Astral Foundations

Astral Foundations is a vanilla-friendly mod that adds a copper equipment tier and three new metals mined from meteorite ore. It fills the stretch between iron and diamond with gear that's actually worth chasing, while keeping the pacing and feel of vanilla progression.

⛏️ Copper gear

A full copper set you can craft as soon as you have a few ingots: pickaxe, axe, shovel, hoe, sword, and the four armor pieces. Want the weathered look? Every piece has an oxidized variant, crafted from oxidized copper ingots. Those are made from a fully oxidized copper block into nine oxidized copper ingots.

☄️ Meteoric iron

Meteorite ore spawns deep underground, with a deepslate version further down. Mine it, smelt the raw chunks into meteoric ingots, and forge a pickaxe, axe, shovel, or sword. Meteoric tools last longer than iron and take more punishment, though they won't mine any faster. Craft nine ingots into a meteoric block.

🌌 Void steel

The combat metal. Drop a meteoric ingot and an eye of ender on a smithing table to forge void steel, then turn it into a sword, an axe, or a dagger. It trades durability for raw damage, and the dagger swings fast for quick, lighter hits.

🌠 Starfall alloy

The armor payoff. Combine a meteoric ingot with a diamond on a smithing table for starfall alloy, which carries an animated ingot texture. Craft the full set: helmet, chestplate, leggings, and boots.

Neither alloy needs a smithing template.

✨ Elemental Infusions (2.0)

Take any of your astral-tier tools, weapons, or armor back to the smithing table and imbue it with one of three elements. Each infusion adds a glowing elemental accent to the item and a light effect with the same stats as the base gear, just new flavor with a little extra utility:

🔥 Infernal (infuse with blaze powder): weapons set what you hit on fire; armor shrugs off fire and lava.
❄️ Glacial (infuse with a snowball): weapons chill foes with Slowness; armor keeps you immune to freezing and powder snow.
⚡ Tempest (infuse with a Tempest Shard, dropped by charged creepers): storm-attuned gear. Weapons always swing a little faster, and hit with extra knockback during a thunderstorm; armor is always immune to lightning and makes you faster while the storm rages. The Tempest Shard itself crackles with electric sparks wherever it sits.

Infusions are a sidegrade not a new tier, nothing here is required to progress. Mix and match the element that fits how you play. No smithing template needed.

⚠️ Redistribution

Screenshots below.

The full set: copper and oxidized copper gear, meteoric tools, void steel weapons, and starfall alloy armor.

The Astral Foundations creative menu tab, showing copper and oxidized copper tools and armor, the three meteoric tools, void steel weapons, starfall alloy armor, the ingots, and the meteorite ore blocks.

Copper, oxidized copper, and starfall alloy armor as worn.

Armor stands each wearing a full armor set: copper, oxidized copper, and starfall alloy.

Meteorite ore generates deep underground, with a deepslate variant further down.

Meteorite ore and deepslate meteorite ore blocks exposed in a cave wall.

Both alloys are forged at a smithing table, no template needed: meteoric ingot + eye of ender for void steel, meteoric ingot + diamond for starfall alloy.

Inside a smithing table showing a meteoric ingot combined with an eye of ender to make void steel, and a meteoric ingot combined with a diamond to make starfall alloy.