Wand Caps are one of the two main components of making wands (including staves and scepters), the other being the wand core. All wand caps begin with 5 nuggets of some metal, crafted in the "helmet" arrangement. However, advanced caps require progressively more complex magic to complete them, and the more advanced the caps, the more expensive it is to attach them to a wand. The choice of wand cap does not affect the storage capacity of a wand, but can provide a bonus or penalty to all vis costs when using the wand. Two of the cap types depend on metals from other mods: the Copper and Silver caps will only be available (or researchable) if nuggets of those metals are present in the game, and Thaumcraft itself does not provide them. The bonuses or penalties from caps combine with any other adjustments provided by equipment or other factors.
Types of Wand Caps[]
There are up to five types of wand cap in Thaumcraft 4.
- Iron Wand Cap - This is the only cap which can be made on a vanilla crafting table (using iron nuggets), but wands using them have significant liabilities. Vis use has a 10% penalty. That is, with no other bonuses or penalties, all magical operations will cost 110% of "list" cost. Furthermore, any wand (etc.) using them is liable to drain a node completely in one or more aspects, which can seriously damage them. This hazard is unaffected by the wand's core material, and even the "Node Preserver" ability will not protect against it.
- Copper Wand Cap - If copper nuggets are available, they can be crafted into wand caps on the Arcane Workbench. While they have the same penalties as iron on most of the aspects, they give no penalties for Ordo and Perdito.
- Gold Wand Cap - This is the "midrange" Wand Cap. It is made from 5 gold nuggets, but requires an Arcane Workbench. This cap gives no bonus or penalty to vis costs.
- Silver Wand Cap - If silver nuggets are available, they can be made into wand caps on the Arcane Workbench, but, like Thaumium caps, they require an additional Infusion step to become usable. These caps give a 10% bonus (that is, 90% costs), to vis use, but only for four of the primal aspects: Aer, Aqua, Ignis and Terra.
- Thaumium Wand Cap - This is the first "advanced" wand cap. The cap is first crafted on the Arcane Workbench, but this yields only an "uncharged" (and unusable) cap. To be used in a wand (etc), it must also be charged on the Infusion Altar, which requires both Salis Mundus (3 pieces per cap), and essentia of the rare aspect Auram (as well as Potentia). These caps grant a 10% vis discount (90% costs) for all aspects.
- Voidmetal Wand cap - These are the "ultimate" caps in Thaumcraft. They are only available after the thaumaturge has suffered the Eldritch Epiphany. Like the thaumium caps, they must be charged on the Infusion Altar, but this difficult infusion requires 4 pieces of Salis Mundus per cap, and several sorts of essentia: Potentia, Vacuos, Auram and Alienis. Having accomplished this, the daring thaumaturge is rewarded with a full 20% discount on vis costs.