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 minigame, you’ll need to play through a short quest. Let’s take a look!
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 intermediate 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
Show details
- 15 Smithing
Giants' Foundry Minigame
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 minigame 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 in this minigame 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
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 20 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.
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:
- Decrease the initial temperature using the waterfall until the preform is cool enough to try the trip hammer.
- Cool the preform again to just below the yellow temperature range, then work it with the grindstone.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the sword is almost complete.
- Cool the preform to the green temperature zone, then use the polishing wheel to finish the job!
- 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 minigame 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. There’s also potential for profit.
After testing, we reckon that players can make between 10 and 20 swords per hour. Easier metals such as Bronze and Iron obviously require less effort, so players will be able to make more, whereas swords made with Adamantite or Runite will take longer but offer a greater reward.
We’ve also crunched the numbers for other skilling methods:
| Method | XP Per Hour (Estimate) | Resources Used Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Gold at Blast Furnace - no Goldsmith Gauntlets | ~150,000 | 6,000 Gold Ores |
| Gold at Blast Furnace - with Goldsmith Gauntlets | ~375,000 | 6,000 Gold Ores |
| Creating 5 Bar Mithril items | ~190,000 - 210,000 | 4,000 Mithril Bars |
| Creating 5 Bar Adamant items | ~240,000 - 260,000 | 4,000 Adamantite Bars |
| Creating 5 Bar Rune items | ~290,000 - 310,000 | 4,000 Runite Bars |
Please note that these are rough estimations.
As you can see, current methods are resource-intensive. One of the key benefits of Giants’ Foundry is that you’ll use fewer materials per hour, giving you more XP per Bar. We estimate you’ll save at least 85% on resources compared to the methods listed above.
That’s a dramatic drop! We also believe that the XP given is well worth the interaction and click-intensity of the activities you’ll be doing in the Foundry.
Of course, XP gained is also dependent on how good you are at crafting swords – but overall, we think this will give more XP per resource than any other Smithing method in the game.
Rewards
Apart from the massive XP gains, completing commissions will also gain you Foundry Reputation, which you can use to purchase goodies from Kovac’s Reward Shop. Here’s what he’s got in stock!
Ore Packs
Ore Packs are a great way to purchase a variety of ores in one go, so you can get yourself ready for your next trip to the Giants’ Foundry.
Moulds
We thought it would be interesting if you could buy tools to help you improve your sword-smithing process within the minigame itself.
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 Smithing level you’ll need, so you can 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 (excluding the Blast 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!
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…
Hill Giant Club Ornament Kit
It wouldn’t be fair for you to craft all these swords without taking one home for yourself! This Kit takes Obor’s weapon – the Hill Giant Club – to new heights with a Giants’ Foundry-themed giant sword skin.
Giants’ Helmet
One of the more unique rewards we’re offering is the Giants’ Helmet, which fits remarkably well considering it’s made for a giant’s head. It’s a completely cosmetic item and won’t give you any extra protection – although it sure looks like it does!
Well, that's all for the Giants’ Foundry – although we would like you to check out our new and improved feedback system. Click on the button below and you’ll be whisked away to a survey where you can tell us your thoughts. Your feedback is super-important to us, so give us all the opinions you got!
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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