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Instability

(Redirected from Decay)

Example of some white decay.


Decay is what occurs when a Mystcraft Age is very unstable. It will eventually end the Age, depending on how severe the instability is. There are several forms of decay that an age can experience. However, Decay will most often not begin until and unless the world is
A) very badly written, such as having major contradictions or more than one type of Page in the Descriptive Book or
B) either the Dense Ores symbol or the Accelerated symbol are added, which will always cause Decay.

Meteors[edit]

Meteors will fall randomly from the sky and destroy large sections of the world either when the world is very unstable or when the meteors are specified to do so with a Meteors page. Meteors can destroy the entire world if given enough time, and if one is too close to a meteor when it lands, the game may freeze and/or crash. Meteors may leave some ores around the crater.

Decay Blocks[edit]

Several types of Decay exist, depending on the level of corruption of a world:

Black Decay[edit]

Time to break with diamond pick: aprox. 1.5 seconds.
Speed: Low.
Unique feature: Causes ground to collapse.

Possibly the most benign form of Decay, especially to Skylands or Void worlds. It mostly spreads to existing blocks, and it spreads faster up and down than it does to the sides. It also has the unique trait when two blocks form on top of each other, they will merge into one block of decay and cause every block above it to fall, even blocks that are normally unaffected by gravity. It is recommended to have a Jetpack or other flying accessory to escape the decay, and floating structures unconnected to the ground are recommended. It can be blown up with TNT.

Blue Decay[edit]

Example of some colored decay.

Time to break with diamond pick: aprox. 2 seconds.
Speed: Medium.
Unique feature: None.

Blue decay travels moderately fast in all directions. It can travel through air, but moves around 5X slower than through existing blocks. It can be blown up with TNT.

Red Decay[edit]

Time to break with diamond pick: aprox. 3 seconds.
Speed: Medium.
Unique feature: None.

Similar to blue decay, but harder to clean up. It can be blown up with TNT.

Purple Decay[edit]

Time to break with diamond pick: aprox. 10 seconds.
Speed: Medium.
Unique feature: Spreads through air just as fast as the ground.

It breaks around as fast as obsidian, and behaves similarly to Blue and Red Decay, but without the speed penalty while traveling through air. It's nothing special if you are on the ground, but if you are in the air, it's even worse than the feared White Decay. It has an 85% chance to spawn in a Dense Ores World. It can NOT be blown up with TNT.

White Decay[edit]

Time to break with diamond pick: aprox. 10 seconds.
Speed: fast.
Unique feature: Can damage player.

White decay after 20 minutes of instability, beginning to grow over meteor craters.

White Decay is a death sentence for an Age. It acts like red and blue decay, but eats through the ground much quicker, it also eats through other forms of decay as other blocks, and slowly grows into the air. Possibly the tool that can defeat White Decay is Replacer Colony, Bacteria Colony (from Bacteria Mod) and Vajra but Vajra can't stop it if the decay has not gone far. It is also the only decay that can physically harm the player. It deals an armor-penetrating half-heart of damage per second, but only if the player is moving. It can NOT be blown up with TNT.

Other Negative Effects[edit]

Random Explosions is an effect which sometimes results from unstable ages. Explosions are created randomly. These explosions can light blocks on fire, deal damage to the player and knock the player off the world if it is a Void, End or Skylands world, but they are seemingly incapable of destroying blocks such as Stone.

Negative potion effects sometimes occur in a Mystcraft Age. These can either be ambient, where they are unchanging, or due to sky exposure, where they can be counteracted by simply going underground (Note: To count as being underground, there simply needs to be at least 1 solid block separating you and the sky). Known potion effects caused by instability and their causes are listed here:

  • Mining Fatigue II-IV, ambient
  • Slowness II-IV, sky exposure/ambient (?)
  • Poison III, sky exposure
  • Nausea II-III, sky exposure
  • Hunger III, sky exposure
  • Blindness I, ambient
  • Weakness I, sky exposure

-note that glass block doesnt count as a block that separating you from the sky

A slightly unstable Mystcraft Age can also sometimes apply a fire status to mobs and players when exposed to the sky. The fire damage is done in short bursts at approximately 5 second intervals that tick for 4-5 points of damage to mobs, but less than half a heart damage to unarmoured players. (?)

Bugs[edit]

Some modded blocks seem to not count as "solid" blocks, even though they are, and do not block Sky Exposure effects