Mining Gadgets Mod Guide: Laser Mining, Upgrades & Configuration
Mining Gadgets adds a single powerful tool to Minecraft: a laser-powered Mining Gadget that replaces your Pickaxe with a customizable beam of destruction. With 18 different Upgrade Cards covering everything from Silk Touch to 3x3 mining, plus full laser color customization, this mod turns ordinary mining into a sci-fi experience.
Overview
Mining Gadgets is a focused technology mod by Direwolf20 and ErrorMikey that adds one central item: the 
Mining Gadget, a Forge Energy (FE) powered laser that mines blocks at range. Rather than swinging a Pickaxe, you hold right-click and watch a laser beam dissolve blocks in front of you. The mod keeps things simple with just three core items (the Mining Gadget, the Modification Table, and the 
Miner's Light) plus 18 Upgrade Cards that let you customize exactly how your laser behaves.
You can browse every item the mod adds and all 24 crafting recipes using the tabs at the top of this page. This guide covers how everything works together, from your first craft through a fully upgraded endgame laser.
Getting Started
- 1
Craft an Upgrade Empty
The Upgrade Empty is the foundation for everything in this mod. It requires Redstone, Lapis Lazuli, Diamonds, and a Glass Pane. You'll need at least two: one goes into the
Mining Gadget recipe, and one goes into the Modification Table recipe. Craft a few extra since every upgrade card also requires one as an ingredient. - 2
Build the Mining Gadget
The
Mining Gadget itself requires 3 Diamonds, 4 Iron Ingots, 1 Redstone, and 1 Upgrade Empty. Once crafted, you'll have a laser with 1,000,000 FE capacity that costs 200 FE per block mined. It starts with a default beam range of 5 blocks and mines in a 1x1 area. - 3
Charge Your Gadget
The
Mining Gadget uses Forge Energy and arrives empty. You'll need an FE-compatible charger from another tech mod (such as a Charge Pad, an Energetic Infuser, or a Flux Network). The gadget accepts energy at an unlimited transfer rate, so any charger will fill it quickly. - 4
Craft the Modification Table
The Modification Table is a workstation block made from 6 Iron Ingots, 2 Redstone, and 1 Upgrade Empty. Place it down and use it to install or remove Upgrade Cards from your
Mining Gadget. It has two slots: one for the gadget and one for the upgrade card you want to insert. - 5
Start Mining
Hold right-click while aiming at a block to fire the laser. The targeted block will visually shrink or fade as it breaks. If you release the button before the block is fully mined, it will regenerate back to its original state after about half a second. Sneak + right-click opens the settings screen where you can toggle upgrades, adjust beam range, and access visual customization.
Core Items
Mining Gadgets does not include its own power generation. You'll need another tech mod like Mekanism, Thermal Expansion, or Immersive Engineering to charge the gadget. Any mod that provides Forge Energy (FE) or Redstone Flux (RF) will work.
How the Mining Gadget Works
The Mining Gadget fires a laser beam at whatever block you're looking at. When the beam hits a block, that block is replaced by an invisible Render Block that handles the breaking animation. The block visually shrinks or fades (your choice) until its durability reaches zero, at which point it breaks and drops its items normally. The breaking speed is calculated from the block's hardness, divided by the tool's base speed of 8.0 (boosted by Efficiency upgrades).
One important mechanic to understand: if you stop mining before a block is fully broken, it begins to regenerate. After 10 ticks (half a second) of not being mined, the block starts healing, and once it reaches its original durability it resets completely. This means you need to commit to breaking a block fully, or you'll waste energy. The gadget can mine any block that a Pickaxe can break, including Obsidian, but cannot mine blocks with negative hardness (like Bedrock) or blocks that have tile entities (like Chests or Furnaces).
Settings Screen
Sneak + right-click with the Mining Gadget to open the settings screen. From here you can toggle between 1x1 and 3x3 mining modes (requires the Three by Three upgrade), adjust the beam range with a slider, toggle individual upgrades on and off, configure Void Junk filters, and access the visual settings menu for changing the laser color and break animation style.
Upgrade System
The Mining Gadget supports 18 different Upgrade Cards, all installed and removed through the Modification Table. Every upgrade card is crafted from an Upgrade Empty (or the previous tier's card for tiered upgrades) plus additional materials. Some upgrades are toggleable, meaning you can enable or disable them from the settings screen, while others are always active once installed.
Enchantment Upgrades
Silk Touch adds the Silk Touch enchantment effect to your laser at a cost of 100 FE per block on top of the base cost. Fortune comes in three tiers (Fortune 1, 2, and 3) costing an additional 30, 60, and 100 FE per block respectively. These two upgrades are mutually exclusive; you cannot have both Silk Touch and any Fortune tier installed at the same time. Both are toggleable, so you can disable them to save energy when mining blocks where they don't matter.
Efficiency Upgrades
Efficiency upgrades come in five tiers and increase the mining speed of the gadget. The speed boost follows the same formula as vanilla Enchanting: each tier adds (tier² + 1) to the base tool speed of 8.0. This means Efficiency 1 adds 2 (total 10.0), Efficiency 2 adds 5 (total 13.0), Efficiency 3 adds 10 (total 18.0), Efficiency 4 adds 17 (total 25.0), and Efficiency 5 adds 26 (total 34.0). However, higher tiers also cost more energy: 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 FE per block for tiers 1 through 5.
Utility Upgrades
The Magnet upgrade sends mined items directly to your inventory instead of dropping them on the ground, costing 25 FE per block. Experience orbs are also delivered directly to the player. The Void Junk upgrade filters out unwanted blocks, preventing them from dropping items at all for just 10 FE per block extra. When Void Junk is installed, the settings screen gains filter slots where you can specify which items to keep (whitelist mode) or discard (blacklist mode). The Heatsink upgrade costs 50 FE per block and prevents the mining animation on your character, which is a small visual quality-of-life improvement.
Set Void Junk to whitelist mode and add only the ores you're looking for. When mining in 3x3 mode, the laser will still break all blocks but only collect the items on your whitelist. Everything else vanishes, keeping your inventory clean.
Enchantment Upgrades
Range and Area Upgrades
Range upgrades extend how far the laser beam can reach. The default beam range is 5 blocks. Each Range tier sets the maximum to (tier + 1) × 5 blocks: Range 1 allows up to 10 blocks, Range 2 up to 15, and Range 3 up to 20 blocks. You can adjust the actual range anywhere from 1 to the maximum using the slider in the settings screen. The Three by Three upgrade enables 3x3 area mining, which breaks a 3×3 grid of blocks centered on your target. In 3x3 mode, the energy cost is multiplied by 9, so plan your battery capacity accordingly.
Special Effect Upgrades
The Light Placer upgrade automatically places invisible Miner's Light blocks near where you're mining, providing light level 14. In 1x1 mode, the light is placed 4 blocks ahead of your target along the mining direction. In 3x3 mode, it's placed one block behind the surface in the corner of the mining area. Each light placed costs 100 FE. The Freezing upgrade converts Water and Lava adjacent to mined blocks into Ice and Obsidian (or Cobblestone for flowing fluids) at 100 FE per block frozen. This is incredibly useful for mining near underground lakes or in the Nether.
Battery Upgrades
Battery upgrades increase the gadget's energy storage capacity. The base capacity is 1,000,000 FE. Battery 1 increases it to 2,000,000 FE, Battery 2 to 5,000,000 FE, and Battery 3 to 10,000,000 FE. These are not cumulative; each tier replaces the previous one. The Battery 3 upgrade is essential if you plan to use 3x3 mining with expensive upgrades like Silk Touch, since you'll burn through energy much faster.
Utility Upgrades
Upgrade Energy Costs
| Silk Touch | Fortune 3 | Efficiency 5 | Magnet | Void Junk | Heatsink | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra FE/Block | 100 | 100 | 50 | 25 | 10 | 50 |
| Toggleable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tiers | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Conflicts With | Fortune | Silk Touch | None | None | None | None |
Battery Capacity Comparison
Choosing the right Battery tier depends on how many upgrades you run and whether you use 3x3 mode. Here's a breakdown of storage capacity and approximate block counts at different usage levels.
Battery Tiers
| No Battery | Battery 1 | Battery 2 | Battery 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 1,000,000 FE | 2,000,000 FE | 5,000,000 FE | 10,000,000 FE |
| Blocks (base cost) | 5,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 |
| Blocks (full upgrades 1x1) | ~2,667 | ~5,333 | ~13,333 | ~26,667 |
| Blocks (full upgrades 3x3) | ~296 | ~593 | ~1,481 | ~2,963 |
Battery Upgrades
Laser Customization
The Mining Gadget offers full visual customization through its settings screen. Open the settings (sneak + right-click) and click the Visuals Menu button to access color and animation controls. The laser beam has separate inner and outer color channels, each with independent Red, Green, and Blue sliders ranging from 0 to 255. The default beam color is red on the outside with a white inner core. You can also toggle between two block-breaking animations: Shrink (the block physically shrinks as it's mined) and Fade (the block becomes transparent and fades away).
For a classic sci-fi green laser, set the outer color to R:0 G:255 B:0 and the inner to R:150 G:255 B:150. For a blue beam, try outer R:0 G:50 B:255 with inner R:100 G:200 B:255. The color options are purely cosmetic and don't affect performance.
The Miner's Light
The Miner's Light is a small, invisible light source block that emits light level 14 (the same as a Torch). It can be placed manually as a block item or automatically by the Light Placer upgrade. The block has a tiny 4x4x4 pixel hitbox in the center, produces End Rod particles, and can be broken instantly. When placed by the Light Placer upgrade, these blocks appear automatically as you mine, keeping your tunnels well-lit without having to stop and place Torches.
Configuration
Mining Gadgets is highly configurable through its config file. Server administrators and modpack makers can adjust the base energy capacity (default 1,000,000 FE), the base cost per block mined (default 200 FE), and the additional energy cost for every individual upgrade. Battery upgrade capacities are also configurable: Battery 1 defaults to 2,000,000 FE, Battery 2 to 5,000,000 FE, and Battery 3 to 10,000,000 FE. The Light Placer and Freezing upgrade costs default to 100 FE each.
All config values are located in the common config file under the power section. If you find the gadget too powerful or too expensive for your modpack, these settings give you fine-grained control over the balance.
Default Configuration Values
| Max Energy Capacity | 1,000,000 FE |
| Base Cost Per Block | 200 FE |
| Silk Touch Cost | +100 FE/block |
| Fortune 1 / 2 / 3 Cost | +30 / +60 / +100 FE/block |
| Efficiency 1-5 Cost | +10 / +20 / +30 / +40 / +50 FE/block |
| Magnet Cost | +25 FE/block |
| Void Junk Cost | +10 FE/block |
| Heatsink Cost | +50 FE/block |
| Light Placer Cost | 100 FE/light |
| Freezing Cost | 100 FE/block frozen |
| Battery 1 Capacity | 2,000,000 FE |
| Battery 2 Capacity | 5,000,000 FE |
| Battery 3 Capacity | 10,000,000 FE |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Silk Touch and Fortune at the same time?
No. Silk Touch and Fortune are mutually exclusive. The Modification Table will refuse to insert one if the other is already installed. To switch between them, you must remove the current enchantment upgrade first and then install the other one.
Why does my Mining Gadget say it can't mine?
The gadget requires sufficient Forge Energy to mine. Check if the gadget has enough charge by hovering over it in your inventory. The energy bar shows remaining power. You also cannot mine blocks with tile entities (like Chests or Hoppers), blocks with negative hardness (Bedrock), or Doors.
How do I charge the Mining Gadget?
The Mining Gadget accepts Forge Energy (FE/RF) from any compatible charging device. Common options include Thermal Expansion's Energetic Infuser, Mekanism's Chargepad, or any wireless charging solution. The gadget has no transfer rate limit, so it charges as fast as your power source can supply.
Does the 3x3 mode use 9 times the energy?
Yes. When mining in 3x3 mode, the total energy cost per cycle is multiplied by 9. With the base cost of 200 FE, that's 1,800 FE per cycle in 3x3 mode before any upgrade costs. Each upgrade's additional cost is also multiplied, so a fully upgraded gadget in 3x3 mode can drain energy very quickly. Battery 2 or Battery 3 is strongly recommended.
What does the Freezing upgrade actually do?
When a block is broken with the Freezing upgrade active, the gadget checks all six sides of the broken block's position. Any source Water blocks are converted to Ice, source Lava blocks to Obsidian, and flowing fluid blocks to Cobblestone. This costs 100 FE per block frozen and is extremely useful for mining near underground Water pools or in the Nether where Lava is everywhere.
Can I remove upgrades from the Mining Gadget?
Yes. Place the Mining Gadget in the Modification Table and click on the upgrade you want to remove. The upgrade card will be placed in the output slot. You can also hold Shift while clicking to send the upgrade card directly to your inventory instead.