In the real world, we don't make tools, weapons, or armor out of solid gold or diamond because gold is too soft and diamond is too brittle. I aim to replace these items with more appropriate options (Bronze and Steel) and relegate gold and diamond to "add-ons" to further improve your equipment.

New Materials

The first thing you may notice is that you can no longer craft Golden or Diamond tools, weapons, or armor. In place of gold, you can now make Bronze gear. Bronze is sturdier and more effective than Golden gear, while retaining the high enchantability you may be used to having on gear at that level of gameplay. While you may not be able to craft with gold, the Piglin don't have access to any other metals in the nether, and as such still maintain their fanatical love of the material.

Taking Diamond's place is Steel. You may want to be weary about smelting all of your Iron as soon as you get it, since making Steel requires Raw Iron. Steel equipment has the same stats that diamond had, except that it can only harvest the same blocks as Iron. To reach the next tier of mining (such as Obsidian and Ancient Debris), you'll need to add a Diamond Edge to your steel tools.

Finally, not a new material, but Netherite has been reformulated. With no diamond equipment to upgrade, Netherite gear is now crafted just like any other gear. To keep the cost of this gear from skyrocketing, the recipe for Netherite Ingots has been reduced to only use 1 Netherite Scrap per ingot.

Gilding Tools and Armor

The titular Gilding of the mod. Bronze, Iron, Steel, and Netherite can all be gilded in your choice of Yellow Gold, White Gold, or Rose Gold. Along with adding a decorative flourish to your gear, gilding adds a few benefits:

Regardless of the color of gold, Piglin still recognize it, and so wearing gilded armor in the nether is just as good as wearing solid gold armor at keeping them at bay.
The enchantability is increased. Gold is far better at taking enchants than other metals, even when it's only a thin adornment.
Magic. Not the magic of enchantment, though sometimes it does mimic the same effects. Each color of gold imparts an additional effect onto the gear being gilded.

To gild your items, you'll need a Gilding Smithing Template, which can be found in village smith's chests, abandoned mineshafts, desert and jungle temples, and underwater ruins. You'll also need an ingot of the color of Gold you want to use.

The Magic of Gilding

Yellow Gold (Luck of the Gambler)

Jackpot: tools and swords have a chance to multiply loot. Similar to fortune, except jackpots are rarer and have a chance to drop upwards of 5x the normal loot, or more! (Stacks with Fortune and Looting. Silk Touch will override the effect.)
Fortuity: armor will occasionally grant you health bonuses when hit. A single piece will grant 2 extra temporary hearts (like eating a golden apple). A second piece of armor adds a chance to make it 4 hearts. With three pieces, those hearts may come with Regeneration, and four pieces may instantly heal you for 4 hearts.

Rose Gold (Contradiction of Roses)

Silk Touch: tools get silk touch. This is just like the enchantment.†
Soul Touch: this is like Silk Touch, but for weapons. Mobs killed with Soul Touch have a chance to drop as a spawn egg.
Briars: armor has a chance to poison attackers. Adding additional pieces of armor does not increase the damage done, but increase the danger it poses, upgrading the poison to wither or even instant damage. (Stacks with Thorns)

White Gold (White Hot)

Searing Touch: tools will automatically smelt items dropped when breaking blocks. (Works with Fortune and Silk Touch.)
Inferno: when swinging a weapon, there is a chance that it will throw out a gout of flame, burning and disorienting mobs caught in the blast.
Backdraft: your armor builds up heat over time. An attack will release the heat as a blast of fire, knocking back all nearby mobs, burning them, and disorienting them.

Black Gold (Gravitation Warp)

Black Hole: tools will automatically destroy unwanted items dropped when breaking blocks.
Moon Strike: there is a chance that enemies struck by a weapon will be knocked far back, in slow motion, as if under the low gravity of the moon.
Gravity Well: the heavy gravity of your armor provides resistance against knockback and levitation. It also pulls small, unattended objects into your orbit.

Ender Gold (Teleportation)

Collection: tools will automatically teleport item drops into your inventory.
Altitude: there is a chance that enemies struck by a weapon will be teleported straight up and allowed to fall.
Ender Bounce: each piece of armor lt you teleport in diferent ways:
- Helmet: teleport up
- Chestplate: teleport out of the way of projectiles
- Leggings: teleport forward
- Boots: teleport down

Effects with a chance to happen can be adjusted in the configs. Effects can also be disabled in the config.

Future Plans:

Something to replace/improve wood and stone tools, for the same reasons
Golden Lazuli (Blue Gold)
Using colored gold as Trim materials

Known Issues

†The Silk Touch granted by Rose Gold gilding does not work on bee hives or nests. Also, will not work on any other modded blocks that rely on keeping NBT data when mined.

This mod was created with the assistance of MCreator. You are free to use this mod within your modpacks as long as you follow the various rules and legal shenanigans of Minecraft, MCreator, and Curseforge.

Gilded Smithing