I hate this update, they straight up ruined forging lol. It’s like the developers are committed to making this game as difficult, annoying, and grindy as possible. No wonder the player base is steadily trickling out.
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Hey guys, I just wanted to throw my method/results in here as it looks promising.
My deck is currently:
Draining Boon 1
Pure Boon 3
Boon Removal Solvent 1
Quirk Transmute Solvent
Effect Gum
Special Gum
Longevity Gum
Vigour Catalyst 2
Fate Past 2
Setting Resin
Starting out, my process mirrors that of Merlin’s from pre-update (including the ~1100 stability cut off point to make sure you can get at least Damage 8 as well as AoE 4). The main difference obviously is draining 1 instead of draining 2, which means you have a 20% change to miss the first time you roll. If this happens I just set the hammer and start over. The other part that is a little strange is how the Quirk transmute works. It will ALWAYS transmute the last quirk that was added to the hammer, not the last one that has had points put in it. This means you have to decide each time a quirk is added if you are okay with it or not. There are only a few that I can’t live with, so I’m fairly tolerant here, but the process seems to allow the use of 2-3 quirk solvents (at minimum), so you have some room to work there. Just be sure to use a Vigour catalyst to clear everything off first before you start re-rolling the quirk.
The other departure is when you are adding the points to finish the last stat on the hammer (damage for me), you have the ability to switch to pure boon 3 instead of draining 1. This lets you decide if you want to continue adding quirks to to tool or not. If you have a bunch of bad quirks already on the hammer but not full up yet, pure boon + fate paste makes sure you don’t get any. If you have a few good quirks that you want points in, you can continue to pump draining boon.
My early attempts with this have been able to get (at least), Durability 7, Devastating Damage 8, and AoE 4, and either without quirks or only with good ones. The talk of the forge being dead seems to be overstated.
Also, Vigour Catalyst 2 is a hell of a drug.
Edit:
This part has nothing to do with forging stats or anything, but I think this iteration of the forge feels way better as a mini-game. The process I use above has the potential to generate quirks, so I have to make more decisions about what to do with them as they appear. The process also allows me to avoid them with a bit of work, so it creates this impression of actually tinkering with the tool. If you don’t like the increased change of quirks/defects, I totally get it, but avoiding them actually gets to be fun.
8 Likes
Really struggeling with the new forge…
Had alot better results after including gambling paste2.
Without Transmutation solvent, its way too much RNG in current forge system…
Merlin Centraforge Station Stats
198% Efficiency
1800 Stability
Deck:
Boon Removal Solvent
Trait Reduction Gum
Fate Paste 2
Unstable Boon Compound 1
Unstable Boon Compound 2
Vigour Catalyst 1
Special Gum
Effect Gum
Defect Reduction Compound 2
Setting Resin
Steps according to video (please do understand the purpose of these steps, and adjust accordingly)
1 Special Gum
2 Effect Gum
3 Unstable Boon Compound 2
4-6 Trait Reduction Gum x3
7 Fate Paste 2 (Use inconjunction with Unstable Boon Compound to reduce chances of quirk and defect)
8 Unstable Boon Compound 1
9 Unstable Boon Compound 2
10 Unstable Boon Compound 2
11 Vigour Catalyst 1 (Use upon reaching a targeted boon level to reset board)
12-14 Effect/Special Gum (ever since the update, you need more gum)
15 Defect Reduction Compound 2
16 Unstable Boon Compound 2
17 Unstable Boon Compound 2
(Remove Trait Reduction Gum x3 here as discussed)
18 Fate Paste 2
19 Unstable Boon Compound 2 (Hit and adjust until targeted boon level reached)
20 Setting Resin
Thanks Merlin, here’s a text version as a thank you.
5 Likes
After quite a bit of testing, this is a more or less guaranteed deck to get clean T6 one-hitter hammers with AoE and durability. This deck assumes the correct skill build and maximum effectiveness on your forge.
Deck:
Effect Gum
Longevity Gum
Special Gum
Protection Paste 2
Fate Paste 2
Corrupted Boon Compound 1
Defect Reversal Catalyst
Boon Transmute Solvent
Vigour Catalyst 2
Setting Resin
A note on Boon Transmute vs Boon Removal
Yes, Removal is considerably cheaper and easier to get the ingredients for than Transmute, but the added susceptibility to the whims of RNG can come back to bite you. HARD. That one time you spend all your vigour removing and readding Hard Hitter when you want Devastating Damage over and over again, you’ll completely understand what I mean. If you’re forging this level of high end gear, spend the extra time hunting/extra coin shopping and make the Transmute instead. It will pay off, trust me.
Summary of Steps:
Start with 2 Effect and 2 Longevity Gum, then 1 Protection Paste and 1 Fate Paste (the order of the pastes matters, and switches later; if anyone needs an explanation for this, I’ll answer in another reply, as this one is already super long), then Boon Compound. If you get Durability or Devastating Damage, great. If you get anything else, Transmute to get them. You should only have to transmute once or twice here. Continue with Boon Compound until you have Durability and Damage. Never add Boon Compound if you get an unwanted boon. Transmute first. Once you have Damage and Durability, no matter what level they are, stop pumping compound and Catalyst to clear the board. If you keep going, then you’ll probably end up with Hard Hitter in the top slot, and then possibly have to use an extra transmute to get AoE. You’re already going to have to use probably 1 or 2 Transmutes as it is, so save yourself from having to use any extra when you can. Those joints are expensive. After the Catalyst, 2 Special Gum, 1 Protection Paste, 1 Fate Paste, and then Boon Compound. If you get Loot Magnet now, that’s fine. Keep pumping Compound until Loot Magnet gets to 3, then Transmute to AoE, because level 3 Magnet will transmute to level 4 AoE. Fill AoE up to 4 if you didn’t have to transmute, then Catalyst again to clear the board. Fate Paste should have prevented you from getting any defects up to this point (in my tests I didn’t get any until after this point if I wasn’t paying attention and forgot the next step), but your defect bar should be about half full. Use a Defect Reversal Catalyst now. Depending on how lucky your first round of boons was, you should have Damage and Durability at least at 4. Add 2 Effect, 1 Fate, 1 Protection (note the change in Paste order), then Boon until your buffs are gone or you reach 8 Damage. Catalyst to clear the board, then 2 Longevity Gum, 1 Fate, 1 Protection, and then Boon until Durability is where you want it. Depending on how much vigour you’ve had to use transmuting boons and how good your rolls have been, you might have the vigour and stability to use another Catalyst to clear the board, then reapply 2 Longevity and your Pastes, but you might have to skip the Protection. This will just come down to knowledge of the mechanics and whether or not you can afford the Protection Paste stability cost to eek out that extra round. You should reach 8 on Durability before you run out of stability (in my tests, most of my forges ended with 8 durability, a few with less and a few with more).
If you understand the forge mechanics, you should be able to adjust this method for RNG. I spent 3.5 hours on my last stream tinkering with this strategy, and almost all of my forges ended with 1600 durability, level 8 damage and 3x3 AoE. A few ended with 1400, and some even with 1800 and 2000 durability. RNG gonna RNG, but you can fairly reliably get 1600 durability. The only time I got a defect was when I forgot to use Defect Reversal Catalyst after the 2nd stage of pumping compound. And depending on how good your rolls are you might have to use it a 2nd time if you’re getting up there in rounds. I also have a deck that replaces Corrupted Boon, Defect Reversal, and Protection Paste with Draining Boon Compound 1, Quirk Transmute Solvent, and Deconstruction Resin, but I tend to top out with 1400 durability and end up with at least 1 quirk with that deck. The quirks can be nice if you get the right ones, and mostly negligible if you get even semi-lucky, so if you’re aiming for quirks I can make another egregiously long post for that strategy. You can also watch my most recent VoD on my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/invrtdstarfish) if this written form is too confusing. But this deck should get you some high quality AoE tools with even just decent RNG. Hope this helps someone trying to craft their first top-tier hammer 
13 Likes
I am wasting vigor like crazy with this.
Where is your vigour going? The limiting factor on almost all of my forges is stability. Unless I get that one session of terrible RNG and have to spend a bunch of Transmutes, vigour is never an issue.
Not sure. I am doing everything step by step. I ended my last one with 3x3 damage 9 but 3 dur. 50 Vig left over but 600 stability.
1 Like
Be careful early on with how your trading stability protection for vigor. Definitely something i need to keep an eye on or it’s gets away from me
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That’s odd. When I forge almost every time I’m limited by my stability. It’s only if Transmute doesn’t give me the boons I want that I struggle with vigour. Are you using Vigour Catalyst 2 or 1? And sometimes if RNG isn’t on your side and Transmute keeps giving you unwanted boons, you just gotta cut your losses and switch gears and go for just AoE and damage or just damage and durability or just AoE and durability. All three of those combinations have their uses or will sell if that’s what you’re doing. Trying to get forges with 3 different boon categories with multiple boons per category are some of the more complicated forge processes.
I think that is whats happening. Transmute. Mostly on the aoe. Keep getting no special skills for a few turns. Maybe I should add one more gum at that point next time?
I am using Vigour Catalyst 2. I have no idea what is going on. I just finished with damage 7. 50 vigor. 700 stability left.
Gj dude! Thx for this. Really 
I don’t know man. In my stream that I linked I do it over and over again, and almost all of my hammers turn out level 8 damage, 1600 durability, and 3x3, and it’s the stability that keeps me from continuing, because I could almost always Catalyst to get more vigour, but my stability is under 100 so there would be no point. Not trying to shamelessly plug my stream lol, but maybe watch it, especially towards the end when I’ve pretty much solidified the procedure, to get an idea of where you might be losing your vigour. My initial idea is it’s in the Transmute. Usually you have to use 1 or 2 in the first rounds, because you’ll get say Hard Hitter first and then have to Transmute to hopefully Damage or Durability. And then if your second boon is Hard Hitter again, you’ll have to use another Transmute. If at any point you get unlucky and have to roll more Transmutes because it gives you some random boon that’s neither Damage nor Durability, you’re already working at a vigour deficit for the rest of your forge. But even in those instances, you can still usually pull off level 8 damage and 3x3, you’ll just have less durability. Are you using Defect Reversal Catalyst more than once? Because those are 200 vigour each. And in my tests, I only use one per forge, maybe 2 if my rolls weren’t so great and I’m getting into higher rounds. You could also try using Deconstruction Resin 3 in place of Protection Paste 2 since vigour seems to be where you’re coming up short. I have a pretty reliable strategy using Deconstruction Resin as well if you’d like me to share it. I use less Transmutes with that deck usually, but with the above strategy I’ve had many more reliably better forges.
Anyone use boon compound 1s? I rarely use vigour catalyst since the update. Invigoration paste and boon 1 will give you 50 vigour back each time the points bar doesn’t land favourably and you don’t waste boon 3 on under 200 points.
Also if you apply an invigoration before your gums won’t cost anything and apply a stabilisation paste as well and you can gain the stability cost of the initial 2 pastes back while applying gums.
Just thought I’d share, haven’t seen anyone mention it
I always start my forges with a stab2 paste; it’s cheap and you score stability while adding gums yup.
Depending on the rest of my deck i sneak some vigour paste in aswell, but generally only on my non-catalytic forges 
Ps shhhhh you’re ruining the secrets of forging! /s
1 Like
So I realized what the problem is, and I’ve edited the post to reflect it. I used Corrupted Boon Compound 1 NOT 2. So sorry for the mistake. That’s where all your vigour is going 
I only realized the problem when I was forging on live and accidentally made Compound 2 instead of 1 and was forging with it and was in the same boat, like “Where the H is all my vigour going?? And why am I all of a sudden having such a problem with defect points??” Again, sorry for the mistake, but use Corrupted Boon Compound 1 and not 2 and all your woes should disapper!
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What about using Defect removal compound 2 instead of defect removal catalyst? less vigour and remove 400defect point instead of 50% of defect point.
That would work as well, however, instead of using 200 vigour, it uses 100 vigour and 100-110 stability. Since stability is usually the limiting factor in how far you can push your forges, in my opinion using the extra 100 vigour is worth saving the stability. It also removes just as many boon points as well, which isn’t that big of a deal, but another factor to consider.