Learn how to craft and use the Forge
After your first blood moon in 7 Days to Die, it should be clear that scrap metal and wood just aren’t going to cut it when it comes to protecting yourself and your stuff from zombies. If you want to refine metal and craft your own advanced equipment, you will need a Forge. The Forge utilizes a combination of focused heat and various tools to allow the smelting and reforming of metal, stone, glass, and other materials into refined components, such as Forged Iron and new shapes.
This guide will walk you through how to craft and use a Forge and offer advice on maintaining it.
How to craft a Forge in 7 Days to Die
A Forge is vital for advancing to new technological tiers and producing the refined metals you need to craft better gear. Before you can craft a Forge, however, you’ll need to reach level 5 in the Workstations crafting skill and source the following materials:
- 50 Cobblestone Rocks
- 1 Wood Log
- 10 Leather
- 3 Duct Tape
- 3 Short Iron Pipes
Cobblestone Rocks can be salvaged from construction yards or crafted in inventory by combining Small Stones and Clay Soil. Wood Logs are building blocks that can be crafted from Wood in the inventory. Leather can be obtained by breaking down leather couches and chairs or skinning animal carcasses. Duct Tape may be looted from household or tool containers or crafted by combining Glue and cloth scraps. Short Iron Pipes can be salvaged from structures like pipe fixtures and rusted vehicles or created in a Forge.
The Workstation crafting skill can only be improved by finding and reading issues of the Forge Ahead skill book. The Advanced Engineering perk can increase your chances of finding this book.
How to use a Forge
With your Forge built, it’s time to get to work. The Forge utilizes its own unique interaction screen with a few different windows. Here’s how to use each of those functions respectively:
Fuel
Like several other workstations, the Forge requires fuel to smelt and forge materials. There are three available fuel slots, and each can hold up to a full stack of one kind of item, burning items in the leftmost slot first. To fuel your Forge, load flammable materials such as wood or Coal into it, but remember that fuel can only be added or removed when the Forge isn’t burning. Once fueled, the Forge can be toggled on or off with the button below the fuel window. This window also displays the remaining time the Forge will burn based on the amount of fuel inserted.
Smelting
The smelting window has two empty slots and a list of materials with associated numbers next to them. Smelting items will melt them down and add their raw material to the Forge’s stock, which is displayed by the numbers. To smelt an item, load it into one of the two empty slots and turn on the Forge. Different items will take different amounts of time to smelt and produce different raw materials. Base materials such as Iron, Lead, Brass, junk, components, armor, weapons, and mods can all be smelted down to recover more materials than simply scrapping them.
Forging
To Forge an item, select its recipe from the list at the far left. With the recipe selected, the required materials in the Forge’s stock will be highlighted, changing the number to either red or green. A green number indicates sufficient stock material to forge with, while a red number indicates a deficiency. Note that the Forge can only create items using smelted stock materials. Press the labeled button when you are ready to craft, and the Forge will begin the work independently, turning on if it isn’t already.
Upgrades for the Forge
There are three upgrade items available for the Forge that both increase its production speed and allow for the creation of new recipes. These upgrades can be found, purchased, or crafted, and each confers different bonuses to your Forge. Additionally, these upgrades change the look of your Forge visually, which is a nice touch.
Anvil
The anvil is a staple of blacksmithing and a tool that every Forge should have. An anvil serves as a sturdy, stable counterforce for hammer blows, increasing the speed at which your Forge creates new items by 50%.
Anvils can only be crafted at a Forge by players with at least level 25 in the Workstation crafting skill. Additionally, an anvil requires the following materials:
- 1250 Iron
- 125 Clay
Advanced Bellows
Advanced bellows blow air onto the Forge coals and help keep them hot, thereby increasing the Forge’s smelting speed by 50%.
Crafting a set of advanced bellows requires level 20 in the Workstation crafting skill and the following components:
- 6 Wood
- 20 Leather
- 2 Short Iron Pipes
- 5 Duct Tape
- 5 Nails
Crucible
A crucible is a cast-iron pot where metal can be melted and poured into a mold. While this device doesn’t add any bonuses to your Forge, it is required for the production of Forged Steel.
Crucibles require a whopping 75 levels in the Workstation crafting skill and are formed from these materials:
- 100 Forged Iron
- 20 Mechanical Parts
- 1200 Small Stones
- 20 Oil
- 900 Clay Soil
Tips and tricks for using Forges
- Though many materials may be burned to fuel a Forge, coal is the most efficient.
- Forges will continue to burn until their fuel runs out or they are turned off, so be sure to extinguish your Forge when not in use.
- Forge flames can draw zombies the same way Campfires and open flames, so try to keep them away from windows.
- Forges do not require the player to be present to function and can forge and smelt items while you do something else.
Final thoughts on Forges in 7 Days to Die
The Fun Pimps have spent many updates fine-tuning the balance of the Forge, as it is an integral part of player progression. It may seem like a way to make stronger metal at first, but you may be surprised at the variety of items you can produce with the right recipes and materials.
Looking for some other tips to help you get started in 7 Days to Die? Check out our 10 Tips for Getting Started and the 7 Days to Die Beginner’s Guide.
