Blacksmithing

Crafted Items Blacksmithing Weapons Blacksmithing Components Blacksmithing Tools

Unique Aspects Equipment Modification

Blacksmithing is a core crafting discipline, providing citizens of Insulera with much needed equipment. Most craftsmen will turn to a blacksmith for their tools, whereas warriors will come for their weapons. A blacksmith is also able to produce advanced harvesting tools, making resource gathering possible.

Crafted Items

The items produced through blacksmithing belong to one of three categories.

• Blacksmithing Weapons: this group consists of a large variety of melee weapons, used by players and NPC citizens alike. Most weapons are balanced in terms of overall power, meaning that there is no single weapon that outperforms all the other. Instead, every weapon comes with advantages and disadvantages, allowing the combatant to choose one based on their playstyle.

• Blacksmithing Components: needed to craft items in the other categories. As you craft more elaborate items, you will need more specific components. Keep in mind that most recipes require several steps. Crafting a sword will require you to first uncover and craft a range of blacksmithing components.

• Blacksmithing Tools: these include both tools used in the world (such as harvesting tools), but also tools used in crafting. Harvesting tools enable citizens to obtain advanced resources; advanced tools also allow for more comfortable harvesting. Crafting tools serve as key components in crafting items, both in blacksmithing and other disciplines.

Equipment Modification

Equipment modification is a unique aspect of the blacksmithing discipline. It allows you to use a final item (such as a sword) as a component in further crafting. This allows you to modify the stats of weapons, making them fit a specific playstyle better. This effectively results in an advanced variant of a weapon.

Types of Modifications

There are two known modification processes - sharpening and weight optimisation. Usually, you can only perform one modification, leaving you with an important choice.

Sharpening

Sharpening is a process of combining final items (e.g. Long Sword) with Sharpening Stones. This makes the blade of the weapon sharper, enhancing its damage.

Weight Optimisation

Weight optimisation consists of combining final items (e.g. Long Sword) with Blacksmithing Tools. This shapes the weapon more accurately, getting rid of excess weight. The result is a more responsive weapon, often with reduced stamina cost and better reuse time.

Modification Viability

While modifying a weapon is generally beneficial, it more useful in certain cases. A modified weapon is treated as a different item, meaning it won't be accepted as a requisition. This may also mean NPCs will not buy modified weapons from you, or will charge a different price. The modification process also represents additional production cost to the crafter, so it is important to decide whether or not a modification is in fact profitable.

On the other hand, modified weapons perform better in combat. Generally, a modification only improves the weapon. It does not come with any downsides in terms of combat performance. For that reason, modified weapons are preferred by adventurers. Additionally, modifications allow the crafter to produce weapons with more specific stats. A modified weapon can also compensate for some of the downsides of the unmodified product - for example, optimising the weight of a Zweihander reduces the otherwise very high stamina cost of attacking.