Asciilands crafting & forge guide

Follow the progression tree

This is a progression map, not a promise that every recipe is available immediately. Select a stage to see its job and next dependency. Discovering new materials can reveal recipes; Crafting can preview what your current stations and the next station will make.

Know which station solves the problem

From stone to bronze, iron and steel

A stone pickaxe opens the copper route. Tin comes from panning at water edges: make a Panning Tray at a workbench, then use the water-side interaction. Smelt the two metals and combine the ingots into bronze. A bronze pickaxe is the key dependency for mining iron ore and bog iron.

This makes the first bronze pickaxe a useful progression target. Before spending bronze on several different items, compare what each purchase unlocks. Our planning advice is to secure the tool that opens the next material tier, then choose the equipment you want for your usual activities.

The current help publishes the following exact conversions. It does not give every copper, tin or bronze quantity in this overview, so those amounts remain in the live recipe panel rather than being guessed here.

Heat, shape and finish a forged head

At the Forge, heat the workpiece into the gold band and shape it toward the dashed target outline. Light and heavy blows change the metal; Draw narrows it and Widen spreads it. Cooling reduces heat. Watch fit and stress together, because shape alone does not qualify an item for the higher grades.

Overworking adds stress. A light blow at gold heat removes one stress mark according to the current help. Treat that as a recovery step: when your fit looks good but the grade is still out of reach, inspect stress before adding more heavy shaping.

Use the free practice mode to learn the controls before committing a scarce material. Our suggested practice goal is consistency: finish several clean Standard shapes before chasing a nearly exact Masterwork outline.

• Fine: +20% durability, +10% melee damage and 5% faster gathering.
• Masterwork: +40% durability, +20% melee damage and 10% faster gathering.
• Both higher grades reduce stamina used per swing by 1.

A metal head is only one part

Return to the Workbench and choose Assemble tool. Select a forged head, a handle and an optional binding. The basic wooden handle is made and fitted from two sticks in that assembly step. Reinforced and Antler Handles must first be crafted at the workbench.

Handle and binding choices are another way to invest in an item you use often. Reinforced handles add 10% durability and antler adds 15%. Leather binding adds 5%; sinew adds 10%. The antler handle also reduces gathering stamina by 1 and adds 1 melee damage.

Inspect the completed item in Pack to see quality, fit and remaining durability. Do not assume that two tools made from the same metal are equivalent: their forging and assembly can differ.

Repair and sharpen with a purpose

Bring worn equipment to an Anvil, open Repair and place the tool in its slot. The published rule uses half of the head material for the wear, with a minimum cost of one. Read the actual quote before accepting; this guide does not extrapolate an unverified rounding formula from that description.

A whetstone is made from two stone chunks at a Stonecutter. Sharpening is selected from the tool in Pack. The help describes 20 added uses per sharpening, a 10% melee-damage bonus and lower stamina use; one whetstone supports five sharpenings.

For routine gathering, compare the repair cost against the effort needed to replace a well-made tool. For a short trip, inspect wear before leaving. A repair station left far behind cannot help once the tool is already worn out.