As far as I can tell, there are no creepers, or any vanilla mobs at all. Also, you can skip copper if you find the green "alien" metal, don't remember the name. Can be mined with flint.
I've got the recipe to make ethereal blooms, but I can't figure out how to use the crucible properly. I have to throw items in that contain the essence I need... But how on earth do I find items containing all these things? I've never bothered with Thaumcraft before because it seemed too fiddly and tedious, and I'm getting that feeling again now. I will set it to easy mode (thanks for the tip) but that doesn't help with the crucible, I think. Mostly, I'm frustrated that there seems to be no way to see what you have in the crucible already. How do I know for sure what I have in there?
There is also an issue with getting some of the aspects. Normally you'd find them by scanning monster drops (rotten flesh for humans, for example), but there aren't any vanilla mobs in this game. I guess I have to combine things in the research table to get it? But it's all so complicated...
If anyone has experience with Thaumcraft, can you please tell me how I should go about the recipe for the ethereal bloom? Apparently I need 16 Herba, 16 Praecantatio, 16 Sano, and 8 Vitium... This is one "challenge" I really don't enjoy.
Meanwhile, I suppose I'll go get some higher-level ores with my new pick and do some more exploring. I would like some better armor, but I don't know how to get any at the moment.
I also have found some Botania flowers here and there while exploring. And the "pure daisy" definitely seems to clean the taint around it (though far less effectively than the ethereal blooms). Maybe I should try to set up a little mana generation site and see if I can make a little progress that way... I can at least clean up the rest of the islands in the swamp to give myself some more space to work with.
Orange Wizard, how are you setting up a fort outside the dome without it getting overrun by taint? As far as I can tell, the only material that taint doesn't affect is glass. Although stairs do seem to be immune... Hmmmm... Do half-blocks work the same way? Maybe I can do something with this...