LTX Industries in FTB Evolution 2

LTX Industries is a lime-green sci-fi tech mod that adds machines, weapons, tools and a range of resources for you to discover and gather. This pack includes version 2.3.1 of it.^[1][2]

The big idea is the upgrade system. Upgrade modules are the mod's key progression method, so that same little starter lab in your basement can grow into an ore processing beast or a fluoropolymer mass production facility.^[1]

What you get

• Machines: a wide variety of resource processing, utility and resource production machines.^[1]
• Energy: the mod calls the NeoForge energy API Common Energy (CE). You can get by early on with the built-in machine energy buffers, but they become insufficient pretty quickly. The guide lists the Portable Generator and the Solar Panel as generators, and the Energy Cell Array for storage.^[3][4][5][6]
• Defense: the Signature series weapons, including the Hanabi, plus the Wonderland armor with its bubble shield. There are also A/DS turrets named Ionos, Atmos and Noctis, which run solely off Energy.^[1][7][8]
• Building blocks: composite glasses, metal panels, neon lights and the green rock peridotite, all for building high-tech labs and bases.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

The mod needs the LimaCore library as a dependency.^[1]

Welcome to LTX Industries! It's a lime-green sci-fi tech mod, and you can get going with just a few early builds. Here's the order I'd tackle them in.^[1]

First, craft the Guide Tablet

The mod's in-game guide opens on a Welcome page that uses the Guide Tablet as its icon. That page points you to the Fundamentals and Resources chapters as a good place to start.^[15][16]

Guide TabletMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Book
• Small Voltaic Cell

Recipe id: ltxi:shapeless_recipes/guide_tablet

The Guide Tablet is a plain shapeless crafting table recipe from the mod.

Next, get some energy going

Before you dive into the tech tree you'll need to make energy, and ideally some storage too. You can get by with the machines' built-in energy buffers early on, but they become insufficient pretty quickly.^[3]

The Portable Generator is the simplest, most reliable option. It burns fuel, and any furnace fuel item will recharge it. It works anywhere, even underwater. Items are converted to Fuel Units first, at 1 fuel unit per 100 ticks of burn time, with a minimum of 1 for very short burnables.^[5][17]

The Solar Panel is the passive fallback. Its generation rate is very low and it only works in overworld-type dimensions during the daytime, but it needs no jump-starting. It works in rain, just not in thunderstorms.^[6][17]

For storage, the Energy Cell Array is the primary energy storage block. It has configurable side IO, 1 energy input item slot and 4 charging slots. Items can't be pulled out by pipes or cables until they're fully charged, though you can always take them out by hand.^[4][17]

Then, build the Arc Furnace

The Arc Furnace is a high-temperature digital smelter. It alloys metals and other composites, and it makes the phosphorus-based neon lights. It also smelts metal dusts that need shielding gas and more heat than a regular furnace can give. Quartz and titanium smelted in it become the tough composite glasses for your base.^[10][12][18]

Arc FurnaceMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any carbon dust	any carbon dust	any carbon dust
any normal obsidian	Blast Furnace	any normal obsidian
T1 Circuit	Machine Housing	T1 Circuit

Recipe id: ltxi:shaped_recipes/arc_furnace

This one is a regular crafting table recipe.

The base crafting time varies by recipe, and by default it is 10 seconds.^[18]

After that, plan for the Fabricator and upgrades

Some upgrades and gear are too complex for general processing machines or a crafting table. For those you'll need the Fabricator, which is the first fabrication machine you make. It takes ingredients straight from your inventory and uses energy in place of crafting time.^[17][19]

Upgrade modules are the key progression method of the mod. Machines have an upgrade button at the top of the right sidebar. For tools, armor and weapons you'll need an Upgrade Station.^[1][17][20]

Welcome to the engine room of LTX Industries. Nearly everything in this mod runs on one idea: machines with a fixed input and output shape, powered by energy, and tuned with upgrade modules. Once you understand that, the rest falls into place.^[3][20]

Energy

The mod calls its power Common Energy (CE), which is the energy API used by NeoForge. You may know it as Forge Energy, FE or RF. You can get by on the built-in machine buffers early on, but they become insufficient pretty quickly, so plan some storage.^[3]

• Energy Cell Array: the primary storage block. It has configurable side IO for items and energy, 1 energy input item slot and 4 charging slots. Items cannot be pulled out by pipes or cables until they are fully charged, though you can always take them out by hand.^[4]
• Portable Generator: burns any furnace fuel and runs anywhere, even underwater. Fuel is first converted to Fuel Units, 1 for every 100 ticks of burn time with a minimum of 1. Partially used fuel is tracked, and the generator never produces excess energy. Hover over the fuel gauge to see the stored units and the energy each one gives.^[5]
• Solar Panel: a passive generator with a very low output. It only works in overworld-type dimensions during the day, and works in rain but not in thunderstorms. That makes it a dependable fallback for critical infrastructure.^[6]

For wiring, machines have an IO configuration screen. IO Config Cards come in Energy and Fluids versions: Shift+Right Click a machine to copy its settings, then Shift+Right Click another compatible machine to paste them, or click in the air to clear the card.^[17]

Upgrades and recipe modes

Upgrade modules hold a ranked upgrade entry. Hold Shift on a module to see its name, rank, effects and what it can be installed on. Upgradable machines have upgrade management built in, and the button is the topmost option on the right sidebar. Equipment is configured in an Upgrade Station instead.^[20]

Some machine recipes share the same inputs, so machines use recipe modes to pick between them. The selection button sits on the lower left sidebar. Each machine can have up to 23 selectable modes, and the first button is always None. Default modes come from the recipe type, and extra ones come from upgrade modules. A mode granted by a module resets to None if you remove that module.^[21]

The default modes are assigned per recipe type for air scrubbing, arc smelting, chemical reacting, electro centrifuging, energizing, garden simulating, grinding, mixing and pressing. John's advice: dedicate each machine to one recipe mode, because switching by accident can quietly change what the machine produces.^[21][22]

Processing machines at a glance

Every machine guide page gives a recipe spec. Unless noted, base crafting time varies per recipe and is 10 seconds by default.^{[18][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}

• Grinder: 1 item in, 0 to 3 items and 0 to 1 fluids out.^[26]
• Material Press: 0 to 2 items and 0 to 1 fluids in, 1 to 2 items out.^[28]
• Arc Furnace: 1 to 3 items and 0 to 1 fluids in, 1 item out. It handles shielding-gas smelting such as Rhenium.^[18]
• HydroSieve: 1 item and 1 fluid in, 1 to 6 items out.^[27]
• ElectroCentrifuge: 0 to 1 items and 0 to 1 fluids in, 0 to 4 items and 0 to 2 fluids out.^[25]
• Mixer: 0 to 4 items and 0 to 2 fluids in, 0 to 1 items and 0 to 1 fluids out.^[29]
• Voltaic Injector: 1 item in, 1 to 3 items out.^[30]
• Chem Lab: 0 to 3 items and 0 to 3 fluids in, 0 to 3 items and 0 to 3 fluids out.^[24]
• Assembler: 1 to 6 items and 1 optional fluid in, 1 item out.^[23]
• Digital Furnace, Smoker and Blast Furnace: upgradeable versions of the vanilla cookers, 1 item in and 1 item out, using vanilla cook times.^[31]

The Assembler is where the pack has touched a recipe. The Impulse Driver Module recipe is changed by the pack, so check this one rather than trusting the mod defaults.^[16][23]

Impulse Driver ModuleChanged by the pack

Assembling (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:assembling/impulse_tech_part

Pack-changed Assembler recipe for the Impulse Driver Module.

Resource machines

• Atmospheric Scrubber: no inputs, base cycle time of 30 seconds, 1 to 4 fluids and 0 to 2 items out. It can pull ambient resources from the dimension or localized ones from places like oceans and swamps.^[32]
• Bio/ARU Garden: 1 item and 1 fluid in, 1 to 4 items out, 30 seconds by default.^[33]
• Geo Synthesizer: 1 item and exactly 2 fluids in, 1 item out, 3 seconds by default.^[34]

The End is a good example of the scrubber at work. Its atmospheric gas is Argon, which the Arc Furnace uses as a shielding gas. The scrubber recipe for the End also gives Chorus Extract.^[16][35]

Argon, Chorus ExtractMod recipe

Air Scrubbing (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:air_scrubbing/end_gases

End air scrubbing yields Argon and Chorus Extract.

Fabrication

Fabricating recipes take 1 to 16 items and make 1 item. They have no crafting time. Instead they have an energy cost, so the speed depends on that cost and the machine's Energy Usage stat.^[19]

The manual Fabricator has no input slots and pulls ingredients straight from your inventory. Left click a recipe to select it, left click again to craft, or right click to encode it onto an Empty Fabrication Blueprint. Its items and energy can only be connected from the front, left, rear and bottom.^[19]

The Auto Fabricator has 16 ingredient input slots and cannot pull from your inventory. Put an encoded blueprint in its blueprint slot, feed it the right amounts by your preferred item transport, and it crafts continuously while it has ingredients and energy. Shift+Right click a blueprint to clear it.^[19]

Upgrade modules themselves can come from fabrication. This pack adds a fabricating recipe for Upgrade Module:^[16]

Upgrade ModuleAdded by the pack

Fabricating (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:ltxi/upgrades/parallel_tiers_1

Added by the pack.

The five-stage ore chain

Ore processing is the big automation project. Each stage moves an ore through Crushed, Washed, Chunk, Solution and Crystal forms. Stage 1 guarantees a doubling, and each later stage has a 50% chance to double each item. On average that gives multipliers of 3x, 4.5x, 6.75x and 10.125x for stages 2 to 5. You can stop at any point and smelt the intermediate form into its final product.^[36]

1. Grinder: crushes raw materials or ore blocks into Crushed Ore. This is the only stage that needs no upgrades and no Ore Processing recipe mode.^[36]
2. HydroSieve: turns Crushed Ore into Washed Ore. From here you need the Ore Processing recipe mode, which no machine has by default, so craft and install the upgrade module.^[36]
3. Voltaic Injector: refines Washed Ore into Ore Chunks. Upgrade costs climb sharply here, and power tier upgrades are heavily recommended.^[36]
4. Chem Lab: dissolves Ore Chunks into Ore Solution using a small amount of Sulfuric Acid.^[36]
5. ElectroCentrifuge: precipitates Ore Solution into Ore Crystals with Hydrochloric Acid.^[36]

Both acids deserve dedicated lines. Sulfuric Acid comes from mixing the pulp of Vitriol Berries with Water in the Mixer, or from reacting Sulphurine with Water slowly in the Chem Lab. Hydrochloric Acid comes from mixing Hydrogen and Chlorine in equal ratio in the Chem Lab. Fluoropolymer and Silicone Oil production make it as a waste product, but that is only a supplementary source.^[36][37]

Copper ores end with Rhenium(VII) Oxide at stage 5, so prioritise them if acid supply is tight, since Rhenium goes into the best upgrades and equipment.^[16][36]

Niobium in this pack

Niobium follows the same chain, and the pack adds a recipe for each step. Niobium generates in the outer End Islands, and the pack also adds grinders from other mods that turn the ore into Raw Niobium. Here are the LTXI steps from raw material to crystal.^[16][38][39]

Raw NiobiumAdded by the pack

Grinding (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:unification/ltxi/grinding/end/ore_to_raw_ore/niobium

Grinder step, added by the pack.

Washed Niobium OreAdded by the pack

Sieving (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:unification/ltxi/sieving/dirty_dust_to_clump/niobium

Sieving step to Washed Niobium Ore, added by the pack.

Niobium Ore ChunkAdded by the pack

Energizing (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:unification/ltxi/energizing/clump_to_chunk/niobium

Energizing step to Niobium Ore Chunk, added by the pack.

Niobium Ore SolutionAdded by the pack

Chemical Reacting (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:unification/ltxi/chemical_reacting/chunk_to_shard/niobium

Chem reaction to Niobium Ore Solution, added by the pack.

Niobium Ore CrystalAdded by the pack

Electro Centrifuging (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:unification/ltxi/electro_centrifuging/shard_to_crystal/niobium

Final step to Niobium Ore Crystal, added by the pack.

Powered gear and shields

Equipment draws on energy too. In this pack, epsilon tools have epsilon_tools.energy_capacity set to 80,000 and epsilon_tools.energy_usage set to 400 per action. Wonderland armor has wonderland_armor.energy_capacity at 125,000 and wonderland_armor.energy_usage at 500 per action. All four match the mod defaults.^[40]

The player Bubble Shield soaks damage before your health. It has a 1 second internal cooldown between losses, recharges after 5 seconds without damage or blocked effects, and gives 3 seconds of invulnerability when it breaks. Blocking a mob effect costs shield health, set by shield_effect_block_cost, which is 2 in this pack, the same as the mod default.^[40][41]

One more pack setting: enable_mod_pvp is false, so this mod's non-melee weapons and offensive machines cannot damage other players.^[40]

Here is the honest picture for this pack: the sources I have for LTX Industries do not give a strict tier ladder, so I will not invent one. What they do show is a sensible order to work in: power first, then the machines and upgrades, then the materials, with the pack's own changes called out as we go.^[3][16]

Unverified The sources here show no quest chapter for this mod, so no quest-based order is given. Which machine unlocks which tier is also not shown here. The mod's data files and in-game guide pages hold those details, and the sources here do not cover them.

Step 1: Power

The in-game guide says you need to make energy before you dive into the tech tree, and ideally some storage too. Built-in machine buffers get you through the early game but become insufficient pretty quickly.^[3]

• Portable Generator: burns any furnace fuel item, runs anywhere (even underwater), and makes 1 fuel unit for every 100 ticks of burn time.^[5]
• Solar Panel: a very low generation rate, only in overworld-type dimensions during the day. It works in rain but not thunderstorms, which makes it a good fallback for critical infrastructure.^[6]
• Energy Cell Array: the primary energy storage block, with 1 energy input item slot and 4 charging slots.^[4]

Step 2: The Arc Furnace and building materials

The Arc Furnace is a mod-default crafting recipe, and you will use it for decorative and protective blocks. Smelting quartz and titanium in it makes composite glass, and neon lights are also made there.^[10][12][16]

Arc FurnaceMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any carbon dust	any carbon dust	any carbon dust
any normal obsidian	Blast Furnace	any normal obsidian
T1 Circuit	Machine Housing	T1 Circuit

Recipe id: ltxi:shaped_recipes/arc_furnace

The Arc Furnace uses the mod's default crafting recipe.

Once you have a polymer production line, Titanium and Slatesteel panels can be made in large quantities. They have a blast resistance of 36.0. Note that the pack changed the Polymer Bar mixing recipe, so follow the one below rather than the mod default.^[11][16]

Polymer BarChanged by the pack

Mixing (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:mixing/polymer

Changed by the pack.

Step 3: Upgrades

LTXI tools, armor, weapons and machines can all be upgraded. Upgrade modules each hold a ranked upgrade, and holding Shift on one shows its rank, effects and what it can be installed on. Machines have upgrade management built in (the topmost button on the right sidebar), while equipment needs an Upgrade Station.^[20]

The pack adds two fabricating recipes that output an Upgrade Module, shown below.^[16]

Upgrade ModuleAdded by the pack

Fabricating (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:ltxi/upgrades/parallel_tiers_1

Upgrade ModuleAdded by the pack

Fabricating (ltxi)

Recipe id: ftb:ltxi/upgrades/parallel_tiers_2

Step 4: Niobium

Niobium is a pack-added material for this mod, and the pack gives it many routes. On the LTXI side, pack-added recipes make Niobium Ore Chunk (energizing), Niobium Ore Solution (chemical reacting), Niobium Ore Crystal (electro-centrifuging) and Washed Niobium Ore (sieving). Other mods in the pack, such as Oritech, Ender IO and Occultism, also have pack-added recipes that produce Raw Niobium and Niobium Dust.^[16]

Pack-added smelting and blasting recipes turn niobium intermediates into Niobium Ingot. You can also cast ingots from molten niobium at 90 per ingot, with a nugget costing 10 and a block costing 810.^[16]

Niobium IngotAdded by the pack

Casting Table (hephaestus)

• 90× Molten Niobium

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/niobium/ingot

Niobium PlateMod recipe

Pressing (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:pressing/niobium_plate

A mod recipe that makes the Niobium Plate.

A Block of Niobium can be crushed back down into 9 ingots with a shapeless recipe.^[16]

Other pack changes worth knowing

• The assembling recipe for the Impulse Driver Module was changed by the pack.^[16]
• The pack adds fabricating recipes for the Wonderland AL/1C Seg.B and Wonderland AL/1C Seg.F pieces.^[16]
• The pack also changed the grinding recipe that makes Carbon Dust and the electro-centrifuging recipe that makes Oxygen.^[16]
• Peridotite is described as an important ingredient for advanced technology. Grind it into dust, then process large amounts through a HydroSieve to get raw Olivine.^[13]

LTX Industries connects to the rest of the pack mostly through its metals. Niobium and slatesteel can be made with other mods' machines, and a few LTXI machine recipes hand out other mods' materials. The recipes below are ones the pack adds or changes.^[16]

Niobium from other mods

Niobium is where the crossovers pile up. Hephaestus Forge can cast molten niobium into Niobium Ingot, Niobium Nugget and Block of Niobium. The ingot and nugget use a casting table, and the block uses a casting basin.^[16]

Niobium IngotAdded by the pack

Casting Table (hephaestus)

• 90× Molten Niobium

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/niobium/ingot

Casting table recipe added by the pack.

Block of NiobiumAdded by the pack

Casting Basin (hephaestus)

• 810× Molten Niobium

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/niobium/block

The block is cast in a casting basin.

FTB Industrial Contraptions gets in on it too. The pack adds smelting recipes that turn its Crushed Ore, Washed Ore and Refined Concentrate into Niobium Ingot.^[16]

Niobium IngotAdded by the pack

Smelting

• Refined Concentrate

Recipe id: ftbic:refining/c/niobium/smelting/refined_concentrate

One of the smelting routes to a niobium ingot.

If you want raw niobium instead, there are other sources. The filtration plant from Energized Power gives Raw Niobium along with Stone Pebble. A Productive Bees centrifuge recipe gives Raw Niobium and Wax.^[16]

Oritech has a fluid centrifuge recipe that produces Niobium Ore Solution and Mineral Slurry.^[16]

Slatesteel and olivine casting

Slatesteel also has Hephaestus Forge casting recipes added by the pack. You can cast Slatesteel Ingot, Slatesteel Nugget and Block of Slatesteel from molten slatesteel. Tungsten-Plated Slatesteel is cast from molten tungsten slatesteel, and Olivine is cast from molten olivine.^[16]

Slatesteel IngotAdded by the pack

Casting Table (hephaestus)

• 90× Molten Slatesteel

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/slatesteel/ingot

Casting table recipe added by the pack.

Tungsten-Plated SlatesteelAdded by the pack

Casting Table (hephaestus)

• 90× Molten Tungsten Slatesteel

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/tungsten_slatesteel/ingot

Casting table recipe added by the pack.

OlivineAdded by the pack

Casting Table (hephaestus)

• 90× Molten Olivine

Recipe id: ftb:hephaestus_materials/casting/olivine/gem

Casting table recipe added by the pack.

LTXI machines producing FTB Materials items

Several LTXI machine recipes output FTB Materials items. The pack added an electro centrifuging recipe that gives Copper Crystal and Rhenium(VII) Oxide, and an energizing recipe that gives Titanium Chunk and Tungsten Trioxide.^[16]

The pack also changed some LTXI recipes. Grinding coal now gives Sulfur Dust and Carbon Dust. The electro centrifuging recipes for flint, quartz and sand each give Silicon Dust and Oxygen.^[16]

Sulfur Dust, Carbon DustChanged by the pack

Grinding (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:grinding/coal_carbon

A pack-changed LTXI recipe that outputs an FTB Materials dust.

Silicon Dust, OxygenChanged by the pack

Electro Centrifuging (ltxi)

Recipe id: ltxi:electro_centrifuging/electrolyze_sand

Flint and quartz have matching pack-changed recipes.

EvilCraft

This one is a small tag link rather than a recipe. LTXI's list of invalid targets includes the EvilCraft Vengeance Spirit, marked as not required.^[42]

Good news: the LTX Industries server config in this pack is short, and every energy and shield value you might want to tweak is listed below. Everything is in enable_mod_pvp's file, config/ltxi-server.toml.^[40]

PVP

enable_mod_pvp is set to false in this pack. It controls whether player-wielded non-melee weapons and offensive machines from this mod can damage other players. It only covers this mod's gear, and it respects the base game's PVP rule. The idea is that you can run PVP but still switch off this mod's weaponry if you find it unbalanced.^[40]

Energy values

The energy settings for the two main powered gear sets are all at the mod defaults in this pack. The pack has not changed any of them.^[40]

• epsilon_tools.energy_capacity: 80,000 base energy capacity for the Epsilon tools.^[40]
• epsilon_tools.energy_usage: 400 base energy per action, such as digging or attacking.^[40]
• wonderland_armor.energy_capacity: 125,000 base energy capacity for the Wonderland armor.^[40]
• wonderland_armor.energy_usage: 500 base energy per action, such as reducing damage or stopping falls.^[40]

Shield effect cost

shield_effect_block_cost is how much shield health it costs to block a mob effect. It affects both entity and player shields. This pack uses 2, which is also the mod default, and the allowed range is 0.0 to 1000.0.^[40]

FTB Evolution 2 1.1.0 ships LTX Industries 2.3.1. The mod was already in the pack in 1.0.2 or earlier, so the changes below are the two most recent releases of the mod that the sources cover.^[2]

2.3.1

• Fixed a stack overflow in the Upgrade record's toString. This is the version your pack currently has.^[2][43]

2.3.0

This was a bigger release. The internals were extensively rewritten, mainly block entity types and menus, but the changelog says this doesn't affect anything on the front end, so you shouldn't notice it in play.^[44]

• Entity models are now defined and submitted in a different way, which fixes a longstanding rendering bug from the 1.21 to 26.1 jump.^[44]
• Projectile lifetime logic is fixed, so projectiles now expire properly after 1 minute (1,200 ticks).^[44]
• Turrets now only target living entities. The changelog describes this as just an additional check.^[44]
• Normal vertex data is now submitted by the block format rendering utility, which should fix crashes with shaders for the Portable Tank.^[44]
• The zh_cn translation was updated through Crowdin.^[44]