Your first visit to the Forge
Why the Forge comes before your first run and how to complete your first two branches without wasting Mithril.
Why the Forge comes first
No run starts —solo or co-op— until one character has 2 completed branches in the Mithril Forge. The menu's locked buttons explain it when you hover them or select them with the gamepad (“Mithril Forge pending”). The only thing you can play before that is the Tutorial.
It isn't a wall: the full game gives you 550 Mithril the first time you launch it, and the cheapest pair of branches of any race costs less than that.
What completing a branch means
Each race has several branches —one per weapon set; for the Mage, one per element— and each branch is a tree of nodes that starts at its root and splits into forks. A branch is complete when you have bought and confirmed one of its final nodes: the tip of a fork, a node with no children. Pending purchases don't count: until you press Confirm, there is no completed branch.
The cheapest route per race
These are the cheapest pairs, computed from the real cost of every node (the root is free and every node requires all its prerequisites):
| Race | Branch 1 | Branch 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human | Sword & Shield · 235 | Greatsword · 295 | 530 |
| Dwarf | Axe · 205 | Crossbow · 205 | 410 |
| Elf | Daggers · 205 | Bow · 205 | 410 |
| Mage | Fire Branch · 205 | Ice Branch · 205 | 410 |
The cheapest isn't necessarily the best: look at which fork each branch unlocks, because that is what you will use in the run. For the Mage, each branch is a staff of a different element.
Free resets and a locked exit
While you learn, mistakes are cheap: a reset —of one branch or of the whole tree— is free as long as, afterwards, no character is left with 2 completed branches. Otherwise it costs the usual (35 for the branch and 50 for the tree), and the Mithril you spent comes back.
If a reset leaves you with no complete character during the visit, the Forge won't let you leave until you complete one again: Close is locked and tells you why.
In the full game, while you have no complete character, you can only buy in the unfinished branches of the race you already started: the game pushes you to finish what you begin.
Afterwards: races and Global Upgrades
With a complete character, in the full game you can play any race (in the demo and the beta, only the complete ones). At that same moment the 20 Global Upgrades, which apply to every race, can be bought. From here on, the Mithril you earn in each run goes wherever you want.
Guide checked against game v0.9.16.