Grinding My Gear(s)
Part 12 ~ 20 July 2025
Played: 24 March 2025
You know what really grinds my gears?
ANVILS. These things are a total ripoff! They demand exponentially higher numbers of levels, and then have the gall to tell you that your next enchant is too expensive. And to top it off, they randomly shatter into pieces. It's my number two pet peeve after inventory management. That's why I've taken it upon myself to design a SUPER ANVIL that never breaks and doesn't ratchet up costs for items that have been worked on before. For any enchants I don't have books for, I've also jazzed up my enchanting table with a reroll function and a peek at ALL the enchants instead of just one.
Anyway, ranting aside, today is all about grinding my gear! What for? You'll find out soon! (As if it isn't blindingly obvious lmao)
First: Back to work on the library! I migrated over my pet zombie from the forge and had him undeadify the first line of librarians. With my lovely discounts in place, I leveled them up to discover all their offers, then set about filling side two. A second zombie from the dial-a-zombie well completed the library staff, and an acacia stair/slab roof completed the structure. These folks are gonna cover almost all my enchantment needs from here on out – and glass too, which is great for the local beaches!
Next up, I finally made a banner for my shield! This here is the lovely non-binary pride flag. You might have guessed from my pronouns but I haven't explicitly said it, so yeah – I'm non-binary :) I reckon this complements the aroace hoodie really well! And with my librarians trained up, I have this beauty enchanted with unbreaking and mending so it will keep me safe for the long haul.
By the way, it was right about this time that the timer ticked over to day 200. Remember what I said after 100 days about beating the game when I collected those ender pearls? So much for that lol. To be fair, I slept through a lot of that time. I like my cat naps, okay? :3
Now that the enchanting side of the equation is covered... Here's me in front of the nether portal with a huge stack of wool and 67 beds. You know what that means. We're getting geared up FOR REALS.
I wandered down to a low-lying spot in the nether wastes, mined diagonally down to y15, and... wait I found ancient debris already. I swear I'm not x-raying! Oh yeah, I retextured it green so I can see the damn thing against the red background lol.
Okay, with that beginner's luck in the bag, it's time to tunnel. The guides say to mine on the chunk borders, but I don't like the idea of missing pieces, even if it's "faster" that way. I want to be THOROUGH. So I go with a 12x12 grid, as far as I can go without hitting a lava lake or the annoyingly blast-proof basalt biome. And then, poke in a tunnel, pop down a bed and...
Ah, I love the smell of [intentional game design] in the morning! :D Rinse and repeat another 100 times or so, and I came away with 25 pieces of debris. Which honestly feels like a poor haul compared to past runs, but it's enough for today. Bonus tip btw: if you have fog disabled, you can use fire resistance and swim in the lava ravines to mine debris from the walls. Don't try this at home! (you literally can't haha)
Back to base to claim my prize: Netherite gear, baby! "But Ela, don't you need an upgrade template?" Nope – that nerf was done in 1.20. I'm on 1.19 – Better than Sniffers™. So, it's off to the forge to make another set of armour that YOU WILL NEVER SEE because I've stashed it under my street clothes. (How do I do that? I'm wearing torn up pants; surely the armour would show through those? Ah well, chalk it up to video game logic!) This set comes with the extra perk of knockback resistance, meaning I can hold my ground when I take a hit and stay in control of my movement when things get hectic! I had enough netherite for two more upgrades, which I chose to use on my sword (sharpness) and axe (smite + silk touch), giving them each a straight up +1 attack damage. So the kit's not fully complete, but as far as combat is concerned, we are 100% ready to rock >:)
