News

Your Feedback, Our Changes - May 11th

Your Feedback	Our Response
We carefully reviewed all of your feedback from the last iteration of this blog and we definitely missed a mark with the initial proposal for Giants' Foundry. After reviewing your feedback, here's a list of the changes we're making:	Experience: The XP rates for Giants' Foundry have been tripled across the board. The full experience table is below. Resources: We've increased the number of bars needed to create a sword from 20 to 28. Rewards: You'll now receive a monetary reward (GP) alongside Foundry Reputation for each completed commission. Colossal Blade: Now requires 60 Attack. We've also increased its stats and given it a special effect that increases its Max Hit for larger enemies.
The XP for Giants' Foundry is underwhelming, why would I do this method over any current one?	We want Giants' Foundry to be a worthwhile experience, not just in terms of how enjoyable the content is to play, but also in what you're receiving from spending your time at the Foundry. In doing so, we've re-evaluated its position within the current Smithing methods. While we feel the gameplay is plenty enjoyable, we missed a key issue - even though the number of bars used at the Giants' Foundry is significantly less than any other Smithing method, what you got in return wasn't worth the time you'd be putting in. This training method requires focus, and you risk losing your materials if you fail - so success should be more rewarding. That's why we've reviewed the XP rates and have decided to essentially triple the XP you'll get from each sword to make the experience of Giants' Foundry more worthwhile. We've added a new XP table to give you a breakdown of the rates in the Experience section of the post, so check it out down below! Please note, these are only expected values and are subject to change before and after the launch of Giants' Foundry. To balance these new rates, we've increased the number of Bars needed to craft a sword to 28. We're also offering you something extra in return for your completed commissions! After finishing a commission you'll get some GP based on how well you crafted your blade. Kovac's a resourceful Giant and feels like you should be rewarded for your efforts. The better the sword and the better the alloy, the higher the reward! As a heads up, we recommend grabbing yourselves some Ice Gloves before the content launches to make your time at The Foundry that much better. Otherwise you'll be relying on buckets of water!
Why would I use the Colossal Blade over anything else around that level?	Look how far we've come from a cosmetic ornament kit for the Hill Giant's Club! In the latest iteration, we're tweaking the stats of the Colossal Blade to make it really feel like a powerful, giant-sized weapon. It will now require 60 Attack to wield. In line with this, we've made the following stat changes: Slash Attack Bonus: 98 (previously 77) Strength Bonus: 100 (previously 80) Attack Speed: 6 (previously 7) We're also giving it a fitting special effect that scales in power depending on the size of your enemy. Here's the formula: (Max Hit + (2 x NPC Size)) This effect maxes out on NPCs which take up a 5x5 or larger area. Remember: the bigger they are, the harder they fall! We think this turns the Colossal Blade into an interesting niche weapon which could prove more useful than the Dragon Scimitar in certain situations - and it looks awesome, to boot!

Your Feedback, Our Changes - May 6th

Your Feedback	Our Response
The rewards seem underwhelming. I like the idea of Giants' Foundry, but the current rewards offer little incentive.	We hear you. As a result, some of the rewards have been tweaked, and some are entirely new! Let's take a look: The Smiths' Uniform This kit sees you don some ancient Dwarven-wear that Kovac has acquired... somehow (that's all a bit mysterious!) and can be purchased from the Reward Shop. It consists of Gloves, Boots, a Top and Bottoms, and offers two benefits! Each piece of the outfit will give you a 20% chance to reduce your Smithing Speed on an Anvil by 1 tick, adding up to 100% chance when wearing the full outfit (this would roughly equate to a 15-20% speed buff when anvil Smithing). Plus, you get a 20% chance for an extra bit of completion per outfit piece, with again a 100% chance when you have the full set equipped. You'll also have the ability to combine the Ice Gloves with the gloves from the uniform to give you the added benefit of the Ice Gloves within the Foundry. These can be removed as and when you choose. Colossal Blade (previously Hill Giant's Club Ornament Kit) We want to offer you a bit more than just a cosmetic upgrade. This standalone weapon, that you'll need 50 Attack to wield, gives you a mighty sword similar to the one you gave Kovac. Sitting just between the Rune 2h Sword and the Dragon 2h Sword in terms of stats, you'll be able to use this mighty blade to cut through all manner of foes. Ore Pack We've tweaked the ore packs so you'll mainly receive coal, with a slight chance of getting other ores to boot. Smithing Catalyst We feel the Smithing Catalyst is currently sitting in a good place, but after some discussion we want to give it a little extra. Catalysts can now be used at the Blast Furnace and give double the XP for any bar produced while using this item that requires coal (essentially all of the bars you'll be using within the Giants' Foundry). However, it won't cut the coal cost down any further than it already does. As an additional extra, we are going to allow you to deposit Catalysts at the Blast Furnace Bank so you can use lots of them in one run.
I get the concept of the project, but the real question is what will the experience per hour be?	Since the original announcement, we've continued to refine the gameplay of Giants' Foundry. One of the changes is that that heating and cooling the blade is now quicker, allowing for more swords to be made per hour than originally designed. This means that you'll be earning between 75k-85k per hour at the very highest tier (roughly 13 swords with optimal setup and moulds for the equivalent level). We've added a graph in the Experience section below with further details.Please note: these experience ranges are subject to change.
Are you taking any measures to ensure ores and bars as a resource are not devalued?	The Giants' Foundry isn't designed to devalue any item used inside The Foundry - it instead adds value. Using bars here will give you the most experience per bar out of any content in the game, and those extra pieces of metal equipment now have a further use beyond high alching away for money. Alongside the rewards that Giants' Foundry gives, especially the Smith's Uniform, this all ultimately means more 'bar' for your buck.
Giants' Foundry does nothing to address the actual usefulness or application of Smithing as a skill within the game. Why not rework Smithing instead?	We understand that Smithing (and Mining for that matter) aren't the most fun skills to train. That's why we wanted to give you this alternative method. An entire Smithing rework would take years, and certainly a lot more time than what was allocated to this project. It's not something we are opposed to doing in principle, but we would need the proper scope in order to do it right.
Why hasn't Mining been addressed with this update? That skill needs as much love as Smithing as it's repetitive and boring.	We agree, and we'd love to have more content to fill that space too, but this didn't feel like the right piece of content for the job. It would have disconnected The Giants' Foundry even further from the rest of the economy.

After months of secrecy, it’s finally time to give you the full details of the Giants’ Foundry – an all-new Smithing skilling method built by the giants of Gielinor and operated by YOU!

To access the Giants' Foundry, you’ll need to play through a short quest. Let’s take a look!

Will you be on top (pre)form in the Giants' Foundry?

Sleeping Giants Quest

The saying goes ‘Let sleeping giants lie’, but in this quest, you’ll do exactly the opposite!

Giants have existed in Old School RuneScape for years, but how much do we really know about them? Sleeping Giants is a new novice quest designed to reveal more about this mysterious race.

In it, you’ll help Kovac, a giant who’s discovered an ancient workshop built to his proportions! Delve into the giants’ murky past, rebuild their Foundry, and start smithing swords for giants all across Gielinor!

Quest Requirements (SPOILERS)

• 15 Smithing

Quest Rewards (SPOILERS)

• Access to the Giants' Foundry
• 6,000 Smithing Experience
• 1 Quest Point

Giants' Foundry

A look inside the Giants' Foundry.

After completing Sleeping Giants you’ll have all the know-how you need to start Smithing in the Giants’ Foundry.

This is a non-instanced and non-combat safe area accessible to all Old School RuneScape members.

The Foundry began with a simple question – how can we make Smithing more interesting and engaging? We wanted a process that was more exciting than just taking a bar to an anvil and hammering away for a couple of seconds. Thus, the Giants’ Foundry requires you to use all your skill and perseverance to forge swords of giant proportions!

Working on a commission given by Kovac, you’ll have to find the perfect sword design, choose the metal according to your chosen difficulty, and work the preform with a variety of tools to get the perfect killing edge.

But be careful - each resource used within the Foundry has the potential to offer more value per bar but if you're not paying close attention, you could lose both the resource and experience!

Gameplay

If you'd like to see a more visual representation of Giants' Foundry gameplay, check out this segment from last week's Q&A with Mod Oasis:

Please note that Giants' Foundry is still in active development.

Setup

Before you can start working on a sword, you’ll need to pick up a commission from Kovac, set the mould, fill the crucible, and pour the liquid metal you’ve chosen.

Commissions define what kind of blade you’ll be making using two descriptive words. For example, you might receive a commission from a giant who wants a sword that’s ‘narrow’ and ‘spiked’.

You’ll need to keep that description in mind when you choose a mould. Look through Kovac’s Mould Library for the best match. The closer the match you find, the higher quality your sword will be when you start forging – so choose wisely!

Note that the points you gain here won’t affect how difficult it is to make the sword – that’s all determined by the type of metal you choose.

A look at the Mould Library interface.

Speaking of which, once you’ve selected and set your mould you’ll need to move on to the crucible – the big stone bucket chained above the river of lava. The crucible heats and liquefies the metal you put into it. It’ll accept Bronze, Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant or Rune Bars, or any metal item you want to recycle. You heard that right! Finally, a way to get rid of those unwanted Platebodies and Battleaxes!

Note that when recycling items, you won’t get back all the Bars it took to craft them – some material is always lost in the creation process!

A Giant’s Sword required 28 Bars worth of material, which is conveniently the exact same amount the crucible can hold. It’s like we did it on purpose!

Once you’ve filled the crucible you can pour the molten metal into your mould. The higher the tier of metal you’ve chosen, the longer the sword will take to shape, and the more precise the temperature range will have to be.

Kovac also believes that swords made of an alloy – a mixture of two or more different metals – will be better. That’s something to keep in mind!

Now, it’s time to cool off as we begin to work the blade!

Refinement

The refinement process lets you shape the raw preform you just created into a blade fit for a mighty giant!

You’ll have a variety of tools at your disposal:

• Trip Hammer: Requiring a Hot, Hot, Hot sword, this tool is used to hammer out the imperfections on the blade.
• Grindstone: Swords must be at a Medium Temperature to allow this tool to grind out the edge of the sword and make it smooth.
• Polishing Wheel: Get that sword to a Cold Temperature to use this tool, which cleans up the blade and gives it a lovely shiny finish.
• Lava Pool - Dip your sword into the lava and heat it up, ensuring it’s hot enough to use particular tools.
• Waterfall - Use the crashing waves of the waterfall too cool your sword down in order to use certain tools.

Use the right tool at the right time, and you’ll increase the sword’s completion to 100%. You can track which tool to use at which heat range using the in-game HUD.

An example of the Refinement HUD.

Using tools changes the temperature of the preform, which will also naturally cool down over time. Using the incorrect tool, or using the right tool outside the correct temperature range, will result in a lower-quality sword. If the quality of the sword reaches 0, you’ll have to hand it over to Kovac and try again. Be warned that quality can only ever be lost – you can’t get it back again!

If you manage to reach 100% completion without ruining the sword, you can hand it in to Kovac, who’ll reward you with some juicy XP and some Foundry Reputation. The higher the quality, the more rewards you’ll get!

Here’s an example of the refinement process:

1. Decrease the initial temperature using the waterfall until the preform is cool enough to try the trip hammer.
2. Cool the preform again to just below the yellow temperature range, then work it with the grindstone.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the sword is almost complete.
4. Cool the preform to the green temperature zone, then use the polishing wheel to finish the job!
5. Hand the finished sword to Kovac to complete the commission.

Experience

So, what does the experience rate look like? Where does it fit into the existing Smithing metas?

Here’s where we think Giants’ Foundry sits in comparison to other skilling methods:

• Blast Furnace: This content is click-intensive and accordingly rewards you with more XP and greater profit, especially when using the most optimal setups.
• Cannonballs: One of the more AFK styles of training Smithing, which results in good profit but little XP.
• Giants' Foundry: Our newest Smithing method will be moderately click-intensive and a more interactive experience than other methods. With a greater focus on XP, this content will be especially accessible to lower-level players. Resources spent here will be far less than anywhere else.

After testing, we reckon that players can make between 10 and 20 swords per hour with each sword taking 28 bars to create.

Easier metals such as Bronze and Iron obviously require less effort, so players will be able to make the higher end, whereas swords made with Adamantite or Runite will take longer but offer a greater reward.

Alloy Tier	Swords Per Hour	Average XP Per Sword	Average XP Per Hour	Average GP/XP	Profitable
Lowest	20	~2,400	~48,000	0.2	No
Low	17	~5,000	~85,000	-0.3	Yes
Medium	15	~9,000	~135,000	-0.2	Yes
High	13	~15,000	~195,000	0.5	No
Highest	12	~23,000	~276,000	6.6	No

These values are subject to change before and after release.

We’ve also crunched the numbers for other skilling methods:

Method	XP Per Hour (Estimate)	Average GP/XP	Profitable
Gold at Blast Furnace - no Goldsmith Gauntlets	~150,000	8.7	No
Gold at Blast Furnace - with Goldsmith Gauntlets	~375,000	3.5	No
Steel at Blast Furnace - with Coal Bag	~90,000	-12.3	Yes
Creating 5 Bar Mithril items	~190,000 - 210,000	3.7	No
Creating 5 Bar Adamant items	~240,000 - 260,000	1.3	No
Creating 3 Bar Rune items	~290,000 - 310,000	-0.8	Yes

Please note that these are rough estimations.

So at the very top end, you'll be earning approximately 276,000 per hour at the very highest tier (roughly 12 swords with optimal setup and moulds for the equivalent level). Please note that these current experience ranges are subject to change.

Other skilling methods offer little in terms of a gameplay experience so although this won't be the most optimal method for Smithing, we feel the activity itself presents a better Smithing experience overall for the player - particularly for training the skill earlier (levels 30-70).

Also, as you can see, current methods are resource intensive. A benefit of Giants’ Foundry is that you’ll use fewer materials per hour, giving you more XP per bar. With everything, we believe this is going to be the most fulfilling Smithing experience yet.

Rewards

Apart from the massive XP gains, completing commissions will also gain you some GP depending on the quality of the blade and the metals used in its creation, along with some Foundry Reputation, which you can use to purchase goodies from Kovac’s Reward Shop. Here’s what he’s got in stock!

The Smiths' Uniform

This kit sees you don some ancient Dwarven-wear that Kovac has acquired... somehow (that's all a bit mysterious!) and can be purchased from the Reward Shop. It consists of Gloves, Boots, a Top and Bottoms, and offers two benefits!

• Each piece of the outfit will give you a 20% chance to reduce your Smithing Speed on an Anvil by 1 tick, adding up to 100% chance when wearing the full outfit (this would roughly equate to a 15-20% speed buff when anvil Smithing).
• Plus, you get a 20% chance for an extra bit of completion per outfit piece, with again a 100% chance when you have the full set equipped.

You'll also have the ability to combine the Ice Gloves with the gloves from the uniform to give you the added benefit of the Ice Gloves within the Foundry. These can be removed as and when you choose.

Concept art for the Smiths' Outfit.

Ore Pack

Ore Packs are a great way to purchase lots of coal in one go, making it easier to prepare for your next trip to the Giants’ Foundry. You will have a small chance to obtain other ores from these packs too, but the focus is mainly coal.

Moulds

We thought it would be interesting if you could buy tools to help you improve your sword-smithing process within the Foundry.

These extra moulds will help with all kinds of commissions and give you a leg up on quality before you even start Smithing. The better the mould, the higher the Smithing level you’ll need to train and gain all in one location.

Eight-Cannonball Mould

With Leagues III you got an eight-sided cannon, so it’s only fitting that you now get an Eight-Cannonball Mould! This mould lets you use two Steel Bars to smith eight Cannonballs at once, doubling your production speed!

Smithing Catalyst

Using this unstackable item when creating Bars at a furnace will not only halve the amount of Coal required but will also double the XP given! However, the Catalyst will be consumed when the Bar is made, so you’ll need plenty of them to go around!

Catalysts can also be used at the Blast Furnace and also give double the XP for any bar produced while using this item that requires coal (essentially all of the bars you'll be using within the Giants' Foundry). However, it won't cut the coal cost down any further than it already does. As an additional extra, we are going to allow you to deposit Catalysts at the Blast Furnace Bank so you can use lots of them in one run.

Kovac's Grog

A brew made by Kovac himself! This (supposedly) tasty Grog will give you a temporary Smithing boost of +4. Just don’t tell health and safety…

Colossal Blade (previously Hill Giant's Club Ornament Kit)

We want to offer you a bit more than just a cosmetic upgrade. This standalone weapon, that you'll need 60 Attack to wield, gives you a mighty sword similar to the one you gave Kovac.

Stats for the Colossal Blade.

Alongside this, we're giving it a special effect that fits the theme of the Blade. Depending on the size of the enemy you're fighting, it will now increase your Max Hit according to the size of the NPC:

(Max Hit + (2 x NPC Size))

The NPC Size will be capped at 5 (NPCs that take up a 5x5 area and above), meaning that you'll be dealing the most damage against bigger enemies. We feel like this weapon now fits a good niche comparatively to the Dragon Scimmy and could prove more useful in certain situations, whilst looking great to boot. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!

A look at the Colossal Blade.

You can also discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.

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