Introduction | Stoneblock 4

Stoneblock 4 is a skyblock-style modpack where you start in the middle of an island, surrounded by stone. Rather than punching trees, you will be breaking stone into pebbles, converting materials through hammering and brushing, and building up your island from just a small hole deep within the islands core. This guide will walk you through your first steps to getting started on SiriusMC's version of Stoneblock 4.

 

The Echo of Guidance and Creating Your Island

When you first join the server you will spawn at a dedicated spawn point. Ahead of you is the Echo of Guidance, an NPC you must interact with before you can access your island. Walk over to them and right-click to open the dialogue GUI. After reading, or listening through an audio button, you will notice at the bottom there is a Complete Stage button. Press this button to unlock access to the "Getting Started" chapter in your quest book, and to access the World Selection Portal.

Head up the stairs behind the Echo and walk through the large portal at the far end. Here you can choose which type of starting island you would like. Once selected, you will be taken to your island and can begin your adventure.

After completing the quest Initialization, you can purchase a Quest Book from the Echo of Guidance for 1 coin. Alternatively, it can be found in the top-left corner of your inventory screen at any time.

Island Types

There are 6 different types of islands you can start with, with varying difficulties:

A dark and eerie blackout zone | Difficulty: Extreme
A small area covered with Black AntiBlocks, the player is unable to see anything.

A dark and mysterious cave | Difficulty: Hard
A small area, similar to "A dark and eerie blackout zone", but with a single torch to prevent mobs from spawning.

A vibrant and colorful cherry tree | Difficulty: Medium
A larger lit up area, featuring a custom-built tree made from oak logs, with cherry leaves, grass blocks, moss, and various mud blocks.

A ruined pre-industrial complex | Difficulty: Medium
Stone brick and cobblestone pillars with multiple levels of spruce wood platforms and walkways connected by ladders and slabs, with torches spread throughout to prevent mob spawning. The walls and floor are made with stone and andesite, with veins of cobblestone spread throughout.

A rugged and resilient tuff cave | Difficulty: Medium
A cave with walls covered in tuff, cobblestone, and moss, braziers made from pedestals and fire pits, and staircases made from cobblestone and cobbled deepslate.

A lush and warm mangrove cave | Difficulty: Easy
A cave-esque island with plenty of mangrove trees, a pond with lily pads, braziers made from pedestals and fire pits to light up all areas, and several different types of stones.

Getting Started

In Stoneblock 4, stone replaces wood as the primary crafting material. You can craft stone crafting tables, stone sticks, and stone tools using the same recipes you would normally use for their wooden equivalents.

Start by breaking stone with your fists to collect pebbles. Each stone block you break will drop between 1 and 3 pebbles. You can then combine 4 pebbles together to craft 1 cobblestone, this will act as your wood equivalent for now. You make a stone crafting table using 4 cobblestone, or stone sticks using two cobblestone to help you get started.

Hammers, Brushes and Crooks

Next you will need some specialised tools to progress, these include hammers, crooks, and brushes. There are two different types of hammers, ones from the mod FTB Stuff & Things allows you to transform blocks into different blocks, the hammers from the mod Just Hammers allows you to break several blocks at once, stone crooks can be used on different blocks to gain materials associated with them, and brushes allow you to brush blocks for essential items.

Hammers

Using stone sticks and cobblestone you can craft a Stone Hammer from the mod FTB Stuff & Things. These types of hammers break down blocks into different ones, forming the core of your early resource chain:

Cobblestone ⮕ Gravel 
Gravel ⮕ Dirt
Dirt ⮕ Sand
Sand ⮕ Dust

You can also use hammers from the Just Hammers mod, these allow you to break blocks in certain patterns, at the start it will be in a 3x3x1 pattern, but you can upgrade these hammers to break in a 3x3x3, 5x5x1, 5x5x3, or 5x5x5 pattern. To make one of these hammers you will need to smelt cobblestone into stone, and use wooden sticks instead of stone sticks.

Stone Crook

Craft a Crook using 4 stone sticks. The crook is used to break blocks into a variety of different items. For example, using a crook on dirt can yield a range of saplings, using it on sand will yield a bunch of different crops, ranging from sugarcane, cactus, kelp and bamboo, all the way to Demon's Dream seeds, cocoa seeds, and canola seeds. It is an essential tool for generating resources early on.

Brushes

Brushes are your main source of material gathering, these are what allow for you to get various ores, seeds, and gems. However, to gather better materials you will need to increase your Unearther level, this is done by completing quests that have the level up icon in their rewards. The type of brush you use doesn't change the items blocks drop, however, it can help the process be less tedious. The first brush you will get is the Crude Brush, made using a wooden stick, a pebble, and a piece of straw, it's good, but it will only brush 128 blocks before breaking. As you gather more materials you will be able to upgrade your brushes:

Crude Brush ⮕ 128 blocks 
Brush ⮕ 384 blocks
Reinforced Brush ⮕ 1,152 blocks
Unbreakable Brush ⮕ infinite blocks In addition to manually brushing blocks, you can get villagers to do it automatically for you.

 

Now that you have your core tools and understand the basic resource loop, you are ready to start making your island into a fully fledged base. The next steps are getting a water source set up and growing your first trees, if you haven't chosen an island with water and trees already on it, and eventually automating your brushing and hammering to free up your time for bigger projects. Check out the guides below to continue your progression.