Getting Started with The Aether – The Aether Wiki (1.21.1)

The Aether is a sky dimension of floating islands. You arrive with nothing that works well there: your torches cannot be placed, your tools mine its blocks slowly, and falling off an island drops you back into the Overworld. The way forward is a new wood (Skyroot), a new stone (Holystone) and three new ores.

1. Getting to the Aether

There is no portal block to craft. Build a frame of Glowstone blocks and pour water into it; the mod's own tip reads “Place water into a Glowstone frame for a Hostile Paradise.” A Glowstone frame 4 blocks wide and 5 tall, with water poured onto the bottom of the opening, lights up as an Aether Portal — see How to Make an Aether Portal. The portal takes you to the Aether; the same portal brings you back.

Starting loot: in the default settings the mod gives a Book of Lore and Golden Parachutes as starting loot when you enter the Aether. The book describes the mod's blocks and items.
Falling: in the default settings, falling out of the Aether puts you back into the Overworld. Parachutes open by themselves when you fall off an island.
Daylight: the mod's tips say a day in the Aether lasts three times as long as in the Overworld. The Sun Spirit, the boss of the Gold Dungeon, says in his dialogue that the sun will never set while he is alive, and the mod's settings describe this eternal day as lasting until he is defeated.
Portal Frame item: the Aether Portal Frame is not crafted. A config option can hand it to players when a world is created; it is off in the default settings.

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2. Skyroot and Holystone

Skyroot Trees give Skyroot Logs: one log makes four Skyroot Planks, and two planks make four Skyroot Sticks. Skyroot Planks do not count as vanilla planks, so the mod adds its own Skyroot recipes for the Crafting Table, Chest, Barrel, Bed and other wooden blocks. Holystone is the Aether's stone.

All Aether tools are built on Skyroot Sticks; vanilla sticks do not work. There are four tool tiers, each with an ability shown in its tooltip:

Tier	Material	Ability
Skyroot	Skyroot Planks	Double drops: the pickaxe from Holystone and Ambrosium Ore, the axe from Skyroot Logs, the shovel from Aether Dirt and Quicksoil, the sword from mobs
Holystone	Holystone	Drops Ambrosium Shards at random while you use it
Zanite	Zanite Gemstone	Grows stronger as it loses durability; repairing it makes it weaker again
Gravitite	Enchanted Gravitite	Using the tool on a block makes the block float; the sword flings what it hits into the air

Warning In the default settings tools that are not from the Aether mine Aether blocks more slowly than Aether tools. Bring materials for a Skyroot set, or craft one right after you arrive.

any Skyroot Log (#aether:crafts_skyroot_planks) → 4 × Skyroot Planks

2 × any Skyroot Planks → 4 × Skyroot Stick

4 × any Skyroot Planks → Crafting Table

3 × any Skyroot Planks + 2 × any Skyroot Stick → Skyroot Pickaxe

3 × Holystone + 2 × any Skyroot Stick → Holystone Pickaxe

3. Light, fire and lava

Vanilla torches and lanterns cannot be placed in the Aether, and Flint and Steel and Fire Charges do not start fires there (the fire ban in the mod's data has a bypass list that includes soul sand and soul soil). Lit candles and campfires go out when placed. Lava placed in the Aether turns into Aerogel, a see-through block that resists explosions.

The Aether's own light is the Ambrosium Torch: an Ambrosium Shard on a Skyroot Stick gives four torches.

any Ambrosium Shard + any Skyroot Stick → 4 × Ambrosium Torch

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4. The ores

Ore	Pickaxe needed	What it gives
Ambrosium Ore	Any	Ambrosium Shards: Altar fuel and torches; in the default settings a shard can be eaten for half a heart. A Skyroot Pickaxe doubles the drops.
Zanite Ore	Stone tier (Holystone)	Zanite Gemstones for Zanite tools and armor, the Altar and the Nature Staff.
Icestone	Stone tier (Holystone)	The block itself: fuel for the Freezer. Placed Icestone freezes water and lava next to it.
Gravitite Ore	Iron tier (Zanite)	The ore block itself. It floats upward when nothing is above it. The Altar enchants it into Enchanted Gravitite.

Ambrosium Ore and Zanite Ore can also be smelted in a furnace or blast furnace for their shard and gemstone.

Zanite Ore → Zanite Gemstone

3 × any Zanite Gemstone + 2 × any Skyroot Stick → Zanite Pickaxe

8 × any Zanite Gemstone → Zanite Chestplate

5. The Altar and Gravitite

Eight Holystone around a Zanite Gemstone make the Altar. It burns Ambrosium Shards and has two jobs: it enchants items, for example Gravitite Ore into Enchanted Gravitite, and it repairs damaged tools, weapons and armor, vanilla ones included.

Enchanted Gravitite makes the best tools and armor of the Aether. The full Gravitite armor set gives a super jump with the space bar; in the default settings set abilities like this one only work when the matching gloves are worn too.

8 × Holystone + any Zanite Gemstone → Altar

Gravitite Ore → Enchanted Gravitite

3 × any Enchanted Gravitite + 2 × any Skyroot Stick → Gravitite Pickaxe

2 × any Enchanted Gravitite → Gravitite Gloves

Note Gloves, rings, pendants and capes are accessories. They go into the Aether's accessory slots, which have their own key to open the accessories inventory.

6. Clouds and parachutes

Cold Aercloud: landing on it causes no fall damage. Four make a Cold Parachute, which has one use.
Blue Aercloud: bouncy; it launches players and mobs high into the air. The Freezer makes it from a Cold Aercloud.
Golden Aercloud: found in small amounts higher up, or enchanted from a Cold Aercloud in the Altar. Four make a Golden Parachute with 20 uses.
Quicksoil: slippery sand on the sides of the islands. It speeds up walking mobs and sliding items, so watch your step near the edge.

4 × Cold Aercloud → Cold Parachute

4 × Golden Aercloud → Golden Parachute

Cold Aercloud → Golden Aercloud

Cold Aercloud → Blue Aercloud

7. Food and health

Blue Berries from Berry Bushes are the most common food but restore little. The Altar turns them into Enchanted Berries, which restore much more. Use an Ambrosium Shard on Aether Grass to get Enchanted Aether Grass: Berry Bushes on it drop twice as many berries.
Inebriation deals damage over time and makes you move at random. The White Apple from Crystal Trees cures it, and so does the Skyroot Remedy Bucket, which the Altar makes from a Skyroot Poison Bucket (poison collected from Aechor Plants with a Skyroot Bucket).
The Healing Stone is Holystone enchanted in the Altar; eating it gives Regeneration.
Gummy Swets from dungeon chests restore your whole hunger bar in the default settings.

Blue Berry → Enchanted Berry

Holystone → Healing Stone

Skyroot Poison Bucket → Skyroot Remedy Bucket

3 × any Skyroot Planks → Skyroot Bucket

8. What comes next

With Zanite or Gravitite gear you are ready for the next steps: the Freezer and the Incubator, Moas, and the Bronze, Silver and Gold Dungeons with their bosses and keys. All of it is on The Aether: Altar, Freezer, Incubator and the Three Dungeons.

Textures, models and item names © AlphaMode, baguchi, bconlon, Blodhgarm, Burning Cactus, Drullkus, Hugo Payn, Jaryt, Katie 'Oz' Payn, quek, Raptor, reetam, RENREN, sunsette and the Aether contributors.

Recipes, names and numbers are read from the mod files of The Aether 1.5.10 for Minecraft 1.21.1 (NeoForge). Not affiliated with the mod authors, Mojang or Microsoft.