Mods/Hydrocraft

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Hydrocraft Guide For Dummies

Hydrocraft is a mod based around crafting and filling in the empty world of Project Zomboid with more stuff. It is inspired by survival crafting games like Haven and Hearth. It is very much a WIP and will be tweaked and added onto. The main developer is Hydromancerx. Many independent mods were added to this mod, turning it into a collection of mods, which makes it rather difficult to give an overall guide.

There are two official Hydrocraft sites:

• Hydrocraft Mod in The Indie Stone Forums
• Hydrocraft Wiki

However, as of writing this (13th May, 2018), there is no overall guide about Hydrocraft (or at least I didn't find these guides if they exist), so that's why I've started to make one. I'm not part of the HC dev team, I'm just a normal player who started using HC some weeks ago. (And English is not my first language)

About the Wiki

The term Hydrocraft Wiki may be a bit misleading, because it is quite different from normal Wikis. It was created by Nolan Ritchie and is powered by a script that can intelligently read the source of the game files and insert the information into a database. Because of this script based content loading design, the website can be updated with 1 click when the game developers push updates.

So basically it is just a collection of all items and recipes. If you want to know what you can do with a specific item or how you can get it, you have to go to the item's page (use the Search feature). That page contains information about where the item may spawn and all recipes that create or use that item. If you want to create an item and the creation recipe contains more unknown items, you may have to dig through several item and recipe pages until you have the whole creation workflow. This guide summarizes some of these creation procedures.

Goals

What can you do with Hydrocraft?

• Food
  • more plants for basic farming (e.g. corn)
  • drip irrigation to water your crops
  • potted plants
  • trellis farming with vines
  • more animals for basic trapping (e.g. nutria, fox, beaver, turkey)
  • hunting system that provides a use for rifles
  • beekeeping to produce wax and honey
  • a huge selection of meals and pastries (you can make pizza or barbecue some fish)
  • you can brew your own booze
• Animals
  • cats and hamsters
  • dogs that you can use for hunting, herding, fighting or to carry stuff (pack animal)
  • horses, cows, goats, pigs, sheep, donkeys
• Weapons
  • craftable axes (remove the axe head of an axe, craft a new axe handle and combine them into a makeshift axe)
  • wooden stakes for stabbing zeds
  • more makeshift melee weapons (e.g. Baseballbat with Hedge Cutter Blade)
• Smithing
  • you can forge basic tools like Shovels, if you happen to not find any while looting
  • Crossbow
  • a wide range of melee weapons like maces, spears, swords
  • armor, shields, helmets
• Industial Crafting
  • Steam Machine
  • Solar Generator and Charging Unit to produce electricity
  • ammunition
  • Flamethrower
  • Rocket Launcher
• you can craft Biodiesel to renew gasoline
• Wagons with Oxen or Horses that can transport a lot of stuff (400 Capacity with 100% Weight Reduction)
• and other stuff
  
  

Getting Started

Usage Notes

• When using exact items, they are capitalized to distinguish them from rather ambiguous/general items (e.g. 'Jarred Homemade Yogurt' vs 'various fruit yogurts').
• In recipes, mats that are consumed are shown with the number of units consumed (like '4x Planks'). Tools that are kept don't have that indicator (like 'Hammer'). However, for simplicity some common drainable items don't have that indicator although they are consumed (like Charcoal and Lighter).
• Some of the crafting processes give you several options (like four different types of drilling tools). To simplify matters in this guide, some of these options are omitted, and marked with a *. If you want to see the other options, you'll have to check the wiki.
• Sometimes recipes need mats that are exceptionally rare, these will be marked with a !
  

Crafting Tips

• You can view all recipes ingame (Press B) in the Crafting Menu. However, finding certain recipes may be cumbersome, because you have to know which Category it belongs to. Also, crafting with the Crafting Menu may cause lag.
• One big advantage of the Crafting Menu is that you can check which materials you miss, when crafting elaborate items with many ingredients, like a Blast Furnace.
• Otherwise it is easier to craft by right clicking on one ingredient in any inventory (like your own inventory, a container or on the ground), and then choosing the desired recipe. You have to have all needed materials in your direct proximity.
• When crafting, if you right click on an item in your main inventory, the resulting item will be transferred into your main inventory. If you right click on an item in the ground inventory, the resulting item will be dropped on the ground. For example, if you need Planks in your main inventory, have a Saw in your inventory, go to some Logs lying on the ground and start crafting by right clicking on the Saw - You don't have to pick up the Planks after crafting and can save some time.
  

Storage Tips

• Because Hydrocraft uses a ton of items, it may be a good idea to set up a huge storage area and sort your items based on categories, so you know where to find or put a certain item.
• To help finding the right crate you could use items dropped in front of the crate, to indicate its contents.

An example of a storage system for Hydrocraft (light Spoiler): Storage System

Useful Traits

• Dextrous, Organized: VERY useful, because there are tons of items
• Lucky: useful, because some important items are very rare
  
  
• Hearty Appetite, High Thirst: not much negative impact, because there are a lot of food sources in HC

Those are the traits that are more useful when using Hydrocraft, compared to vanilla. The rest of the traits are similar to vanilla PZ, and although there may be some that are more useful than others in general, these depend more on your preferred playstyle.

First Steps

• Collect all Skill Books and Recipe Books
• Build a storage area and hunt useful loot
  • e.g.: Axes; Garden Apron, NPK Fertilizer, Mystery Seeds Packets, Gardening Spray Cans, Pruning Shears, Shovel; Bags of Clay, Dog Whistles, Calculators, Solar Panels, Thermometer, Manometer, Welding Gas Tanks; Generators
• Increase your skills, especially Foraging, Farming, Carpentry in the early game; Cooking, Metalworking, Electrical and Mechanics in mid game
  • With LV4 Woodwork you can craft most (basic) stuff, if you don't find an Garden Apron you need LV7 Woodwork to make it (is needed for Gardening Workbench/Potted Plants), LV8 Woodwork is needed to make Steam Machines
  • With LV7 Farming you can make Potted Plants
  • You need LV10 Foraging in order to find Wild Beehives
    

Tips for Leveling Up Skills

Spoilers ahead

• Foraging: it is convenient if your base is close to the woods (there will also be less zombies); the Foraging skill will also affect other things like mining or searching for metal with a Metal Detector
• Farming: XP are gained for successfully harvesting a crop, so fast growing crops like Cabbage (14 days) are best; Cabbage is good in general because of high calories and hunger saturation, in order to counter short spoil time use several fields that are shifted by e.g. 2 days, excess Cabbage can be turned into compost or fed to animals
• Carpentry: building Log Walls seems to be quite effective
• Trapping: build Trap Crates, (Snare Traps) and Cage Traps in the wilderness where there are no zombies around, and a bit away from your base (traps will not catch anything with the player being within 75 tiles of them); Cabbage is a good bait for catching rabbits, groundhogs and nutrias; check traps once per day
• Cooking: cooking Small Game Steaks (heating up and changing it from raw to cooked) levels up you Cooking skill extremely fast, so even though it takes longer to catch animals than to just use vegetables for cooking, eventually the time investment will pay off
• Metalworking:
• Electrical: by far the hardest crafting skill to level up, getting to LV7 is a huge task;
• Mechanics: get a Screwdriver and a place with many cars, and start with radio/battery/lights - uninstall them and immediately reinstall the same piece again, however, only do that once per car for every item, then go to the next car; at LV1 you can use tires, too (jack, lug wrench); at LV 2 you could use seats, however, changing these takes longer, so you might just ignore them; after some cooldown, you can restart with the first car again - check your skill tab to see whether your skill increases or not
  
  

Drip Irrigation

Hydrocraft v10.5 (Sept 2018): Irrigation was removed because it caused too many problems. Will return if the original creator fixes it.

• Craft Irrigation Pipes with a Garden Hose, Hammer and a Screwdriver.
• Build Rain Collector Barrels.
• Connect your crops with the barrels in any arbitrary arrangement.

Now you have to water your crops only once after planting to reach the desired water level. Plants with a pipe on the same square connected to a barrel will receive 1 water every 2 in game hours. You don't have to check them every day anymore, as long as you have water. Otherwise, refill your barrels.

Note that drip irrigation does not work perfectly for plants with a maximum water level, because these usually need a higher starting water level. With drip irrigation however, the water level does not decrease at all.

Basic Tools

Carpenter Bench

First you need a drill. One option is to find a Cordless Drill, insert a Large Battery and you are done. Or you can craft a Flint Tipped Bow Drill:

Sturdy Sticks are crafted with a Saw and a Plank. A depleted Flint Tipped Bow Drill turns into a Bow Drill Bow, so you can make a new drill with just a stick and a sharp stone. Now crafting the Carpenter Bench is easy: Hammer, Drill, Saw, 2x Sturdy Sticks, 10x Nails, 10x Planks. However, you need at least LV4 Woodwork. You can level up Woodwork fast by building vanilla Log Walls.

Kiln

You need 50x Grey or Red Clay. While looting Crates you will find Bags of Clay, and one bag contains 20x Clay. Otherwise you get clay from mining.

Sawbuck

(LV4 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, 6x Logs, 10x Nails, 10x Planks

With a Sawbuck you can craft more efficiently. For example, with a normal Saw and a Sawbuck you gain 4 Planks from 1 Log instead of just 3. Other applications are Wood Blocks, Wood Beams and Wood Sheets.

Wooden Bucket

You will need several buckets, e.g. for making milk of lime / tannin (for Tanning), concrete or honey. Empty buckets are also great for collecting rain water.

• Log and Saw to make Wood Blocks
• Saw and Wood Block to make a Wooden Ring
• (LV1 Woodwork): Hammer, Drill*, Saw, 1x Wooden Ring, 2x Nails, 2x Planks, 1x Rope to make a Wooden Bucket.
  

Herbalist Table

• Kiln/Lighter*/Charcoal and 3 Clay to make a Small Clay Jar (you need two jars)
• (LV4 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, Carpenter Bench, 4x Nails, 5x Plank to make a Wood Table
• (LV4 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, Carpenter Bench, 1x Bowl, 2x Small Clay Jar, 1x Wood Table, 2x Nails, 3x Plank, 40% Twine
  

Ropes

• 3 Sheet Ropes can be crafted into 1 normal Rope (as you can use Zed clothes to make Sheet Ropes, you will never run out of ropes)
• normal Ropes can be turned into Thick Ropes and Thin Ropes, and vice versa (9 Thin Ropes = 3 Ropes = 1 Thick Rope)
  

Clay Cauldron

• Kiln/Lighter*/Charcoal, 1x Campfire Materials, 10x Clay*, 4x Stone
  • Campfire Materials (vanilla): 3x Planks OR 2x Logs, Ripped Sheets OR Sheet OR Book OR Magazine OR Newspaper OR Twigs
    
    

Potted Plants

In order to craft planters you need a Gardening Workbench, which requires a Garden Apron. If you are lucky, you can find one in shed areas; otherwise you have to extensively craft it.

• Spinning Wheel (LV6 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, Carpenter Bench, 1x Wooden Wheel, 4x Nails, 5x Planks
  • Wooden Wheel (LV7 Woodwork): Hammer, Drill*, Saw, Carpenter Bench, 1x Wooden Ring, 3x Sturdy Stick, 1.2x Wood Glue
    • Wooden Ring: Saw and Log -> Wood Block | Saw and Wood Block -> Wooden Ring
    • Sturdy Stick: Saw and Plank
• Spindle (you should craft 3 or 6): 1x Spindle Head, 1x Sturdy Stick
  • Spindle Head: Kiln/Lighter*/Charcoal, 1x Clay (red or grey)
• Primitive Loom (LV6 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, Carpenter Bench, 4x Nails, 6x Plank, 2x Rope
• 72 Flax: can be found with LV2 Foraging (or with the 'Gather Flora' recipe, see wiki)
  
  
• Spinning Wheel, 3x Flax*, 1x Spindle to make Linen Thread
• Primitive Loom*, 3x Linen Thread to make Linen Cloth (you'll get back your 3 Spindles)
• Needle, 0.4 Thread, 8x Linen Cloth to make a Garden Apron
  
  

How to craft a Gardening Workbench (! marks rare loot):
(LV1 Farming): 1x Workbench, 1x Garden Apron!, 3x Clay Flowerpot, 1x Dirt, 2.5x NPK Fertilizer!, 1x Gardening Spray Can!, 1x Trowel, 100% Garden Hose, 3x Mystery Seeds Packet, 1x Pruning Shears!, 1x Rake, 1x Work Gloves, 3x Empty Notebook, 1x Shovel!, 1x Watering Can!

• Workbench (LV4 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, 10x Nails, 10x Planks, 2x Sturdy Sticks
• Clay Flowerpot: Kiln/Lighter*/Charcoal, 6x Clay (red or grey)
• Dirt: can be obtained with the 'Dig with Shoes' recipe or with mining
  
  

Now you can finally craft Potted Plants. Basil and Alfalfa need Flowerpots.

• Craft Clay Flowerpots: Kiln/Lighter*/Charcoal, 6x Clay
• Fill these clay pots with dirt: Gardening Workbench, 1x Clay Flowerpot, 25% Dirt Bag
  • You can either craft Dirt Bags with a Shovel, 1x Sack and 4x Dirt; or you can use the vanilla PZ procedure by right-clicking a patch of grass with both the sack and a shovel in the player's inventory, and using the action "Take some Dirt > Sack"
• Plant basil or alfalfa (LV7 Farming): Trowel, 1x Clay Flowerpot with Dort and 1x Basil or Alfalfa Seeds (can be found in Mystery Seeds Packets)
• After 3 days small potted plants turn into (bigger) potted plants, and after 3 more days into ready potted plants (which last another 2 days before they die)
• Harvesting your basil or alfalfa plants gives you a random yield, including seeds
• Basil Leaves can be eaten, Alfalfa can be dried into Straw with a Herbalist Table
  
  

The rest of the Hydrocraft potted plants need Planters.

• Craft Wooden Crates (LV1 Woodwork): Hammer, Saw, 2x Nails, 2x Planks
• Fill these crates with dirt: Gardening Workbench, 1x Clay Flowerpot, 25% Dirt Bag
  • You can either craft Dirt Bags with a Shovel, 1x Sack and 4x Dirt; or you can use the vanilla PZ procedure by right-clicking a patch of grass with both the sack and a shovel in the player's inventory, and using the action "Take some Dirt > Sack"
• Plant your crops (LV7 Farming): Trowel, 1x Planter, 1x Seeds (can be found in Mystery Seeds Packets)
• The number of days it takes for a plant to become ready is 6 days for most plants, and 14 days for trees (e.g. apple tree)
• Ready potted plants can be harvested for a random yield, including seeds
  
  

Dairy Farming

Dairy farming is a great way to get more food (milk, yogurt, cheese, beef).

• First you need a herding dog, which requires some Dog Whistles.
  • Dog Whistles have a very low spawn rate in several areas (Crates, Metal Shelves, General Stores, Sheds, Storage Units). If you don't find enough, you can get them with the 'Search For Metal' Recipe, but that requires Medium Batteries. Dead Medium Batteries can be recharged with a Solar Park or Charging Unit. Currently, Dog Whistles can't be crafted.
• 'Search For Stray Dogs' with Binoculars and 1x Dog Whistle (consumed) will give you a random dog. You can look here which dogs can be used for which purpose.
• When you have a herding dog, you can 'Track Lost Cows' with (LV2 Trapping) Binoculars, dog*, 1x Rope, 1x Feral Cow Poop.
  • Feral Cow Poop can be found with LV2 Foraging, or with the 'Gather Dung' recipe, which requires only a Mammal Fieldguide.
• Cows will get hungry after 3 days, and starve after 3 more days. You can feed them with cabbage, corn, apple, carrot, lettuce, grass or straw, and 1x water; even rotten food will work.
• When you have a male and a female cow, you can breed them (needs food/water). You will get a baby cow, and the parents will become 'tired/lactating'. Male cows will loose the 'tired' status after 1 day, and female cows will give milk for about 14 days (unless you don't feed/milk them for 3 days so they turn into hungry cows). Baby cows will grow up after 28 days.
• You can milk Lactating Cows with food/water and an empty Wooden Bucket.
• Wooden Buckets with Milk can be turned into vanilla milk cartons with the 'Bottle Milk' recipe. Alternatively, you can process it into a variety of other products.

Yogurt

• 'Heat Milk': Cauldron*/Lighter*/Charcoal, 1x Wooden Bucket with Milk
• 'Ferment Milk' (LV 8 Cooking): 1x Wooden Bucket with Heated Milk, 1x Chili Pepper Stem
  • Chili Pepper Stems can be obtained by cutting a Chili Pepper with a Knife* at a Herbalist Table (even rotten ones will work)
    • Chili Peppers can be looted from fridges and grocery stores, or can be grown in Planters (see Potted Plants)
• 'Jar Homemade Yogurt' (LV8 Cooking): 1x Wooden Bucket with Fermented Milk, 4x Jar with Lid (thus yielding 4 jars with homemade yogurt)
  • Jars with Lid can be found or made by combining an Empty Jar with a Jar Lid
    
    
• Yogurt can be processed further into various fruit yogurts or Tzatziki
• Some attributes of Jarred Homemade Yogurt: 6 DaysFresh | 10 DaysTotallyRotten | 610 Calories (that means 1 bucket of milk yields 2440 calories)
  
  

Biodiesel and Gasoline

• In order to make Biodiesel you need Vegetable Oil, Grass/Straw to make Lye, and alcohol to make (highly toxic) Methanol.
• Lye and Methanol can react to Methoxide; Methoxide and Vegetable Oil can react to Biodiesel.

Vegetable Oil: (LV5 Cooking), Oil Press, 1x Wooden Bucket, 100x seeds*

• You can use corn (shucked, any color), pumpkin or cotton seeds. Corn can be grown on normal farm tiles, but pumpkins and cotton need to be grown in Planters.
• Oil Press: 2x Stone Wheel, 100% Bucket with Concrete OR 4x Mortar, 2x Logs, 25x Stone

Pour the Vegetable Oil into a Cooking Pot. Then cook it at a Kiln (Work Gloves, Lighter*, Charcoal).

Lye: (LV3 Cooking), 100% Wooden Bucket with Water, 5x Charcoal Powder, 1x Grass OR 1x Straw, 1x Stone

• Charcoal Powder is made from Charcoal with Mortar and Pestel, a Grindstone, a Laboratory, or a Macerator (with gasoline).
• Straw can be obtained by drying Grass, Plant Fibers, Flax, Corn Husks, Soap Grass or Alfalfa at a Herbalist Table.

Distillery:

Methanol: (LV7 Cooking), Distillery, Lighter*, Charcoal, 1x strong alcohol*
Methoxide: Latex/Rubber Gloves, Safety Glasses, Spatula*, 1x Wooden Washtub, 1x Wooden Bucket with Lye, 1x Methanol

• Wooden Washtub: (LV6 Woodwork), Carpenter Bench, Hammer, Saw, 4x Nails, 4x Planks

Biodiesel

• 'Make Raw Biodiesel': Latex/Rubber Gloves, Safety Glasses, Spatula*, 1x Pot of Cooked Vegetable Oil, 1x Wooden Washtub with Methoxide
• 'Remove Glycerin': Latex/Rubber Gloves, Safety Glasses, Spatula*, 1x Wooden Washtub with Raw Biodiesel
• 'Wash Biodiesel': Latex/Rubber Gloves, Safety Glasses, 1x Wooden Washtub with Unwashed Biodiesel, 4x Water
• 'Store Biodiesel': Funnel, 1x Wooden Washtub with Washed Biodiesel, 1x Empty Gas Can

Gas Can

• In order to turn Biodiesel into regular gasoline, you need some gasoline and fill that into your Biodiesel
• 'Add Gasoline to Biodiesel': Funnel, 1x Biodiesel Can, 13% Gas Can
  
  

Steam and Steel Beams

• In order to build a Steam Machine you need an Iron Furnace to burn fuel and generate heat, a Steam Boiler to transfer the heat into steam, and a Steam Engine that turns hot steam into mechanical energy.
• In order to build an Iron Furnace you need a Thermocouple for measuring high temperatures and a Small Rolling Mill for making wire out of metal ingots.

Small Rolling Mill: (LV3 Mechanics), Anvil*, (Steel+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves, 1x Crank, 4x Iron Ingot, 1x Steel Ingot, 2x Steel Rod

• Crank: Anvil*, (Steel+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves, 1x Steel Rod, 1x Wood Block
• Steel Rod: Anvil*, (Steel+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves, 4x Steel Ingot

Thermocouple Wire: Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Small Rolling Mill, Tongs, Work Gloves, 100% Constantan Wire, 100% Copper Wire

• Constantan Wire is made from 1x Constantan Ingot at a Small Rolling Mill; Constantan Ingots are made from 1x Copper Ingot and 1x Nickel Ingot at a Blast Furnace (LV7 Metal Welding)
• Constantan Wire can also be found when dismantling Toy Robots, Joysticks, Computer Monitors, Hand Vacuums, Hairdryers, Electric Toothbrushes, Electric Razors and Toasters

Thermocouple: (LV3 Electricity), Pliers, Screwdriver, Work Gloves, 1x Calculator!, 1x Thermometer!, 100% Thermocouple Wire, 4x Electronics Scrap, 4x Screws

• Calculators can be found in various storages. They can't be crafted. You can also find them with the 'Search for Metal' recipe by using a Metal Detector.
• Thermometers can be found in medical storages. They can also be crafted: Smelter/Lighter*/Charcoal, Tongs, Work Gloves, Iron Blowpipe, 1x Cinnabar, 1x Glass Ingot
  • Iron Blowpipe: Anvil*, (Iron+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves, 2x Iron Ingot

Iron Furnace: (LV4 Mechanics), Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves, Pipe Bender, 1x Thermocouple, 1x Manometer!, 1x Copper Pipe, 1x Copper Sheet, 5x Iron Rod, 5x Iron Sheet, 1x Valve

• Manometers can be found in kitchen counters. They can't be crafted.
• Copper Sheet: 4x Copper Ingot at an Anvil
• Iron Rod and Iron Sheet: 4x Iron Ingot at an Anvil

Steam Boiler: (LV4 Mechanics), Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Pipe Bender, Work Gloves, 1x Empty Metal Barrel, 5x Copper Pipe, 3x Valve

• Empty Metal Barrel: Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves, 1x Large Sheet of Metal, 2x Metal Sheet
  • Large Sheet of Metal: Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves, 2x Metal Sheet

Steam Engine: (LV8 Woodwork), (LV4 Mechanics), Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves | Hammer, Pipe Bender, Saw, Screwdriver | 1x Iron Wheel, 1x Copper Pipe, 3x Iron Ingot, 1x Iron Pole, 1x Iron Rod, 2x Iron Pully, 1x Wood Beam, 8x Nails, 1x Plank, 1x Rope, 2x Screws

• Iron Wheel: Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves | 2x Iron Rod, 1x Iron Ring
  • Iron Ring: Anvil*, (Iron+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves | 1x Iron Rod

Steam Machine: (LV4 Mechanics), Welding Torch and Gas Tank, Welding Mask, Work Gloves | Pipe Bender, Screw Driver | 1x Iron Furnace, 1x Steam Boiler, 1x Steam Engine, 2x Copper Pipe, 1x Large Copper Sheet, 1x Iron Rod, 1x Valve

• Large Copper Sheet: Anvil*, (Copper+) Smithy Hammer*, Tongs, Work Gloves, 8x Copper Ingot