Forging
Anvilback permanently sharpens any piece you own: each forge level adds 10% of its base stats, both the raw power or defence and every elemental channel. Levels live with the piece and never transfer; gear cannot be stolen, so the investment is never at risk, only sunk. Humbler rarities take the most levels, so a loved early piece can stay honest deep into the climb.
| Rarity | Forge cap | Peak growth | Example piece | First forge | Total to peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | Lv 12 | +120% | Grain of Sand | 20g | 5,151g |
| Uncommon | Lv 10 | +100% | Coral Dagger | 78g | 8,840g |
| Rare | Lv 8 | +80% | Lobster Pincer | 627g | 30,885g |
| Epic | Lv 7 | +70% | Whaler’s Harpoon | 5,018g | 161,439g |
| Mythic | Lv 6 | +60% | Anglerfish Lantern | 40,141g | 834,181g |
| Legendary | Lv 5 | +50% | Leviathan Jaw | 321,126g | 4,234,849g |
The cost curve: the first level costs max(20, 28% of the piece’s price) and every further level costs 1.5x the last, so pushing a piece to its peak totals roughly 8 to 14 times its purchase price. Forging your current piece always competes with saving for the next tier; both are real choices.
Wear and repair
Every battle you start grinds one point of wear into your equipped weapon and armour, win or lose. Each point dulls the piece by 0% of its power, capping at 40 points, so a fully worn piece still fights at 90% strength; wear never locks you out. Worn gear shows a condition tag wherever its live stats appear: your sheet at the Cove, battle reports, rival profiles and the bench itself. The numbers you see are always the numbers the engine runs.
Repairing one piece costs max(wear, 0.08% of price x wear) gold and restores it to mint. Once every 7 days the Quenching Tide floods the forge and Anvilback repairs everything you own for free.
Rivals forge too
Every rival on Snapjaw’s board carries the forge levels a same-level player could actually have paid for, funded from the same earnings model that buys their gear and levels their magic, so a veteran’s weapon is honed the way yours would be. See Progression for the economy behind that.