How much EV is actually required for AE?

[river forge]

I had this question myself and I've seen others ask it too, and as a person who has now successfully gotten circuit autocrafting fully set up while doing the absolute bare minimum, I thought I would share what it is that's actually required. Note that I haven't really done anything too fancy with my AE setup (such as adding cards to things), but if you're just trying to get started like I was this should hopefully help you know what's needed and then you can decide if it's worth not advancing into EV to get your ME network setup. Note that this isn't meant to be an AE guide. Look for other resources for that.

ME Storage: This only uses MV/HV circuits and titanium. As long as you've been to the moon this should be easy. This is easily accessible without going into EV.

Item autocrafting: This is a bit more annoying, but still doable at the end of HV. ME Interfaces require an EV machine casing, and the Molecular Assembler has an EV Assembler in its crafting recipe. However, this is just several EV circuits and titanium, so again, you should be able to access this without going into EV. The EV Assembler is never actually run so you don't need to have any EV power for this.

Fluid autocrafting: This is the nasty one. First, the ME dual interfaces need fluid processors which requires lapotron crystals. These require actually running an EV Assembler now, so you need an EV power line. If you don't want to think too hard about this you can use a transformer. In fact, after getting a lapotron crystal, you can power EV machines without EV power by using the lapotron crystal if you really wanted to. Note that there are quests leading you up to lapotron crystals that give you a bit of extra stuff towards making them so you might want to follow them. With the fluid discretizer and dual interfaces, you can get away with a bit of fluid autocrafting, but to really get going you'll want the fluid pattern terminal.

(Continued in the next post)

However, the fluid pattern terminal is the worst thing in the entire setup to make. It requires niobium-titanium, which requires an EV mixer and TPV coils on an EV EBF, and the TPV coils also require an EV assembler, an EV mixer, and an EV vacuum freezer (which thankfully can use two HV energy hatches). The TPV coils also require a lot of platinum, so better get your platline running. However, if you can manage to get all the platinum and spend way too long getting the TPV coils made, you can finally get your fluid pattern terminal and do fluid autocrafting.

So the question is, is it worth it to do all this if you don't yet want to advance to EV? For the storage and item autocrafting, I would say yes. It's a bit expensive, but it's already a huge step up. If you really have an aversion to EV for some reason, you might not want to do the fluid autocrafting. You can actually do quite a bit without it. While I was waiting for my TPV coils, I was able to make circuits just fine by manually making PCBs and then just supplying one assembler with an ample supply of polyethylene and putting tons of soldering alloy in my circuit assembler. Everything else was autocrafted. If you spent a bit more effort I'm sure you could set those up without AE2FC with cells and a bit more involved setups.

tl;dr: Storage and basic autocrafting is basically HV, while fluid autocrafting requires some EV.

[acoustic lark]

However, this is just several EV circuits and titanium, so again, you should be able to access this without going into EV. The EV Assembler is never actually run so you don't need to have any EV power for this.
I would consider making an EV assembler being EV

You're making EV parts (motor, robot arm) and machines

As well as circuits

[river forge]

Honestly my point in making this post is not "What exactly is EV" it's more "What is the bare minimum for AE"

Also I disagree that EV circuits are EV, you make freaking IV circuits before even going to the moon

I know it's really arbitrary, but I've always considered "doing a tier" to be when you actually run a machine of that tier

[acoustic lark]

Of course EV circuits arent EV

but making EV machines definitely is

[river forge]

Again though that's besides the point of this post

[acoustic lark]

The lines are a bit blurry and arbitrary

Sure

[proper rock]

I would say that if a recipe requires a machine from tier X that requires power from tier X (that is, not overclocked with multiple energy hatches), the recipe is tier X. It's arguable that overclockable multiblocks, even if technically from the next tier, require no actual infrastructure from that tier. If the multiblock requires machines from the next tier to craft, the multiblock belongs in that tier though.

See us having an HV tier EBF far before doing anything in HV

A machine crosses the line if it either hard requires power from that tier without overclocking, or uses parts from a machine that requires power from that tier without overclocking.

You're entering the next tier when you run that voltage after all

So either stepping up or a gen

[fiery trellis]

Getting EV voltage is a lot harder than getting EV machines

[proper rock]

The tiers are gated by energy, after all. Only makes sense that you'd consider yourself in that tier once you actually have energy at that tier.

[fiery trellis]

EV powergen is a lot harder than getting titanium

[opaque harness]

Wut, just use transformer and 4 hv diesel gens, it's the easiest part. Or EV batpack with EV lithium batteries.

[fiery trellis]

I'm not talking about a single EV amp, I'm talking about proper EV powergen - running multiple amps continuously. Sure, my base can do it, but that's literally half my infrastructure. Making one or two EV machines is easy in HV, making and running multiple, plus an EBF upgrade, is solidly EV territory.