Factories, essence, and the End

Hunt a boss. Farm what it dropped. Spend that in a line. Repeat until the End recipe makes sense.

Hunt. Cataclysm fights are resource nodes. Learn the arena. The drop is the point of the trip, not a trophy you put in an item frame and forget.

Farm. Easy Mob Farm and Create New Age turn those drops into a feed you do not have to babysit. Automate the boring part early. Hand-crafting essence in the late game is how people quit.

Build. Create and Mekanism do logistics and power. Pack recipes keep the line aimed at adventure, not infinite ore for its own sake.

End. Mechanical Crafting. Treat it like a capstone, not a side project you start after you are bored.

If a recipe is locked, the quest book is usually holding the item you have not fought yet. Go fight it. Then come back to the basin.