All The Mods 10: To The Sky Complete Guide — From Void Island to ATM Star

What is ATM10 Sky? — "A Kitchen-Sink Modpack That Begins in the Void"

All The Mods 10: To The Sky (ATM10 Sky) is the *skyblock* reimagining of the wildly popular ATM10 kitchen-sink modpack. Where regular ATM10 emphasizes "freedom to do anything" across a vast overworld, ATM10 Sky takes the opposite approach: you start on a *palm-sized island floating in the void* and must manufacture every single resource yourself.

The charm of ATM10 Sky is simple. Because not even a pile of gravel or a handful of dirt is given freely, every step of progression links back to automation. What ends as a single sentence in regular ATM10 — "I'll head to the mines and dig up some iron" — becomes a primary objective in ATM10 Sky: "I need to build a sieving automation line." That goal in turn spawns a sub-objective: "How do I generate gravel infinitely?" This *chain of tasks* organically supplies more than 100 hours of motivation.

With over 2.4 million CurseForge downloads, it's a proven hit. Above all, FTB Quests provides such well-designed progression guidance that I'd actually recommend it more strongly than regular ATM10 for players who got lost in the freeform sandbox. Having a defined path turns out to be a great way to patch the biggest weakness of kitchen-sink packs.

📌 ATM10 Sky at a Glance

Item	Detail
Minecraft Version	1.21.1
Mod Loader	NeoForge
Mod Count	~350+ (slightly fewer than regular ATM10)
Starting Environment	Void + tiny island + a single tree
Difficulty	Medium-high (heavy reliance on automation)
Recommended RAM	6~8GB (10GB for late game)
Multiplayer	Supported (separate server pack)
Download	CurseForge / Prism Launcher auto-install
Total Downloads	2.4M+

Key features at a glance

• Brings nearly the entire ATM10 mod lineup into a skyblock format
• FTB Quests makes progression unambiguous — you'll never feel lost
• Ex Nihilo Sequentia's sieve system is the heart of the early-mid game
• *Factory design aesthetics* shine in cramped quarters
• Far higher reliance on automation mods than regular ATM10

🎮 What Makes ATM10 Sky Special

A world where resources are *manufactured*, not *discovered*

Every resource in ATM10 Sky must be *produced*. In regular ATM10, "go mine 50 iron" is a single sentence. In ATM10 Sky, the same goal becomes a four-step pipeline: *cobblegen → Wooden Sieve → 4 ore chunks → 1 ore*, and after running it manually for an hour you'll have the realization "if I don't automate this, I'll lose my mind." That realization is exactly what becomes the next several days of objectives. If regular ATM10 is the "what should I do today?" pack, ATM10 Sky is the pack where "today I automate this" gets handed to you automatically every session.

Tight space turns this into a *design game*

The true joy of ATM10 Sky is that spatial constraints transform it into a design game. In regular ATM10, building a Mekanism 5x ore processing line means "line up the machines on flat ground" and you're done. In ATM10 Sky, the real puzzle is *how do I cram the same line onto a 4×4 platform?* You end up stacking a 4-floor tower, with AE2 ME Storage on floor 1, Create gear shop on floor 2, Mekanism processing on floor 3, and your power plant on the rooftop — *vertical factory design* naturally clicks into your head. The "spatial compression sense" you couldn't develop after 100 hours of normal modpacks gets baked in within 20 hours of Sky.

Guided progression via FTB Quests

If the worst flaw of regular ATM10 is "so much freedom you don't know what to do," ATM10 Sky almost completely solves that flaw with its quest book. Following the quests naturally walks you through Mekanism intro → AE2 intro → Create intro, all leading to the same ultimate goal: the ATM Star.

🧭 Early-Game Guide — Your First 10 Hours

Phase 1: Basic tools and your first cobblegen (0~30 min)

You spawn on a small dirt island with one tree and a starter bag holding a few items. The very first steps:

1. Chop the tree, craft a workbench, pickaxe, axe, and shovel
2. *Always replant* at least one sapling — wood is your only renewable resource until you can craft dirt from leaves+gravel
3. Use the gravel from the starter bag to make a stone pickaxe
4. Build a manual cobblegen — exploit the vanilla mechanic where flowing lava meets flowing water to generate stone

This phase produces the most *falling deaths*. Wrap your workbench area in at least two tiles of safety railing.

Phase 2: Build the Ex Nihilo sieving line (30 min~3 hours)

The core mod of ATM10 Sky is unquestionably Ex Nihilo Sequentia. Its Sieve magically extracts ore chunks, seeds, clay, and more from gravel, sand, dirt, and dust.

• Craft the Wooden Sieve → manually sift gravel one chunk at a time to gather ore pieces
• Combine 4 ore chunks at a workbench to get the equivalent of 1 standard ore
• In parallel, start automatic dirt production using Wooden Barrels (leaves + water → dirt over time)

When you finish this phase, you'll feel a real sense of pride: "I've laid the first piece of an infinite factory." Even without full automation yet, *you've established a cycle that's theoretically infinitely sustainable*.

Phase 3: First automation — Create or basic Mekanism (3~6 hours)

Manual sieving makes your fingers ache after 30 minutes. You need to automate fast. Early-game options in ATM10 Sky:

• Create *Mechanical Sieves* (varies by addon) powered by windmills/water wheels
• Mekanism basic generators + pipes + hoppers feeding gravel automatically
• Sophisticated Backpacks *magnet module* to auto-collect sieve outputs

Early-game automation doesn't need to be flashy. Just "gravel falls in from above, results drop into a chest" boosts efficiency 10x.

Phase 4: Pick your first "main mod" (6~10 hours)

ATM10 Sky is still a kitchen-sink pack, so you need a main mod to avoid getting lost. Recommended branches:

• 🤖 Love clean industrial aesthetics → Build out a full Mekanism 5x ore processing line
• 🌐 Storage organization junkie → Applied Energistics 2 (AE2) — the synergy with skyblock is *literally unmatched*
• ⚙️ Love cute machinery → Create — windmills and water wheels look strangely beautiful on a floating island
• 🌿 Wizard path → Botania — a mana flower garden draped across your sky island is breathtaking

In particular, AE2 is 100x more important in ATM10 Sky than in regular ATM10. Storing every resource digitally and auto-crafting them is essentially mandatory in cramped spaces if you want late-game progression.

🧭 Real Play Flow — How Time Actually Passes on a Tiny Island

⏰ Early Game (0~10 hours): "Why am I spending 30 minutes on a single piece of gravel?"

Your first hour is essentially a *survival simulator*. With one tree on a small dirt island, forgetting to replant a sapling is game over, so you'll find yourself checking "did I replant?" every five minutes. Meanwhile, you'll *misstep one block off your workbench and fall into the void* an average of 3~5 times on day one. No joke — the biggest enemy on day one of ATM10 Sky isn't a zombie or a skeleton, it's the *air*.

Around hour 2~4, manual sieving hell begins. Loading 64 gravel into a Wooden Sieve one by one and right-clicking 64 times forces a clear realization: "what am I doing with my life?" That suffocation is actually the intended *tutorial pace*. You're meant to feel the inefficiency of manual sieving viscerally, so you genuinely understand the value of the next step — automation. Push through that first 30 minutes of right-clicking.

Around hour 5~8 you'll land your first automation success. Usually it's the simple line of *gravel chest on top of a hopper, an auto-hammer below, then another hopper into a result chest*, and the moment it starts running there's real joy in the fact that "now gravel is being processed even while I sleep." Almost everyone who calls ATM10 Sky "fun" first felt that fun right after building their first auto-sieving line.

⚙️ Mid Game (10~40 hours): "My tiny island actually becomes a factory"

Past hour 10 the island's silhouette starts to change. What used to be a single row of platforms is now a tiny city with *Create windmill towers stacked above, six auto-sieve lines below, and an early AE2 ME Drive hanging on the side*. At some point 10,000 gravel are sitting in your ME disks, and ore chunks are streaming in pre-sorted by color.

This phase has two "aha" moments. First: stepping away while four AE2 Crystal Growth Accelerators chained in series finish four 32k ME disks in one go. Crystal growth is famously slow in regular ATM10, but in Sky building accelerators early is practically mandatory, leading to the strange phenomenon where *resource flow in mid-game feels smoother than in late game*.

Second: successfully cramming a Mekanism 5x ore processing line into a tiny island. Stacking Enrichment Chamber → Purification Chamber → Chemical Injection Chamber → Precision Sawmill *into a 4-floor tower on a 4×3 footprint* is a build you'd never even attempt in regular ATM10. Once you finish it, the feeling of "I'm actually a factory designer now" sets in. Around hour 25, taking a slow lap around your island and realizing "I built every piece of this" lingers for life.

🏆 End Game (40 hours+): The ATM Star, and the completion of your "sky city"

Past hour 40, the real late-game resource hunt begins. In regular ATM10 you descend to The Other dimension to mine Allthemodium / Vibranium / Unobtainium, but in Sky the flow is slightly different — you must *craft a separate dimensional portal* and bring resources back to your tiny island for processing. So building a *dedicated processing module next to the portal* becomes the signature build of this phase.

Starting the ATM Star Tier 1 craft pulls you back into mods you'd been delaying. Botania mana systems, Ars Nouveau spells, Apotheosis enchantments — sidelines you could have skipped in regular ATM10 are now *forced visits because of Star ingredients*. This is actually clever design. You end up touching mods you'd have ignored otherwise and going "huh, this is kind of fun."

The true charm of the absolute endgame is *sky city building*. Once the Star is done there's no more resource pressure, and you start wanting to build a "good-looking island" purely for aesthetics. A main factory ringed by 7 Create windmills, a Botania mana flower garden hanging beneath it, separate floating residential modules — once this *sky city season* begins, hours 70 and 100 simply vanish. Among ATM10 Sky veterans there's a not-quite-joking saying: "the Star isn't the destination, it's the actual start of the game."

⚙️ ATM10 Sky Top 8 Core Mods

Full individual mod write-ups live on the [mods listing page](/mods/). Here I'll spotlight the mods that matter most *specifically in the ATM10 Sky environment*.

1. Ex Nihilo Sequentia

The *heart* of ATM10 Sky. Without sieves, barrels, and hammers the game can't even begin. Upgrading from wooden → stone → iron → diamond meshes accelerates ore output stepwise. Late-game you'll automate sieving with Mekanism power, which effectively marks "the end of the early game."

2. Mekanism

The undisputed king of energy and ore processing. Just like in regular ATM10, the 5x ore multiplier becomes the backbone of late-game resource supply. The big difference in ATM10 Sky: the *Digital Miner* is useless (no ores in the void), so you instead build a line that *5x-multiplies the output of your sieves*.

3. Applied Energistics 2 (AE2)

A mod seemingly designed for ATM10 Sky. A single disk holds tens of thousands of items in a tiny footprint, preventing chests from devouring your island. The moment you grasp ME Auto-Crafting, you can wire your *sieve line ↔ Mekanism processing ↔ Create gear shop* into a single "order system."

4. Create

The pinnacle of steampunk machinery. Windmills, water wheels, and mechanical crafters let you build visually striking automation. It pairs beautifully with ATM10 Sky's *vertical space* — a tower of stacked windmills often becomes the icon of a small island base.

5. FTB Quests

Not officially a "mod," but the system that *completely defines* progression in ATM10 Sky. Open the quest book and you can see your next objective, required materials, and prerequisites at a glance. Build the habit of opening the quest book every time you're stuck, and you'll never get lost.

6. Sophisticated Backpacks

A must-have QoL mod that survives the cramped space + heavy gravel/dirt hauling. Mix in magnet, pickup, and compression upgrades to create a *moving mini-inventory system*.

7. Botania

A plant magic mod. *Renewable mana sources* are extraordinarily appealing in a skyblock setting. Mana flower gardens take almost no space yet provide infinite power, so they can become a key power source on a tiny island.

8. Productive Bees

A farming hybrid where *bees produce ores* in the void. Late-game ATM10 Sky bumps into ceilings on certain ores (uranium, elemental ores), and bees fill the gap reliably. The entry curve is steep so it's fine to delay early on, but *eventually you'll touch this mod*.

🆚 Comparison With Other Modpacks

vs Regular ATM10 — "Same mods, completely different game"

• ATM10: Vast overworld, free exploration and building, almost no progression guidance
• ATM10 Sky: Void + tiny island, every resource is "manufactured," clear FTB Quests guidance

👉 *Want a freeform sandbox? Choose ATM10*. *Want clear objectives and an automation challenge? Choose ATM10 Sky*. They share the same mod lineup but feel almost like different games. Personally, *if it's your first modpack, I'd actually recommend ATM10 Sky first* — having a defined path is a huge advantage for newcomers.

vs FTB StoneBlock 4 — "Two flavors of confined automation"

• StoneBlock 4: Start in a world packed with stone — *mine outward to create space*
• ATM10 Sky: Start in the void — *build outward to create space*

👉 Both are themed around "limited space" but the directions are opposite. *If you love a dark, enclosed atmosphere*, choose StoneBlock 4. *If you love bright, open scenery*, choose ATM10 Sky. Mod variety is much richer in ATM10 Sky, while progression guidance is comparable since both are quest-driven.

vs SkyFactory 5 — "The classic vs the new contender"

• SkyFactory 5: The original skyblock modpack, 1.18 Forge based, ~200 mods
• ATM10 Sky: 1.21 NeoForge based, 350+ mods, latest content and mod versions

👉 *For a classic feel*, choose SkyFactory 5. *To enjoy 1.21 content alongside the latest mods*, choose ATM10 Sky. SkyFactory 5 offers a "clean, simple" progression while ATM10 Sky offers a "broad, dense" one.

💡 Recommended Settings & Tips

RAM Allocation

• Minimum: 6GB — slightly lighter on RAM than regular ATM10
• Recommended: 8GB
• 50+ automation lines in late game: 10GB+

Set -Xmx8G in JVM Arguments from your CurseForge / Prism Launcher instance settings. Surprisingly, ATM10 Sky tends to use 1~2GB less than regular ATM10 with the same settings, because *most of the void chunks are empty*.

Recommended JVM Arguments

-Xmx8G -Xms4G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled 
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions 
-XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch

These G1GC-based arguments are a stable, well-tuned combination. Tuning GC options alongside -Xmx is what prevents *the GC spikes that show up around the 100-hour mark*.

Graphics Settings

ATM10 Sky ships with Embeddium (a Sodium port for Forge) by default.

• Render Distance: 12~16 chunks — anything beyond 16 is pointless in the void
• Simulation Distance: 8 — enough to keep automation chunks active
• VSync: ON
• Shaders: Recommended *only after your base is stable*. Enabling them too early will haunt you 60 hours in.

Tips

• Never disable JEI/EMI. ATM10 Sky has many *modpack-specific recipes* that differ from regular mods (especially Ex Nihilo outputs).
• Craft a Builder's Wand (or equivalent) early to prevent falling deaths. Placing many blocks safely at once cuts mid-build accidents by 90%.
• Automate leaf shredding early — dirt is forever scarce. Set up the leaf-shredding *humus* system as soon as possible.
• AE2 crystal growth is slower in Sky because flowing-water space is cramped. Building Crystal Growth Accelerators early saves enormous time.
• Auto-backups are essential — there are (rare) reports of entire chunks vanishing mid-work. Back up your save folder weekly.

⚠️ Common Issues & Fixes

"Won't even launch / Java error"

1.21 NeoForge requires Java 21 or higher. CurseForge auto-fetches it, but Prism Launcher and ATLauncher require you to install Java 21 separately and assign it to the instance. Errors like "Unsupported class file major version" are 100% Java version mismatches.

"Severe lag"

• F3+T to reload chunks (refresh textures and models)
• Drop simulation distance to 8 or lower
• Too many *Create windmills/water wheels* drive CPU usage through the roof. Replace some with Mekanism generators.
• If your AE2 ME system has too many Auto-Crafting CPU chunks registered, expect terrible TPS. Clean up unused patterns.
• The more Productive Bees hives you have, the slower the game runs. Don't cluster more than 50 in one spot.

"My sieve is automated but the output disappears"

A common bug with the auto-sieve + hopper combo in Ex Nihilo. If sieving is faster than the hopper can pull, items *drop on the floor and despawn*. Fixes:

1. Place an *item collector* block (Cyclic, etc.) between the sieve and the hopper
2. Or attach an AE2 *Storage Bus* directly to the sieve to capture results instantly
3. Avoid pushing sieve speed *too aggressively* (save diamond meshes for late game)

"I fell off the island and can't find my items"

Items that hit the void are deleted permanently. This is *the biggest trauma* in ATM10 Sky. Prevention:

1. Use the Sophisticated Backpacks "void protection" upgrade (or a Curios death-tracking charm) so your backpack survives death
2. Always place temporary scaffolding around your work area
3. If a Gravestones-style mod is bundled (it usually is), enable it
4. Take expensive items out of your backpack while building

"Multiplayer sync errors"

Caused by mod version mismatches between server and client. ATM10 Sky's server pack is distributed on CurseForge with the *exact same build number* as the client, so always use matching versions. Even a 0.x.x patch difference often blocks connection entirely.

💬 Pick This Pack If...

• "I tried regular ATM10 and spent the first 3 hours not knowing what to do, ended up just building a dirt shack and quitting" — ATM10 Sky is the exact fix. Following the FTB Quests book page by page sets *today's task* automatically, so "quitting out of boredom" doesn't happen. The same mods, but with a defined path, completely transforms the experience.

• "I want to load it up after work intending to grind gravel for 30 minutes and end up at 2 AM going 'just one more automation line'" — ATM10 Sky is exactly that pack. Daily goals are small and clear so the *stopping point is well-defined*, but the cursed structure of "just one more" never stops pulling you in.

• "I want to run a small multiplayer server with 2~3 friends" — ATM10 Sky fits multiplayer better than regular ATM10. Limited resources naturally create *role specialization* (one on sieving, one on power, one on AE2), and everyone working together on a tiny island means *interaction density* is high — voice chat never goes quiet.

• "I graduated from SkyFactory 5 and don't know what skyblock to play next" — ATM10 Sky is the natural next step. Coming from SkyFactory's clean, simple progression, ATM10 Sky's *much richer mod lineup and deeper late-game content* delivers exactly the "one tier up" satisfaction you're looking for.

• "Factory design is more fun than building, and laying out factories on flat terrain feels too obvious" — Sky offers a brand new dimension of challenge. Cramming a 5x ore processing line onto a 4×4 platform, deciding how many floors of windmill tower to stack — *vertical compression design* is a kind of fun you can't experience in normal modpacks.

• "I want to post sky-city screenshots online" — Late-game ATM10 Sky builds are stunning. Turn on shaders during sunrise/sunset and capture windmill towers and mana flower gardens floating together — almost every shot looks *wallpaper-ready*.

• "I always wanted to deeply learn AE2" — ATM10 Sky is essentially a forced-learning environment. On a tiny island your inventory fills in *5 minutes* without AE2, so progression literally jams without it. You'll have no choice but to master ME systems, Auto-Crafting, and Crystal Growth Accelerators.

👍 Recommended For

• Players who got *lost in the freedom* of regular ATM10 — the quest book gently guides you
• Anyone who enjoys the puzzle of *factory design within spatial constraints* (this is genuinely the core fun)
• Players who want to deeply explore *automation mods like AE2, Mekanism, and Create*
• Co-op groups that want each player to manage a module of a *floating sky city*
• SkyFactory veterans looking for a "richer, fuller skyblock"

👎 Not Recommended For

• Players who want to *explore* a vast overworld — there's nothing but void here
• Fans of *combat/survival* focused packs (RLCraft, Prominence II)
• Anyone who hates automation and wants pure manual play (sieving + cobblegen is 99% of progression)
• Anyone with less than 6GB RAM — even 30 sieve lines will lock up the game in late-game
• Players with *fall-death trauma* — no joke, you will fall five times on day one

🔚 Final Thoughts

ATM10 Sky is the modpack that best demonstrates how "the same mod lineup becomes a completely different game when you change the starting environment." If regular ATM10 is *a freeform college campus life*, ATM10 Sky is *a tightly engineered space-station simulation*. The fact that nothing is given freely can feel suffocating at first, but that suffocation transforms into the satisfaction of "I built every single piece of this."

What I love most is that you get the *ATM10 mod lineup and late-game content* — proven and polished — while also receiving *clear progression checkpoints*. Honestly, I boot ATM10 Sky more often than regular ATM10. Every day there's a clearly visible micro-goal of "just automate this one thing today," and somehow what was supposed to be a 30-minute session becomes 2 AM before I notice.

Related guides:

• [Beginner's Guide to Modpacks](/guides/beginner-modpack-guide/)
• [Minecraft Modpack Performance Optimization](/guides/performance-optimization/)
• [ATM10 Sky Modpack Page](/modpacks/atm10-sky/)

🔗 Related Modpacks Worth Checking

• [All The Mods 10](/modpacks/all-the-mods-10/) — The regular version with the same mod lineup in a *vast overworld*. When ATM10 Sky's late game starts feeling cramped, booting up regular ATM10 delivers the exact opposite sense of liberation. Splitting the same mods across two seasons by changing the environment is the most economical way to enjoy ATM.

• [FTB StoneBlock 4](/modpacks/ftb-stoneblock-4/) — A sibling pack sharing the "limited space + automation + quest book" concept. Where ATM10 Sky is *building upward into the void*, StoneBlock 4 is *mining outward through stone*. If you want the same design game without falling-death trauma, StoneBlock 4 is the safer choice.

• [SkyFactory 5](/modpacks/skyfactory-5/) — The original skyblock modpack. Fewer mods and simpler progression than ATM10 Sky, making it more suitable as a *beginner's skyblock*. Learn the fundamentals in SkyFactory 5 and transitioning to ATM10 Sky becomes much smoother.

• [Vault Hunters 3rd Edition](/modpacks/vault-hunters-3/) — The polar opposite of ATM10 Sky's peaceful automation atmosphere — a roguelike modpack centered on *timed dungeon clears*. A perfect companion pack to drop into when you need stakes between meditative Sky sessions.

• [Cobbleverse](/modpacks/cobbleverse/) — Cobblemon (a Pokemon mod) combined with automation. If you love ATM10 Sky's "self-sufficient on a tiny island" vibe but want a *slightly more casual game loop*, Cobbleverse fits surprisingly well.