Runic Forge

Runic Forge

Explore the world for ancient rune tablets, then bring them to the Rune Forge to create mana-powered equipment. Weapons, tools, and engraved armor use a shared player mana pool, with mastery that grows through successful use and Mana Cores that strengthen individual items.

Ancient runes and equipment

• Sunfire Sword: desert pyramid rune; a burning forward slash.
• Venom Dagger: jungle temple rune; a poison burst.
• Echo Hammer: ancient city rune; an area shockwave with knockback.
• Inferno Axe: Nether fortress rune; a burning strike.
• Void Spear: End city rune; pulls a struck enemy toward you.
• Runic Pickaxe, Axe, Shovel, and Hoe: tool runes found in village loot; mine or dig a 3×3 area, fell connected natural trees, or till 3×3 farmland.

Runic weapons and tools spend mana instead of durability and never break. Normal attacks and broken blocks cost 1 mana. Right-click activates weapon abilities. Press V to toggle tool abilities; mine normally while the mode is enabled. The hoe uses right-click for tilling.

Mana and player mastery

Start with 100 mana. Each diamond armor piece adds 20 maximum mana; each netherite piece adds 40. The Mana Pool I–IV armor enchantment adds another 10, 20, 30, or 40 per piece. Full netherite with Mana Pool IV reaches 420 mana.

Mana regenerates at 4 per second after five seconds without spending it. Equipping armor increases capacity without instantly refilling mana. Weapon, tool, and armor mastery belongs to the player, is tracked separately, and survives death. Weapon ability mastery requires successful hits.

Engrave your armor

Use a matching armor rune at the forge:

• Sight / helmet: separately toggle night vision (N) and water breathing (B).
• Aegis / chestplate: extra armor protection; flight unlocks at chest mastery 7 with engraved diamond or netherite chest armor (H).
• Stride / leggings: faster movement and stepping up blocks.
• Tide / boots: faster swimming and fall-damage protection that scales with armor quality, mastery, and upgrades.

Press G to toggle armor movement and protection effects. Better armor materials improve rune effects or efficiency. Engraved armor is unbreakable and retains its normal protection when mana runs out. Flight drains mana while airborne; a brief Slow Falling effect helps when it ends.

Mana Cores

Player-killed mobs can drop Lesser, Greater, Superior, or Legendary Mana Cores. Tougher mobs offer better cores; passive animals have lower drop odds. Combine one core, runic equipment, and four shards at the forge to strengthen the item. Equipment has a maximum of 20 core power, and upgrades stay with that individual item.

Adjustable mana HUD

The compact mana bar defaults to the bottom-left. Press O, or use Mods → Runic Forge → Config, to drag it, change its size and width, select a corner preset, hide it, or reset it. Click Save to keep your settings. All keybindings can be changed in Minecraft Controls.

Installation and development status

Place the jar in your NeoForge profile's mods folder. When updating, remove the previous Runic Forge jar before installing the new one. New loot is added to unopened, not-yet-generated loot chests; emptied chests are not refilled.

This is an early-development release. Balance and effects may change. Engraved armor currently keeps its vanilla appearance, and abilities use vanilla particles. Tree felling tracks player-placed logs after installation; builds placed before the mod was installed cannot be reliably identified. Test with your modpack before adopting it in a long-term world.

Artwork disclosure: The item textures and project icon were created with AI assistance. The logo is a stylized illustration of the Rune Forge; actual in-game presentation uses Minecraft lighting and the included block textures.