Never skip the tutorial, or you will feel lost immediately. Read it carefully, even if it drags.

IMPORTANT: Left-clicking the cog on the bottom right opens the game menu. Now, left-click the question mark. Here you will find all the tips the game has shown you yet. Hold the left mouse button and drag the list to scroll through it.

If you ever feel lost, consult the tutorial tips first. I can not stress that enough. If that didn't help, look through this guide. If this guide does not cover something you need or in case you know of any other improvement, just write a comment.

The game can be played single-handedly. The left- and right-mouse buttons are all you need. Even the scroll wheel is expendable. "Scrolling" is sometimes done by holding the left mouse button and dragging whatever you are grabbing (e.g., the gallery, the tutorial tip list, or the map - so even vertical lists sometimes only work with this scrolling method) instead of via the scroll wheel.

It is probably safe to assume that the game was designed to be playable on a touchscreen, making the controls easier to port between platforms. Keep that in mind, as this design choice is deeply embedded into the game.

So deep, in fact, that no keyboard button, not even "ESC", opens the game's menu. As of yet, the controls are set in stone and unconfigurable inside the game. Non-mouse controls exist but are buried at the bottom of your list of tips and don't do much, in my opinion. There is no intended way to play keyboard-only.

Opening and closing menus or text and dialog boxes is also a little confusing and not done uniformly. In total, there are three different ways to close an overlay:

• Whatever you clicked, click it again (e.g., the pause menu, the forge & house, map locations)
  
• Click the "x" (e.g., the gallery or the list of tips)
  
• Click on the overlay itself (e.g., item descriptions, Material stats while blacksmithing)

Don't close the game mid-job. You'll have to redo everything - even the job preparation! You can not save manually. The game saves automatically after you finish a job.

So, return to the start menu/close the game only after you finish a job. I haven't noticed other reliable/consistent instances of auto-saving.


Click the cog in the bottom right corner to open the game menu. Click the lute symbol to show the two sliders for adjusting the loudness of sounds and music.

Whilst not blacksmithing, you can change the difficulty by clicking the emblem at the bottom of the game menu. There are three difficulty levels that affect how strictly the game rates your creations (three difficulty-related achievements exist).

• Gray hammer = Apprentice = easy
  
• Silver hammer with band = Craftsman = medium
  
• Gold hammer with band and skull = Master = hard

The language can only be changed in the start menu. There, it is placed at the bottom left.

There are no other settings inside the game. However, some can be found outside: After launching the game in Steam, a small window pops up where you can adjust the graphic quality rudimentarily.


Your house acts as your build for maximizing certain metrics. Different items and guests provide certain bonuses and can even synergize. These effects are written into the lore texts and aren't listed separately. It's always a joy to read how the lore legitimizes its game mechanics.


While you are at your house & forge, there is an anvil on the left screen border above your character's image. Clicking it opens a dialog where you can choose one out of three different practice modes (not all are unlocked at the beginning).


That's it. Buying a new Material/Component for the first time unlocks it permanently. They are restocked automatically and for free in between jobs, but are finite during a job. There are means to enable restocking of Materials (not Components) while blacksmithing. If you are short on Materials/Components for a job, you may need to change your build, or you simply need to unlock something else first.


The game has one unnecessarily confusing additional gameplay layer when it comes to buying stuff. A handful of items, like the candles, can have a second stack. The second stack is only needed in very rare instances. There, it becomes irritating all the more when you suddenly notice near the end of the job that you are missing the required amount of something.


If you mess up something and can't work around it, there is usually no penalty involved (except the time to redo everything). There is no such thing as reputation that you could lose (in-game at least). The only potential penalty for quitting/restarting comes with jobs that require a fee for each attempt.


After the first few jobs, some orders will appear with double squares around them. It's easy to overlook and not the best indicator, but these jobs are infinitely repeatable, so you can never get stuck because of a money shortage.


You can mirror your hammers by a click near their tip. Useful for asymmetric hammers. Consult the tutorial tips to learn more.

You can mirror your anvil by clicking the tree stump beneath it. Useful to forge your Materials more easily in some cases or to adjust them to your personal preference. Consult the tutorial tips to learn more.

You can mirror your working Material as long as it can be forged with a hammer and only while it's glowing AND while it is selected. In this case, an interactive element will appear on the right screen border (it may hide behind the drawing tool overlay). Consult the tutorial tips to learn more.


While blacksmithing, Materials/Components are stacked onto each other layerwise. The most recently selected Material/Component rises to the top. Dragging a new Material/Component into the working area also places it on top of all pre-existing stuff.

There is another mechanic that influences the Material/Component order, which is connecting two or more pieces, e.g., when riveting. It pulls up the lower Materials/Components to the layer of the upper Material/Component (visually, the priorly lower Materials/Components are still behind the priorly upper Materials/Components). After connecting Materials/Components, they are one object, and you can not shove anything between them anymore. So, be very careful.

Rejoice, the game does not check whether you stacked Materials in the correct order. This would've made the game brutal to complete.


The order you cycle through your tools depends on the slot in the forge you put them in.


Before accepting a job, a book appears in the top left screen corner that acts as an indicator of whether you have prepared your house and forge adequately for the job. Consult the tutorial tips to get a basic understanding.

Generally, it's best to get all green ticks. It guarantees that the job can be submitted successfully.

However, this does not guarantee that you can fulfill all optional requirements. It is also usually not the most profitable setup.

Going further, some jobs can even be completed without fulfilling the requirements, just by substituting materials (especially when it comes to iron ingots) and a clever choice of what you put into your house & forge.


During the early game, don't take more tools, Materials, and Components with you than recommended. Here, less is more. Even though there are no limitations on the number of different Materials and Components you take with you.

It takes more effort to remove all unneeded stuff, and it is optional, yes. But doing so minimizes the chances for you to choose the wrong Material/Component during a job because you misinterpreted the blueprint, which can easily force you to restart the job.

Mid to late-game, I recommend taking all potions and all magical books with you at all times. Even when the game does not list them in the job preparation recommendations. These Components are not visible in the blueprint anyway and usually provide more room for errors.

At the bottom right corner, you always have an additional tool that does not need any slot: A marker. You can toggle an eraser mode. Experiment with it and consult the tutorial tips. You can drag and drop the configuration overlay to a better position, if you want. It often blocks the view of other tool-dependent interactive elements. Make frequent use of the marker, e.g., to mark how deep you want to put a hot metal into a vise.

Unfortunately, the markings on a metal stretch weirdly after you bend it, even if you use the marker after bending.


For example, your saws have two modes, and the indicator is only visible while a saw is the active tool. Also, the mode indicator might be hidden behind the overlay of the marker/eraser. There are other tools where these statements apply as well.


The saw has two modes:

• Keep everything (trashcan lid closed)
  
• Keep the largest piece (trashcan lid open)

So, if you wonder why (worst case) one half of your Material disappears after sawing it, this might be why. These trashcan symbols can not be used to throw away stuff.


You can't connect individual parts with ropes. They will only be applied to a monolith. Place ropes early because sometimes connecting different parts makes a correct placement of ropes impossible later.

If you misplaced a rope, don't worry, you can use the knife to cut it off and try it anew. While chains function analogously for the most part, unfortunately, I do not know how to undo them. Please write a comment in case you know more.


Fairly early, the game teaches you riveting as a way to connect two or more individual parts. However, there is another way. Early to mid-game, chainmails are introduced. They snap to the edges of nearby parts, even if those parts are distinct, individual parts. So, they are effectively able to create Composite Materials as well.


Earlier in this guide, I already discussed Material Layers. That is one thing the game does not teach you in the context of riveting. You probably also noticed that you can stack an arbitrary number of layers, and that a single rivet will connect all layers at once that overlap at the point you place the rivet at.

However, be careful when working with Components. You can't place a rivet on top of them. And no, the game does not consider that you could theoretically shove them to the side to rivet the layers beneath. Make sure to rivet before placing Components.

You can't undo riveting. But with enough Materials and Components at hand, you can sometimes cut off the misconnection and try it anew.


Earlier in this guide, I already discussed that Chainmails are a second way to connect distinct, individual parts, similar to rivets. In that context, Material Layers, which I also discussed earlier, are relevant as well. However, there are additional complex mechanics.

Firstly, chainmails are automatically applied as soon as you drag and drop them to the edges of nearby parts. This is really annoying and simply the worst game design decision, as this can very easily force you to restart a job at any time. Why does it not work like placing Components? At least that does not happen the other way around, i.e., you can drag and drop something else near a chainmail without an auto-connection happening.

Secondly, chainmails won't attach themselves anymore to something else after they are part of a Composite Material. Basically, they are a one-time use only.

Thirdly, chainmails only try to attach themselves to the edges of other materials. Obviously, a chainmail can't be attached if the distance to the next object is too far. However, if they overlap too much with another object, chainmails won't attempt to make a connection either. This can get tricky quickly.

Fourthly, similar to how you can not rivet through Components, Chainmails will not attach themselves to Components.

Fifthly, Chainmails are very unforgiving when it comes to the rating of your work. Not only do they need an extra portion of caution at all times. They even have a very complex silhouette with holes between the individual rings. Placing them a little bit off can quickly cost you a hefty amount of accuracy.


Riveting should be done as late as possible, when you see how you forged your Materials/Components, and also to avoid mistakes in the Material/Component order. Always rivet together elements either from the backmost to the foremost layer or vice versa. Choose one direction and be strict with it. While the game only checks for overlapping areas and not Material/Component order, deviating from the sketched order usually leads to visually less pleasant results.


I try to be as vague as possible here. Mid to late-game, you will find special hammers. They have special powers. However, these only activate if you swing them with enough force. Their animation will change, so you will notice when they are active. After activating them, even swings with low force will apply the special effects, but not indefinitely. You will have to reactivate it after a while.


Most stats, like weight or defense, calculate their stats depending on the area of a Material/Component and the Material/Component modifier. If something touches the draft area, it is counted fully. It also does not matter whether another Material/Component occludes it - after all, it's still present.

The better the silhouette of the draft matches the result, the higher the Accuracy rating will be. However, Accuracy does not increase linearly! The rating is position-dependent. Covering more than needed is penalized, as well as covering less than needed. However, the order of Materials/Components does not matter, you can stack as much as you like, in any order you like.

On the left-hand side, the game shows you the minimum number of required Components. You can easily forget that, but this restriction exists. However, you are always allowed to place more than that, and you can place as much of the unlisted Components as you like as well. Just stay inside the required stat ranges and keep your Accuracy high.

The end result must be exactly one fully connected component. Confusingly, the "tick" for a finishable job already appears even when two or more independent parts are present on the draft area. At least, this error gets highlighted when clicking the tick that usually finishes a job.

You probably aready know that your creation's silhouette should match your blueprint perfectly (the mechanic is called "Accuracy"). And maybe it does and in the first few jobs that was everything you looked out for and it worked. Now check the top left corner again for other job requirements than the minimum overlap percentage.

Certain working Materials/Components and processing methods will influence certain stats like weight, offensive capabilities, defense capabilities, etc.

This tries to keep you from cheesing e.g. a "Steel Grating" with perfectly cut wood as a Material/Component. Accuracy is not always the only requirement. Easy to miss in first few jobs, especially when the correct Materials/Components were always chosen correctly. Usually, the Materials/Components is easily guessable just from the looks. But sometimes you need to use your brain and/or read Materials/Components descriptions to get a clue.

As an example, don't try to make the head of a pitchfork out of "Metal Tubes", but use "Flat Steel Rods" instead. Yes, you can achieve the correct form in both cases and thus, yes the blueprint by itself is not unambigous. But a Metal Tube is "primarily used in places where wood and metal are joined together". And the stat requirements make it difficult to finish the job without Flat Steel Rods (i.e. with Metal Tubes only) - so the requirements and Material/Component properties push you to a more realistic result going beyond the form.

As a good practice, BEFORE RIVETING, pull all processed Materials/Components on the blueprints. Calculate/Estimate whether the requirements can still be met after you are done riveting. If not, do not start riveting, because its hard to fix such errors - and in the worst case you have to restart the job.


Crafting what is depicted on the blueprint leads to the requested stats of the product at the beginning. A little deeper into the game, you have to choose wisely whom or what you put into your house, because the house contents can influence the stats of your Materials/Components. Some quests are only fulfillable this way.


Maybe you wonder why the recommendation requests more Materials/Components out of you than you possess in your house and forge. Or maybe you miss a Material/Component completely but you are too short on money to unlock it, yet no other job is open anymore.

If its the first, go check the fourth recommendation task. There might be an item or guest listed, that solves your problem with its effect. Yes, items and guests have effects. And they are written directly into their lore. Check an above section for more. If you miss something, then you first need to find a location where you can acquire whatever you are missing and progress the quests there far enough to make it available.

If its the latter, go check all unlocked locations and look out for a job that has two squares around it. Its very easy to miss. But these jobs are repeatable.


Confusingly, you can buy candles at two the different locations. The first four are sold at the "Trading Stall". The fifth candle can be purchased in the "City Cemetry".


It startles me why this design choice was made but before accepting a job, you can optionally start preparing for a job, which takes you to your house and forge automatically. However, if you did not unlock everything mandatory for the job, like certain tools or Materials/Components, you are now stuck and you have to cancel the job (either exit to the start screen or start the job still and quit it immediately). There is no way to revisit the map to unlock what you are missing and there is no option on this screen to cancel the job.


So, you fulfilled the requirements of Sylvia, the Witch to give the Witch's Black Potion its weight reducing effect. You almost finished crafting, just a using the potion in the end. You calculated that the Amount of drops in the potion, and its negative Weight per drop are enough to get your product down to the needed Weight. You start pouring - and the Weight does not go down as much as expected. However, Morale and Magic change just as expected. And all the other potions work as intuitively expected.

Here is what happened: Despite Sylvia's lore stating "this potion will make objects levitate", there is no negative Weight in the game. Quite confusing. I here you say "Yeah, but my piece of work was nowhere near 0 Weight." - the thing is, the game registers on which Component or Material the drop landed and deduces the Weight there and only there. It does not apply it to the whole Composite Material (this behavior is not clearly communicated and only becomes apparent here because its easy to hit this stats limit). So, apply this specific potions at different places, at different parts of your product.

If my description didn't click with you, just try the following and my explanation will become clear: Stick a feather to an Iron ingot. Pour the Witch's Black Potion over the attached feather. No matter how much drops you pour over it, the total Weight does only decrease by "0.1". Now pour it again but in a way where the drops hit the Iron Ingot. The Weight will go down far lower (maybe even reaching "0").

Just like a Wood Saw knows in a Composite Material which parts are made out of wood and are still sawable, the potion can differentiate between all individual parts as well and knows each part's individual weight. You may think, it's better to pour the potion right at the start. But that is not a good idea because you waste some of the potion's effect as soon as you start cutting away anything. The best time to use the potion is right after cutting everything in shape, although before you start riveting. Some parts may become unreachable after riveting them together (e.g. one part is completely within another part).

All the sections above contain various UI/UX issues, like weird navigation flows, indicators that are not visually distinctive enough, non-uniform interactions, not clearly enough presented mechanics, and the list goes on.

I just put anything in this section that was not mentioned before, I might be wrong in individual points because may have overlooked something but the fact that it was so easily missable still is an issue in itself:

• the sound and music sliders are scaling linearly in loudness, instead of exponentially (human ears percept loudness logarithmitically, which counters the exponentially)
  
• highlights don't highlight enough (the change in hue/lightness is so small, it might go unnoticed)
  
• there are too many floating interactable components, especially in the house and forge screen - they should be restructured to a central place
  
• the visuals do not clearly differentiate between pure indicators and interactable elements, often only a click helps - until you forget again what was a pure indicators and what an interactable element
  
• there is a quick overview over the most important house and forge stats on the map that is not accessible at the house anymore (more clicks and manual counting are needed here instead)
  
• the cursor is not dependable for finding interactable elements (e.g. while blacksmithing it changes its appearance accordingly but on the map it does not)
  
• it is not communicated clearly what the cursor will grab while blacksmithing (can't count how many misclicks that caused me already)
  
• while blacksmithing, there are sometimes two trashcan symbols - one for actually getting rid of junk, one for changing the saw behavior - the basically same symbol should not be used twice
  
• trashcan contents can not be accessed - there is no valid argument why and its especially frustrating if something gets put into the trash accidentally after hitting the saw toggle accidentally or not knowing what that trashcan does (it would be better to stow away trash on another screen, this could also be an opportunity to temporarily store other parts that take to much screenspace)
  
• the trash area is not always visible (there could be a more elegant solution)
  
• trash should be removed in another way or the disposal area needs clearer communication, because freeing up screenspace can lead to accidental disposal
  
• there is no home travel button on the map but you have to search for your NOT HIGHLIGHTED house manually
  
• no tool other than the rivet hammer has a limited number of uses hidden in its description (would love to know the reasoning why rivets are not their own Material), once blacksmithing, the remaining rivet counter can only be seen when you click on the rivet hammer (pulling it out is not enough) and on top of that it has the same symbol style as the other stats that are only important for the final product (if rivets don't get their own Material slot, their counter should be clearly communicated, e.g. with a counter directly tied to the rivet hammer's position)
  
• the rivet hammer has other controls than other hammers (instead, the rivet hammer should be used like a regular hammer but without rotation)
  
• rivet hammer accidents are too easy - with so much layered components, an undependable indication of what will be grabbed, the riveting affecting the layer order, not removable rivets, rivet placement restrictions, etc. the rivet hammer should not possess one-click actions - instead it should be used similarly to other hammers
  
• the leather knife has not the exact same controls as the saws, even though it could
  
• the game has two tools for a metal saw and a wood saw - but files makes this differentiation with "modes"
  
• there is a weird toggle between changing your hand-tools (e.g. hammer, saw, etc.) and stationary tools (e.g. anvil, grindin wheel, etc.) instead of both of them being changable at all times
  
• there is no quick way of removing a tool, instead you must click through all of them until you reach the "no-tool" state (and maybe you have toggle first to the hand/stationary tools)
  
• Materials/Components must be pulled out while blacksmithing instead of e.g. a double-click
  
• once outside, Materials/Components occupy screenspace and can't be put back into the inventory, they must be disposed of, if they are a nuisance (but that's not possible if that leads to a Material/Component shortage)
  
• after pulling out the first component during blacksmithing (like ropes) the last selected component will always occupy screen space and you can't put it back (you can only use it up to make it vanish)
  
• the drawing tool always forgets its setting (it does not even rememember its color when switching to the eraser mode)
  
• the drawing tool draws ellipsis instead of circle onto bent/stretched metal
  
• to reach the start screen during blacksmithing, you always have to first quit the job and then click the same symbol again
  
• the voice overs are low-quality and AI-generated - it is not wrong for indie developers to use AI in these instances, because they have a small budget, but a better sound quality would be much appreciated, so they stop muttering (I wish, I could turn the voice overs off)
  
• some stuff, like getting a fifth candle, is very confusing
  
• very verbose tutorial (which is ironic, considering this guide's size)
  
• some tutorials don't pop up on first use (e.g. potions in my case)
  
• leather belts and ropes try to attach to things, even when they are only move by the animations for phasing in or out
  
• chainmails auto-attach but should behave like other components like feathers, to reduce the number of accidental attachments while finetuning the orientation (generally, chainmails are too complicated)

There are so many issues, so many things I critiqued, which easily gives the wrong impression that I dislike the game. I enjoy it very much, heck, I would even rate it as a 8-9/10 because the core gameplay is so good that it makes me forgive all its UI/UX flaws. If I would dislike the game, I would not go to such lenghts to write such a lenghty guide. But I have the sad feeling that all these issues drag down the general reception of the game and I can understand why. The average player is not as forgiving. Which is sad, because beneath all that dirt is such a shiny pearl. And what's worse than a smaller playerbase or a not as good Steam rating, is, that this developer might get disheartened to create another pearl. Just because of the UI/UX, which is way easier to code than the blacksmithing itself, I suppose. The point of this guide is to equip other players with the needed knowledge to work around the game's flaws, so they can hopefully enjoy it as much as I do.