Runic Forging¶

At the Runic Anvil a piece of equipment is reworked with alloys and glyphs. Every action spends the item's potential and azurite dust. Without a main glyph an action forges the item anew; alloys steer which properties it gets, glyphs change the item or the rules of the action. Alloys are smelted from special ores.

The anvil¶

The Runic Anvil is built with the hammer near a workbench. Its stages open slots for alloys and glyphs (Runic Anvil: 1, Iron Vise: 2, Silver Matrix: 3); Runic Vise adds one of your own, up to 4 in all.

Its stock keeps alloys, glyphs, azurite dust and divine dust, one slot each with no limit: Ctrl+click moves one between the stock and the slots. Several players can use one anvil at once and see each other's choices.

Potential¶

Potential: every piece of equipment that can have a rarity has 100, whatever its rarity; an item that never had potential written on it counts as full. Unique items, jewels, runes and items of fixed rarity have none. The item must be identified and not corrupted. Nothing restores spent potential.

Cost of an action¶

Every action at the anvil costs 15 potential plus the potential of each alloy and glyph in it, and 30 Azurite Dust plus each one's dust; valuable and very valuable glyphs also take Divine Azurite Dust. Dust comes from the anvil's stock first and the rest from your bag; alloys and glyphs come from the stock.

A critical craft costs half the potential, rounded up. Its chance is 5%, plus the runic crafting nodes of the craft tree, which also reduce the cost.

With the Glyph of Delay, 30% of actions spend no potential at all; the critical craft is rolled only when that fails. Dust and the alloys and glyphs are spent either way.

An action needs its whole cost still left on the item. With Last Touch any potential left is enough, and the item ends at zero. At zero, runic crafting is closed; the item keeps working.

Forging¶

An action without a main glyph forges the item: every prefix and suffix is replaced and the item becomes rare (rarity) with 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. A sealed property stays. The properties that fit the item must be enough for a full forging. Alloys work only here.

How alloys weight the roll¶

Each alloy favours the properties of its theme. For the item on the anvil the game takes the share s of the forge pool's weight those properties hold, and multiplies their weight so that they come to about 35% of the rolls:

A property in the themes of several alloys adds their multipliers: 1 + (×₁ − 1) + (×₂ − 1)…, so at least ×9 with two alloys and ×13 with three (×5 each).

Glyph of the Depths: properties of weight 300 or less, the rare ones, are ×3 as likely, on top of the alloys.

An alloy with no property for this item cannot be used: the anvil says so and nothing is spent. The Forge button's tooltip shows each alloy's share before and after.

Glyph rules¶

One main glyph per action replaces forging with its own change. Support glyphs change how an action rolls or what it costs:

Glyph	Kind	Works with	Effect
Glyph of Brokkr	Main	instead of forging	+1 permanent quality; existing properties are kept
Glyph of Three Knots	Support	forging	Forging gives 4 properties instead of 6, one fewer on each side; the best available tier is twice as likely
Glyph of the Norns	Support	forging, Glyph of Tempering, Glyph of the Last Heat	Property values are rolled twice within their tier, the better roll is kept
Glyph of the Depths	Support	forging	Rare properties are three times as likely
Glyph of Echo	Support	any action	35% chance to keep each other alloy and glyph of the action; this glyph is always spent
Glyph of the Void	Main	instead of forging	25% chance to add a phantom socket beyond the item's socket limit
Glyph of Memory	Support	forging	Forging keeps one random existing property
Unbinding Glyph of Prefixes	Main	instead of forging	Removes one random prefix
Unbinding Glyph of Suffixes	Main	instead of forging	Removes one random suffix
Glyph of Cleansing	Main	instead of forging	Removes all prefixes and suffixes; everything else on the item is kept
Sifting Glyph	Main	instead of forging	Removes one property of the weakest tier
Glyph of Tempering	Main	instead of forging	One random property rises one tier
Glyph of the Last Heat	Main	instead of forging	50%: every property rises one tier. Otherwise all remaining potential burns out
Glyph of Delay	Support	any action	30% chance not to spend the action's potential
Glyph of Ascension	Main	instead of forging	+5 item level, up to the supported limit
Reinforcing Glyph	Main	instead of forging	Maximum durability ×1.25, again with every use; wear is kept as a share

• Glyph of Echo: each other alloy and glyph of the action is kept at 35%; the Echo itself is always spent. It needs another alloy or glyph.
• Glyph of the Void: 25% chance of a phantom socket; the cost is paid either way. The item must be able to have sockets.
• Glyph of the Last Heat: 50% chance that every property that can rise a tier does; otherwise all the item's remaining potential burns away.
• Glyph of Ascension: +5 item level, up to 246, the Deep North's level.
• Reinforcing Glyph: maximum durability ×1.25 with each use (counted up to 40 uses); the item keeps its share of durability.
• Glyph of Three Knots: forging gives 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes; the best tier the item can reach is ×2 as likely.
• Glyph of Memory: forging keeps one random property of the item.
• Sifting Glyph: removes a property of the weakest tier, a random one among equals.
• A sealed property is never removed or changed; the Glyph of Cleansing is refused on an item that has one.

What is refused¶

The anvil checks an action before anything is paid. When one of these applies, the action is refused with its reason and nothing is spent:

• Only one main glyph per action
• Each alloy and glyph can be used once per action
• Not enough open slots on this anvil
• Alloys only change forging; remove them or the main glyph
• … has no properties to favour on this item
• This glyph only works with forging
• The Glyph of the Norns needs an action that rolls property values
• The Glyph of Echo needs another alloy or glyph to keep
• The Glyph of Memory needs a property to keep
• This item has no potential left
• Not enough potential: … needed, … left
• Unique items cannot be crafted with runes
• This item cannot be crafted with runes
• This item cannot become rare
• Not enough properties fit this item for a full forging
• This item cannot have sockets
• No property can rise a tier at this item level
• The item is already at the highest item level
• This item has no durability
• A sealed property cannot be removed

Phantom socket¶

The Glyph of the Void may open a phantom socket beyond the item's usual limit of sockets. It takes what an ordinary socket takes and stays through punches, reforging and repairs.

On the craft tree¶

The Runecarver's nodes and masteries for runic crafting:

	Name	Type	Effect
	Rare affixes	Craft notable	10% increased rune-crafted affix rarity
	Rare affixes	Craft node ×3	4% increased rune-crafted affix rarity
	Higher affix tiers	Craft notable	10% increased rune-crafted affix tier
	Higher affix tiers	Craft node ×3	4% increased rune-crafted affix tier
	Runic forging	Craft node ×3	+2% chance for a runic action to cost half the potential 2% reduced potential cost of runic actions
	Runic forging	Craft notable	+5% chance for a runic action to cost half the potential 5% reduced potential cost of runic actions
	Ascendant Rune	Craft mastery option	+10% chance that a property added by a rune rises one tier When a rune adds or raises a property, it has a chance to rise one tier more as a separate step, beyond the item's level limit. You see a second flash, hear a chime and read "+1 affix tier".
	Perfect Inscription	Craft mastery option	+10% chance that a property rolled by a rune takes the highest value of its tier A property rolled by a rune (Fate included) has a chance to take the highest value of its tier.
	Last Touch	Craft mastery option	Runic crafting can overspend an item's potential while any potential remains; the rest drops to zero.
	Runic Vise	Craft mastery option	+1 capacity when crafting with runes One more alloy or glyph slot at the Runic Anvil, on top of the anvil's own slots.

Data from Path of Valheiman 6.0.6, extracted 2026-11-09.