Create Wiki · Tools and equipment
Backtank and diving gear
The Backtank is a bottle of compressed air you wear on your back. Placed on the ground and driven by a shaft, it fills up; worn as a chestplate, it feeds the Diving Helmet, the Extendo Grip and the Potato Cannon. In Netherite, with the matching helmet and boots, it even lets you walk through lava.
Quick facts
- Category
- Tools and equipment
- Capacity
- 900 air, +300 per Capacity level (III max: 1,800)
- Filling
- Placed on the ground, a shaft on top; the faster it spins, the faster it fills
- Stress
- 4 SU per RPM when placed
- Breathing
- 1 air per second underwater (900 s with a full tank)
- Armour
- Copper: 4; Netherite: 8 and 3 toughness
- Netherite
- Full set + Netherite Backtank: fire immunity
- Version
- Create 6.0.8 · Minecraft 1.21.1
Copper Backtank, crafting table
→ 1 Copper Backtank
Placing it
With the Backtank in hand, right-click a block: it is placed. Its input shaft is on top: that is where the rotation must come in, through a shaft, a cogwheel or a motor set on it. To take it back, right-click without sneaking, with a free chestplate slot: it goes straight onto your back.
Filling it
As soon as the shaft turns, the tank fills with air and its cogs spin. Speed matters a lot: at 32 RPM it gains 1 air about every 14 ticks, more than ten minutes for a full tank. A comparator against it reads its level.
Faster
From 100 RPM the wait between refills goes away; from 140 RPM each refill adds 2 air, and 5 from 200 RPM. At 256 RPM it takes 5 air per tick: about 100 per second, a 900 tank in around ten seconds. It then uses 4 SU per RPM, that is 1,024 SU: plan the source.
Diving Helmet and Boots
The Diving Helmet takes five copper ingots and a glass block, the Diving Boots four copper ingots and two andesite alloys. With a full tank on your back, the helmet lets you breathe underwater by drawing 1 air per second, and underwater view reaches six times further. The boots keep you on the bottom: you walk on the sand instead of swimming, and a jump from the floor gives a good boost.
Copper or Netherite
The Netherite versions come from the smithing table, with a Netherite upgrade template and an ingot. They do not burn and protect like Netherite armour. With the Netherite helmet, tank and boots plus fire-resistant leggings, you become immune to fire and lava, the helmet lets you see 20 blocks through lava and the boots speed up your walk in it.
What uses the air
The Diving Helmet: 1 air per second when you are out of breath. The Extendo Grip: 1 air per action. The Potato Cannon: 4 air per shot. A message warns you at 10% air left, then when the tank is empty. The Capacity enchantment adds 300 air per level, up to level III.
A refill station
The simplest setup: a motor or a line of shafts under a roof, and a row of Backtanks placed below, a shaft on each. A comparator against a tank lights a lamp when it is full. Keep the speed high: at 32 RPM it takes over ten minutes, at 256 about ten seconds.
Common mistakes
A tank sitting in water does not fill: it must be dry. The shaft has to come from above, not from the sides. The Backtank has no durability, but it only protects a little: in copper, it is light armour.
More air
The Capacity enchantment goes on the tank at the enchanting table or with a book: each level adds 300 air, so 1,800 at level III, half an hour underwater. Mending and Unbreaking are refused: the tank does not wear out, it only runs empty.
Related pages
Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.8 code)
- Recipes: crafting/appliances/copper_backtank.json, copper_diving_helmet.json (PPP / PGP), copper_diving_boots.json (P P / P P / G G), Netherite versions at the smithing table
- Capacity: BacktankUtil.maxAir (airInBacktank 900 + enchantedBacktankCapacity 300 × level)
- Filling: BacktankBlockEntity (clamp((|v| − 100) / 20, 1, 5) air, wait clamp(128 − |v| / 5 − 108, 0, 20) ticks); shaft: BacktankBlock.hasShaftTowards(UP); stress 4: BuilderTransformers.backtank
- Helmet: DivingHelmetItem (1 air / 20 ticks), ClientEvents (fog × 6.25 underwater, 20 blocks in lava); boots: DivingBootsItem; Netherite: NetheriteDivingHandler
- Armour: AllArmorMaterials (copper), vanilla Netherite material
- Animation: BacktankRenderer (Y-axis shaft, cogs around the east axis, speed / 4 degrees per tick)
- Scene written for this wiki (Create has no Ponder scene on this topic): make_wiki_serie7.py, rendered by our engine; speeds recomputed by WIKI/redstone_sim.py (rotation propagation from Create's code)
- Images: the game's items and blocks (Create's models) rendered on their own by our engine, player not drawn
Original texts and animations by Create France, rendered from the mod's Ponder scenes. Create is a mod by the Create Team, not affiliated with Create France.