Understanding the Soul Economy in Industrial Foregoing
Industrial Foregoing revolutionizes resource gathering with its unique Soul system. When you slay mobs using a Mob Crusher or a Mob Slaughter Factory, you don't just collect drops — you harvest their very essence. These souls become a valuable commodity, fueling machines like the Soul Laser Base or the Enchantment Applicator. However, the standard storage options quickly become a bottleneck. A handful of soul vials and a basic chest won't cut it when your factory runs at full tilt. You need a digital solution that matches the scale of your automation.
What Is the Applied Soul Mod?
Applied Soul bridges the gap between Industrial Foregoing's soul-based mechanics and Applied Energistics 2's sophisticated storage network. This compact but powerful mod adds dedicated AE2 storage disks designed exclusively for souls. Instead of letting soul vials clutter your inventory or overflow into bulky barrel systems, you can channel every captured soul directly into your ME network using standard import buses. The mod respects the core AE2 philosophy: treat everything as data. Souls become just another item type, seamlessly integrated into your autocrafting, storage monitoring, and remote access setups.
Core Features at a Glance
- Custom AE2 storage cells that hold thousands of souls in a single disk.
- Full compatibility with import and export buses for automated soul transfer.
- Support for ME terminals, crafting terminals, and wireless access points.
- Integration with Industrial Foregoing soul types without altering their properties.
- Lightweight design that doesn't introduce new blocks or complex GUIs.
Setting Up Soul Storage in Your ME Network
Getting started is straightforward. First, craft the Soul Storage Cell — its recipe typically involves a standard AE2 storage housing combined with a Soul Vial or a Woot-styled essence component, depending on the pack. Once inserted into an ME Drive, the cell automatically accepts souls. To automate collection, place an Import Bus directly against any Industrial Foregoing machine that outputs souls, such as a Mob Crusher with a Soul Vial slot. Configure the bus to extract from the appropriate side, and watch as souls flow into your network in real time.
For retrieval, an Export Bus pointed at a Soul Laser Base or an Enchantment Applicator can feed souls on demand. You can even set up level emitters to maintain a specific buffer, ensuring your enchantment setup never starves. The system works identically to any other item in AE2, so you can use storage buses on subnets, format cells to prioritize soul types, and monitor levels through a wireless terminal while you're deep in a Nether fortress.
Crafting the Soul Storage Disks
The mod offers tiered disks — from 1k to 64k or higher — mirroring AE2's standard progression. Each tier requires a corresponding storage component and a soul-infused catalyst. For instance, a 4k Soul Storage Cell might use a 4k ME Storage Component, a Soul Vial, and some Redstone. Check JEI for the exact recipes in your modpack. The investment pays off quickly when you realize a single 16k disk can hold more souls than a room full of diamond chests.
Why Digital Soul Storage Changes the Game
Before Applied Soul, players resorted to cumbersome workarounds: arrays of filing cabinets from Real Filing Cabinet, massive drawer walls, or even refined storage setups with external storage connectors. These solutions lacked the elegance and scalability of a true AE2 network. With Applied Soul, you unify your entire logistics chain. Souls become part of the same system that manages your ingots, circuits, and building blocks. Autocrafting with souls? Absolutely — you can now request a Soul Laser Base directly from your crafting terminal, and the system pulls souls from the same pool you use for enchanting.
Managing multiple mods can be a chore, but if you're using a launcher like foxygame.net, you'll appreciate its built-in mod download feature that lets you add Applied Soul directly from the menu without manual file wrangling. This modern launcher streamlines the whole process, making it easy to keep your modpack up to date while you focus on building your factory.
Performance and Compatibility Considerations
Because souls are essentially NBT-rich items, storing thousands of them can impact server performance if not handled properly. Applied Soul optimizes this by treating souls as distinct types within the cell, reducing NBT overhead compared to generic storage methods. The mod plays nicely with other AE2 addons like Extra Cells or AE2 Stuff, and it doesn't interfere with Industrial Foregoing's internal soul handling. If you're running a large server, pairing Applied Soul with a chunk-loaded soul farm and an ME network can drastically cut down on entity and item entity lag, since souls never need to exist as dropped items.
Advanced Automation Tips
- Use a Storage Bus on a Soul Vial input slot of a Mob Crusher to prevent any soul from ever entering the physical world — pure digital capture.
- Set up an ME Interface with a crafting pattern for Soul Vials to keep a small buffer for manual use, while the bulk sits in disks.
- Combine with an ME Fluid system to store Liquid Essence alongside souls for a truly integrated Industrial Foregoing setup.
- Leverage P2P tunnels to transport soul data across dimensions without running extra cables.
Conclusion: A Must-Have for Automated Soul Farms
Applied Soul fills a glaring gap in the Industrial Foregoing ecosystem. It respects the design language of both mods, adds meaningful utility without bloat, and turns a messy manual storage problem into a sleek, automated workflow. Whether you're running a compact mob farm for enchanting supplies or a massive Wither skeleton soul operation for nether star generation, this mod ensures your digital brain never loses track of a single soul. Install it, craft your first Soul Storage Cell, and let your ME network handle the rest.