The Adventurers Equipment and Crafting

Gear in The Adventurers is a town loop with a durability clock. You buy, craft, smelt, enchant, and then watch items wear in hex combat until they break. This page stays on shops, timers, weapon families, and armor Energy cost. How those weapons behave in a hex is the combat guide. Who you send to maintain gear at camp is party management.

1.0 also finished a long icon pass — 500+ icon updates — so the paper doll you see after 31 August 2026 is not the placeholder art from mid Early Access. The stats on the item are still the part that keeps people alive.

Blacksmith: craft, smelt, rush

Every town blacksmith is a queue, not a magic chest.

• Crafting weapons and armor takes 2 hours if you wait.
• Smelting takes 1 hour.
• Rush finishes the job instantly for +5 gold.

Five gold is cheap when a contract timer is burning and your only slash weapon is at one hit from breaking. Five gold is a leak if you rush every iron dagger because you dislike watching a clock. Plan the queue before you leave for a Search job. If you will be on the road for a day, start the craft, walk, and pick it up on return instead of paying rush out of habit.

Forts also have a blacksmith. Use it when you are living on requests instead of commuting to Prycoast. Fort requests themselves got faster and richer in 1.0 (duration -50 percent, minimum two days, rewards +30 percent); the hammer in the yard is how you actually spend that pay on steel.

Smelt junk you will not wear. Inventory space is a company problem. Trade goods stack to 9. That cap is why you sell or smelt instead of collecting infinite pelts. General goods is the other counter: buy supplies, dump stacks, and do not treat it as a blacksmith.

Enchanter, barbershop, and the rest of town

The enchanter is a separate building. Enchant after you own the piece you intend to keep. Putting gold into a weapon that is about to break is how companies stay poor. The enchanter does not replace Vitality or Resolve on the character sheet; it dresses an item you already decided was worth a slot.

General goods handles supplies and stacked trade goods. The barbershop is cosmetic. The tavern sells sleep and rumors, not plate. Keep those roles straight so you do not stand on the wrong stoop while a contract timer ticks.

Durability is visible for a reason. Items break. Maintain gear at camp between fights. A broken bow turns an Archer into a spectator. A broken shield turns a Paladin into someone who paid Strength for a two-hand they are not holding. Weapon break is a combat event; the fix is a town or camp event.

Weapon families and the off-hand

Match the item to the stat. The Adventurer Guide is blunt.

• Bows and daggers are pierce. They scale with Agility (+5 percent / -5 percent per point around 10).
• Swords, axes, and maces are slash or bash. They scale with Strength on the same +5 / -5 pattern.
• Staves scale with Resolve, which is also your Energy pool and magic damage.
• Halberds have range 2 on the default attack. Reach is the point; do not stand them in the same hex pattern as a dagger Thief and wonder why the extra tile exists.

A shield occupies the off-hand and exists for block. A two-handed weapon takes that slot away. Agility still feeds block and parry on the sheet, but 1.0 reduced Agility block 25 percent and parry 33 percent versus late Early Access, so a shield on a Strength Paladin is not obsolete. Dual-purpose fantasies (huge two-hand and full block) are not how the slots work.

Plate, chain, and Energy

Armor is not only a damage sponge. Plate and chain apply Energy penalties. Patch notes increased those penalties — 66 percent for plate, 50 percent for chain. Heavy steel on a Wizard, Druid, or Warlock is a statement about Resolve you may not be able to afford. Summons already spend the caster’s Energy and scale with caster Resolve; plate on top of that is how a summoner takes one action and stares.

Warriors and Paladins still want the protection. Budget Resolve so they can actually move after they dress up. Vitality keeps Health and Energy recovery; it does not cancel an armor Energy tax.

Shop prices are not a crafting skill. Charisma of the highest party member shifts buy prices by 2 percent per point around 10. The Merchant general ability is another 10 percent better buy and sell. Put the talker in the active company when you shop. Then take them off the counter and put them on a hex where their weapon stat matters.

If you are still on the demo, the blacksmith timers and stack cap are already the lesson. The full game adds more items and forts; it does not change the rush fee to a secret number. For 1.0 icon polish and item exposure in the mod tools, see updates.