Thermal Innovation

Overview

Thermal Innovation is the player-centric equipment module of the Thermal Series. While Thermal Expansion focuses on machines and automation, Innovation puts powerful RF-driven tools directly into your hands. The mod adds six core items: the Flux Drill for mining stone and soil, the Flux Saw for harvesting wood, the Flux Magnet for picking up items at range, the Flux Capacitor for portable energy storage, the Potion Infuser for automatic potion application, and the Potion Quiver for imbuing arrows with potion effects.

Every item in Thermal Innovation supports the Tinker's Workbench augment system from Thermal Expansion. This means you can upgrade your tools with Integral Components for better speed and capacity, Radial Enhancements for larger area effects, and RF Coils for increased energy storage. Installing Thermal Innovation also enables Diving Armor, Hazmat Armor, Potion Augments, Tool Components, and Elemental Explosives from Thermal Foundation, unlocking additional gear options across the series.

You can browse every recipe and item this mod adds using the Recipes and Items tabs at the top of this page.

Prerequisites

Thermal Innovation requires CoFH Core and Thermal Foundation as dependencies. You'll also want Thermal Expansion installed for the Tinker's Workbench, which is how you charge and augment every tool in this mod. Before crafting anything from Innovation, you need to have Thermal Foundation's metals available: Copper, Tin, Lead, Silver, Gold, and Electrum Ingots, along with their corresponding Gears. You'll also need an RF Coil (crafted from Gold, Redstone, and Electrum), which is a key ingredient in most Innovation recipes.

Make sure you have some way to generate and store RF energy. A Sterling Dynamo or Magmatic Dynamo from Thermal Expansion will get you started, and you'll want a Tinker's Workbench to charge your tools and install augments.

RF-Powered Mining Tools

Flux Drill

The Flux Drill is a Pickaxe and Shovel hybrid that mines stone, dirt, gravel, sand, and metal ores. It has a base attack damage of 2.0 (plus any augment bonuses), an attack speed modifier of -2.4, and a mining efficiency of 6.0 when charged. Each block mined costs 200 RF, and hitting mobs costs 400 RF. The base model stores 50,000 RF with a transfer rate of 1,000 RF/t.

Without augments, the Flux Drill starts in single-block mode with a harvest level of 2 (equivalent to Iron). Installing Integral Components raises the harvest level, mining speed, and energy capacity. A Resonant Integral Component (4x multiplier) pushes efficiency to 10.0 and harvest level to 4, letting you break Obsidian. Adding Radial Enhancements unlocks area mining modes up to 9x9 depending on how many radius points you stack.

The Flux Drill accepts Upgrade, RF, and Area augments. It supports the Efficiency, Fortune, and Silk Touch enchantments, making it a versatile all-purpose mining tool that can eventually replace your traditional pickaxe entirely.

Flux Saw

The Flux Saw is the wood-harvesting counterpart to the Flux Drill. It functions as both an Axe and a Saw, cutting through all wooden materials including Logs, Planks, and wooden structures. It has a base attack damage of 3.0 (higher than the Drill), an attack speed modifier of -2.1 (faster than the Drill), and the same 6.0 mining efficiency when charged. Like the Drill, each block costs 200 RF and melee attacks cost 400 RF.

The Flux Saw also functions as a standard Axe for stripping logs. Right-click on any Log block to strip the bark, just like a vanilla Axe. With area augments and V-key toggling, you can clear entire walls of wood in a single swing, making it excellent for large-scale tree farming or clearing wooden structures.

It accepts the same augment types as the Drill (Upgrade, RF, Area) and can be enchanted with Efficiency, Fortune, and Silk Touch. Note that the Flux Saw does not perform tree-felling (chopping an entire tree from the base). Instead, it mines all matching blocks within its selected area of effect.

Energy and Item Utility

Flux Capacitor

The Flux Capacitor is a portable RF battery that sits in your inventory and charges your other items automatically. It stores 500,000 RF (10x more than the mining tools) with a 1,000 RF/t transfer rate. Sneak-right-click to toggle it on or off, and press V to cycle between three charging modes: Equipment Only (charges worn armor and held items), Inventory (charges everything in your hotbar and inventory), or All Items (charges inventory plus equipment slots).

The Flux Capacitor can also be placed inside machines like the Pulverizer, Induction Smelter, or any Thermal Expansion machine to serve as a built-in power source. Drop it into the machine's capacitor slot and it will drain its stored RF to keep the machine running, making it useful for remote or portable setups where piped power isn't available.

It accepts Energy-type augments only (Stabilized RF Coils for capacity, High Flux RF Coils for transfer speed, Expanded RF Coils for balanced bonuses). Pairing a Flux Capacitor with your Flux Drill means you'll never run out of charge mid-mining session.

Flux Magnet

The Flux Magnet attracts dropped items toward you, saving you the trouble of running around collecting loot. It has a base radius of 4 blocks (expanded by augments), stores 50,000 RF, and costs 25 RF per item picked up. Right-clicking anywhere activates a manual pull that attracts items near where you're looking (up to 64 blocks away), costing 200 RF plus 25 RF per item attracted.

Press V to toggle automatic attraction mode, which runs every 8 ticks and passively pulls nearby items to you while in your inventory. The magnet respects a 32-tick pickup delay on your own dropped items, so you won't accidentally re-grab things you intentionally threw down. Items tagged with "PreventRemoteMovement" (used by some mods for special drops) are also ignored.

The Flux Magnet accepts Upgrade, RF, Area, and Filter augments. The Filter augment is particularly useful. Sneak-right-click with a Filter installed to open the filter GUI, where you can set up a whitelist or blacklist of items. This prevents the magnet from picking up junk like Cobblestone while you're strip mining, letting only valuable drops through.

Potion Equipment

Potion Infuser

The Potion Infuser (also called Hypo Infuser) is a fluid container that stores liquid potions and can inject them into yourself or other mobs. It holds 4,000 mB of any potion fluid. Sneak-right-click to inject yourself with the stored potion (costs 250 mB per self-use), or right-click a mob to inject them at half duration (also costs 250 mB). To fill it, place it in a Fluid Transposer with the desired potion.

The real power of the Potion Infuser is its auto-infuse mode. Press V to toggle it on, and the Infuser will automatically re-apply its stored potion effect whenever your active effect drops below 2 seconds (40 ticks) remaining. Auto-infuse checks every 32 ticks and costs only 50 mB per cycle (one-fifth the cost of manual use), and applies the effect at one-quarter duration. This means you can maintain permanent Night Vision, Fire Resistance, or any other buff as long as the Infuser has fluid.

The Potion Infuser accepts Upgrade, RF, Potion, and Filter augments. Potion augments can increase effect duration and amplifier level, making your potions more powerful than standard brewed versions.

Potion Quiver (Alchemical Quiver)

The Potion Quiver combines arrow storage with potion imbuing for ranged combat. It holds up to 80 Arrows and 4,000 mB of potion fluid. Right-click to load Arrows from your inventory into the Quiver, and sneak-right-click to remove them. In Creative Mode, the Quiver provides infinite arrows.

Press V to toggle imbuing mode. When active, each arrow fired will be converted into a Tipped Arrow with your stored potion's effects, consuming 50 mB of fluid per shot. The Quiver applies effects at 12.5% (one-eighth) of their base duration, as shown in the tooltip. When imbuing is disabled, arrows fire as standard Arrows at no fluid cost. Removing arrows with sneak-right-click always gives regular Arrows, not tipped ones.

The Quiver works as an Archery Ammo capability item, meaning any Bow in your inventory will automatically draw from it. It accepts Upgrade, RF, Potion, and Filter augments. Potion augments boost the duration and amplifier of imbued arrows, turning them into powerful debuff delivery systems. Fill it with Poison, Weakness, or Slowness for combat, or Healing to help allies.

The Augment System

Every Thermal Innovation item is augmentable through the Tinker's Workbench. Augments are upgrade items that slot into your tools to improve their stats. The number of available augment slots is determined by the Thermal config, and each item type accepts only specific augment categories.

Integral Components (Hardened, Reinforced, Resonant) are the most universal augment. They multiply the tool's base modifier, which affects mining speed, attack damage, harvest level, and energy capacity all at once. A Resonant Integral Component provides a 4x multiplier, turning a Flux Drill's 6.0 efficiency into 10.0 and raising its harvest level to 4 (Diamond tier). Only the highest-tier Integral Component takes effect; installing multiple doesn't stack.

Radial Enhancements add to the tool's area radius, each one adding +1 to the maximum mode. With three Radial Enhancements installed, a Flux Drill can toggle between single block, 3x3, 5x5, and 7x7 mining areas. RF Coils (Stabilized, Expanded, High Flux) boost energy capacity and transfer rate, which matters most for the Flux Capacitor but is useful on any tool for extended sessions. Filter augments enable the item filtering system on the Flux Magnet and Potion items.

Enabled Features from Thermal Foundation

Installing Thermal Innovation sets several feature flags that unlock content in Thermal Foundation and other Thermal Series mods. Specifically, it enables: Diving Armor (underwater breathing equipment), Hazmat Armor (protection against harmful effects), Potion Augments (for boosting potion duration and amplifier), Tool Components (Drill Heads, Saw Blades, and other crafting ingredients), Elemental Explosives, the Device Potion Diffuser, and the Charge Bench (an alternative to the Tinker's Workbench for bulk-charging items).

These features won't appear in your game until Thermal Innovation is installed alongside Foundation. If you're seeing references to Diving Armor or Hazmat Armor in other Thermal guides but can't find them in-game, make sure Innovation is in your mods folder.

Configuration

Thermal Innovation uses two configuration files. The client config (thermal-client.toml) is found in your config folder and handles visual settings. The server config (thermal-server.toml) is stored per-world in the saves/WORLD_NAME/serverconfigs folder and controls gameplay mechanics like augment slot counts and tool behavior. Copy the server config to your defaultconfigs folder to apply it automatically to all new worlds. Dedicated servers store it in world/serverconfigs.

Key settings to consider include the number of augment slots for tools (ThermalConfig.toolAugments) and storage items (ThermalConfig.storageAugments). Increasing these values lets players install more augments per item, which can dramatically increase tool power. Server operators may want to lower these values for balanced play.