Updated on November 28, 2025: Added additional sections for Runes, Enhancing and how to farm gold/cash/EXP with your crafted gear.
In this The Forge crafting guide I'll explain how the entire crafting system works as well as some advanced tips like armor variations (Dark Knight/Samurai) and Ore trait combos. This guide is meant for beginners but non-beginners might also learn something useful. Here's my complete The Forge crafting guide.
Table of contents
The Forge Crafting Explained
Here's a run down of how crafting works in The Forge:
- Weapon Basics: Once you start adding ores and have 3 you can craft a Dagger class weapons and from there the more Ore you add the more chance you have to craft "larger" class weapons. The number of ores you put in doesn't increase the stats of the weapon, just the size category. "Larger" size category weapons tend to have more base damage but less attack speed while it's the opposite for "smaller" categories. For a full breakdown of size categories check out our Weapon tier list.
- Armor Basics: It's a similar case for armor as well except the size categories are Helmet as the smallest then Leggings then Chestplate as you add more Ore. Then you move into the next tier which is weight so it goes from Light (Helmet>Leggings>Chestplate) to Medium to Heavy. For Armor, the larger and heavier the more Defense/Health you get so go for Heavy if you can.
- Weapon Variations: There are different weapon variations within each weapon category. For example the Dagger category has Daggers, Gladius Daggers and Hooks and you'll see the odds of crafting a specific variation on the left. Let's say you put in 5 ores so that your crafting chance is 86% for Daggers and 14% for Straight Swords. Whatever category you get, the game will then roll another number to determine what variation in that category you will get. Some variations are locked behind a certain level to unlock.
- Armor Variations: These work similarly to Weapon Variations however variations like the Dark Knight set or the Samurai can only be crafted on Island 2, not Island 1.
- Optimal Crafting Chances and Ore Requirements: Below you'll find a table of how much Ore you need for each weapon and armor category
| Item | Min Ore | Optimal Ore |
|---|---|---|
| Dagger | 3 | 3 |
| Straight Sword | 4 | 8 |
| Gauntlet | 7 | 11 |
| Katana | 9 | 15 |
| Great Sword | 12 | 20 |
| Great Axe | 16 | 37 |
| Colossal Sword | 21 | 46 |
| Light Armor | 3 | 3 (For Helmet, More for Leggings/Chest) |
| Medium Armor | 10 (Helmet) | 17 |
| Heavy Armor | 20 (Helmet) | 46 |
Ore Multipliers Explained
Each Ore has a Multiplier that modifies the base stats of weapons/armor you forge like Damage or Defense. The higher rarity Ore you use the higher the multiplier and the higher the damage/defense. If you're mixing different Ores with different multipliers the game will use the average so the combined sum of the multipliers divided by the number of different multipliers. So if you put in a few ores that have a multiplier of x2 and a few ores that have a multiplier of 1x the end result will be a 1.5x multiplier. Better ores have higher multipliers.
For weapon buffs the ore with the higher amount in the bunch gives all the buffs from the ore rarity. If you put in 15 common ores and 3 Legendary ores you get no buffs from the Legendary ore. But if you put in 10 Legendary ores and 6 common ones you'll get buffs from the legendary ore.
Check out all The Forge Ore Stats and Locations for details on each one.
Ore Traits
Some of the Ores I listed below in a table have special traits that apply to your weapons and armor when you craft them using these Ores. You need at least 10% of the ore quantity-wise with a trait when forging for that item to have the trait once crafted. The optimal amount is to have 30% for the best stats from the trait. For example, if you want armor with the Obsidian Defense trait and you want to craft it using 10 Ores, 3 Ores should be Obsidian for the optimal trait effect. Here are all Ores that have traits.
| Ore & Rarity | Drop Chance | Rock Node (All except Poopite are Island 2) |
Multiplier | Price | Trait |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Poopite Epic |
1/131 | Pebble, Rock, Boulder (Island 1) | 1.2x | 18$ | Deal % poison damage around you for X seconds, fearing enemies. Activates when below 35% HP and has a 15 second cooldown. |
 Obsidian Epic |
1/333 | Volcanic Rock | 2.35x | 35.25$ | 30% extra defense on Armor |
 Rivalite Epic |
1/569 | Basalt Vein, Volcanic Rock | 3.33x | 49.95$ | +20% critical strike chance on Weapons |
 Uranium Legendary |
1/777 | Basalt Vein | 3x | 66$ | 5% of player max health as AOE damage while in combat, on Armor |
 Mythril Legendary |
1/813 | Basalt Vein | 3.5x | 52.5$ | 15% extra defense on Armor |
 Eye Ore Legendary |
1/1333 | Basalt Rock, Basalt Core, Basalt Vein, Volcanic Rock | 4x | 37.5$ | -10% health, +15% damage boost on Weapons/Armor |
 Fireite Legendary |
1/2187 | Volcanic Rock | 4.5x | 67.5$ | 20% burn for 2 seconds with 30% chance on-hit on Weapons |
 Magmaite Legendary |
1/3003 | Volcanic Rock | 5x | 75$ | 50% AOE explosion damage with 35% chance on-hit on Weapons |
 Lightite Legendary |
1/3333 | Basalt Vein | 4.6x | 69$ | Speed Boost |
 Demonite Mythical |
1/3666 | Volcanic Rock | 5.5x | 82.5$ | 20% burn for 2 seconds with 15% chance on-hit & Demon's Backfire passive on Armor |
 Darkryte Mythical |
1/5555 | Volcanic Rock | 6.3x | 94.5$ | Armor Only: Upon taking damage, there is 15% chance to turn into a shadow to dodge the attack. |
Dark Knight and Samurai Armor Variations
There are two Armor variations which are the Dark Knight Heavy Armor variant and the Samurai Medium Armor variant. These can only be crafted on Island 2 since they don't show up as options on Island 1. There's no variation for Light armor even on Island 2. The odds for these special armor options are usually 1/2 instead of the default 1/1 for base variations. Both Dark Knight and Samurai give more Health than the base version of the armor. For example, see the picture above comparing the base Heavy Armor Knight Chestplate and the Dark Knight Chestplate.
Runes & Enhancements
Lastly once you forge your Weapon or Armor you can put Runes on it which drop from monsters. This can be done at the Rune NPC. Our Rune Tier List goes into all the rune effects and which are the best ones as well as which monsters drop which runes. That said to put a Rune into equipment you first need to Enhance it at the Enhancer which boosts its stats and adds a Rune Slot at about 3rd upgrade and more later on. Always enhance weapons for grinding or progression that you put Ore Traits into or are generally happy with since you used the best Ores with good multipliers and are at 100% craft success.
How to Farm Money in The Forge
Last but not least, here's Sensei Moro's final tip, check out the The Forge Money Farm guide. This guide will take you through the best farming methods for gold and XP. These focus on farming ores and crafting and selling Heavy Armor and Colossal Weapons for maximum profit. Then later on you can start grinding monsters and selling their essence for a ton of cash.
That's it for my The Forge crafting guide. Check out my The Forge race tier list for more guides.
The post The Forge Crafting Guide – Multipliers, Variants, Traits & More appeared first on Destructoid.
