A brand-new visual identity, a collectible card duel mode with 151 cards and six rivals, a living Blackjack table, tarot readings, a vertical window mode, a big performance pass and a brand-new Handbook. Free for everyone who owns the game.
The Forge Reborn
Anvil Life 2.0 is the biggest update since the game was rebuilt. The whole game got a new coat of dark iron and old gold, there is a completely new way to play in the **Duel Hall**, and the tavern got busier. As always, it is free — if you own Anvil Life, it is already yours.
⚔ NEW: The Duel Hall — a collectible card duel
Everything you have fought and everyone who walks beside you now lives in a card.
1. **151 cards** to collect: 60 creatures from every dungeon, 15 legendary bosses, 31 champions, 25 companions and 20 rune & potion spells.
2. **Earn them by playing.** Cards drop from your dungeon runs (Auto Dungeon too!), from duel victories, from every new hero and companion you unlock, and a golden legend awaits whoever clears all five tiers of a dungeon.
3. **Five lanes, one table.** Spend Ember, place creatures in lanes, and at the end of your turn they strike whatever stands in front of them — or go straight for the enemy hero. Walls hold, flyers soar over, venom lingers, frost stops a strike cold.
4. **A living battlefield.** Each duel lights one of four elemental pedestals — Fire, Ice, Nature or Void — and every card of that element hits 15% harder.
5. **Six rivals, one ladder.** Fenwyn the Thornmaiden teaches you the table; Ottomar the Winter Sage waits at the top. Beat them all and the ambitious rematches unlock.
6. **Auto Duel** for rivals you have already beaten — true to the idle heart of the game.
7. **No luck for sale.** Rarity means variety, not raw power. Every card follows the same power budget, so you win with your deck, not your wallet. Extra copies turn into Card Dust — craft the cards you are missing or upgrade your favourites.
8. Full **Collection** album and a **Deck Builder** with one-click "Build best deck".
✨ A whole new look
1. **Dark-fantasy forge identity:** forged iron frames, aged gold, ember light — every panel, button and window has been redressed.
2. **New title screen** with Sarah, the ruler of the realm, and a proper loading screen.
3. **Loot that shines:** rarity light beams where your drops land, a short (never blocking) moment for Legendary and Mythic finds, and a "Best Finds" showcase at the end of every run.
4. **Auto Dungeon is visible at a glance** — a live chip in the top bar shows round, gold, items and time.
5. New icon set for menus, resources and stats, readable forged scrollbars, and **two new colour themes**: Forge Iron and Venom (15 in total).
6. Return to the main menu any time from Settings.
🃏 The tavern grows
1. **Blackjack — now a full table.** Aurelia and Vesper from the poker room take the seats beside you. Aurelia plays it safe, Vesper plays it bold, they share the shoe and the dealer — and they never touch your gold. Classic rules: 6 decks, dealer stands on 17, blackjack pays 3:2, insurance, split, double and late surrender, plus a hint button that teaches perfect basic strategy.
2. **Tarot Reading** arrives on PC: draw three cards and bend your luck for a few minutes — drops, crits, upgrades and tavern payouts.
🖥 Play your way: vertical window mode
Anvil Life keeps fighting, looting and earning even when you are not watching — so now it can live at the edge of your screen.
1. **Settings → Window** is the very first thing you see in Settings: switch between **Wide** and **Vertical**.
2. **Vertical** is a tall, narrow window made to sit beside your work, a browser or a video. Start an Auto Dungeon, glance over whenever you like, and watch the loot pile up.
3. **Always on top**, with an optional one-click pin button in the top bar.
4. The game remembers your window size and position for each mode.
⚙ Smoother, sharper, clearer
1. **Big performance pass:** heavy visual effects were rebuilt from the ground up, so battles, windows and scrolling stay smooth — even on modest PCs and while you stream or record.
2. **Fighters in proportion:** your hero, the monsters and your companion now scale together at every window size, stand on the ground above the health bars, and bosses tower without ever leaving the arena. Every monster now faces you.
3. **A brand-new Handbook:** 24 chapters in all 12 languages, rewritten from scratch — from your first ten minutes to the anvil, the Auto Dungeon, the casino and the Duel Hall. Sarah's "Tell me something" draws from it too.
4. Dungeon names now show correctly in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew.
⚖ Balance & quality of life
1. **Levelling runs deeper:** every level now needs twice the experience, so the road to 100 lasts longer and every level-up means more. Gold, drops and difficulty are untouched.
2. **Auto-Equip:** one click puts your strongest gear on every slot.
3. 34 new interface sounds: equip, sell, lock, dust, bags, navigation and more.
4. Big wallets read cleanly: 123M instead of 123,456,789.
5. Sarah has 12 new expressions and new moments to share with you — including a very special one at level 100. Prefer a quieter forge? Settings → Sarah's notes: All / Important only / Off.
Your save is safe
Your progress carries over as it is — nothing is reset. Steam Cloud keeps working, and your card collection is stored in the same save.
Thank you
Every review and every post in the discussions shapes this game. If you enjoy the new Duel Hall, a review helps more than you might think. See you at the anvil.
— Emre