Not Enough Patterns
Applied Energistics 2 has always been the gold standard for storage and autocrafting in modded Minecraft, but its pattern providers only truly understand one shape of machine: items in, items out. The moment a mod adds a ritual, a multiblock, or a machine that pushes fluids to specific blocks, the network shrugs and leaves you to babysit the craft by hand. Not Enough Patterns exists to close that gap. It is an add-on mod for Applied Energistics 2 that teaches pattern providers how to drive the machines they were never designed to touch, turning every awkward recipe into one ordinary autocrafting step: encode a pattern, drop it in a provider, and let the network run the machine.
What Not Enough Patterns Actually Does
The core idea is simple and elegant. Each supported machine becomes a normal AE2 craft. You look a recipe up in JEI, hit the plus button at a Pattern Encoding Terminal, and the correct pattern comes back with the ingredients already worked out. No manual item shuffling, no remembering which slot wants what. If you have ever tried to automate something like Create's Sequenced Assembly or Draconic Evolution's Fusion Crafting through AE2 alone, you already know why this matters.
Supported Minecraft Versions and Loaders
Not Enough Patterns targets Minecraft 1.21.1 on NeoForge, which is where the current Applied Energistics 2 development lives. The mod is built tightly around AE2's modern API, so expect that combination to be the supported path going forward.
Supported Mods at a Glance
- Actually Additions: Empowering and Atomic Reconstruction
- Apothic Enchanting: Enchantment Infusion
- Compact Crafting: Miniaturization
- Create: Mechanical Crafting, Deploying, Filling, and Sequenced Assembly
- Draconic Evolution: Fusion Crafting
- Mystical Agriculture: Infusion and Awakening
More integrations are planned, including Ars Nouveau, Mekanism, Occultism, PneumaticCraft, Farmer's Delight, Iron's Spellbooks, and others. Full EMI support is postponed until the mod's 1.0 release; until then, a "JEMI" approach means you still need JEI installed even if you view items and recipes through EMI.
New Blocks and Tools
Beyond integrations, Not Enough Patterns adds a small toolkit of its own that solves problems AE2 players have grumbled about for years.
Import Card
The Import Card lets a pattern provider collect its own results, tracked per pattern and per side, so it never grabs something it should not. It also fits the pattern providers from Advanced AE, ExtendedAE, and MEGA Cells.
Machine Hub and Hub Linker
Many multiblocks expose several separate inventories. The Machine Hub presents them to a pattern provider as one, so the network can push items and fluids to individual blocks at once. Targets can be linked with the Hub Linker or discovered by the Hub's own scan.
Controllers and Matrices
Controllers manage an entire multi-step or multi-block process under a single block, routing items where they need to go and returning results to your system when the craft finishes. Matrices are one-block late-game solutions that replace a whole multiblock process line, such as Create's Sequenced Assembly.
Airships and Sable Support
Every block the mod adds works aboard a Sable sub-level, the foundation Create: Aeronautics builds its ships from. Screens stay open while the deck moves under you, and the Sequenced Assembly Linker draws its overlay on the ship rather than where the sub-level is parked. Links must stay on one sub-level: a controller cannot drive a machine on a different ship or on the ground below it. Sable itself is optional, since the mod carries the small companion library it needs.
If you would rather skip the manual file shuffling entirely, the foxygame.net launcher can drop Not Enough Patterns straight into a ready-made 1.21.1 NeoForge instance with a single click, which is a pleasant shortcut when you are juggling a dozen other AE2 add-ons.
How to Install Not Enough Patterns for Minecraft
Installation follows the standard add-on routine. First, make sure you are running Minecraft 1.21.1 with NeoForge and Applied Energistics 2 already in place, since Not Enough Patterns will not load without its parent mod. Next, download Not Enough Patterns and place the jar file into your mods folder alongside AE2. If you use JEI, keep it installed even when EMI is your primary recipe viewer. Finally, launch the game and open the in-game AE2 Guide, where every machine has a full page covering setup diagrams, pattern encoding, troubleshooting, and settings. That guide is the real reference; this article is only the summary.
Modpack and Configuration Notes
You are free to include Not Enough Patterns in any modpack on CurseForge or Modrinth once it is listed there. Pack developers get a fully modular nep-server.toml, where every integration has its own enabled toggle and a master switch per mod, so you can trim the feature set to fit your pack without guesswork.
Final Thoughts
Not Enough Patterns fills a niche that AE2 players have quietly tolerated for years: the machines that refused to automate. By turning rituals, multiblocks, and sequenced crafts into ordinary patterns, it makes the network feel genuinely complete. If your base is full of half-automated machines waiting for a human hand, this add-on is the missing piece.