All The Mods 10 Complete Guide — From Beginner to ATM Star

What is All The Mods 10? — "The Modpack Department Store"

All The Mods 10 (ATM10) is the newest entry in the ATM series and currently one of the most widely used kitchen-sink modpack on Minecraft 1.21 NeoForge. With over 400 mods bundled together, you can experience tech, magic, exploration, farming, automation, and dimensional travel all in a single install.

The ATM series has always followed the philosophy of "everything in one modpack," and ATM10 — the 10th season — brings the latest versions of fan-favorite mods together with all of 1.21's new content. If this is your first Minecraft modpack, a freeform kitchen-sink pack like ATM10 is far gentler than something tightly themed.

For experienced players who have already cleared RLCraft or Prominence II, ATM10 still offers strong long-term motivation as a *long-haul project where you can deep-dive into one mod at a time*. The ultimate goal — crafting the ATM Star — is a comprehensive challenge that requires touching nearly every mod in the pack.

📌 ATM10 at a Glance

Item	Detail
Minecraft Version	1.21.1
Mod Loader	NeoForge
Mod Count	~400+
Difficulty	Normal (open-ended progression)
Recommended RAM	8~10GB (12GB+ for late game)
Multiplayer	Supported (separate server pack)
Download	CurseForge / Prism Launcher auto-install

Key features at a glance

Tech, magic, exploration, farming, and automation all in one pack
No fixed progression — stress-free entry for beginners
Long-term goal: craft the ATM Star
Includes Mekanism, Applied Energistics 2, Create, Ars Nouveau, and more
Built on 1.21 NeoForge with active future updates expected

🎮 What Makes ATM10 Special

Open-ended "kitchen-sink" progression

ATM10 has no fixed progression order. Once you survive the first night, what you do next is entirely up to you. That freedom is the appeal — and also the biggest trap. The classic ATM newcomer's first night looks like this: build a dirt shack, browse 100 mods in JEI, and end up making nothing before bed. Quickly committing to *your own path* through that freedom is, in fact, the real onboarding for ATM10.

Cross-mod synergy

The real fun of ATM10 emerges when mods start interlocking. You'll be running just one Mekanism Metallurgic Infuser at first, until one day curiosity strikes: "wait, what happens if I pipe this clean slurry into a Create Mechanical Mixer?" From that moment your head fills with *chain diagrams*, and you'll spend three hours designing a triple-stack automation line that pipes farm crops into a Mekanism PRC (Pressurized Reaction Chamber) to make ethanol, then uses that power to drive an AE2 ME system. The thrill of "binding totally separate mods into one production line" is the heart of ATM.

The ATM Star challenge

The ATM Star, the symbol of the series, is a comprehensive reward item that requires the late-game items of nearly every major mod. It's not just "build it and you're done" — making it naturally drags you through *Mekanism Antimatter Pellets, Allthemodium / Vibranium / Unobtainium alloys, and Awakened Supremium*. You'll start out wanting to make a single star and find yourself building a fusion reactor, deploying six Digital Miners, and constructing a 36-block AE2 ME Controller multiblock. The terrifying thing about ATM Star is that 100 hours stops being "a long wait" and instead becomes "time you didn't notice slipping by."

🧭 Early-Game Guide — What to Do in Your First 10 Hours

Phase 1: Survive the first night (0~30 min)

Nearly identical to vanilla. Gather wood, craft tools, build a dirt shack, sleep. ATM10's *enhanced darkness mobs* aren't that threatening, so unlike a "first-night-death game" like RLCraft, you can start in a relaxed manner.

Phase 2: Stabilize crops and animals (1~3 hours)

Build a farm that self-supplies bread and meat as soon as possible. Most mod progression involves *spending time on crafting*, so hunting for food every time is highly inefficient.

Phase 3: Activate QoL mods like backpacks and minimaps (3~5 hours)

ATM10 includes quality-of-life (QoL) mods like Sophisticated Backpacks and Xaero's Minimap & World Map by default. Crafting a backpack and minimap early dramatically boosts your mining and exploration efficiency.

Phase 4: Pick your first "main mod" (5~10 hours)

The biggest stumbling block for beginners is "I don't know what to do." ATM10's freedom can leave you lost in the early game. Pick one of the following as your *main mod*:

🤖 Love automation/tech → Mekanism + Create
🌿 Love magic/plants → Botania + Ars Nouveau
📦 Love storage/organization → Applied Energistics 2 (AE2)
⚒️ Love combat/weapons → Tinkers' Construct + Apotheosis

With a main mod, you'll have small daily goals like "today I'll reach this stage," making the experience much more enjoyable.

🧭 Real Play Flow — What Each Phase Actually Feels Like

⏰ Early Game (0~10 hours): "You can do anything, but you don't know what to do"

Your first session is essentially *vanilla Minecraft + browsing the mod menu*. While building a dirt shack and placing a bed, you'll waste 30 minutes hammering R in JEI on questions like "what's a Mekanism Ultimate Energy Cube?" and "how do I craft Botania's Terrasteel?" It's fun and slightly frustrating at the same time. You don't have anything tangible in hand yet, and the sheer number of mod categories visible in the JEI sidebar can be paralyzing.

Around the 3~5 hour mark you'll get your first small automation win. Usually it's the moment you mine your first diamond with an iron pickaxe and craft a Sophisticated Backpack that doubles your storage from 27 to 54 slots. That's when you first feel "oh, something is moving now." Plant an Xaero's Minimap waypoint at your first base and suddenly the *map of your world* exists in your head: "this is home, the mines are that way." Many players report this is also when they first realize how much faster ATM10 progresses than vanilla — the moment a backpack lets you mine a full chunk without returning to base, the game shifts gears.

The most common stuck point is *"I never picked a main mod, so I touched ten mods for 30 minutes each and made progress in none of them."* Around hour 7 your inventory shows 5 Mekanism circuits, 1 Create Andesite Funnel, half a Botania mana pool, and an unfinished Ars Nouveau spellbook — none of them anywhere close to the next tier. This is exactly when you need to make the *hard cut*: "this week is Mekanism, period." Resist the temptation to dip into a new mod every session. The players who finish ATM10 are the ones who reach the next tier of *one* mod before sampling the next.

⚙️ Mid Game (10~40 hours): The phase where automation chains finally lock together

Past the 10-hour mark the game suddenly feels different. The moment your Mekanism 5x ore processing line fires up — Enrichment Chamber → Purification Chamber → Chemical Injection Chamber → Precision Sawmill, a single conveyor producing *5 diamonds from 1 raw diamond* — that's the real "aha" moment of ATM10. The act of mining by hand stops making any sense, and you'll catch yourself laughing at how primitive your first hour felt.

If you don't pull AE2 in during this phase, you'll regret it. Your inventory keeps drowning in *raw ores, ingots, alloys, and intermediates*, until one day the realization hits: "I can put it all on a single ME disk and be done." When your first ME Auto-Crafting succeeds — you order "64 Iron Ingots" and exactly 64 appear in a chest a minute later — you'll feel *the modpack jump up a tier*. From here, ATM10 transforms from "a game about crafting items" into "a game about designing pipelines." Encoding your first complex pattern (say, an automatic Allthemodium ingot recipe with 9 different inputs) feels less like crafting and more like programming.

Around hour 20~30 your hand naturally drifts to the next mod. With Mekanism stable, you suddenly *have surplus power and nothing to spend it on*, so you reach for Botania's mana system. Or your *raw ores pile up so much* that Productive Bees becomes the obvious next step for rare ores. Some players pivot into Ars Nouveau and build a custom "break stone, then teleport home" spell that becomes their signature tool. Unlike the slow early game, this period is the magic stretch where "just one hour after dinner" becomes "oh wait, it's 1 AM." If you keep a session log, this is the phase where the entries grow longest and most enthusiastic.

🏆 End Game (40 hours+): The ATM Star terminus, plus the parade of side projects

Past hour 40 the real *Allthemodium ore hunt* begins. You descend into The Other dimension hunting Vibranium and Unobtainium, grow Awakened Supremium crops, and the moment you press the start button on your first Mekanism Fusion Reactor it begins spitting out *millions of RF/t*. From this point onward, the phrase "power shortage" disappears from your game. You'll find yourself building Induction Matrix walls just to soak up the surplus.

The most exhilarating moment is starting ATM Star Tier 1. Because each star folds in *late-game items from every mod*, every craft attempt has you saying "this time I need 64 Ars Nouveau Source Jars," "this time I'm short on Apotheosis Gem Dust," "now I need to figure out how Productive Bees actually breeds the Iron Bee" — *re-touring the entire modpack each time*. By the time you reach Tier 5, there's almost no mod you haven't visited. That's the genius of the ATM Star design: it weaponizes completionism into a guided tour.

The real charm of the late game is *what comes after the Star*. Surprisingly, you don't quit after crafting it. With infinite resources and an inventory that no longer needs sorting, what's left is *what you actually want to build*. A massive clock tower running on Create gears, a flower garden styled with Botania, an industrial complex surrounding six Mekanism fusion reactors, an automated villager trading hall that turns surplus emeralds into enchanted books — once these *lifestyle builds* begin, hours 70 and 100 just disappear. Many veterans report that their most fulfilling memories of ATM10 are not the Star craft itself but a specific aesthetic build they spent two weeks designing afterward.

⚙️ ATM10 Top 8 Core Mods

Detailed individual mod explanations are organized in the [mods listing page](/mods/). Here are the core mods you *absolutely must try at least once* in ATM10.

1. Mekanism

The king of tech/industry mods. Features 5x ore processing, fission/fusion power, and the Digital Miner — the endgame of automation. Late-game ATM10's energy supply is essentially handled by Mekanism's fusion reactor.

2. Applied Energistics 2 (AE2)

The pinnacle of "digital storage systems." Stores all your items in an ME network with search and auto-crafting. Once your inventory hits 200+ junk item slots in late game, the game becomes unplayable without AE2.

3. Create

A mod that captures steampunk mechanical aesthetics. Build visually stunning automation lines with gears, conveyor belts, and windmills. *The most visually rewarding tech mod available*.

4. Botania

A plant-based magic mod. Gather "Mana" through flowers and craft various tools, weapons, and automation devices. Unlike other magic mods, it features *fully renewable, eco-friendly systems*, which is its charm.

5. Ars Nouveau

Create your own spells by combining glyphs. Effects can be freely combined like "fire arrow + explosion + AoE," giving magic builds enormous freedom.

6. Apotheosis

Expands the vanilla enchantment system and adds RPG-style affixes (prefixes/suffixes) to weapons and armor. Core to late-game gear progression.

7. Occultism

A magic mod that provides automatic mining and milling through demon summoning. The most efficient way to gather ore quickly in early-mid game.

8. Productive Bees

A farming/industry hybrid that uses bees to produce ores and metals. Becomes a key axis of ore auto-supply in late game.

🆚 Comparison With Other Modpacks

vs All The Mods 9 (ATM9) — "Should I bother upgrading?"

ATM9: 1.20.1 Forge, fully stable, slightly richer mod lineup
ATM10: 1.21.1 NeoForge, new content (Trial Chambers etc.) and latest mod versions

👉 *If continuing an existing ATM9 save, stay on ATM9*. *If starting fresh, ATM10 is more future-proof.*

vs FTB StoneBlock 4 — "Confined automation"

StoneBlock 4: Start in a world filled with stone — "mining out space" is the main loop
ATM10: Normal overworld, free exploration and building

👉 *If you only want the joy of automation lines, StoneBlock 4* is more focused. *If you want exploration and building too, ATM10.*

vs Better MC BMC4 — "Combat/exploration vs automation"

Better MC: Strong on exploration, combat, and RPG elements; few automation mods
ATM10: Automation/industry mods front and center; combat is secondary

👉 *For an adventure-RPG style, choose Better MC*. *For factory and system-building joy, choose ATM10.*

💡 Recommended Settings & Tips

RAM Allocation

Minimum: 6GB (anything less guarantees late-game lag)
Recommended: 8~10GB
100+ automation lines in late game: 12GB+

Adjust the -Xmx value in JVM Arguments from your CurseForge / Prism Launcher instance settings.

Graphics Settings

ATM10 includes optimization mods like Embeddium (a Sodium port for Forge) by default. In your graphics settings:

Render Distance: 12~16 chunks (32+ fills RAM and causes constant lag)
Simulation Distance: 8 or below (more important than render distance — 16 explodes mob/item processing)
VSync: ON (reduces unnecessary GPU heat)

Tips

JEI/EMI is mandatory. Press R/U to instantly look up unknown recipes.
Hold off on shaders. Adding shaders early on, you'll regret it 60 hours later.
Enable auto-backups. AE2 disks occasionally corrupt in the late game.
Delay Productive Bees. Steep entry curve and late-game support content.

⚠️ Common Issues & Fixes

"Won't even launch / Java error"

1.21 NeoForge requires Java 21 or higher. CurseForge handles this automatically, but with Prism Launcher etc., you must install Java 21 separately and assign it to the instance.

"Severe lag"

F3+T to reload chunks
Lower render and simulation distances
Too many automation lines? Try halting some Create *windmills/water wheels*. They're among the highest CPU consumers.
Mekanism's Digital Miner should always run with a Chunk Loader. Leaving it without unloading causes memory leaks.

"AE2 disk data missing"

There have been reports of AE2 disks suddenly showing 0 items in ATM10 with certain mod combinations. Solution:

Quit the game and back up your save
Break and reinstall the area around the ME Controller
If it still fails, restore from backup

The ultimate fix is to wait for mod updates.

"Multiplayer sync errors"

Frequently caused by mismatched mod versions between server and client. The ATM10 server pack is distributed with the client on CurseForge — *always use the same build version*.

💬 Pick This Pack If...

"Every weekend my four friends and I jump on voice chat and run a multiplayer server, and we're hunting for next season's pack" — ATM10 is the answer. If everyone picks a different main mod (one on Mekanism, one on Create, one on AE2, one on Botania), you'll naturally form a *mini economy of resource trading*, and every session ends up with conversations like "hey, did you finish that thing yet?" The pack scales gracefully past 4~6 players if your server has 12GB+ RAM allocated.

"I crafted an ATM Star in ATM9 and want to do it again" — ATM10 delivers nearly the same experience with 1.21's new content layered in. Trial Chambers reward items now interact with the existing mod lineup, creating *brand new resource loops that didn't exist in ATM9*. The shift to NeoForge also means longer-term mod compatibility, so an ATM10 save started today will likely still be patch-supported a year from now.

"I love slow gaming, 1~2 hours after work and that's it" — ATM10 fits this perfectly. You can stop after "just one Mekanism step today" without guilt. And if you ever do a 5~6 hour binge, you can dive deep into a different mod each session, so it never stagnates.

"I'm fanatical about inventory organization and want to build a proper digital storage system once" — Pick AE2 as your main and start ATM10. End-game you'll build a *"control room"* with hundreds of thousands of items compressed onto 4 ME disks and a wall of 9 ME Crafting Terminals — that becomes its own game inside the game. Some players spend more time perfecting their pattern provider layout than they spend on actual progression, and that's not a bug, that's the appeal.

"I got burned out by tight modpacks (RLCraft, Vault Hunters) and need a break" — ATM10 is a great resort. Death barely costs anything, there's no time pressure, and you can *just focus on the act of building*. It works as the "meditation mode" of gaming.

"I've played Minecraft forever but never modded — I don't know what to install first" — ATM10 is the safest first modpack. Almost every popular mod is bundled together, and after 100 hours you'll *know your taste*: "I love Mekanism, so industrial packs next; I love Botania, so magic packs next."

"I love taking factory screenshots and posting them online" — Make Create your main. ATM10 supports shaders and Embeddium out of the box, so you can record those rotating gear scenes in *4K 60FPS with shaders*. Pair Complementary Reimagined shaders with a clean Create build and almost every screenshot looks portfolio-grade.

"I want one modpack I can play for a full year of weekly sessions" — ATM10 is built exactly for that. Because the ATM Star naturally consumes 100+ hours and post-Star aesthetic builds easily add another 100, a single ATM10 save can comfortably absorb 6~12 months of weekend play before you ever feel out of content.

👍 Recommended For

First-time modpack players who want "a taste of many mods at once"
Fans of automation mods like Mekanism, Create, and AE2
Players who enjoy *low-pressure*, slow-paced 1~2 hour sessions
Co-op groups where each player can specialize in a different mod
Anyone wanting to enjoy 1.21's new content alongside mods

👎 Not Recommended For

Players who prefer *fixed story/quest* progression (ATM10 has minimal guidance)
Players seeking *combat/survival*-focused packs (RLCraft, Prominence II)
Anyone with less than 8GB RAM — guaranteed late-game suffering
Players who want a *short, intense* clear (ATM Star takes 100+ hours)

🔚 Final Thoughts

ATM10 is closer to a *lifestyle modpack* — the kind you boot up every weekend wondering what to build next. Rather than rushing to clear it, the real charm is growing your factory at your own pace, occasionally discovering a new mod, going "oh this is fun," and getting sidetracked into a fresh tangent.

The number 400 mods can feel overwhelming at first, but you can't (and don't need to) touch them all at once. Pick one or two mods you like and start there. Eventually they'll naturally chain into other mods, and one day you'll catch yourself screenshotting your factory with "my base looks too cool." That's why the ATM series has been beloved through 10 seasons.

Related guides:

[Beginner's Guide to Modpacks](/guides/beginner-modpack-guide/)
[Minecraft Modpack Performance Optimization](/guides/performance-optimization/)
[ATM10 Modpack Page](/modpacks/all-the-mods-10/)

🔗 Related Modpacks Worth Checking

[All The Mods 10: To The Sky](/modpacks/atm10-sky/) — The skyblock version of ATM10 carrying nearly the same mod lineup. If regular ATM10's freedom left you adrift, ATM10 Sky's FTB Quests guide actually makes progression smoother. A great "second season" where you *re-engineer the same mods within tighter constraints*.

[FTB StoneBlock 4](/modpacks/ftb-stoneblock-4/) — The friendliest possible introduction to the "confined space + automation" concept. Where ATM10 is open-ended, StoneBlock 4 is more like a *training-wheels automation pack* with a quest book holding your hand. Solid as a primer before tackling ATM10.

[Better Minecraft BMC4](/modpacks/better-mc-bmc4/) — A modpack centered on *combat, exploration, and RPG* rather than automation. When you're tired of building factories in ATM10 and just want to "hunt and run dungeons today," BMC4 scratches exactly that itch. It's the *perfect alternating partner* — opposite vibe to ATM10.

[Vault Hunters 3rd Edition](/modpacks/vault-hunters-3/) — A *roguelike modpack* built around timed dungeon clears. When ATM10's "infinite resources, infinite time" atmosphere becomes too peaceful and you crave stakes, Vault Hunters' constant threat of permadeath makes everything tense again.

[Prominence II RPG](/modpacks/prominence-2-rpg/) — A story/quest/boss-driven RPG modpack. The polar opposite of ATM10's freeform progression — if you prefer the *clear sense of progress* of "beat this boss to unlock the next chapter," Prominence II fits well.

[Cobbleverse](/modpacks/cobbleverse/) — A Cobblemon (Pokemon mod) + automation hybrid. When ATM10's industrial aesthetics start feeling too utilitarian, Cobbleverse is the *casual, character-driven* counterweight. Surprisingly satisfying as a between-seasons palate cleanser.