Guide:Smithing
Smithing is the act of heating, hammering, and forging ingots in Anvil Empires. Smithing is currently needed for the crafting of tools and weapons.
Bronze Smithing
Your first introduction to the smithing system will be with the Bronze Ingot 
. Bronze items are very simple to make, requiring minimal setup.
Requirements
Towns will have public Town Workshop 
available, where you can process resources into Bronze Ingot in exchange of Silver 
and further process it. If you wish to make your own setup you will first need a homestead with walls and a roof in order to place down required smithing structures.
Required structures and items:
Furnace  |
Smelts ore fragments into ingots |
Stone Anvil  |
Used for shaping bronze ingots |
Workbench  |
Crafting your finished bronze tool |
Flint Hammer  |
A hammer for shaping bronze ingots |
| Bronze Ingot |
Bronze Ingot |
Setup
Your first steps will be to build your Furnace and Stone Anvil within your homestead. Collect Malachite Fragments 
and Cassiterite Fragments 
and smelt them together in the Furnace to create your Bronze Ingot .
Once your ingot is smelted, place it in the Stone Anvil . You can then cycle through the available recipes to see which weapon or tool parts you can craft. You can check in a Workbench to see which parts are used to make specific weapons or tools.
After you've made your selection, equip your Flint Hammer into your hands and hold 
while facing the Stone Anvil to hit the ingot. As you hit it, the ingot will form into the desired part. Once complete, take that part to the Workbench and craft your chosen bronze item.
Iron Smithing
The next tier of smithing uses Iron Ingot 
, which will require new smithing structures, and make use of new smithing mechanics in order to create iron items.
Workstations
The most basic iron smithing workshops will require the following structures:
Smashing Plate  |
Used for smashing iron chunks into fragments |
| Furnace |
Used for smelting iron fragments into ingots |
Forge  |
Used to heat your ingots and tool/weapon parts. |
Anvil  |
Used to hammer ingots into parts. |
Quenching Station  |
Used to cool the heated parts. |
Shallow Well  |
A good water source for your Quenching Station . Canals also work if available |
Advanced Workbench  |
Used to combine your final parts into a finished tool or weapon. |
Items
Iron Ore Fragment  |
Smelted in a furnace to make iron ingots |
Charcoal  |
Fuel for the forge. |
| Iron Ingot |
Formed into iron tools and blades. |
| Flint Hammer |
Any kind of hammer. Used to strike the iron, forming your parts |
Water Bucket  |
Needed for the quenching station. |
Depending on which tool you're aiming to make you will require extra resources, check the recipes in the Advanced Workbench .
Obtaining Iron
Iron is only available within the underworld in the form of Iron Fragments Pile and Iron Chunk 
. The underworld is incredibly dangerous with bats, elite wolves, and crippling darkness being prominent threats. Bringing a sword, shield, and torches is a must with food and branches being recommended for longer journeys. Bringing a Hand Cart 
is also recommended as it can act as a mobile light source with its torch slot and can carry large items.
Both iron fragment piles and iron chunks require a Bronze Pickaxe 
or better to mine. Fragment piles provide 1 Iron Ore Fragment , while iron chunks provide 1 Iron ore . Iron ore is a large Item so it is recommended to use a Hand Cart to carry them.
Iron fragments can be immediately processed into iron ingots in a Furnace , but iron ore must first be processed using a Smashing Plate . Putting the iron ore onto a smashing plate and smashing it with a hammer will cause it to slowly break down into 3 iron fragments, enough to make a full ingot.
Iron fragment piles are scattered around the underworld and appear as yellow-ish orange large rocks, similar in appearance to stone fragment piles. Iron chunks on the other hand are found in large quantities inside of gigantic ore cubes that appear occasionally inside of the underworld. These cubes contain a mixture of stone and iron chunks. The iron has a red-ish ore present throughout it.
If you wish to gather large amounts of iron chunks it is recommended to bring plenty of copper nails and planks to build mining stairs in order to reach the higher levels of the cube.
Smithing Workflow
With your resources ready it's time to actually start smithing.
Take your Iron Ingot over to the Forge and place them within its inventory, making sure that it's fueled and active. Without a powered Bellow 
we are limited to only 50% heat on our ingots and parts. This will increase the difficulty during forging and we may have to reheat our ingot or part multiple times back in the forge.
While your ingots are heating go to your Anvil and select which part you want to form. This is also a good time to check that your Quenching Station has been loaded with Water Bucket .
Once your ingot has reached its maximum available heat move it from the Forge inventory into the Anvil inventory. As soon as this is done you should immediately close the inventory and start to hit it with your equipped Flint Hammer by holding while facing the anvil.
Be mindful of your hammer's durability, it will be lost for each swing onto the anvil.
As you strike the Anvil you should notice the ingot starting to form into the part you're trying to make. Pay attention to the sparks and the sound. When your metal is too cold it will stop making particles and the sound will become higher pitched. Hitting metal while it's cold will cause it to deform and lose progress, so it should immediately be taken back to the Forge for reheating. Letting metal reach 0% heat will cause it to lose all progress and revert back to an ingot.
Once your part stops changing shape it's fully formed and ready to be quenched. If you're using a setup without a Bellow you will have a more difficult time trying to form Axe and Sword blades due to them becoming cold at higher temperatures. Let's look at that now.
| Part | Cold Temperature |
|---|---|
Iron Armour Plating  |
15% |
Weapon Tip  |
15% |
Tool Blade  |
25% |
Axe Blade  |
35% |
Sword Blade  |
30% |
Once you've finished forming your part, it's time to quench it. Move your part from the Anvil or Forge to the Quenching Station having made sure it contains Water Bucket . Place the part into the inventory and use the quenching button when you're ready. This will instantly cool your part making it ready for use.
Simply take your part to the Advanced Workbench and combine it with its other crafting ingredients to complete your tool or weapon.
Quality
There is more to iron smithing than simply forming a part and quenching it, and this is where quality comes into play. With increased quality comes increased benefits. Smithed parts can have one of four quality levels.
| Quality | Icon |
|---|---|
| None | |
| Low |  |
| Medium |  |
| High |  |
The quality level of smithed parts is currently based off two values; how formed your part is, and the temperature at the time of quenching. The exact formula for quality level is not yet known, though there are some observations from testing that can be reported.
- Each item has its own quenching temperature range.
- Quenching a part that’s not completely formed seems to be the only way to have an item with no quality.
- With a fully formed part the quality level is based purely off of how far from the optimum temperature the item is when it's quenched.
Quality Effects
Items with higher quality will:
- Weapons have higher min/max damage range.
- Higher durability, allowing for more uses before repair.
- Tools have higher efficiency, taking less hits to collect nodes.
High Quality Quenching
The current known quenching levels for high quality parts are as follows:
| Part | Quench Temp |
|---|---|
| Axe Blade |
Can be quenched around 60% or the corner on the back of the head. This will require a Bellow |
| Sword Blade |
Can be quenched around 45%, or just above where the cross guard would be attached. This can be easily achieved by having another forge with no bellows attached. |
| Tool Blade |
Can be quenched around 25%, or inline with the bottom of the 2nd part. You can also hammer the part till the cold sound and then immediately quench. |
| Weapon Tip |
Can be quenched around 15%, this will be outside of any icon marker. You can also hammer the part till the cold sound and then immediately quench. |
| Iron Armour Plating |
Can be quenched below 5%. |
Powered Smithing
Powered smithing allows for the use of a Bellow , along with the ability to partially automate the forming of metal parts and breaking down of iron ore.
By attaching a bellows to a Forge , you can significantly speed up the heating of iron and increase its maximum heat to 100%. However, the bellows only works when you connect it to a power source using Power Connection Rope 
.
You can use wind mills, power mills, or water wheels as power sources, however power mills are recommended for their good availability, consistency, and power output. Water wheels can also work if you live near a river or Aqueduct.
All of these power sources must be placed outside while the bellows must be placed inside, so a Homestead Power Bypass Wall 
is required for the rope to go through your homestead's walls.
By placing a Trip Hammer 
on top of a Anvil , the trip hammer will, when powered, repeatedly hit and form any hot iron placed on the anvil its attached to.
The Stamp Mill 
works the same way as the trip hammer except it is placed on a Smashing Plate and breaks down any iron ore placed on it.
Note: Stamp mills are extra tall and require 2 story buildings in order to be placed inside
