Thermal Foundation

Overview

Thermal Foundation is the material and resource layer of the Thermal Series, one of the longest-running mod families in Minecraft history. It populates your world with new ores, introduces a complete system of alloys and processed metals, adds three unique elemental mobs, and provides full sets of tools and armor for every material it includes. If you're using any other Thermal mod (Expansion, Dynamics, Innovation, Cultivation), this is the foundation everything else is built on.

The mod adds nine mineable ores including Copper, Tin, Silver, Lead, Nickel, and Aluminum, along with rare Platinum and Iridium deposits. These base metals combine into alloys like Electrum, Invar, Bronze, and the advanced Signalum, Lumium, and Enderium. Every metal comes as a complete set: ingots, nuggets, dusts, gears, and plates. Most also have full tool and armor sets with distinct stats. You can browse every item and recipe using the tabs at the top of this page.

Prerequisites

Thermal Foundation requires CoFH Core as a dependency. Install both mods into your Forge mods folder. Thermal Foundation is standalone and fully functional on its own, providing ores, materials, tools, armor, and mobs without needing any other Thermal module. However, its materials truly shine when paired with Thermal Expansion (which adds machines for ore doubling, alloy creation, and advanced processing) and Thermal Dynamics (which adds item, fluid, and energy transport pipes). The advanced alloys Signalum, Lumium, and Enderium typically require Thermal Expansion's Induction Smelter to create, as their dust recipes are not available through a regular Crafting Table.

Ores and World Generation

Thermal Foundation significantly expands what you'll find underground. Each ore has specific depth ranges and cluster sizes that determine how common it is. Understanding where to mine for each material saves significant time.

Common Ores

Copper Ore is the most abundant new ore, spawning between Y 40 and Y 75 with 8 clusters of 8 blocks per chunk. It also has a special ocean variant that generates between Y 20 and Y 55, and a high-altitude variant between Y 48 and Y 96. Tin Ore generates between Y 20 and Y 55 with 7 clusters per chunk and is almost as common as Copper. Both are roughly equivalent to vanilla Iron in frequency.

Mid-Tier Ores

Silver and Lead generate together as mixed veins deep underground. Silver Ore spawns between Y 5 and Y 30 with 4 clusters per chunk, and Lead Ore at Y 10 to Y 35, also with 4 clusters. The clever design means Silver veins contain 20% Lead ore blocks, while Lead veins contain 10% Silver. You'll often find both metals in the same mining session. Nickel Ore is the rarest common ore, generating at Y 5 to Y 20 in clusters of just 4 blocks with only 2 clusters per chunk. It's worth seeking out because Nickel enables two of the best mid-tier alloys.

Rare Ores and Clathrates

Aluminum and Platinum ores are disabled by default and must be enabled in the config. When enabled, Aluminum uses the same generation parameters as Copper, while Platinum generates as a rare component mixed into Nickel veins between Y 5 and Y 25. The mod also adds Clathrate deposits: Redstone Clathrate spawns below Y 20 in the Overworld, Glowstone Clathrate generates between Y 10 and Y 40 in the Nether, and Ender Clathrate appears between Y 10 and Y 80 in the End. Oil Sand and Oil Shale Clathrates generate as geode-style deposits in sandy, mesa, ocean, snowy, and swamp biomes.

Base Metals and Alloys

The material system in Thermal Foundation follows a clear progression. Every metal is available as ingots, nuggets, dusts, gears, and plates. Ingots are the primary form used in tool and armor crafting. Dusts smelt into ingots and are the key to creating alloys. Gears and plates are crafting components used extensively in Thermal Expansion machines and Thermal Dynamics transport systems.

Crafting Table Alloys

Four alloys can be created by combining dusts directly in a Crafting Table. Electrum is made from 1 Gold Dust + 1 Silver Dust, yielding 2 Electrum Dust. It has extreme mining speed (14.0) and the highest enchantability (30) but very low durability (100) and attack damage (0.5). Invar comes from 2 Iron Dust + 1 Nickel Dust, producing 3 Invar Dust. It's a solid all-rounder with 425 durability, 6.5 mining speed, 2.5 attack damage, and armor toughness of 1.0. Bronze requires 3 Copper Dust + 1 Tin Dust for 4 Bronze Dust. With 325 durability and 1.0 armor toughness, it's the most accessible mid-tier alloy. Constantan uses 1 Copper Dust + 1 Nickel Dust for 2 Constantan Dust. It's a modest alloy with 275 durability and 6.0 mining speed.

Advanced Alloys

Three advanced alloys exist at Uncommon and Rare rarity tiers: Signalum, Lumium, and Enderium. These cannot be mixed in a Crafting Table and typically require the Induction Smelter from Thermal Expansion. Steel also falls into this category, as its dust can only be smelted into ingots when Thermal Expansion is not installed (Thermal Expansion provides the proper Steel creation process via its machines). These advanced materials don't have tool or armor sets in Thermal Foundation, but they're essential crafting components for machine upgrades and advanced recipes throughout the Thermal Series.

Tools and Weapons

Thermal Foundation provides a complete set of 12 tools for each of its 12 metal types, plus extended tool types for vanilla materials. Every metal gets a Sword, Shovel, Pickaxe, Axe, Hoe, Bow, Fishing Rod, Shears, and Shield following standard vanilla crafting patterns. But the mod also introduces three unique tool types that don't exist in vanilla Minecraft.

Unique Tool Types

The Sickle harvests plants and leaves in a wide area, making it excellent for farming and clearing foliage. The Hammer mines a 3x3 area of blocks, working like a pickaxe but breaking an entire face at once. The Excavator does the same but for shovel-type blocks (dirt, sand, gravel), clearing a 3x3 area per swing. These three tools are also available for vanilla materials (Stone, Iron, Diamond, and Gold), though Wood and Stone variants are disabled by default.

Bow and Fishing Rod Enhancements

Each metal's Bow has unique arrow damage and speed calculated from the material's stats. Higher mining speed materials produce faster arrows, while higher attack damage materials deal more arrow damage. The Fishing Rods also scale: enchantability translates into a luck modifier, and mining speed into a speed modifier, making high-tier rods significantly better at catching rare fish. Platinum Bows deal 0.875 arrow damage with 0.45 arrow speed, making them the hardest-hitting ranged option.

Armor

All 12 metals have complete armor sets (Helmet, Chestplate, Leggings, Boots) crafted with standard vanilla patterns using their respective ingots. The key stats to compare are total armor points, durability multiplier, enchantability, and toughness. Toughness is particularly important because it reduces the effectiveness of high-damage attacks, and only a few Thermal Foundation materials have it.

For early game, Lead Armor offers the best total protection among base metals at 14 armor points (2+4+5+3), though it has no toughness. Bronze Armor provides 16 total points (2+6+6+2) with 1.0 toughness, making it the strongest accessible early-game set. Moving into mid-game, Invar Armor matches Steel at 16 points (2+5+7+2) with 1.0 toughness but offers slightly better enchantability (12 vs 10). Platinum Armor is the endgame set with 20 total armor points (3+6+8+3), 2.0 toughness, and a durability multiplier of 35, putting it on par with Diamond. Silver and Electrum armor are enchantability-focused (25 and 30 respectively), making them ideal for enchanting setups if you want the best possible enchantments.

Elemental Mobs

Thermal Foundation adds three elemental mobs that mirror the Blaze from the Nether but inhabit the Overworld. Each spawns in specific biome types, has 6 HP (3 hearts), attacks by firing elemental bolts, and drops unique materials used in advanced crafting. They all spawn at light level 8 or below in groups of 1 to 4.

Blizz (Cold Elemental)

The Blizz spawns in cold and snowy biomes. It fires Blizzard Bolts that inflict Slowness on hit, and produces snowflake particles as it floats. Blizz drops Blizz Rods, which can be crafted into 2 Blizz Dust each. Blizz Dust is a brewing ingredient that creates Potions of Absorption.

Blitz (Air Elemental)

The Blitz appears in sandy and savanna biomes. Its Blitz Bolts inflict Blindness, and it's surrounded by cloud-like particles. Blitz Rods break down into 2 Blitz Dust, used to brew Potions of Levitation.

Basalz (Earth Elemental)

The Basalz spawns in mountain and wasteland biomes. It fires Basalz Bolts that apply Weakness. Basalz Rods yield 2 Basalz Dust, a brewing ingredient for Potions of Haste. The Basalz is arguably the most useful of the three because Haste potions are otherwise difficult to obtain.

Elemental Dusts

The four elemental dusts are Rare-rarity crafting materials that serve as powerful catalysts. Each combines a specific mob drop with other materials, and they enable unique crafting shortcuts that bypass machines entirely.

Pyrotheum Dust (Fire)

Pyrotheum Dust is crafted from Blaze Powder, Redstone, Sulfur, and Coal Dust. It functions as a furnace fuel and can smelt ores directly: combining any ore block with Pyrotheum Dust in a Crafting Table produces 1 ingot instantly without a Furnace. It also converts metal dusts into ingots the same way. Pyrotheum Dust is additionally used to create Hardened Glass variants for all metals, by combining a metal dust with Obsidian Dust and Pyrotheum Dust.

Cryotheum Dust (Ice)

Cryotheum Dust is crafted from Blizz Dust, Redstone, Snowball, and Niter. It freezes water into Ice and Ice into Packed Ice through Crafting Table recipes. When combined with Clathrate crystals (Redstone, Glowstone, or Ender Clathrates), it solidifies them into their respective items: 2 Redstone from a Redstone Clathrate, or 1 Glowstone Dust from a Glowstone Clathrate, or 1 Ender Pearl from an Ender Clathrate. It can also process fluid buckets of Redstone, Glowstone, and Ender into significantly larger quantities of items.

Petrotheum Dust (Earth) and Aerotheum Dust (Air)

Petrotheum Dust is crafted from Basalz Dust, Redstone, Obsidian Dust, and Niter. It crushes ores into 2 dusts in a Crafting Table and can also grind ingots back down into 1 dust. When used alongside Pyrotheum Dust on an ore, you get 2 ingots directly. Aerotheum Dust is made from Blitz Dust, Redstone, Sand, and Niter. It's primarily used as a material component in advanced Thermal Series recipes. Both Pyrotheum and Petrotheum crafting shortcuts can be toggled in the server config if a modpack author wants to gate ore processing behind machines.

Crafting Components

Beyond tools and armor, Thermal Foundation provides the essential crafting components that the rest of the Thermal Series depends on. Understanding these parts early will save you scrambling to craft them when you're ready to build machines.

Gears

Gears come in every metal variant plus Wood and Stone. The basic recipe is 4 ingots in a plus pattern with an Iron Ingot in the center (configurable). Wood Gears use Sticks around an empty center, and Stone Gears use Stone around a Wood Gear. Gears are used extensively in Thermal Expansion machine frames and Thermal Dynamics duct recipes. Keep a stock of Iron, Copper, Tin, and Gold Gears as you progress.

Power Components

The Redstone Servo is crafted from 2 Redstone Dust and 1 Iron Ingot in a vertical line. It's a fundamental machine component. Power Coils come in three types: Gold (Redstone + Gold Ingot diagonal), Silver (Redstone + Silver Ingot diagonal), and Electrum (Redstone + Electrum Ingot diagonal). These coils are placed inside Thermal Expansion dynamos and machines to determine their energy characteristics.

Machine Parts

The Tool Casing, Drill Head, and Saw Blade are specialized parts used in Thermal Innovation's power tools. The Tool Casing requires Gold Ingots, Redstone, and an Iron Ingot. The Drill Head uses 5 Iron Ingots around a Copper Ingot, and the Saw Blade follows a similar pattern. You won't need these until you're ready for powered tools, but they're good to know about.

Utility Items

Thermal Foundation includes several utility items that make interacting with Thermal Series machines easier.

Crescent Hammer (Wrench)

Crafted from 3 Iron Ingots and 1 Tin Ingot, the Crescent Hammer is the universal wrench for the Thermal Series. Right-clicking rotates blocks, and sneak-right-clicking dismantles Thermal machines while preserving their contents and upgrades. It deals 2 attack damage at higher tiers and is cross-compatible with BuildCraft and EnderIO wrench APIs. This is a must-have tool.

Multimeter

The Multimeter displays detailed information about Thermal machines and energy storage when right-clicked on them. It's crafted from 2 Copper Ingots, 2 Lead Ingots, an Electrum Power Coil, and a Gold Gear. Sneak-right-clicking opens the configuration GUI for supported blocks. An indispensable diagnostic tool when troubleshooting machine setups.

Security Lock and Upgrades

The Security Lock (8 Signalum Nuggets + 1 Bronze Ingot) claims ownership of Thermal machines, preventing other players from accessing them on multiplayer servers. Machine Upgrades come in four incremental tiers that boost machine speed, energy, and slot capacity. Each tier builds on the previous, and Full Upgrades can be crafted by combining incremental upgrades. Tier 1 uses Bronze Gears and Invar Ingots, scaling up through Silver, Electrum, and Lumium Gears to the endgame Tier 4 with Enderium Ingots and Pyrotheum Dust.

Fluids

Thermal Foundation registers over 25 fluids that form the backbone of the Thermal Series fluid infrastructure. While many of these fluids require Thermal Expansion machines to produce or use, Thermal Foundation defines them so they exist in the game world.

Key fluids include Steam (used in steam dynamos, gaseous, 750K), Creosote Oil (a byproduct of charcoal processing, high viscosity), various fuel fluids like Crude Oil, Refined Oil, and Refined Fuel for combustion-based power, and organic fluids like Sap, Syrup, Resin, and Seed Oil from tree and crop processing. Molten versions of Redstone, Glowstone, and Ender are available as Uncommon fluids, with Redstone being luminous and Glowstone being gaseous. The Experience fluid (Uncommon, gaseous) enables XP storage and transport through pipes.

The four elemental fluids stand out as Rare materials: Blazing Pyrotheum (4000K, luminous), Gelid Cryotheum (50K, ultra-viscous), Zephyrean Aerotheum (gaseous, low density), and Tectonic Petrotheum (extremely dense at 4000). There's also the legendary Mana fluid at Epic rarity, representing magical energy with very high viscosity (6000) and luminosity.

Miscellaneous Materials

Several supporting materials round out the mod's offerings. Sulfur drops from fire-immune mobs (like Blazes and Magma Cubes) and is used in Gunpowder crafting and Pyrotheum Dust. Niter (also known as Saltpeter) is used in Gunpowder and elemental dust recipes. Both Sulfur and Niter enable a vanilla-free Gunpowder recipe: combine Coal Dust, Sulfur, and 2 Niter to craft Gunpowder.

Coal Dust, Charcoal Dust, and Obsidian Dust are pulverized versions of their respective blocks, used in various recipes. Sawdust (Wood Dust) can be compressed into Compressed Sawdust. Petroleum Coke is a high-efficiency furnace fuel. Biomass and Bioblend dusts are plant-derived materials used in biofuel production. Rosin and Tar Globs are byproducts that also work as furnace fuel. Slag and Rich Slag are smelting byproducts, and Cinnabar is a crystal used in ore processing for bonus outputs.

Configuration

Thermal Foundation offers extensive configuration through two files. The client config is at config/thermal-client.toml, and the server config is at saves/WORLD_NAME/serverconfigs/thermal-server.toml. Copy the server config to your defaultconfigs folder to apply it to all new worlds.

Key configurable options include enabling or disabling individual equipment pieces (every tool and armor piece for every material can be toggled independently), enabling Aluminum and Platinum ore generation (disabled by default), toggling Pyrotheum/Petrotheum/Cryotheum crafting shortcuts, disabling all bows, shears, fishing rods, or shields globally, enabling or disabling horse armor crafting, and toggling whether disabled items still appear in Creative tabs. Modpack creators can use these configs to tightly control which materials and features are available.