Tongs, Hammers, and the Luck of the Forge
For a long time the forge was a vending machine. You fed it ore, it handed back bars; you fed it bars, it handed back gear. Reliable, and a little lifeless. This week it grew teeth.
Two new tools
There are now four tools in Wanderer, not two. Alongside the pickaxe and the woodcutter's axe:
- Tongs let you smelt any bar above Bronze.
- Smith Hammers let you forge at the anvil.
Both run the full ladder from Bronze to Celestial, both are forged from three bars of their metal at any anvil, and both slot into the new Tools section on your Character screen — though, like pickaxes, they work just as well loose in your pack. Your best of each auto-equips when you log in.
The important part is the second number each tier carries: a +Success bonus. A Celestial Hammer isn't just prettier than a Bronze one. It fails less.
The forge can miss now
Every smelt and every forge is a roll. The recipe has a base chance; your tool's bonus and your Smithing level push it up; harder recipes start lower. The furnace and anvil show you the exact percentage before you commit, so there's no mystery — just a decision.
Miss, and you keep the attempt's worth of a little XP, lose the output, and salvage about half your materials back from the ruined work. It stings on a single high-tier pour, but across an overnight queue it's a gentle tax that shrinks as your level and tools climb. Progress still points forward; it just isn't a straight line anymore.
Shipping it without a grant
The tricky part wasn't the mechanics — it was not breaking anyone. If smelting suddenly needs tongs and forging suddenly needs a hammer, every existing smith wakes up locked out of their own craft.
The temptation is to reach into the database and hand everyone a starter set. We didn't. Instead, the bootstrap is baked into the rules: Bronze Bars smelt with no tongs, and a Bronze Tongs and Bronze Hammer can both be forged with no hammer. Mine a little copper and tin, and the path back in is always open — no hand-outs, no inventory surgery, nobody left stranded. (In a hurry? Wanderer's Rest now sells the Bronze Pickaxe, Tongs & Hammer kit in one go.)
Read the fine print
The Smithing Guide has the full breakdown — the success formula, every tool tier, and where each fits in a levelling route. And as always, the forge itself is the honest source: whatever percentage it shows you is exactly the roll it makes.
Happy forging.