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I define a true base as a construction (or conglomerate of constructions) that is self-sustaining. It needs to produce its own resources, and it does not rely on other bases or places to do so. Right now, Enderquin HQ is a hub whose sole purpose is to house the ender portal. But today, we’re going to turn it into something more sustainable.

I mentioned previously that the base would consist of two parts: Quinone Castle and Skyland. Above, you can see the area inside the mountain that I’ve dug out to form Quinone Castle. Let’s expand a bit on that.

All of this is currently temporary – we just needed a place to set up until it was time to erect the major constructions.

The castle will be very structurally different from Starlight, because it will be designed as an actual castle. See, the issue with Starlight is that even though I call it a castle, it really is anything except one. The name sticks.

Behold, the Eye of Iris – my attempt at pixel art for the ender eye. This may be modified yet, but it will be the center of the castle, surrounded by an 8-block wide ring. This will put the main room here roughly 32 blocks wide.

Alright, the lack of supports on the karma ducts is bugging me. We’re bringing in a large pool of resources from Stonewall to complete them today.

Prismarine, red Nether brick, and quartz all go very well together, albeit making for a somewhat strange-looking build. As we continue to fill it in over time, it will look better. But with a build this extravagant, we need to take it one step at a time.

I have to deal with mining fatigue often now that I’ve moved the guardians here – it’s just the way it is.

Surrounding the crater which houses the portal. We don’t need any trespassers making their way inside.

Looking not too shabby! I wonder if I should continue using prismarine as a principal building block for Quinone Castle. It wasn’t on my list initially.

What a mess! Next, we need to look at a potential storage system.

Here, I’m digging out a simple storage room to start. The idea is that as we need more storage, I’ll stack another room vertically underneath this one.

So, I cannot continue building in Skyland sanely until I install some system for having cows ever present! This will require me to make a cow farm. Which requires a wheat farm. I could have brought all this stuff from Starlight but recall our goal: new base. So we’re starting from scratch as much as possible.

This is probably the only cow I have found anywhere near here. We need a second one. What does that mean?

It means I need to take the one from Stonewall. When the guardians left, so did this cow’s relevance.

^ That’s not going to work.

I’ll need to take him through Crystalline Courtyard.

Alright, now I can start breeding! This will provide leather amongst other things.

For the next part of Quinone Castle, we need to build a staircase down to the Enderquin portal.

It’s quite a way down, but having this passage will allow me to expand the base and build some of the necessary farms we need down here. This is preferable, as I want the above-ground portion of Quinone Castle to be largely decorative. Not our focus at the moment.

Take a closer look at it. We’re going to build a long hallway that connects from Quinone Castle to this portal.

We’ll call it the Forbidden Passage. Why?

It’s over 100 blocks long.

I reckon it will house our new farms very well, since we’re going to take a micro approach with them.

First, I’m building a new type of automated pumpkin/melon farm. It’s super simple, designed by Mumbo. Every time a pumpkin or melon grows, it is automatically harvested. You can only do one crop, so I’ll stack a few of these.

And we have ourselves our first two automatic farms!

Next, I’m building another variation of the same automated wheat/carrot/potato farm that is elsewhere in the world, this time using an observer. All materials I am using were harvested here at Enderquin HQ – we’re slowly building up redstone supplies just as much. Because… this base will also allow us to build more large-scale redstone machines that we simply don’t have the room for at Starlight.

Very compact, and it gives us plenty of wheat to breed cows, plus carrots/potatoes for snacking. I don’t want to keep wasting golden carrots while here – those are for Enderquin.

Oh, this is a slime chunk! Perfect! Now I know that we can make a slime farm right at the bottom of the staircase.

Perhaps we don’t even need the cow farm for leather. I forgot that we have a whole host of books right inside the ancient stronghold.

Wow, and that’s not even the whole library. It’s also just one of two.

So, let’s build the enchanting room. We have levels to burn, and I’d like to start stockpiling with collaboration from the Gold Grinder. I’ve done several large mining sessions now, and resources are starting to accumulate quickly.

The enchanting room is upstairs, almost underneath the Eye of Iris. I’m going to open it up significantly.

Voila, once I have enough leather, I’ll make item frames that denote each of the chests. One side will be for high-level enchanted items, the middle section will be low-level (stuff to be combined later), and the right side will be books.

I’m opening up the Eye of Iris a bit more, but I don’t think we need to do too much more today. Our focus is primarily functional.

Interesting, while here at the Gold Grinder, I notice a pigman below me. He must be spawning as a reinforcement. It hasn’t affected the rates that much, but I can just light the area up better I suppose.

Yeah… I think that’s enough gold for today.

And that’s enough enchanting for today as well.

Enderquin HQ is coming along nicely, and I reckon we’re close to achieving a low-tier base. This is the goal right now before we open the portal, as we want to be sure the area is well-developed in preparation for what lies on the other side. We don’t know. Best to stay ahead of the game rather than behind.

One of the last major pieces that I want to build is a general mob farm, since mob drops are incredibly useful and will help propel the development of the base further. However, we aren’t going to focus on a multi-purpose farm like the one at Starlight, mostly because we don’t need to use it for XP.

As such, the design will be far improved. Given that the original mob farm was built about six years ago, it goes without saying much can be improved. I won’t doubt the efficiency of the farm, but it really only works at peak capacity if you’re within 32 blocks of the spawning spaces. This is because it relies on mobs wandering off the edges.

With this farm, we are going to improve that by making it flusher-based. Mobs will spawn on the platforms, then they will get immediately pushed off by water. It therefore will not require mobs to move at all, which means the farm will work from anywhere in the 128-block radius.

Each layer is 30 blocks long, and I think three layers is good enough for what we want. We can always add more later, if we so desire.

The dispensers need to be hooked up in such a way that they alternate. I’ll have the first layer actively flushing while the second layer is not, for example. Spawning will not stop at any time.

The reason I am building this farm so low to the ground is because the higher up it is built, the lower the rates will be. Plus, having it low will encourage me to do more caving and general lighting of the 128-block radius surrounding Enderquin HQ. This was always going to be necessary, anyways.

^ I am using a hopper clock to alternate the dispensers. Right now, I’ve placed half a stack of blocks inside – this timing works well enough for me.

The drop from the stream that funnels them in is 35 blocks, which will kill all mobs with the exception of some that have Feather Falling + Protection. I don’t expect that to be common, and they would eventually despawn.

Hoppers will collect all the masses of drops that we should attain.

Because the design of this farm is flusher-based, we can now account for spiders, which the mob farm at Starlight cannot do because of its design.

Now, we need to sort all the drops. Thankfully, we enough supplies here without having to return to Starlight.

After just a few minutes, we have already received this many items. That’s a good sign – it also means we need to build a sorting and storage system fast.

The item sorter is not unlike most other item sorters in this world – it’s just a bit bigger because we are dealing with more drops.

Voila, you can see all the drops listed by mob type, with the final chest (left-most) containing everything that isn’t sorted (should only be sticks and glass bottles from witches). We can always extend this downwards in the future, but this way we’ve got some time before the chests fill up.

Now, we have to install some milk posts in Skyland, because the mining fatigue will inevitably prevent us from continuing to work on it.

For that, I moved the cow farm downstairs next to the crop farm, taking out four cows to bring to the sky.

Thinking about how I’d want to set this up, I knew that I’d want the cows to be accessible from both the inner and outer rings.

Naturally then, I designed a holding spot in-between the two. This was a bit tricky, but the cows cooperated.

As we acquire more quartz, we’ll continue making these posts fuller in depth (to say the same about the rest of Skyland), but for now this works. You can access the cows from either ring.

Finally, I am placing some item frames with buckets on both sides – this way, you can grab and go. There will always be milk available to combat the mining fatigue. Consider it a way of life whenever you’re up here.

I think that’s everything. Let’s finish the portal.

I am blowing up more of the mountain to expose the other side of the portal – it was a bit too uneven before.

Now, I am going to add several rings of sea lanterns – obviously, this is a decorative choice. We are trying to draw attention to the portal, after all. Bright freefall rings accomplish this goal nicely.

Especially at night.

That’s Skyland for now. But we need to take down the stone slab staircase. It was always temporary.

Much better. Now, the only way to get up will be via ender pearl. I’d say that’s fitting; wouldn’t you?

I think we’ve done everything we can to prepare for this. All directions followed. All signs acknowledged. Let us insert the final eye of Iris to open the portal.

The legend is true. We have just awoken Enderquin from his slumber.

As we brace for the dawn of day 5,000, there is just one thing left to do.

Haha, Enderquin, you are all mine. Looks like Violet’s vision was false after all. Oh how happy I am to collect your XP.

And what’s this? A dragon egg? Perhaps, it is my trophy.

With my conquest completed, I would say it’s time to see what really lies beyond in this barren land. I’ve got plenty of gear to last. Let’s see… a gateway portal has opened up.

Let’s see what we get on the other side!

Wow, beautiful new fruits! We’ll need to harvest some flowers from the top so we can bring it back to Starlight.

I am marking the coordinates of the portal so that we can manage our way back. Who knows what we’ll find beyond?

All I know is that I’m collecting a whole lot of chorus fruits.

Argh, I would kill to fly right about now…

So we’ll need to bridge across the old-fashioned way. Also known as the only way.

What a beautiful formation! It’s a shame this land was inhabited by such a foul creature.

It looks like we’ve got an exit portal here, so we won’t need to head all the way back after all.

I think that farming ender pearls will be a good idea. It will ease my travel across this vacant land. So far, I have traveled a couple thousand blocks, but have found nothing. Perhaps the legendary end cities that the books talked about are fables.

Or maybe not! Look, in the distance there!

It appears to be just one tower, but it’s a great omen for what might be beyond. Let’s explore!

Look at these beautiful purple blocks. I wonder what we’ll do with these.

Stay back, you fiends! Did Enderquin hire you? Your levitation attacks cannot stop me.

God, there’s so many of them. I might as well be on acid right about now. This is probably better, though.

I will take your shells, thank you very much. Let’s check out the loot chests.

I will say that I didn’t expect such high-grade gear. Then again, the gods don’t mess around. Despite the curse, I’ll take it. I’ll take everything. My deepest appreciation for the gods providing me with such gifts. I have a feeling we’re not done yet, though.

That was the right feeling – off in the distance there, not far from the first tower, is a much more promising city. It looks very dangerous, which makes it quite appealing.

Is that a floating ship? How the hell am I supposed to get to that? The same way I crossed the void, I guess.

Let’s tackle this beast, one shulker at a time.

This may as well be another combat escapade. I am learning lots of new tricks, such as using ender pearls to preserve fall damage by throwing them to the ground. The water MLG trick I used when fighting Enderquin doesn’t always work, to say the least.

Imagine if you could craft a potion that would let you descend slowly… now wouldn’t that be something?

Alright guys, playtime is over. I want my gifts.

Perfect, a new work pick. Mine is about broken anyway. And, oh, is that Mending?

Let’s head to that ship! I reckon some goodies await me in there.

A bountiful view from the outside, but let’s head underneath.

Plenty more loot and… are those wings? How dandy – just what I need in a time like this.

The famous elytra that the legend spoke of – wings worn by gods to soar through Quintropolis on a whim. Now I have a pair.

I’ll hold onto it for now; I would hate to not know what I am doing and fall to my death because of it. We’ll get some practice when we get back home.

^ Speaking of which, I need to learn how to better use ender pearls. This terrain is magnificently dangerous.

Is that a third end city? Yeah, it is, or it was.

With this one, I thought it best to actually raid it… of its blocks.

Perfect, an exit gateway right here. Let’s head back.

What an amazing compilation of items. We have achieved so much on this adventure – I’m thrilled. I cannot wait to head back to Starlight after over a month. It’s going to feel so good being back – that’s exactly the opposite of what I said when returning from Stonewall. Just goes to show how much we have achieved.

Check out the new stone brick textures – I guess the gods did a little aesthetic makeover! They almost look rounded.

Hello, Starlight HQ. I have missed you!

On the topic of aesthetic makeovers, it now looks like we’ll need to dis-enchant all of the wardrobe sets. They don’t look very good now!

For now, until we get a proper storage area built, all Enderquin items shall be stored in these chests.

The Relics will go in the library along with the other legends, closing that chapter.

Dolphins, cod, salmon, oh my! The bay is full of new aquatic friends! I am particularly grateful for the dolphins’ grace they seem to feel so inclined to provide me. I should thank the gods once again for these. It’s like they are blessing me with so many new things – I guess many of them weren’t so fond of Enderquin either.

What the hell is this? A drowned zombie? Get off my lawn.

Oh wait, never mind. I want one of those.

Nautilus shells? Interesting… those are new.

Phantoms! The key to slow falling – oh, maybe these are the curse that Violet’s vision was alluding to? That’s not so bad, to be honest.

Following the accrual of four new beacons, which we had been stockpiling at Enderquin HQ, I find it most appropriate that we fit them in Starlight Outback. Don’t you agree?

Hey now, I don’t remember inviting zombie pigmen into the treehouse. This is not an all-inclusive environment.

It seems the Gold Grinder has been broken, for now. A few replacements are all that is necessary to fix it.

We’ve removed all lights, replaced the slabs with snow layers (five on each block), and added some magma blocks to help chicken jockeys get down. The zombie reinforcements now spawn, but the farm still works well. Regarding levels, we are still getting the same rates, though the drop rates are slightly lower.

Viola! We now have the full auras of Speed II, Haste II, Strength II, and Resistance II. This differs from the arrangement in Starlight Castle, in which we have opted for Regeneration as our second power instead of Resistance II. In the outback’s case, we have room for more beacons. So who is to say we won’t add both Jump Boost and Regeneration? All we have to do is farm more Withers, now that Enderquin has shown us how to do so.

To celebrate Enderquin’s defeat, I would like to construct a monumental build in the outback next to the iron farm. I think this is the best spot as it will spice up the skyline quite nicely, giving more attention to the outback faction.

I am choosing a combination of end bricks, spruce logs, and black clay for this build. It’s a unique combo but it works, considering end bricks are difficult to build with given their odd color palette.

I want this build to be a large tower, the Ender Tower, which you can climb. Think of it as a lighthouse.

Using end rods to light it up seems most appropriate. However, notice that I’m leaving the center hold open. From the top, you should be able to fall straight to the bottom. Into water, of course.

Lanterns! Those are new, too. And they look dazzling. Let’s keep going…

I have a feeling these are exactly what I’ll use to finish lighting up the outback trail, ridding it of the dreadful torches.

I’m exuding a variety of styles as we ascend the tower, playing with different combinations of the blocks to get a look that is a bit ominous.

Let’s cap it off with an appropriate end crystal! I hope that the purple dome will be visible in the night sky.

Indeeed, it is, and wow – I think the Ender Tower looks great. It fits wondrously, adding so much more color to the base. Starlight HQ is essentially a great big rainbow, almost.

But now, here on the jump point of the Ender Tower, I think it’s time to get some flight practice. I have crafted lots of fireworks to get myself started. Let’s initiate our first flight in Quintropolis!

What a game changer! I am honestly amazed – I had read about elytra’s speed before but to actually feel it in action is incredible.

Just check out the views we get from up here! Now you can see the entire skyline with the Nether Temple.

Coming at you from the other side of Quintropolis Island. I got here in like… thirty seconds, maybe.

Sure, let’s just pop on down to the witch farm.

And now let’s visit the SANA across Starlight Bay. Who needs the Nether Hub anymore? This is actually faster. Perhaps the best gift the Quintropolis gods have allowed us to receive.

Well, except Shamrock. He almost makes a bigger difference.

Our visit and subsequent conquering of Enderquin has given us lots of new materials and ideas to work with; and, to be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming. We have so much new stuff in Quintropolis now that it’s quickly overloading what the base is capable of hosting. That’s why we need to act quickly in upgrading it… because you must have figured upgrades were coming. We don’t have room for all of Enderquin’s new blocks/items, or really, in fact, anything at all added since 1.9. Starlight HQ was very well optimized… four years ago. Times have changed, and we need to change with them.

The biggest cataract for that change actually lies in the mysterious new fruit discovered in Enderquin – the magical chorus fruit. Perhaps, it is not the most saturating food, but it does have an interesting property that it will teleport you upon tasting it. One might consider this quality taboo for mortals, but that is not my interest. I think of myself as a new god anyway – Enderquin got that right.

The fruit is useful for building the beautiful purple blocks that coat the cities of Enderquin. I’ve amassed a large number of those blocks already, because upon first laying eyes on them, I fell in love. There are many opportunities for them here in Starlight HQ, and we need to make sure we don’t ever run out.

For our chorus fruit farm, we’re taking an interest in a new sector of the outback – one that has not yet received development.

Back behind the treehouse, behind the outback trail – we’re in the very back of the base now, furthest from Starlight Castle, near the eastern tip of Quintropolis Island. It’s likely that the outback will end up encompassing most, if not all, of this entire peninsula.

We are clearing the area to make way for a new construction which will eventually expand beyond the chorus fruit garden.

Titled ‘Vax Valley,’ the build will indeed be a manmade valley, but it will feature some unique properties that we are in no position to address today.

Since the chorus fruits themselves are quite otherworldly, I figure it’s fitting for the farm to be in the center of the new valley. The design I am using is only semi-automatic, because you need to manually harvest and plant the chorus flowers to replant.

A lot of terraforming needs to take place here, specifically the full removal of that mountain.

We’re only scraping the surface.

Stylistically, Vax Valley (and the chorus fruit garden) will feature a relatively diverse palette of block choices, maintaining a comfortable outback vibe. The valley itself will be designed to roleplay as the ‘promised land’ here in Starlight HQ. Certainly, then, we have some high standards for the build. Like the outback faction itself, Vax Valley will be built in stages.

Above, you can see a slightly more complete view of the current design. The valley will most likely expand over time and become a rectangle, but not until we complete the required terraforming of the surrounding landscape. Right now, I am just focusing on the chorus fruit garden.

Each end stone block is where chorus flowers will be placed. We’ll set up a clock that will have dispensers automatically harvest the plants. Then, underneath, we’ll run a hopper minecart to pick them up.

They grow quite quickly – I think we’ll have a full harvest ready by the time we finish the farm.

These guys can grow quite high – it is likely we might be able to spot them from the front of Starlight HQ (even though… render distance probably won’t allow it).

Yay, we have received a trident from the drowned! But it is effectively broken, so we’ll need to wait before we can start using it. However, seeing as I have plenty of trident enchanting books now, I’ll make some upgrades:

Maybe now we can make several more friends for Sparky! But then we would need to make a home for them. Having charged creepers in the treehouse is… unwise, to say the least.

Here is the redstone for our farm, not too complex, which accomplishes two functions at once. First, it will activate the four dispensers around the farm and keep them active for a specified amount of time (the purpose of the hopper timer in front). After this time, the output line on the right side travels to the yet-to-be-setup hopper minecart which will collect the drops and bring them back to storage. So let’s get to that.

Laying out the tracks is a slight pain – minecart systems always are. This one is very specific, because I actually need the collection area to be outside the valley.

Hmm, maybe out here is a good spot. I am choosing this location for the storage because it is also close to the outback trail. This means we will be able to access the storage easily from the trail without veering off into Vax Valley. I also want it above ground.

Of course, our interest is in the purpur blocks, which means we need an automatic smelting system too. However, the one currently at Starlight HQ is not very efficient. So we’re going to play with new designs.

First, I need to clear out the layers of the valley to best place the storage area. Each layer will be three blocks wide, with the bottom layer having six blocks between the stairs and the boundaries of the farm.

Did I mention how annoying it is to work over here at night? The local difficulty is at its max here, expectedly, and we’re on the outskirts of the base which means not much is lit up as the territory is unsettled. That means our nights are almost full of combat, and I am not a big fan. Rather than sleep the night away, I have found better uses of time. During the night, I’ll just go mining, and using the clock, I’ll know when to hop back to the surface.

^ A stray observation whilst in the mines.

Originally, I was going to use a minecart system to smelt the chorus fruits, similarly to what we had set up with Starlight Compressor. However, this doesn’t work because automating the minecart’s movement is damn near impossible without complex mechanics. There are simpler solutions.

^ Here is the simpler solution. Fruits will funnel through the top layer of hoppers. The middle layer is locked, which means that each hopper on top will receive exactly one fruit. Upon reaching the last hopper, a comparator will unlock the bottom layer of hoppers, all of which will receive the fruits in the hoppers above them (one each) and disperse them evenly in the furnaces. Seven will be smelted at once, with one column allowing some fruits to sort un-smelted. Because why not? Someday we might just want regular chorus fruits.

Now, to harvest chorus flowers, I install some glass panes to force the flowers to grow near the ground. This makes them easy to harvest.

A test run is successful! I ran a total of three harvests, fixing bugs and timing with the system each time. We get between 4-5 stacks of chorus fruits with each harvest, and I reckon I am still pulling the plug too early given how big they can grow. The farm is still not 100% efficient, because sometimes they like to grow outside the walls, or they land outside the walls. However, it’s semi-automatic, because player intervention is always required to replant. So it’s okay – I can just grab the rest.

Our completed smelting and storage system works well, and on the right I have exposed a hopper which we’ll use for manual input. This is for all the additional drops we pick up that the minecart cannot get. We may optimize it later, but it works great for now.

Check out the chorus fruits from Starlight Treehouse Station – not such a bad view, but it gives you an idea just how far it is from the rest of the base. From the orchard in Starlight Plaza, which is effectively the other end of the base, you’ll be traversing about 400 blocks to get here. So now you know why we needed STAS. Speaking of which...

I’ve gone ahead and finished the aesthetics of the Outback Station – the northern end of the blue line. It looks a bit better now, using some new andesite stairs which I am quite grateful exist.

All in all, our mass production of purpur blocks has begun, which excites me greatly, as Vax Valley is just the start of Enderquin’s influence upon Starlight HQ.

Let’s take a look at the oldest construction in this world – one that has long been in dire need of an update: Starlight Castle.

This build’s history is among the most diverse of any in this world, considering it has been rebuilt once and furthermore has never been much of a ‘planned’ construction. It has always been expanded spontaneously and rather haphazardly, which has led to its ultimate downfall – a lack of theme and structure.

Nowadays, Starlight Castle is considered an archaic build – a monument of history and nothing more, because almost all of its features are legacy. I used this build a lot during the early game (the first two years or so), but once the Starlight Resources Facility became a thing, well, I haven’t really needed the castle. Probably the biggest use it currently has is being home to our Adventure Arsenal of weaponry and tools, and the beacon.

Let’s be clear: I have never wanted to outright destroy the castle. This world as a whole is a timeline of history, and I would not wish to remove that. However, this base has been improving and expanding at a rapid rate, and now Starlight Castle is holding it back with its obsoleteness. Both aesthetically and functionally, it is nowhere near the level of some of the newer builds we have done this season. That’s why we are going to rebuild it.

I don’t mean ‘renovate.’ I am going to completely rebuilt it, which means we first have to tear it down.

We will execute a controlled demolition of the castle’s current form, starting with the first floor and working our way up. First, I’m removing all the little entities and details (flowerpots, utility toolbars, etc.). Next, I’ll remove the old egg generator. Useless.

I’ll just let all those chests of eggs de-spawn. Leangreen, I recall you warning me at the start of this journal that I would become overwhelmed by the masses of eggs. I should definitely have heeded that long ago!

One of my main issues with Starlight Castle is how cramped it is. The reason for this stems from the fact that unlike our other builds, Starlight Castle was both our starter home and eventual base centerpiece back in the early days. As such, it suffers from many of those ‘early game’ aesthetic oversights, largely a cramped architecture.

As you can see above, this is one of the main features we are going to fix. No longer will Starlight Castle features a bunch of small rooms like a house. It was always designed as a large house. It will now be redesigned as a castle.

Oh, poor bakery. I forgot you even existed! It’s a shame, too, because I never actually ate any of the cakes that had been sitting here for years.

Now you may be wondering: what about the second floor? How do we handle the tight spaces up there?

…and I ask: what second floor?

You know, for a self-proclaimed castle, it’s still technically small. But, considering that Starlight HQ is quite renowned for squeezing as much as possible in the smallest amount of space, I’m proud to consider this a huge upgrade. Starlight Castle will still be a historical monument – it’s just going to actually look like one now.

Do you see it? The slow arrival of the beautiful purpur blocks? I’m going to be getting a lot of wood back from this. And stone bricks. And andesite.

And so you see that the fruits of Enderquin will be our primary source of building materials for the new Starlight Castle. The challenge for this build will be finding all the right complimentary blocks that can be built alongside it. And I already have some ideas for that.

…but we need to take a quick break and observe what just happened outside. Is that a skeleton trap??

Indeed so! I was successful in liberating two of the skeleton horses from their dreaded riders. So we’re going to capitalize on that.

Did you know that these horses have some unique properties?

You can ride them underwater! That could be very useful with the assistance of some speed potions.

For now, I’ll store these guys in the Aqua Lounge where they would be used. We’ll work on a separate section for them later! Back to work now…

One of the main blocks we’re going to use in addition to purpur and its variants is black concrete. This is a smooth, sleek, beautiful block that will contrast quite nicely with purpur, quartz, and diamond. However, you may note that one extremely important farm is missing from this base…

A concrete generator! By golly, we’re going to be using a lot of concrete in this build. Plus, I have never had a place to store all the concrete we’ve been making to build the SRF control floor, tangent floor, or anything else. Again, Starlight HQ needs updates!

So let’s stop putting it off and build the simple mechanism, which will be in the hallway between the Mob Resources Division and Redstone Room.

All concrete blocks will be stored in barrels on this side of the hall. One side will be for concrete powder; the other will be for finished concrete.

On the other side, we’ll have the simple concrete maker. Place concrete powder in the top chest and keep some in your off-hand. Walk up to the obsidian and hold both mouse buttons to begin production! The water stream will instantly convert the powder to concrete. A dispenser will keep feeding you powder while the hopper below collects the finished blocks.

I’m quite happy with this, and I’ve gone ahead and amassed a large amount of concrete for all sixteen colors. We don’t need that now, but I figure it’s best to stay ahead of the curve. We have the resources for it anyway.

With our concrete generator done, let’s get back up to Starlight Castle.

^ I am in love with this arrangement. I had a hard time figuring out which block would be perfect for the X configuration – one that could contrast all three blocks of black concrete, purpur, and quartz. Indeed, diamond is the only block which fits that category.

I’m going to be careful with just how much of the spires I tear into today, because we’re not fully ready to redo them. I don’t even know what blocks I’m going to use yet. Following our controlled approach, then, we’ll stick to the first floor today.

Light blue clay actually doesn’t look too bad! I’ve moved the jukebox station fit with a shulker box (our music box). And I’ve started a new spire in front where the old cat room used to be.

Strange as this may be, I think the leaves still look great here. They contrast the purpur nicely and add a luxurious comfort to the castle’s otherwise imposing character.

^ Here is the new drop zone into the SRF, nicely refitted with our new blocks.

And of course, we needed to color the beacon beams in the Starlight Castle’s dominant colors – light blue and purple!

The back room and lift spires are going to be separate projects on their own. For now, I am just finishing the first floor aesthetics around them. Oh, I cannot wait to obliterate that old furnace room, and in fact the entire back segment of the castle there.

What do we think of the purple concrete? I am currently indifferent about it – not sure if it really works here or if it’s distracting.

And here comes the challenge of integrating the spires within the asymmetrical architecture of the ground floor. This calls for some creative thinking.

I’ve gone ahead and replaced all the wood stairs in the transport spire to purpur. It already looks better, and we still need to rebuilt the spires.

Day 5100, and we’re making great progress on the new Starlight Castle! Things are moving quickly, but we’re just tipping the glass on this project. It has proven to be a much larger undertaking than I initially anticipated, mostly because of the work required in fixing all the particular problems we are looking to address. Alas, I am optimistic, as I think this is the best start towards upgrading the base as a whole.

Let’s start with the Lifeline – the center of the castle, the transport center to all floors and observatories within the castle, stretching all the way up to the glass dome.

Looks a bit better, no? It is now also immovable. And blast resistant. Let’s keep going.

Now that is a lot of obsidian.

I am a huge fan of this look, which will be even better once we complete the castle. The reason I chose obsidian was because its dark but textured appearance will contrast wonderfully with the castle’s otherwise bright colors. This is already apparent with the new beacon beam colors.

Now, then, we’re going to go ahead and remove the warehouse floor. Useless.

What’s that? The range balcony is still here? Ha, it’s now in the way!

Gone.

So we’re going to leave open all the space between the first and second floors (the second floor of which was formerly the third floor) and build the walls up. This is going to give Starlight Castle the big open feel that it always deserved.

^ Here, you can see a more complete aerial overview of our new ground floor.

What you’re looking at above is the old deploy tower – a transport pod between the boat entrance of Starlight Castle and its escape hatch on the third (formerly fourth) floor. When you enter by boat, a minecart automatically sends the boat back up to the hatch for the next boat adventure. We don’t use it too much, because we don’t need to travel by boat anymore. However, I am not interested in destroying this tower. It’s still a very important feature for the castle.

Having said that, I am very interested in destroying all this red garbage. Good riddance.

Do you know how much I am going to enjoy tearing down this entire clay mess that I used to call a back room? Let’s just say that… now you see it.

Now you don’t!

The back entrance of the castle will be an important development, because it’s right on the bay which means it will require more aesthetic attention than the front ever did. And every single time I have redone it, I failed in that department. Not this time.

So for this, we’re heading to Vax Valley to check on our chorus fruit developments… and I must say that I am impressed. This supply should get us through the entire first phase of reconstruction!

I’m taking an aerial view of Starlight Castle to get an idea of the next major part of reconstruction that requires our attention: the four spires. I had been deliberating exactly what blocks would look best, because I feel that purpur would end up looking ugly and disjointed – all problems that the current design faces.

It then became clear that a visit to the North was necessary… to acquire more sand. Because black concrete is the way to go.

While up here, I decided to pay a visit to the old village of Techtown. I realize that the villagers there no longer have jobs, and I feel it is necessary to fix that.

Huh, well that went remarkably well. Back home, then.

These Mending books will be quite useful to put on our elytra and trident. I’ll also put one on two swords. Eventually, they will go on everything else, too.

Taking a look first at our middle-series spires (transport spires), I need to come up with a better roof design that really makes them pop. My current plan is to build these two middle spires out of black concrete entirely and give them a “wizard’s tower” style roof made of purpur.

For the back two lift spires, again I plan to use concrete, but their roofs will be slightly more… pointed? Notice they are taller than the transport spires – this is intentional.

With that, let’s demolish!

Haha, I’ve done it again, disabling the disintegrator because I can’t pay attention.

Very nice, looking better already. Though, of course all this wood needs to be replaced with purpur.

You can see that we now need to figure out how to connect the spire to the ground floor. We’ve already begun doing so in the previous session, but today we’ll need to complete the full encasing of this side of the castle.

This means getting creative with different shapes we can build on the outside to give it more character.

Braziers don’t look too bad out here. Maybe they will be an effective source of lighting around other parts of the exterior Starlight. Because… we don’t need creepers spawning and falling inside like roaches.

^ Case in point! Damn it.

I’m using upside-down stairs to halt the descent of the spire any further. And then, up top, you can see a viewing platform from the outside. That’s located here:

Complete! What do we think of this? Is there too much purpur? I’m always looking to spice up block choices, because I recognize the current challenge of choosing this particular block: purpur does not have the widest versatility when it comes to complimentary blocks. After all, I don’t want Starlight Castle looking like an end city.

Let’s hit the other spire, which should be quite a bit simpler.

Very good, yes; I am a big fan of this.

So although we’ve obliterated the entirety of the former second floor, we still want to keep the access entrance to the Power Museum that used to exist there. That’s why I am keeping this platform atop the jukebox station, accessible via the transport spire we just finished.

We’ll just redesign it a bit.

You can see that I am having fun experimenting with ways to connect it to the eventual roof. But there are many ways we can go about this – they won’t be fully realized until we actually complete the roof. That’s for another day.

We’re moving on now to the back two lift spires, which are narrower but taller. After deliberating, I’ve decided to do a combination of black concrete and pillar purpur with these, coupled with purple stained glass. Let’s take a look.

Hopefully you can see that by adding the pillar purpur accents, we’re allowing the spires to be readily visible in darker conditions. Otherwise, you would never be able to tell them apart.

Now then, we need to cap them off.

Marvelous! We’ll touch them up as we complete the rest of the roof sections up here, but for now this is a massive improvement.

Our final project of the day is also arguably the most important… the back entrance!

So we’re going to redo the deploy tower out of black concrete – no surprise there. But for the back entrance, well, we’re going to make things a bit more grandiose.

^ Here, you can see the terrain that we’re working with. There is no land that we can simply hide or bury the entrance into. That’s why building the back side has always been a challenge. It’s just never one that we stepped up to.

First thing is that I am going to extend the entrance well out into the bay.

Using a combination of colors here, I am going for a large cathedral-like entrance. Because in many cases, this will end up being the more commonly used entrance given its proximity to the outback (you can see the treehouse there in the corner).

We are constructing two new piston doors – one on each side. They will both actually lead into new parts of Starlight Castle, but we are in no position to begin building those today. So, for now, they will exit onto the dark oak boardwalk we have constructed.

Now you can start to see what I was talking about. We’re finally fixing up the back side to look like it actually belongs here. Unfortunately, I made a spacing mishap while building. Do you see it?

I had to move the entire left side over one block because, somehow, I missed the fact that it was one block too short. That was slightly annoying, but hey – I’ve made worse mistakes (remember the gold farm mishap? Oh how that was fun).

Enjoy the new cathedral entrance to Starlight Castle – one that is… one-way only (entrance only). For now.

I’ve tidied up the back to make it look more inviting – indeed, you could now just use the boat entrance as a regular entrance directly into Starlight Room. I still might add some stuff to the top – it looks a little disproportionate at the moment. But for now, this is great.

The fireworks hall will eventually become the new addendum that we’ll build as part of Starlight Castle on this side. For another day! This is enough new life that we’ve given the build for now. And it’s crucial not to get burned out – not when we’re deep into this project.

Oh, but yeah – it looks like Starlight Room is next.

Ever since Minecraft 1.9 was released, Starlight Castle had begun to sink into a specific problem regarding its primary purpose: Starlight Room and its Adventure Arsenal – the storing and sorting of all my tools, weaponry, armor, ores, and other high-value goodies. It is the trophy room of this base, the center of planning, the wealthiest room in the world. And it is outdated as hell.

Let me set the stage a little bit.

^ See this Aqua Lounge entrance hall? All those chests have been “home” to my enchanted books. Those chests look similar to this:

And we also have gold/chainmail armor sets too:

Here is the current Adventure Arsenal:

For the past six years, since it was first built as an upgrade from the Armory (which used to be where the wardrobe now sits), it served as the principal storage for all high-level enchanted tools/weapons, which at the time were quite minimal: pickaxes, shovels, swords, axes, bows, and fishing rods. Armor sets are displayed in the Hall of Armor once we built that in Session 185 – a worthwhile improvement.

However, over time, this storage became immensely overwhelmed. The “bow” storage now looks like this:

And the fishing rod storage? LOL, those don’t even go here anymore. I had turned it into golden carrot storage, but look at how that has gone:

^ These are mostly low-level enchanted items, which means that they are not good enchantments, basically, and need to be combined with better ones before being placed in their respective chests. But now, we have grindstones and enchanted books. We don’t need to waste diamonds.

To make matters worse, the Essentials Room which we built here in Session 214 has grown into a mess. Take a look at one of the chests:

To recap, the goal of the Essentials Room is to provide an organized assortment of temporary storage chests for ongoing projects. For instance, we have one chest for Starlight Arcade materials, one for Starlight Treehouse, etc. Unfortunately, all the chests now look like the one pictured above, especially now that we have torn down most of Starlight Castle. I tend to just place everything in here when I don’t feel like sorting it in the SRF.

So we have some work to do today. My first course of action is actually to empty and sort every chest in this room! Let me show you a bit about what that process looks like:

Each batch of items gets taken down to the SRF where I will manually sort them into appropriate storage chests.

This process of sorting every chest, with the wide diversity of blocks/items to sort, took just under one hour. That is incredible, and it is a huge testament at how well organized the SRF storage cellars are. Every single item can be stored, save for a few remnant weird ones like flowerpots (so I just keep those in one dedicated chest in the Essentials Room).

But, I did need to go ahead and create a dedicated storage cellar for all Enderquin items. I placed it on the second floor of the cellars, right next to the wool storage.

Very nice, and now we can actually keep those items organized and get them out of the Essentials Room! Except, of course, we are using them liberally right now.

With some grind work complete, which has been necessary, we now turn our attention to cleaning Starlight Room. Because I do not know how much longer I can look at this:

Ugh! It looked good before we destroyed Starlight Castle because it matched the old theme. It is time for a huge makeover.

First, I need to add a grindstone and dis-enchant every wardrobe set, because now they stick out like a sore thumb.

Much better.

We will continue by redoing the wardrobe first, which requires me to take out each stand individually and replace the block beneath it. Not a long process as you can see by my hot bar – I’ve got it figured out.

I am using lapis blocks to switch things up a bit, adding to the usual blocks we have been using for the rest of Starlight Castle.

^ The new look for the Essentials Room! I am actually really liking the light blue clay now – it adds such a majestic and royal feel to the castle that accentuates its wealth, which is obviously the goal here. Starlight Room is supposed to be the most luxurious room in the entire base, so I want it to feel and look like it.

The back hallway entrance to Starlight Room needs to be closed and removed from the base, because it just looks like this now:

There is no fixing that, and I never use this hallway.

I am using purpur slabs to cover up the roof which has otherwise been dictated by the first floor’s groundwork. I have always hated that. Unfortunately, I cannot lower the level of this room because it would conflict with… a lot of stuff. Recall that everything in and around this room is cramped as hell. The Hall of Armor and villager purifier are both one block underneath, STAS is right next to it, and… yeah.

Someone has invaded the base! While we are changing out the roof, even. It’s a shame all his trades suck.

The boat entrance to Starlight Room also needs to be completely redone now that it is part of the back entrance’s aesthetic.

I’m removing the water first because we have a lot of redstone around this. It would be a shame to mess it up because I don’t remember much of it.

All better. Now let’s move on to what used to be the Nether item storage:

^ This is now going to be the gold/chainmail armor storage.

We also need a new entrance to Starlight Room, of course. So we’re utilizing this side, which was actually the same entrance we built back in v2.0. We removed it for 2.1 because it was clunky, but now it is the only option. Oh, and we're obviously destroying the annoying and useless doorbell.

This entrance actually works well because it “protects” Starlight Room, so to speak, since it is not as accessible as before. Other than the boat entrance, the room is well hidden underneath the castle.

Now introducing… the new Starlight Room!

I am liking this a lot. But don’t forget – I have saved the biggest and most important project for last. It’s the whole reason we are doing this session in the first place…

^ This is the old Adventure Arsenal, as I’ve shown you before. Here is a list of everything we need to add to it:

• Shields
• Tridents
• Crossbows
• Tipped arrows
• Shears, flint and steel, etc.
• Overflow armor sets
• Elytra
• Trophy items
• Low-level enchanted items
• ENCHANTED BOOKS

To add all this means expanding the arsenal. A lot.

Thankfully, since I am lowering it by several blocks, we actually have a lot of room to work with. We are well beneath the Hall of Armor now, which gives us actual space to work with.

At the top, I have rearranged the chests. From left to right, we now have the following: bows, crossbows, axes, shovels, pickaxes, and swords.

At the bottom of this new addendum, I am going to start a hallway to house some of the new cellars. Mycelium for the ground, lapis for the roof, light blue clay for the walls. Majestic.

^ Here, from left to right, is our trophy storage (denoted with golden apples, but also includes things like elytra, dragon heads, dragon egg, etc.), golden carrots storage, and tridents.

Man, ever since tipped arrows were first announced, I have wanted to play with them. I am really good at delayed gratification, as you no doubt have learned by now.

Lingering potions are more like a novelty, but I can see tipped arrows of all types being quite useful in some new parkour courses or minigames. I am already conjuring ideas of what to do with them.

Crafting them is not at all cheap, though, which means I am only going to make a small batch of every type. I just need to get my hands on some turtle eggs now, because I am clearly a completionist.

…but I had to play with a few of them.

I have named each arrow in an anvil to make identification on the barrels easier. The top layer is for positive effects, while the bottom layer is for negative. The former is great for defense; the latter for offense.

^ Behold my hot bar, which I’ve enlarged so you can see what I now wield in a combat scenario. Too many options can be your enemy, but in this case, it gives me a lot more fun. Notice that for the first time in this world, I own a crossbow.

…actually I own several. I went ham on an enchanting spree here. None of them are Multishot, though I did get Quick Charge III.

I’ll also upgrade some of my axes for a combat scenario.

Continuing the hallway, I now have added a storage for overflow armor sets, and FINALLY an enchanting room. Up until now, the closest enchanting room has been the library on the third floor. What a pain that is to get to.

^ This is for low-level items and unenchanted items. I’ll now just use a grindstone for the former to turn them into the latter.

From left to right, on the back wall, we now have the following chests: regular arrows, shields, flint and steel, shears, and hoes. Guess which one of these is completely empty (for the time being, because 1.16 will change that).

That’s everything, right? WRONG! The most important thing is yet to come! We need the enchanted books!

The other side of the hallway will house all of these.

That’s STAS back there – I knew we would run into something eventually. But that’s okay! This is exactly the space we need to create…

…the new Enchanted Library! Check it out:

We now have a double chest for every single enchantment in the game, with the back wall for all combo books (not as common as you might think). Now you may think this is overkill, but…

I have hundreds of enchanted books. Having this organized system is absolutely a blessing.

One thing I have learned from this? I have not a single Channeling book! Which makes sense because I only recently updated from Minecraft 1.12. But hey – they will start channeling into the library soon. Otherwise, this library will actually be a great way for me to personally predict and visualize enchantment probabilities. The most likely enchantments? Power and Protection, hands down. Those chests are already almost full.

With a sigh of relief at a job well done, I must say that I am immensely satisfied with Starlight Castle’s combat update. I can definitely feel this world and this base moving forward with time, as it should be. And that is the fantastic motivation we have been needing. Thank you, Enderquin.

Well, I got my Channeling trident. So it is time to have a little fun.

Not going to lie… I made a huge mess with these guys. I also aimlessly blew up some of the wiring for “Aim High!,” which was replaceable. But yeah, thunderstorms often don’t last long, so I had to act fast. Because I wanted to get one of these:

And so with every thunderstorm, I quickly stop what I am doing to go hunting. But what am I doing today? Well, actually, we are doing a lot of different things.

I cannot afford to get burned out with Starlight Castle’s reconstruction, which is why we are taking time to look at other things that require our attention in the base. Particularly with the advent of having updated three major versions, there are some things that are broken. Additionally, I am annoyed with a lot of small elements that have always needed work.

^ This is the first example. Starlight Plaza is clunky – this road is not very necessary. It was originally designed for horses to travel through the plaza, but this was back when the horse stables used to be here. That was almost two years ago. Even then, we hardly used the road. There are better ways to integrate and connect the plaza to the front yard.

Lanterns are going to be the key to fixing the lighting issues present. Ultimately, I want to remove all torches from this base where they are not welcome. We’re starting here, turning all grass into terracotta and installing lamps. It’s not very organized now, but I’m gathering some blueprints for exactly how I want to design this hill.

I’ll continue along the road with lanterns, which I won’t completely demolish yet. Not until I know what to do with the area.

Now that I think about it, lanterns will also be the key to lighting Starlight Outback’s podzol trail. This is going to be great.

This process actually was not too cumbersome, mostly because the trail can be fully lit with lights on both sides, occasionally requiring one in the middle of the path.

For this, I’ll either install a new lamp post or utilize tree overhangs.

It feels so good to have this done. Because now, it feels like the Outback is starting to foster a completed look. Clearly, we have a long way to go, with the treehouse and Vax Valley still being far from done, but this is a big step in the right direction.

Speaking of the Outback, I am not in the interest of waiting to get the last two beacons.

Wait no more! Haha! We have the full slate of auras now.

Oh? What happened to these trees here? Okay, that’s it; until the treehouse is lightning-proof, we’re sleeping through thunderstorms. No more playing with creepers. I don’t know what I would do if the damn thing burned down.

Starlight Plaza is actually the perfect location for a project I have been interested in for a few months – a small one, but a neat one. We have not gotten back to working on the modular system running underneath HQ for a bit now, so today I thought we might ease back into it with the addition of a new plugin: Spectrometer.

Spectrometer is a very easy plugin to install. Its function is simple but effective – it will of course tell us the time of day as you can see above, but that’s just the visual element.

I’m getting underneath to install some AND gates so that we can plug it into the modular mixer, here:

Spectrometer will automate the functions of modular generators based on the time of day. More specifically, it will turn them off if it’s night, and vice versa. As such, it has just one option, the Invert option:

This of course inverts the output with a XOR gate. By default, all modular activity will cease at night and continue during the day. With Invert on, activity will cease at night and pick up during the day.

We install Spectrometer into the MISC by building some pistons to block redstone output. Its effects are temporary, so we don’t want to deactivate the signals entirely. This way, we can still build new MISC links even if Spectrometer is active.

And… that’s it! An easy modifier, and all it takes is a lever to activate. The main challenge was reaching across the base to plug it in.

^ Spectrometer, being all the way in Starlight Plaza, is about 150 blocks from the MISC and the modular mixer. This means some long redstone lines were necessary. But that is okay – I want to begin expanding the base’s modular capabilities beyond the Power Museum’s tangent floor. Starlight Outback will also be home to some plugins eventually. There are about ten more I want to install into the base.

You may notice that I am preparing to expand Starlight Plaza southward, being that the area beyond is already cleared. This is part of the growing list of things to do, but, I am not yet certain when we will begin this expansion. We already have too much going on.

Next, we need to build a new entrance back into Starlight Castle from the Starlight Resources Facility. Above, you can see the ladder lift which is a remnant from the old castle. I never liked those manual lifts anyway. We can do much better.

How about a slime block launcher instead?

And it will shoot you up into Starlight Room. How about that? Oh, I like that a lot better.

The circuitry is easy, but I can’t yet complete it the way I want without some honey blocks. This is because in order to have pistons extend and retract slime blocks from both sides (making a 2x2 launcher), well, they will just stick to one side or the other. So for now, this works nicely.

I have more Mending books, now, which means it is time to max out our gear.

Pickaxe 1: Eff V, Unbreaking III, Mending

Pickaxe 2: Eff V, Unbreaking III, Fortune III, Mending

Pickaxe 3: Eff V, Unbreaking III, Silk Touch, Mending

Sword: Sharpness V, Looting III, Knockback II, Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III, Sweeping Edge III, Mending

Axe: Eff V, Smite V, Unbreaking III, Mending

Trident 1: Channeling, Impaling V, Loyalty III, Unbreaking III, Mending

Trident 2: Riptide III, Impaling V, Unbreaking III, Mending

Crossbow: Piercing IV, Quick Charge III, Unbreaking III, Mending

Helmet: Aqua Affinity, Projectile Protection IV, Respiration III, Unbreaking III, Mending

Chestplate: Protection IV, Unbreaking III, Thorns III, Mending

Leggings: Protection IV, Unbreaking III, Mending

Boots: Blast Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Depth Strider III, Unbreaking III, Mending

What’s next? The iron farm, obviously. That thing has been broken for a month now. Damn unemployment rate is too high.

Thankfully, I do not have to build a new farm. I just need to make some modifications to this one. The hardest part is already done – the villagers are already here.

I’m refitting the second layer to house the villagers, their beds, and their workstations. They will all be shepherds.

Everyone inside, now!

As I understand golem spawning, it can occur roughly six blocks above or below the villager, and up to eight blocks out horizontally. This means we need to direct golem spawning only to the center areas. We can absolutely keep the bottom layer.

I brought a zombie up to scare the villagers, and it worked. But, the golem spawned in the wrong place.

We may need to build a third layer yet. The only other option would be to build a roof six blocks high (it cannot be hollow). I would rather increase the spawning spaces.

Look, we’re getting golems already! This is because they can spawn when the villagers are gossiping. I don’t even have to scare them.

What I think I will do is wait to bring the zombies in until they have finished breeding and occupying all the beds. They are staying busy every day.

You spawned in the wrong place, sir. I’ll have to eliminate you. The nitwits, however, can stay. It’s not like they will be very useful inside the farm

…but how the hell did he not burn? I successfully got them out of the breeding quarters, and they just… did not die.

I won’t finish the roof of the farm, yet. Now that I know we can build one, it’s something that certainly needs to be done to complete its place in the skyline. At least I can take comfort knowing that the iron farm is working again, and even without zombies, it is already producing more iron than the previous iteration. Great news for us.

But there is still more to do, as there always will be.

More than ever

Hour After

Our Work is

Never Over.

SEECRET PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT

Is it a bird? A plane? A frog?

Nope.

I am taking to Starlight Outback again, today to focus on an overdue project that has been looming ever since we built the new horse stables underneath the mountain all those years ago.

This entire wall has been left unfinished because I have always wanted to build a long tunnel connecting the two sides of the outback together.

^ This would be the other end of the tunnel, stretching across the mountain to the back of the trail.

Now that we have Haste II, we can actually complete this project in a reasonable time frame. I could not be more thankful.

For this tunnel, I am wanting to use some blocks that contrast nicely with the horse stables. Meaning: I do not want to use sandstone for the walls or podzol/green terracotta for the ground.

Prismarine and white terracotta are my choices, and I’m leaning towards cyan terracotta for the walls.

Oh, now that is looking nice. I wanted some curves in here to make the tunnel feel less abstract. The depth is working well, and it is high enough such that we can jump without bumping our head. Because remember that we have Jump Boost II now.

Indeed, you can see what I mean about contrast. If I had made the walls sandstone or anything brighter for that matter, the contrast would not work here. Sandstone would still look good, but here it is all about contrast. In a way, I want the tunnel to feel like you’re taking a dive underwater, even if you aren’t. That’s because I am eventually going to build an aquarium under here.

The tunnel’s length allows us to begin expanding the outback underground – something we could only previously do with ‘Chambers’ – the parkour course in the back of the outback. I previously mentioned that I’d like to begin installing modular plugins out here. This tunnel is where we will do so.

The first amenity we will construct will be a second entrance to the Starlight Treehouse STAS station. This will also allow us to take a shortcut up to the treehouse.

We’ve got a lot of wires in this area, so building the entrance is somewhat tricky.

Still, it’s doable, and the aesthetics match that of the other STAS stations, as intended.

We might as well finish this entrance, too, right?

I mean, why not?

The villagers have finally finished breeding and filling all the beds. So now we can bring up the zombies to complete the farm.

And complete it is! It produces about this much iron per hour:

That’s some serious ironmongering right there.

******* **** ehwurihfsuihfosengibs;s.

I really need to be more careful. He blew up the sacred ‘11’ music disc that I just got from here.

While we’re fiddling about the outback, let’s finish the trunks for the Night Lights. I don’t like how exposed they remain.

Much better, even if I still need to touch them up a bit.

For today’s final project, since we’re essentially looking for things to do whilst waiting for Vax Valley to produce more chorus fruits (for Starlight Castle), I think it’s appropriate to finish the valley.

We’ve been needing to complete the terraforming of this mountain for some time.

That’s looking better – I may continue to modify the terrain a bit over time, but for now I am happy with this. Gradual terrain changes are the key with this valley.

Next, we need to fill the valley with sand. Then water.

And that is the first phase of construction for the valley complete! Back in Session 252, I mentioned that this build would incorporate some unusual properties, which will constitute the second phase of development. I’ve already planted the seeds for this, but it will take far more work than we have time for today.

One more round of chorus fruit harvesting, and then we’re out of here!

So remember in the last session when I attempted to get more music discs but instead just blew up the entire farm because of my carelessness?

Well, I think I more than made up for that today. And I got my ‘11’ record this time. The parrots really got off to that one.

Today, we need to finish this mess of blocks lingering above the first floor of Starlight Castle. This also means we need to go ahead and complete the purpur infestation into the top two floors.

^ Some photos of how the second floor has looked for the past several (6.5) years.

Interestingly, Starlight Observatory may not have to be changed at all. I was already well ahead of the game when I built this, apparently.

Prismarine steps, anyone?

We’re giving the library a new look, while maintaining the rest of the architecture. Unlike the first floor, in which we completely destroyed the castle to build something new, I’m interested in maintaining the same architecture for the top two floors. We’re simply replacing all the blocks.

As you can see then, this renovation is much less invasive than what we did on the ground floor.

However, the floor of the third floor becomes the roof of the library. That’s okay, since I want black concrete for both anyway.

The beautiful lookout room – we’re giving this one a makeover, but I’m going to be careful to maintain its current look. Despite it being so old, I still really like its decoration.

You can see above that rather than remove the Grand Observatory (which sits underneath the lookout room), I’ve redone it utilizing our new blocks. In this way, I can integrate it within the roof of the first floor, as is the goal.

^ Some more history to this room: it used to be the ‘rail room’ 6.5 years ago, where I would store all my rails and minecarts. Of course, this is no longer the case today, and hasn’t been ever since the Redstone Room was built over three years ago. We’ll be encountering several obsolete rooms today.

^ The low-level enchanting room was a very frequent visit for me back in the iron age. This was pre-1.8, which meant that max-level enchanting was more of a novelty in the early game. Here, I could enchant all my iron tools with low-tier enchantments to give them a boost. The last time I used this room might have been six years ago, yeah.

For history’s sake, I’m going to keep this room, even though we don’t need it. I’m not a complete savage – these top two floors contain lots of historical pieces that I’d like to preserve.

Shoot, why are the paintings overlapping? Is that another pointless change that I wasn’t aware about? I can’t seem to place a 1x1 painting back in this spot! Looks like I won’t be messing with the rest of them… How do I get it back in place?

The old disintegrator – for destroying all the useless items you don’t want in your inventory. Imagine if we had one of these at the Gold Grinder.

^ The range room, which used to be where we would go to shoot mobs from afar. This is also where I got the ‘Sniper Duel’ achievement the very first time. I remain unsure what we will do with this room – maybe turn it into a phantom trap? That way, it will still retain the same themes as the original room.

Now, we’re making our way to the top floor, which has even older applications…

…such as this generator room. Believe it or not, Starlight Castle indeed had both a stone and cobblestone generator sitting on the top floor ever since v1.0. I used these rather frequently back in the early game, but now I have more stone than I will ever need.

I’ll keep the walking track up here above the lookout room, but I won’t bother putting another chandelier in place. That was too much, honestly.

The escape hatch is still an integral part of the base even today because it is the source of boats that get us around Starlight Bay. Granted, boats in general have been made obsolete thanks to elytra, but they’re still useful for more specific applications. What if we need to transport animals between islands, for example?

Now we need to work on the three roofs in front of the spires.

Again, we’re doing something a bit odd and keeping the first floor as open as possible. This means that the roof of it will be just underneath the second floor, with all the edges and contours of the other rooms being perfectly visible from inside. As such, I have to make sure to develop both the interior and exterior aesthetics as I move upwards.

^ Here is another example of this careful approach as we tackle areas in-between the two floors that are visible from both sides.

^ This room has never had any purpose. In fact, it was so pointless that if you look back at the manual for v2.0, I refer to it consistently as the ‘lol room,’ and for good reason. The room is therefore unique to the castle because this base does not really have any areas that serve no purpose. Except this room.

Naturally, then, I’d want to dress it up a lot more. It’s one of the three roofs, after all.

^ All of this, we’re going to hide, like this:

I know what I said about history but… the stone generators are just out of place. They don’t belong in a place like this, so I’d say this is one feature we can go ahead and strike.

I’ll put something else here in the future!

Easy does it for the last two roofs.

The map of Starlight HQ is now going to be moved from Starlight Plaza…

…to the fourth floor where the adventure map used to be! It needed a 3x3 map area anyway, and I’ve also rotated it to match how I want the base to be viewed (so ‘north’ is actually ‘west’ on the maps).

Now we need to finish the back side.

The escape hatch and foursquare courtyard are simply being renovated for now. I may upgrade them later, but I don’t think that’s too necessary.

Details are key here! One of the major obstacles that the first iteration of the castle harbored was the lack of attention to exterior detail. That’s something I am not glossing over this time.

…Likewise, we’ll need to finish the roof of the first floor.

Feels like a mix between an end city and an industrial factory coupled with a mage’s tower. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Now, we’ll get to the finishing touches.

But my version of a finishing touch is actually a bit more grandiose.

I mean, what better way to designate Starlight Castle than with a giant gold star? But, there are two things I see now that need attention.

The lounge floor obviously needs to be completely redone.

Prismarine!

And I’ll continue using prismarine to top the new spire in front of the castle. We’ll take a look at how this comes together.

With some campfires behind the star, you can appreciate the visual accentuation that the star is burning in the night sky.

Behold, the new Starlight Castle!

What a treat to see my vision of this build come together. I’d like to do a quick comparison between this and its first version.

V1.0 (2013):

V3.0 (2020):

Can you see how this is what Starlight Castle should have always looked like? This is by far the most complete version of the build to date. While v1.0 looked incredibly bare-bones and empty, today we fill in all those gaps and complete something much more monumental. Starlight Castle is what it should have always been: the colossal center of Starlight HQ that brings the rest of the base together.

With that, I’ll quickly list a few things we will continue to renovate across the rest of the season:

• The Great Balcony – that giant UFO-shaped oak wood balcony needs to be torn down and rebuilt out of something else. I don’t know what yet. Neither quartz nor purpur.
• The Glass Dome – the obsidian Lifeline abruptly caps and there are better ways that we can enhance the beacon of the castle.

I imagine I’ll touch both of those in the same session, but that won’t be until later. Like I said, I don’t even know what to build them out of yet, and it’s a lot more work than you may think.

For now, let’s enjoy a new photo of Starlight HQ’s current skyline:

It’s much more colorful now.

Don’t mind me. I’m just going to craft an inventory full of hoppers. Since we have iron to burn now thanks to broken game mechanics.

Today, we have a rather overflowing list of tasks that need completed, and almost all of those relate to the currently unfinished Starlight Compressor and the new furnace room. Back in Sessions 241-242, we talked a lot about this plugin and how it would work, but I could not at the time complete it because I had no knowledge of how to do so. I initially felt that what I wanted to achieve with the plugin was impossible due to the complexity of operations that would need to take place. In hindsight, I recognize that I was thinking about the problems incorrectly.

PART 1: Starlight Compressor

PART 2: Modular farms