ForgeTax Forging Guide: Survive Tribute Payments With a Hold Relic Build

1. Learn the Contract and Check Your Tribute Target

Your first priority in ForgeTax is meeting the demanded tribute without destroying every sword available to you. This guide follows the opening and later forging decisions shown by Zueljin Plays, including a Hold-focused relic setup. The footage does not show a completed contract, so treat this as a practical survival guide rather than a guaranteed winning route.

The opening tutorial establishes a 21-day contract, with freedom promised after honoring it through May 5. It also warns that the third insufficient tribute exhausts the collector’s patience. The merchant visits every three days, making the calendar important for planning purchases.

Before forging or exchanging anything:

1. Check the current tribute requirement.
2. Count your available swords, including anything stored on the rack.
3. Identify which swords you can spare for relics.
4. Check whether the merchant is available before risking your remaining supply.

The first displayed tribute target is 1,800 gold, followed by 2,100 gold. Requirements rise later, so a sword that comfortably covers an early payment may only contribute part of a later one.

You can combine multiple swords to meet a tribute. You do not need to force one weapon to reach the entire target. Once the offered swords cover the requirement, ring the bell to submit them.

2. Heat a Sword, Forge Carefully, and Understand Frenzy

Start with the basic sequence:

1. Pick up a sword.
2. Heat it in the furnace.
3. Move the heated sword to the anvil.
4. Click to strike it.
5. Recheck its value and displayed break chance before continuing.

Each hammer strike draws an outcome from the available tickets. More tickets for an outcome make that result more likely. The footage shows Success, Great, Hold, and Damage results, alongside the changing risk of breaking the sword.

Do not judge a weapon only by its current value. A valuable sword can also have an uncomfortable break chance, while another sword may survive several strikes with very little displayed risk.

Build toward Frenzy without assuming you will reach it

The tutorial explains that 10 strikes on the same sword prepare Frenzy, which begins on the following strike. While Frenzy lasts, that sword cannot break. The creator clicks rapidly during this protected period to gain additional upgrades.

The dangerous part is reaching it. Early attempts break at displayed chances around 5.9%, and another later attempt fails at 4%. Low risk is not the same as safety.

In the opening successful gamble, the creator pushes through a displayed 33% break chance shortly before reaching Frenzy, then submits a sword worth roughly 20,000 gold. That demonstrates the upside, not a safe opening requirement.

Use this decision rule: if losing the sword would leave you unable to cover tribute, consider taking its current value instead of chasing Frenzy. After Frenzy ends, reassess the risk rather than assuming the weapon remains protected.

3. Store Backup Swords and Calculate Payments Before Gambling

The rack lets you preserve useful swords while testing another weapon. This is the central survival habit demonstrated throughout the run: stop forging a worthwhile sword, store it, and see what the rest of your supply produces.

For example, the creator stores an 1,800-gold sword while facing a 2,100-gold tribute. That leaves only 300 gold to find elsewhere, avoiding the need to keep risking the stored weapon.

Use the following sequence whenever you have a promising sword:

1. Compare its value with the tribute requirement.
2. Stop if its break chance is more than you want to risk.
3. Place it on the rack.
4. Forge another sword and total their values.
5. Resume work on a stored sword only if the combined value still falls short.

The video gives a useful arithmetic warning:

Two apparently useful swords still leave a gap. Check the total before deciding you are safe.

Later, the creator preserves a sword worth about 42,000 gold rather than spending it immediately on a 5,700-gold requirement, using other weapons for payment instead. The same principle applies at smaller values: reserve a large sword when cheaper combinations can satisfy the current demand.

Avoid exchanging swords too aggressively once your backup is gone. After consuming a reserve to cover tribute, the creator explicitly reassesses how much inventory can safely go toward relics.

4. Build Hold Synergy Without Spending Every Sword

Relics cost swords rather than simply using your gold balance. The tutorial states that every sword has equal exchange value, so use an unwanted weapon instead of sacrificing a valuable tribute reserve.

Some relics cost one sword; others shown cost two. You can equip eight relics. Once those slots are full, look at an owned relic and press X to discard it before taking a replacement.

The run gradually develops a Hold-focused setup using these displayed effects:

The creator identifies the banked-level relic as Sealed Heart and pays two swords for it.

Build the combination in stages:

1. Add Hold tickets and the banked-level effect when you can afford them.
2. Take the post-Hold break-risk reduction when offered.
3. Add the 180-gold Hold bonus.
4. Add the three Great tickets after Damage or Hold.
5. Replace less useful effects only when the new relic supports your current plan.

Another purchased relic makes the next supplied swords start at +2 after completed tribute. The creator retains it while replacing other effects because it improves the incoming supply.

The video later tests an effect that converts two Hold tickets into Success tickets. Despite a later verbal mix-up about Great tickets, the earlier reading identifies Success as the destination. This changes the ticket balance rather than simply adding more Hold synergy.

The build does not eliminate break risk. Even after assembling the combination, the creator loses swords and stops other attempts at displayed risks around 21–26%.

5. Buy Supplies, Use Consumables, and Protect Valuable Attempts

Gold earned through tribute remains available for merchant purchases. The merchant offers additional swords, special sword options, and consumables.

Check prices before buying broadly. During one visit, the creator purchases heavily and then realizes the spending has nearly exhausted the available money. Later prices are also higher, so do not assume an earlier purchase cost still applies.

Use reversal before leaving the anvil

The footage shows Q as the consumable-use input. Regret Clockwork is especially useful when a valuable attempt breaks near a potential payoff, but its restriction matters: use it before leaving the anvil.

After reversing a bad strike, you still need to decide whether another attempt is justified. Later in the run, the creator chooses to keep the recovered sword rather than continue gambling and potentially waste the rescue.

Save consumables for meaningful losses when possible. Early low-value breaks are allowed to stand rather than automatically consuming a reversal.

The run also shows progression rewards without demonstrating a final victory:

These rewards are separate from surviving the contract. The footage ends with another sword, worth about 6,000 gold, being stored rather than risked further.

6. FAQ

How many strikes does it take to activate Frenzy?

Build up 10 strikes on one sword; Frenzy begins on the next strike. The sword cannot break while Frenzy lasts, but you must survive the approach to that protected period.

Can several swords cover one tribute payment?

Yes. Add their values together and compare the total with the demand before ringing the bell. Storing finished swords lets you assemble a payment without repeatedly risking one valuable weapon.

Can Regret Clockwork recover a broken sword?

Yes. Its stated effect reverses the last strike even if that strike broke the weapon, provided you use it before leaving the anvil. It is a consumable, so recovering the sword does not make continued forging risk-free.