don't want Tainted mobs attacking you, to stop them from getting in.

You don't need to surround all of the Tainted area with tall walls, only the area close to your working zone, because enemies far enough away from you don't move. (Using the normal render distance, if you can't see your working area from where you are in the Taint Zone, it’s far enough that you don't need a wall.)

Special precaution is needed if an NPC village becomes Tainted: Tainted villagers not only infect healthy creatures, but also increase the local Taint. Kill on sight, but from a distance. If you have researched Crucible of Souls use it on the villagers with a Vortex Seal to get Vis, and keep them in a controlled area.

Beware that taint may find a way underground and can spread through natural tunnels. Blockading the surface is not a permanent solution.

Removal of ambient Taint[]

Purifying

Three different setups for reducing local Taint levels.

Aura and Taint are independent. You can have high aura and high Taint or have a Tainted zone in a low Taint area. Lowering the ambient Taint prevents reinfections.

This is the longest phase. There are two major ways to remove taint. The first is with Arcane Seals, the second with Vis Condenser.

Using Arcane Seals[]

Dark Arcane Seals will purify Taint by eliminating it 1:1 with the local Aura. To get started you'll need an Arcane Seal, along with Runic Essences (1 Dark + 1-2 Magic). Preparing 2 Seals will require one Tainted Crystal and two Vis Crystals. Each Seal requires an initial crafting cost of 57.5 Vis.

Setting up an Arcane Seal to purify taint is very simple. Simply place the seal, then imbue it with a Dark essence, then Magic, and another Magic to boost its speed.

Every time the Seal ticks, it will cancel 1 Taint+Vis and generate a Taint charge. Left alone, the Taint charge will come back as new Taint, dramatically reducing the efficiency of the Seal. To counteract this, place a small setup of Silverwood Logs and its leaves so absorb the charge, eliminating the Taint for good. Since Silverwood+leaves directly remove Taint charge, any number of seals can be set up this way.

The Totem of Dawn creates an Aura charge that will cancel out a Taint charge, but this process has a limited rate. Only a few Seals can be kept from generating Taint this way.

As the Aura turns critical, healthy Vis Crystals will release more Aura into the atmosphere, letting the Seals continue to work. Purely corrupted Zones don't have healthy crystals, so Aura is a limited resource that may not remove Taint entirely. Potions of Concentrated Vis will effectively add fuel for the Arcane Seal to continue working. For the worst of infections, Vis Condensers will need to be used.

Using Condensers[]

Condenser Setup

Vis Condensor Setup

Condensers are most effective in areas that are completely corrupted. Local Vis can not be relied on to completely rid the area of taint.

You must have researched Concentrated Evil and need at least 3 components: Vis Filter, Vis Condenser, and large numbers of Tainted Crystals. Having the Goggles of Revealing is convenient but not necessary; you can use the Thaumometer to detect the areas that need to be cleaned.

To remove ambient Taint, you need a Vis Condenser with the Concentrated Evil upgrade. (This enables the condenser to equip Tainted crystals to harvest Taint instead of Vis.) The operation pulls Taint from the atmosphere into the Condenser. You need to pass it through a stack of filters to remove some of the Taint from the system. More filters = more Taint removed, but a slower operation. A stack of 3 filters can process the output from a condenser. This arrangement will eradicate some Taint and release the rest to the atmosphere, reducing its efficiency, so multiple cycles will be needed to remove Taint entirely.

If you have researched the Vis Purifier, simply replace each Filter stack with a Purifier. This method is 100% efficient so no crystals will be wasted. Be warned that Purifiers have a very low suction value and will not work if storage tanks are hooked up to the circuit.

The Dark Infuser does not need the pure Taint produced by Condensers. Almost all Taint-using recipes need twice as much Vis as Taint. Using an inefficient Crucible will make more than enough Taint for regular use, so it is recommended that you save your Tainted Crystals for restoring corruption.

Removing Taint from Storage Tanks[]

Vis Filters can be hooked up directly to Storage Tanks to pull Taint out. Higher stacks of filters will slow down the operation, but increases its ability to eradicate Taint.

In order to use Vis Purifiers on a Tank, a more complex setup is required. Create a conduit loop using Purifiers and place a Vis Pump at the end, to force Taint through the purifiers. It is a good idea to not let Taint enter your storage tanks in the first place, by blocking it out with an Advanced Vis Valve.

Restoring the original biome[]

Tainted land will purity itself if the Aura is healthy enough and the Taint level is extremely low(see chart above). If you were using Arcane Seals to remove Taint, the Aura may not be high enough to purify the land. Use Aura generating items or potions of Concentrated Vis to get the process started.

The Potion of Purity will instantly revert a small area of blocks along with making an Aura charge. This can be handy if a mob carries corruption across your quarantine, or to speed up recovery when Taint can no longer spread.

This is only required if you wish to revert the Tainted terrain back into its original form, before the infection. There is no reward for doing this, unless you count restoration of beautiful terrain as its own reward.

Containing a Taint Zone[]

If you either don't want, or don't have the resources, to clean up a Tainted zone, the next best option could be containment as Taint cannot spread to player-made blocks (eg cobblestone and wooden-planks; but it will still spread to player placed blocks that occur naturally like dirt). Containment is a way of making sure that the Taint cannot spread further along the ground but does not address atmospheric levels of Taint which could cause nearby chunks to become Tainted and start spawning their own Tainted zone. Also, placing a Totem of Dawn will prevent any Taint from spreading in a 3x3x3 area centered around that totem.

Your wall does not need to be high, a single block will stop any Taint from passing through that area, however there are several things you MUST look out for:

1.) Taint can spread diagonally, so you must make a solid wall with no corner-to-corner connections. Make sure every block is directly connected (ie face to face) with every other block of the containment wall.

2.) Taint can spread under walls if there is no block on the other side of the wall. Make sure that there is at least 1 block on the safe side of the wall below it, if you can see the block directly under the wall, the Taint will spread through it.

2013-01-26 09.41

A taint containment zone. Steps: 1) Build 2) Plant sapling 3) Splash with concentrated taint.

Notes[]

Quarrying out a 64x64 area showed that the Taint stays the same even with only bedrock remaining. Instead of making huge holes, put in a Vis condenser with concentrated evil upgrade (maybe quicksilver upgrade too for speed). Link it to a Vis pipe > Vis pump > up to five Vis purifiers, and a Vis pipe back to before the pump. Lastly put as many Tainted crystals as you can afford into the condenser. You don't need any tank since the system will only drain more Taint out after it has destroyed some. After a few hours and lots of Tainted crystals, the Taint will be gone and no more problem. Move the setup somewhere else when done, or just dismantle it.If you dont and you create a "giant well" and you swim in it the walls will act very glitchy.

Four Chunk Taint Cleaner

Four chunk Taint scrubber system.

Do this only if you want that piece of land, otherwise keeping the Taint area confined with mini Silverwood tree(one block of Silverwood with one block of Silverwood leaf on top) is best for research and fun. Place those in healthy areas surrounding the Taint zone of course. You can get a lot of Tainted crystals from Taint zones by the way, since most normal crystals will be corrupted.

The picture to the right is an example of a four chunk Taint cleaner. The Vis condensers have Concentrated Evil and Quicksilver upgrades. The mini Silverwood trees and condensers are placed at the corner where four chunks cross, so one set is in each chunk.

Sequestering Taint[]

As of 7.2, the Vis to Taint ratio for most Thaumaturgy makes sequestration impractical.

Minimizing Taint[]

One possible way to minimize the influence of Taint created in your production of Thaumcraft items is to place your Crucible and your Thaumic Infuser in other Ages provided by Mystcraft. Since Ages are easily created, a Taint Infection in another Age has minimal Influence. This helps keep your Overworld safe in the early stages while handling Taint is still tricky.

Another option is to put it in the Nether. It is easier to get to and it is so vast that Tainting one small area won't matter.

Avoiding Taint[]

If you want to avoid Taint, you may choose to connect advanced vis valve: one valve should be colored cyan (this will let only Vis through) and one purple (for Taint). To change color, right click on the valve. The two valves should be connected to the pipes from the source of vis. Note that you can store vis in any type of tank (from ThaumCraft, of course), but Taint MUST BE KEPT in Thaumium tanks!

How to make Taint[]

If you want to see how to pollute, you may choose to make taint. This is useful to make pure vis.

1. Place crucibles. Normal ones are good.

2. Every crucible should have a vis filter. Only one. That will free taint in atmosphere and leave pure vis.

3. Take pure vis from the filters with conduits. Then lead them wherever you want.

Disabling Taint at world creation[]

If you find Taint too difficult or annoying to deal with, go to "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\AppData\Roaming\.techniclauncher/technicssp/config/ThaumCraft2.cfg" and change the valua "aura.Taintspawn" to 0.

But you can still get Tainted land if you pollute too much



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