The Primordial Node Manipulation topic does not unlock any new items or blocks, however, it both tells you about a special ability of primordial pearls, and increases your odds of success for actually doing it.
You can right click on nodes with a primordial pearl to add a bit of primal Vis of each type node (or to try to), increasing its capacity for those aspects by a few points. This consumes the pearl.
Upon using a Primordial Pearl on a node, the following happens in the order listed:
- Any compound aspect in the node has a 50% chance of losing 1 from its maximum
- Any primal aspect in the node gains anywhere from -2 to 6 (-2 to 3 without research)
- Every primal aspect with a small maximum has a chance to increase
- A number from 0 to 3 (0 to 2 without research) is picked
- If this number is larger than that aspects maximum, it becomes the new maximum
- If the maximum increased, one point of that aspect is added
- The node has a chance of increasing in brightness, 50% for fading to pale or pale to normal, 20% for normal to bright
- An explosion with a strength of 3 (5 without research) happens centered on the node
- 33 full blocks of flux are spawned in a 11x11x11 area centered on the node (5 blocks in every direction)
- Flux that spawns below the node is goo; flux that spawns above or at the node is gas
- Flux cannot spawn anywhere that isn't considered air
- Flux that fails to spawn does not try to again; a fully encased node produces no flux