Blueprint - SilentChaos512/Silent-Gear GitHub Wiki
A blueprint is used to craft gear items. Most gear types and part types have an associated blueprint.
Blueprints vs Templates
The difference between a blueprint and a template is simple: templates can only be used once. A template is consumed when used in a recipe. A blueprint lasts forever.
Otherwise, blueprints and templates are completely interchangeable. The rest of the page discusses blueprints, but the same information applies to templates as well.
What Do They Craft?
Blueprints are always used to craft gear parts. Some recipes may allow you to skip a step and craft the full item in one go. Use JEI to check recipes (check the "Gear Crafting" tab, not the vanilla crafting tab!)
Please install JEI!
There are blueprints not just for main parts like tool heads and sword blades, but other parts such as rods, grips, tip upgrades, and more.
Why Do Blueprints Exist?
Blueprints are a lot more necessary than you may expect...
One of the primary reasons is to prevent recipe conflicts. If gear items were crafted in the same way as vanilla items, the recipes would conflict with other mods and vanilla, potentially making some items unobtainable. Handling rods that way would also be tricky.
Second, it allows gear recipes to be shapeless. There is no need to remember a pattern. Just grab the blueprint and the right number of materials, and you are done.
Blueprints are also a convenient way to only mod pack developers a way to control when certain gear items become available. The blueprint is the key to crafting items of a given type, so changing its recipe can lock out crafting the gear item until certain items have been obtained, or the blueprint is found in a loot chest (or whatever route the mod pack developer chooses to go...)
And if you think storing all the extra items you use only for crafting is a pain, check out the blueprint book. You're welcome.