Getting Started

Thaumcraft is all about magic and its research. Unlike earlier games however, you cannot dive in from the start. Wands have been removed, and the player now has to find at least 1 Vis Shard first to be able to dive into the mod. However, they are very common, making it fairly easy to start.

Vis Crystals
What Vis Shards are, for the sake of this guide, is less important than what can be done with them. Upon first obtaining one of the 6 primal Vis Shards (Ordo [Order, white], Perditio [Entropy, black/gray], Aer [Air, yellow], Terra [Earth, green], Ignis [Fire, red] and Aqua [Water, blue]) from a cluster of them, the player will be prompted with the following message: "Your fingers tingle strangely as you handle the crystal. What does that mean? Maybe some rest will inspire you." Sleeping after this message will give the player the book Strange Dreams. The specific contents can be found on the linked page, but the essence of the book is that it reveals the recipe for Salis Mundus, which cannot be crafted (even if the player knows the recipe) before this point. It is also required to progress. Vis Crystals themselves also have numerous applications in crafting, so it is advisable to try and stock up on a decent amount. Take care not to take too many, however, for reasons explained here.

Salis Mundus
Salis Mundus is a magical powder created from redstone, any 3 unique Vis Crystals (of any type of Essentia, not just the primal 6) with a bowl and piece of flint, both of which are not consumed. Because it requires redstone, a good bit of progress into the game must have been made, barring luck, to progress. After creating Salis Mundus, right clicking on a bookcase will create a Thaumonomicon, arguably the most important item in the mod.

The Thaumonomicon
The Thaumonomicon, detailed on the page linked above, is a Thaumaturge's repository for all of their magical knowledge. It guides a new player on how to progress further, allows you to conduct research, view and unlock recipes and review research topics at any time.

Research
Research in Thaumcraft 6 has been completely redesigned from Thaumcraft 5. Rather than a minigame to link aspect nodes, individual topics are unlocked using a preset combination of Observations and Theories. Each research category has their own individual pool of both.

Observations
Observations can be gained by scanning items and blocks with the Thaumometer. Entire chests can also be scanned, simultaneously scanning its contents.

Theories
Theories, sometimes referred to as theory points to prevent confusion, are the other "currency" used in research. They can only be created at a Research Table (requiring Scribing Tools and paper).

Minigame
The new research "minigame" incorporates 4 main points of focus.
 * Inspiration, which determines the number of "pages" in a theory - the more inspiration you have (gained from placing specific arcane and mundane object around the Research Table), the more likely you are to be able to pursue a specific research category more closely.
 * Theory percentages - whenever points are gained towards any research category, they show up as a percentage on the right side of the screen. When any category reaches 100% between any number of theories crafted (E.g., the player crafts 2 theories, the first with 62% in Artifice, the second with 38%, this would generate an Artifice theory point), a new theory point for that research category is given.
 * Draws - every inspiration point allows the player to choose between 2-4 different options, usually having a variety of effects. These most commonly include: increasing the points in a specific field of research, increasing a random field by a set or random amount, increasing a specific field and a random one by an amount, returning inspiration at the cost of research points, increasing focused categories or rejecting certain fields to guarantee no more options to increase that field will appear in that theory. Some draws are free while others either consume materials, shown by displaying the item and a golden exclamation point on the page, while others require the player to have items in their inventory but do not consume them. However, every page requires a piece of paper, sometimes 2, and ink from Scribing Tools.
 * Number of focused categories - each theory starts with only 1 category that receives full focus, gaining 100% of the points it gained in the theory. Each subsequent category loses a percentage that increases as the number of points in that category increase. Several research options add extra focused categories, allowing you to waste less research points. Focused categories are not static and change depending on what the highest percentage values for that specific theory are.