Forgotten Technology

This mod is still in active development and currently serves as a preview, with the goal of reaching a first playable version for public testing.

Forgotten Technology is a tech-content expansion mod for Hytale that introduces ancient, crystal-powered machines, modular energy networks, automated resource pipelines, and a deep gem-socket customization system for your gather tools. The mod expands gameplay with new processing mechanics, alternative crafting paths for existing resources, a fully visual energy grid, and a runic-themed storage system that integrates with vanilla benches.

At its core, Forgotten Technology is built around crystals and their latent power — letting players generate, transfer, store, and consume energy to automate mining, smelting, crushing, and farming, organize inventory through a custom storage network, and customize their gather tools with socketed gems that grant active buffs in the field.

Quick Start

The mod is fully bootstrappable from a vanilla Workbench + vanilla Furnace — you do not need any mod block to get started. Your first two milestones are the Runic Codex (in-game guide) and the Runic Workbench (gateway to every other mod recipe).

Prerequisites you mine or gather yourself

Step 1 — Craft the Runic Codex (your in-game guide)

The Codex is the cheapest path in. Two ingredients, both available without any mod block.

1. Smelt 1 Cyan Crystal Shard → 3 Crystal Dust in a vanilla Furnace (any colored crystal works; smelter recipes exist for Blue, Cyan, Green, Purple, Red, White, Yellow)
2. Craft 10 Cyan Crystal Shards → 1 Runic Essence at vanilla Workbench → Tinkering category (or 5× Cyan at Runic Workbench → Runic Ingredients once you have it)
3. Craft 1 Stick + 2 Runic Essence → 1 Runic Codex at vanilla Workbench → Survival category

Right-click the Codex anywhere to open the paginated guide covering Energy, Item Transport, Storage, Multiblocks, Tools, and the Gems & Sockets crafting chain.

Step 2 — Craft the Runic Workbench

The Runic Workbench unlocks Tools, Machines, Energy, Ingredients, and Blocks categories — the full mod tech tree.

1. Stack up cobble — you'll need ~50 Cobble Stone
2. Craft 12× Processed Stone at vanilla Workbench → Tinkering (4 Cobble → 1 Processed Stone, repeat 12 times)
3. Craft 2× Runic Stone at vanilla Workbench → Tinkering (4 Processed Stone + 1 Crystal Dust per Runic Stone)
4. Craft 2× Natural Essence at vanilla Workbench → Tinkering (5 Flowers per Essence)
5. Smelt extra Crystal Shards → Crystal Dust until you have at least 4 Crystal Dust total
6. Mine or gather 6 Crystal Shards of any color (the recipe accepts any Family=Crystal shard)
7. Craft the Runic Workbench at vanilla Workbench → Crafting category:
   • 2× Runic Stone
   • 4× Processed Stone
   • 2× Crystal Dust
   • 4× Copper Bar
   • 2× Natural Essence
   • 6× Crystal Shards (any color)

Place the Runic Workbench and you're in — every mod recipe (Solar Generator, Pylon, machines, rods, storage, gem chain, runic tools) is now accessible.

What to build next

1. Solar Generator + Crystal Pylon + Resonating Rod — your first energy network (link generator to pylon, watch the orange pulse)
2. Runic Burning Generator — fuel-burning backup generator for when daylight isn't enough; ~2.5× the throughput of a Solar
3. Runic Smelter / Runic Crusher — energy-powered processing, faster than vanilla furnace once wired up
4. Runic Lectern + Runic Stasis Chambers — storage network that doubles as a vanilla-bench material source; wire the Lectern into your energy grid to power transfers
5. Resonating Pickaxe + Resonating Hatchet — unbreakable gather tools with 8 gem sockets each; the foundation for the sockets/gems pipeline
6. Crystal Tunning Forge + Grinder + gem chain — craft Gem Blanks, color them with petals, optionally upgrade tier/quality at the Grinder, install them into your tools at the Forge for active mining buffs
7. Forming Rod + Runic Cells — assemble a Pylon Pyramid to scale your energy capacity from T1 to T5

Core Features

• Crystal-based energy: generation, distribution, buffering, and consumption with a live visual pulse along every network connection
• Modular machine networks linked via a two-rod system — one for energy, one for item transport
• Multiblock upgrades — turn your base Pylon into a tiered pyramid (T1 to T5) to scale capacity, transfer rate, and production
• Auto-mining and auto-farming machines that work while you're away
• Storage network with a controller block and stackable storage cells, automatically discoverable by vanilla crafting benches and energy-gated for balanced throughput
• Gem socketing system — customize your gather tools with up to 8 sockets each; five gem types grant active buffs (Power, Range, Magnetic, Speed, Capacity), with tier and quality dictating how strong the buff is
• Risk-vs-reward gem upgrading at the Grinder — POLISH for quality, PROCESS for tier, with scaling failure rates the higher you push
• In-game Codex with categorized recipe and mechanic documentation
• Runic visual theme — every block, tool, and particle effect fits the ancient-tech aesthetic of Hytale

Blocks and Items

Energy Generation

• Solar Generator — passive crystal-powered energy producer; ideal first-tier source
• Runic Burning Generator — fuel-burning generator; accepts vanilla furnace fuels (coal, wood, etc.) and outputs at a higher sustained rate than the Solar. Great as backup or to catch up after big builds
• Crystal Pylon — central hub that distributes power across the network; the foundation for multiblock upgrades

Energy Transfer

• Crystal Relay — extends network range; bridges distant machines back to a Pylon
• Runic Cell — multiblock structure member that boosts Pylon capacity when assembled into the Pylon Pyramid

Processing and Crafting

• Runic Smelter — advanced smelting machine, energy-powered; accepts vanilla furnace recipes plus mod-added ones
• Runic Crusher — converts raw ores into crushed variants for higher-yield smelting and into Crystal Dust
• Runic Harvester — AOE auto-farming block; harvests mature crops in a 5-block radius and resets eternal-crop stages
• Runic Collector — AOE auto-mining station with four animated runic golems that fly out, mine ore, and return drops to the pedestal
• Runic Workbench — the central crafting block for all Forgotten Technology recipes, grouped into Tools, Machines, Energy, Ingredients, and Blocks categories
• Crystal Tunning Forge — installs gems into your Resonating tools' sockets, swaps tools in and out, and charges them from the energy network while they sit on the altar
• Grinder — manual gem upgrader. POLISH raises a gem's quality (Rough → Polished → Pristine), PROCESS raises its tier (T1 → T5). Both have a destruction chance that scales with the current grade, so every press is a calculated gamble

Item Transport

• Crystal Importer — pulls items out of an adjacent container and pushes them to a linked target; 20-block range, twice-per-second cycle, hard cap of 32 items per cycle to keep flow steady
• Crystal Exporter — pulls from a linked container and pushes into the adjacent block, with optional per-item filter slots; same range and throughput envelope as the Importer

Storage Network

• Runic Lectern — controller block for the storage system; opens a unified inventory across all connected Chambers. Energy-powered — wire it into your network and every item moved in or out draws from its tank; comes with a built-in BULK MODE toggle for one-click deposit-all / fill-inventory operations
• Runic Stasis Chamber — modular storage cell holding up to 64 stacks of a single item type; auto-joins the network when placed adjacent to a Lectern or another connected Chamber; discoverable by vanilla crafting benches so the network doubles as a material source

Tools

• Resonating Rod — links Generators, Pylons, Relays, and machines into a working energy network
• Linking Rod — binds Importers and Exporters to remote containers for item transport; can overwrite an existing link with a new target without breaking the block
• Forming Rod — validates and finalizes Pylon multiblock tier upgrades
• Runic Codex — in-game guide; opens a paginated book with chapters on Energy, Machines, Storage, Multiblocks, Tools, and Gems & Sockets
• Resonating Pickaxe — unbreakable runic mining tool with 8 gem sockets and a built-in energy tank; accepts all five gem types (Power, Range, Magnetic, Speed, Capacity). Sneak + right-click in the air to toggle individual sockets on or off without removing the gem
• Resonating Hatchet — unbreakable runic chopping tool with 8 gem sockets; accepts Power, Magnetic, Speed, and Capacity (no Range — the hatchet skips AOE). Same in-field socket toggle as the Pickaxe

Gems

• Gem Blank — base ingredient for every typed gem. Crafted from 20× Crystal Dust at the Runic Workbench
• Power Gem (red) — more mining / chopping damage per hit
• Range Gem (yellow) — AOE block break on the Pickaxe
• Magnetic Gem (purple) — dropped items pull toward you
• Speed Gem (green) — movement speed boost while holding the tool
• Capacity Gem (blue) — larger energy tank on the tool

Each gem starts at T1 Rough when crafted. Upgrade tier and quality at the Grinder — higher grades give bigger buffs but cost more (and risk more) to make.

Energy Network Visuals

Every Pylon orchestrates a coordinated visual pulse across its network — orange waves flow from generators into the Pylon, green waves flow from the Pylon out to consumers, so you can read network direction at a glance. Pulse cadence and density auto-scale with network size.

Status

The mod is under active development. Currently shipping as a preview build for early feedback. Planned for upcoming releases:

• MK2 and MK3 tiers for every machine (with dedicated multiblock structures)
• Wireless energy and inter-dimensional storage links
• Quest-driven progression integrating with the broader Hytale RPG layer
• More crystal types unlocking specialized recipes
• Additional gem types and rune-modifier slots for deeper tool customization

Coming Soon

Runic Reactor

Unlock the power of forgotten crystals and rebuild ancient technology in Hytale.