Creeping Dark II Overview

There are two tracks of progression: Technological and magical. They are mostly independent of each other, but you'll have to complete both to reach the End and complete the pack. There are a number of Artifacts you will need to collect and/or create in order to open the End.

The in-game questbook gives details on all of this, with sections unlocked as you play. The following is a general overview.

Tech Track

• Overworld
  • First you'll need to mine your basic materials. Copper, tin, iron, lead, silver, gold, etc.
  • You'll also find your first miniboss here, which will drop an artifact required to open the End.
• Nether
  • You'll need to get your usual Nether materials here.
  • In order to progress further, you'll need to find cobalt and ancient debris.
  • You'll need to spawn and defeat the Wither to get the Nether Star; this will be one of your End Artifacts. This is done in the usual fashion.
• Twilight Forest
  • You'll need to allow the cobalt with the ancient debris to get manyullyn. The Tinker's smeltery can do it, but requires blaze blood. A simper option is the IE alloy furnace.
  • You create the portal in the usual manner, but use the manyullyn to activate it
  • In the Twilight Forest you'll find Certus Quartz. This obviously unlocks Applied Energistics 2, but also Thermal Expansion and RFTools
  • You'll need to face four bosses in order: The Naga, the Twilight Lich, the Minoshroom, and the Hydra. The latter drops fiery blood, which is one of the End Artifacts.
• Applied Energistics 2
  • Aside from the usual AE2 setup, you'll need to craft a singularity. This will be one of the Artifacts. You'll need a matter condenser, a 64k cell, and a very large amount of scrap to pipe into it. The best option is probably to use an RFTools builder to quarry a 'garbage' dimension, like the Deep Dark. This will require a large amount of power, almost certainly Nuclear territory.
• Thermal Expansion
  • Most of Thermal Expansion is locked at the beginning of the game. The machines need Certus Quartz to craft. Other than that the mod behaves as normal.
  • You'll use several Thermal Expansion machines to craft a golden scarab, which is used to open the portal to Atum.
• RFTools
  • RFTools is also mostly locked, and requires certus quartz to craft machines. Apart from that the mod behaves as normal.
  • You'll need to generate some RFTools dimensions and explore them to find dimensional dimlet shacks. You'll need some of the materials making up these shacks to make the Gaia portal.
• Gaia
  • You'll need to create some Bismuth from some of the materials and machines in this dimension. This will be part of the End Artifact.
  • You'll also need to find and kill a boss for an Artifact.
• Atum
  • With the scarab, you can open a portal to Atum
  • You'll need to find Khnumite, a mineral deep underground. You'll need this to create the teleporter to the Deep Dark.
  • You must also face the Pharaoh, to obtain an Artifact.
  • You'll need a type of stone called Porphiry to teleport to the Tropics.
• The Tropics
  • You'll need a to make a Pina Colada with a drink mixer (which can be made using Porphyry) to enter the Tropics. Search for jungles and deserts to find bamboo, coconuts and pineapples. You can use Harvestcraft palants to obtain the latter two.
  • You'll need to gather Azurite, Eudialyte, Zirconium, and Chunks O' Head. With these you can make the portal to the Deep Dark.
  • You'll also need to find and fight a miniboss for an Artifact.
• Immersive Engineering
  • This is fully unlocked at the start of the game
  • Ultimately you'll need to create an arc furnace. You'll need about a stack and a half of coal coke for the electrodes. Both the IE coke oven and the Thermal pyrolyser can make this; the latter is significantly faster.
  • Once you have the furance and the electrodes, you'll need to combine the previously mentioned materials to make the Deep Dark teleporter.
• Deep Dark
  • You'll need to find Osmium, which unlocks Mekanism
  • There is also a miniboss with an Artifact.
• Mekanism
  • You'll need to dig into the tech tree to create the materials to make a portal to the Soulbould Dimension
  • This will also require finding Ancient Metal, which is buried deep in the earth. It naturally emits sound which will lead you to it when you're nearby.
• Soulbound Dimension
  • You'll need to explore to find the materials to make a summoner for a boss. The boss will drop an Artifact.
• Create
  • Like Immersive Engineering, this is always unlocked
  • You'll need to dig a bit into the tech tree to create Overcharged Alloy, which is an Artifact

Magic Track

Unlike the original Creeping Dark, the full magic track is unlocked from the start, and may be completed in any order.

• Botania

  • You'll need to get your basic setup created: Mana generation and storage
  • You'll need to create a runic altar, terrasteel, and eventually the Elven Gateway
  • With Elven materials, you will need to summon and fight the Gaia Guardian, which drops materials used to craft the End Artifact
  • Unlike the original Creeping Dark, Botania does not unlock any further dimensions.

• Ars Nouveau

  • You'll start with some basic Source (magical energy) generation and storage.
  • You'll need to make a stamp press, which is used to make materials to build the portal to the Dark World
  • You'll also need to create a ritual brazier to summon a boss, which will drop an Artifact

• The Dark World

  • You will need to find a tower and kill a minibos, which will drop an Artifact.
  • Also grab a Wither Fruit from one of the trees/plants. This will be an artifact.

• Blue Skies

  • You will need to find a Gatekeeper villager, which will sell you the equipment needed to light portals to the Everdawn and Everbright.
  • There are two bosses in each dimension that you will need to find and kill. Two of these bosses will drop Artifacts.

• Astral Sorcery

  • You'll need to progress through several tiers of crafting altars, until you have the Celestial Altar
  • With the altar, you can finally combine all the artifacts to create the End Orb.
  • Once you have held the End Orb in your hand, you will be able to access the End in the normal fashion.
  • In multiplayer, the Orb can be passed around to other players without limit, to unlock the End for them as well.

The End

• First you need to find a Stronghold in the usual fashion, using Eyes of Ender, or alternately use the Explorer's Compass.
• Once you've found the portal room, activate it with the Eyes of Ender
• Go into the end and kill the Dragon
• Take her egg back to the Overworld, and place it in the world
• The end.