# Asciilands crafting & forge guide

HTML source: https://asciilandsguide.com/crafting

Canonical HTML: https://asciilandsguide.com/crafting

Checked: 2026-10-23

Mechanics were reviewed on October 23, 2026 against the official website, FAQ and published in-game help. This was a documentation review, not independent gameplay testing. Follow the live game when recipes or rules differ.

Crafting is a chain of materials, stations and discoveries. Find the missing link before gathering another pack of ore.

## At a glance

Use hand crafting for basic materials, a workbench for stone tools and assembly, a smelter for metal, and a Forge for heads and blades. The Anvil repairs equipment.

## 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.

### Bare hands

Wood · stone · fiber

Gather all three starter resources. Open C to inspect planks, sticks and rope. Keep food found during gathering.

Next: Make four planks for your first workbench.

### Workbench

Stone axe · stone pickaxe

Place the bench with B, interact with F, craft a tool and equip it from I. The stone pickaxe unlocks copper mining.

Next: Collect copper and make a Panning Tray for tin.

### Copper + tin

Copper ingots · tin ingots

Pan for tin beside water. Use the Smelter to process metal, then alloy the ingots into bronze. Check live quantities.

Next: Forge and assemble a bronze pickaxe.

### Bronze

Bronze pickaxe

The bronze pickaxe can mine iron ore and bog iron. A forged head still needs workbench assembly before use.

Next: Smelt two iron ore or bog iron with one charcoal for one iron ingot.

### Iron → steel

Iron · steel equipment

The help lists two iron ingots plus two charcoal for steel. Use the Forge for quality, the Workbench for assembly and the Anvil for repair.

Next: Practice fit and stress control before investing rare materials.

## Know which station solves the problem

| Where | What you use it for | Common mistake |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hand crafting · C | Planks, sticks, rope and other basics | Looking here for a finished stone tool. |
| Workbench · F nearby | Stone tools, tool assembly, handles and equipment | Owning a forged head but never assembling it. |
| Campfire · F nearby | Cooking and charcoal production | Using all available logs before planning fuel. |
| Smelter | Ore processing and metal alloys | Skipping tin and expecting copper alone to become bronze. |
| Forge | Shaping metal heads and blades | Confusing the forge with the repair anvil. |
| Anvil | Equipment repair | Expecting it to create every new metal head. |
| Stonecutter | Whetstones and stone processing | Replacing a tool when sharpening or repair would help. |

## 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.

| Station / process | Input | Output |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Campfire | 2 wood logs | Charcoal; check the live output quantity |
| Smelter | 2 Iron Ore + 1 charcoal | 1 Iron Ingot |
| Smelter | 2 bog iron + 1 charcoal | 1 Iron Ingot |
| Smelter | 2 Iron Ingots + 2 charcoal | Steel; check the live output quantity |

Note: This table deliberately leaves unspecified yields unspecified. It is a verified recipe subset, not a complete recipe database.

## 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.

| Grade | Fit requirement | Stress requirement |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Standard | 50% | No zero-stress condition stated in the help |
| Fine | 85% | No stress |
| Masterwork | 98% | No stress |

## 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.

## Source topics

Materials; Metal & forging; Crafting & pack; Travel & fishing → Panning

Published help in the [official game](https://asciilands.io/play/).

## Related guides

- [beginner-guide](https://asciilandsguide.com/beginner-guide)

- [building](https://asciilandsguide.com/building)

- [combat](https://asciilandsguide.com/combat)

## Contact and primary references

support@asciilandsguide.com. Contact the guide editors for corrections or questions about this website. For game account help and game bug reports, use the official game community.

- [Official website and FAQ](https://asciilands.io/)
- [Official game and help](https://asciilands.io/play/)
- [Official Discord](https://discord.gg/JwpvBG4p5V)