Thermal Foundation: Metals, Alloys, and the Thermal Series

Thermal Foundation is the base of the long-running Thermal Series, providing the materials that the rest of the series builds on. This guide covers what it adds.

The foundation of a series

The Thermal Series is a modular set of mods, and Thermal Foundation is its cornerstone — it supplies the metals, alloys and fluids that Thermal Expansion and the other modules use. The series pioneered many modded conventions, and its energy system grew from Redstone Flux, the ancestor of Forge Energy.

Metals and alloys

Thermal Foundation adds a family of ores and metals beyond vanilla, along with alloys made by combining them. These materials — ingots, gears, plates and their blocks — are the crafting base for the machines and devices in the wider series, so gathering and processing them is the first step into Thermal.

Where it leads

On its own, Thermal Foundation is a materials-and-resources mod: new metals, alloys, fluids and building blocks that enhance a vanilla+ world. Paired with the rest of the Thermal Series, those materials become the input for a full tech progression of machines, energy and automation. Start by mining the new ores and smelting the alloys, then expand into the series' machinery.

Covers the mod's in-game guide topics: