GridHammer 2.0 is here — and we're out of Early Access!

Thank you to every forge master who played, reported, and argued about combo chains during Early Access. Version 2.0 is our full release: a rebuilt rulebook, 41 Steam achievements, eight global leaderboards, a stone-forged new look, and a
long list of online fixes.

The Anvil Codex — A New Lexicon

The in-game guide has been rebuilt from the anvil up into an illustrated, eight-chapter codex:

• Foundations — the board, Forge Essence, plates, combos and your rival, with an annotated plate anatomy
• Plate Values — side values, house symbols, durability, shattering, tiers and each house's strong and weak side
• Rivalry — the five-house combo ring; hover a house to trace what it chains into, select it to study its full roster and hear its battle theme
• Battle Flow — every step of a turn, from the deal to the end-of-battle checks
• The Hammer — a brand-new chapter on steam, arming, and when to swing your SLAM
• Victory — the drain table and the three ways a battle ends
• Lexicon — a glossary of every term, each linking to its chapter
• Examples — worked clashes using real plates: captures, ties, triple flips, combo cascades, shatters and SLAMs

The Hammer — Master the SLAM

Every capture builds steam in your hammer's tube: one pip per capture, one more when it shatters. Fill all eight and your SLAM arms. Spend your turn to strike every plate on the board for one life — yours included — and drain your rival 1
Forge Essence for every one of their plates that breaks. It captures nothing. It can end a battle outright.

• The steam tube now fills the full height of the board, and its SLAM key no longer covers the top pip
• Guest SLAMs in online matches now land correctly on both players' boards
• A SLAM can no longer stall if the game window is minimized mid-strike
• You can no longer place a plate while a SLAM is resolving

Achievements — 41 to Earn

All 41 Steam achievements are live, from First Spark to Legend of the Forge: win streaks, seven-link combo chains, SLAMs that break five plates at once, flawless victories, comebacks from 15 Forge Essence down, and online
milestones. Milestone achievements count your existing progress — anything you have already earned unlocks after your next battle. The main menu now shows your unlocked total.

• Comeback achievements can now be earned by both players in online matches
• A rival forfeiting no longer awards Clutch Artist or the comeback achievements

Leaderboards — Eight Global Boards

Compete for the top spot in Plates Shattered (vs AI and Online), Win Streak (vs AI and Online), Biggest Combo, Biggest Slam, Hammer Master and Forge Points.

• Your records now sync to every board each time you launch — progress made offline is never lost
• Boards only show real results — no more zero-score entries
• The leaderboard screen now clears boards that have been reset instead of showing old scores
• Forge Points has been recalculated. It now counts your lifetime plates shattered, and a bug that inflated it has been fixed, so every player starts fresh from this update

A New Look for the Forge

• The battle tablet — names, Forge Essence gauges, plate openings and the phase indicator — is now carved stone to match the Codex
• Your plates wear a shimmering ring; your rival's plates are dimmed, so ownership reads at a glance
• The turn clock lives in the phase indicator, larger and color-coded as time runs low
• The top row of the board no longer sits under the tablet
• Hover any plate on the board to light up what its house chains into — and what chains into it
• The launch splash no longer stretches the logo across the screen

Placement — The Rule Everyone Misses

After the first plate, every plate must touch one already on the board — above, below, left or right. The game now makes that clear:

• Aiming at an illegal slot flashes it red and explains why, with every legal slot outlined in green
• The tutorial teaches the rule the moment your first plate lands
• The rule is covered in the How to Play screen, the in-battle rules and the Anvil Codex
• If your turn timer runs out, your plate is now always placed in a legal slot

Online Multiplayer

• Rebuilt online synchronization: moves resolve in strict order, and both boards are verified to match after every turn — any mismatch repairs itself automatically
• Your rival's name and earned title now always appear in the tablet
• The host now enforces the placement rule on every move

Fixes

• Fixed an error that appeared every time a plate was placed
• Clicking out of the game no longer freezes the turn timer — the pause menu now opens correctly
• Numerous tutorial and rules text corrections

See you at the anvil.