BlockFactory:Rune Modules

Rune Modules are etched runes you slot into machines to make them faster, more efficient or more productive. A Rune Beacon shares its modules with every machine around it. Modules arrive in Epoch 4 with the research Rune Crafting.

Modules

There are three kinds, each in three tiers. The values change the machine's base speed and energy use.

Icon	Module	Speed	Energy use	Productivity
	Rune Module Speed MK1	+20 %	+50 %	–
	Rune Module Speed MK2	+30 %	+60 %	–
	Rune Module Speed MK3	+50 %	+70 %	–
	Rune Module Efficiency MK1	–	−30 %	–
	Rune Module Efficiency MK2	–	−40 %	–
	Rune Module Efficiency MK3	–	−50 %	–
	Rune Module Productivity MK1	−5 %	+40 %	+4 %
	Rune Module Productivity MK2	−10 %	+60 %	+6 %
	Rune Module Productivity MK3	−15 %	+80 %	+10 %

• The effects of all modules in a machine, and of all beacons reaching it, add up.
• Speed and energy use never drop below 20 % of the base value. Two Efficiency MK2 or MK3 already reach that floor.
• Energy use counts for fuel as well as for electricity: a fuel-burning machine burns more or less fuel.
• Productivity collects a bonus with every finished craft. Each time it reaches 100 %, the machine delivers the result twice. In Fabricators, the Oil Processor and the Chemical Plant the extra result is lost if it does not fit into the output, so keep the output emptied. Furnaces and refineries keep the bonus until there is room for the double result.
• Productivity works on every recipe the machine can make, and on drills (one extra ore).

Which buildings take modules

Building	Slots
Fabricator T2	2
Fabricator T3	4
Electric Furnace	2
Auto Drill	3
Oil Processor	3
Chemical Plant	3
Big Stone Golems Refinery	2
Goblin Research Center	2
Golem Research Center	2
Rune Beacon	4

Other buildings have no slots of their own, but a beacon can still boost them (see below). In the research centres only the speed part counts.

Putting modules in:

• Grabbers put modules into any building with a free slot, one module per slot. This works for every building in the table.
• By hand: hold a module, crouch and Use the building; one module goes into the next free slot. This works on the Electric Furnace, Auto Drill, Big Stone Golems Refinery and Rune Beacon. Fabricators, the Oil Processor, the Chemical Plant and the research centres handle items from your hand as recipe or research input and do not put a module into a slot, so fill their slots with a Grabber.

Taking them out: crouch and Use the building with an empty hand while its output slot is empty. The module inserted last comes out first. Breaking the building also gives the modules back.

Rune Beacon

Rune Beacon

Epoch	4
Size	3 × 3
Energy	Electric
Power	480 kW
Health	250
Research	Rune Crafting 2

The Rune Beacon (20 Advanced Circuit + 10 Rune Slate + 10 Steel Plate + 10 Copper Cable) has 4 module slots.

• It passes its modules on to every machine within 4.5 blocks, at half their effect (measured from the middle of the beacon to the middle of the machine). A Speed MK3 in a beacon gives +25 % speed and +35 % energy use to each machine in range.
• This also boosts machines without module slots of their own, such as furnaces, Fabricator T1 and drills.
• It only works while it gets at least half of its power. Without power its modules do nothing.
• Several beacons can reach the same machine; their effects add up. Beacons do not boost each other.
• Use the beacon to open its window. Click a Rune Module in your inventory to put it in, right-click a slot to take that module out. The window shows whether the beacon has power.

A common layout puts a row of beacons between two rows of machines, so each beacon serves both rows.

Recipes

All modules are made in a Fabricator. Times are at speed 1.

Module	Research	Epoch	Recipe	Time
MK1 (any kind)	Rune Crafting	4	5 Advanced Circuit + 5 Electronic Circuit + 2 Rune Slate + 1 Golem Core	15 s
MK2 (any kind)	Rune Crafting 2	4	4 MK1 of the same kind + 5 Advanced Circuit + 5 Processing Unit + 2 Rune Slate	30 s
MK3 (any kind)	Rune Crafting 3	5	5 MK2 of the same kind + 5 Advanced Circuit + 5 Processing Unit + 5 Rune Slate	60 s

Rune Slate comes from the Chemical Plant (1 Stone Brick + 2 Gold Wire + 5 Sulfuric Acid, research Rune Etching), see Oil Processing. Golem Core comes with the Golems, see Golems. Four Speed MK1 are also part of the Fabricator T3 recipe, and the Great Portal asks for MK3 modules.

Tips

• Put Speed modules into bottlenecks and Efficiency modules into machines that run all the time.
• Productivity pays off most on expensive products, but it costs a lot of power. Check your grid in the power window.

See also

• Fabricators
• Mining
• Power
• Research Tree