OSRS Giants’ Foundry Strategy Guide

You unlock a lot of things after beating the Sleeping Giant's quest in OSRS. Aside from the awesome rewards at the end, as well as the great storytelling, you'll also be treated to unlocking the Giant's Foundry in the game. This special minigame is fun and rewarding but if you're unprepared, it can be quite hard to be successful at it.

What Is OSRS Giants' Foundry?

The Giants' Foundry is a minigame where you're tasked with helping Kovac create new weapons for other giants. You'll need to use the machinery within the foundry to complete this task.

To do the minigame, you must first acquire a commission from Kovac. Once that's done, you'll have to set the mold, fill the crucible, and pour the liquid metal you'll be given for the commission. The good news is that there's a bank chest nearby so getting materials isn't going to be hard.

The crucible will only accept metal bars or items that can be made through the Smithing skill. All items are valued at a minimum of 2 bars each. It's worth noting that items like the black/white equipment, dragon equipment, and trimmed armor sets are excluded as cannot be made through this skill.

Commissions tell what kind of weapon you're tasked with creating. These are indicated by two descriptive terms. For example, Kovac might request a sword described as "narrow" and "spiked". Once that's given, you'll then need to select a matching mold from Kovac's Mould Library. The closer matches you make for the mold, the higher the results of the swords during forging. It's important to note that the quality of the sword isn't influenced by the points gained here. In this minigame, the quality is determined by the chosen metal type.

Once the mold is prepared, head to the crucible. If you don't know what it looks like, it's a large stone vessel suspended above lava. This houses the molten metal bars for the forging process. The crucible can hold up to 28 standard metal bars which is the same as the amount required to craft a giant's sword. Metal weapons and armor can also be placed within the crucible. However, they're valued at one bar less than required to make them so it's not efficient to use it.

If you try to add items that exceed the crucible's capacity, you'll get a warning stating about how the metals will be destroyed. You can choose to empty the crucible if you make a mistake in placing items. However, all metals inside will be lost.

After filling the crucible, you can pour the molten metal into the mold. Keep in mind that, pouring into a mold isn't possible if another mold has already been poured and not yet submitted.

The complexity of forging the sword increases with the chosen metal tier, requiring stricter temperature regulation and more steps. Swords crafted from alloys, a combination of multiple metals, yield superior results. You can cancel commissions by speaking with Kovac.

Refinement

The refinement process entails shaping the raw preform into a giant's sword, and players have a variety of tools at their disposal:

1. Trip hammer: Used on a hot sword, this tool hammers out imperfections on the blade. Every 5th tick, the sword gains 2% progress and cools down by 2.5%.
2. Grindstone: Operated on swords at Medium Temperature, it smoothens the blade's edge. Every 2nd tick, the sword gains 1% progress and heats up by 1.5%.
3. Polishing wheel: Used on a Cold Temperature sword, it cleans and gives a shiny finish. Every 2nd tick, the sword gains 1% progress and cools down by 1.7%.
4. Lava pool: Dip the sword to heat it up. Right-click options include Heat-preform (slow heating) and Dunk-preform (fast heating).
5. Waterfall: Cool the sword down. Right-click options include Cool-preform (slow cooling) and Quench-preform (fast cooling).
6. Preform Storage: Stores the preform, maintaining its progress and heat level until picked up again. Players can leave and return to the Foundry anytime.

Using the correct tool at the right temperature increases the sword's completion to 100%. Each successful tool use awards a small amount of Smithing experience. An in-game HUD helps track which tool to use at which temperature range. Incorrect tool usage or using the right tool outside the correct temperature range damages the sword, reducing its quality. If quality reaches 0, players must hand it over to Kovac and start again.

Sweet Spot

Occasionally, a yellow/gold border appears around the refinement HUD, indicating a sweet spot window for around 6 seconds. Clicking the machine during this window changes the border to green, resulting in a significant progress gain (around 5%) on the next tick. Missing the sweet spot wastes it. It may appear once per section, but this isn't fixed.

Handing In The Weapon

If you manage to reach 100% completion without ruining the sword, you can hand it to Kovac. He'll reward you with a lump sum of Smithing experience, coins, and foundry reputation. Additionally, your run energy is restored by 50%. The higher the quality of the sword, the greater the rewards you receive. The gold reward is deposited directly into your bank, and you'll receive a chat message noting this, along with the total amount of swords you've produced thus far. If you're an Ultimate Ironman, you'll find the gold reward in your inventory.

You'll be shown the sword's final quality and the time taken to complete it, which begins the moment you are assigned a commission and ends with the hand-in. Note that using preform storage does not pause this time. Your current personal best (PB) result is also displayed. PB is determined by the highest quality achieved; time is only taken into account when a sword of equal quality is handed in, in which case a shorter time is better.

You may ask to be issued a new commission immediately, starting the entire gameplay loop (including the sword timer) anew.

How To Get To Giants' Foundry

• Use the Grouping teleport to reach the Giants' Foundry.
• Employ an amulet of glory teleport to swiftly arrive at the Al Kharid Palace.
• Utilize a ring of dueling teleportation to access the PvP Arena.
• Take a gnome glider flight to reach Kar-Hewo.
• Pass through the toll gate from Lumbridge for your journey.

Giants' Foundry Requirements

First off, you should finish the Sleeping Giants' quest before you can access this minigame. Other than that, make sure to prepare these items as well:

• Metal bars or any equipment that can be made using metal bars. This includes bronze to run armor and weapons. We highly suggest stocking up on these items first before doing the minigame.
• Bucket or Ice gloves. These will be used to pick up the molded weapons. The bucket can be acquired at the Giants' Foundry. Ice gloves are highly recommended if you are planning to do this for a long time.

Where To Get Metals For Giants' Foundry

Once you get the minigame mastered, the hardest part comes when you actually have to start earning the metals you'll need to use for the minigame. Here are a few tips on how you can get it.

1. Grand Exchange - The quickest and simplest method to acquire material for forging is through metal bars. These bars can be easily inserted in desired quantities without the need to calculate their worth, and they're readily available on the Grand Exchange with high buy limits.
2. Weapons And Armor From The GE - Acquiring smithable weapons and armor from the Grand Exchange can significantly boost profits in the Foundry. However, building up a decent stock of such items may require some time. It's important to note that many compatible items have a relatively low buy limit of 125, which could be depleted in just 2-3 hours of playing the Foundry, depending on the item. When used in the Foundry, these items will contribute an amount of bars that is one less than what is needed to smith them.
   For obtaining rune materials at a low cost, the cheapest method is to use rune platebodies. For adamant materials, you may find Aneirin's Armour shop in Prifddinas to be a suitable source of adamant and mithril armor, with platelegs and skirts providing the best value. While claws may seem like a cost-effective choice, they are impractical due to extremely low stocks, sometimes taking days to purchase.

3. Alternatively, you can get a stock of bars by smithing them into weapons or armor. You can then use these items in the Foundry. At a glance, it may seem like a cost-effectve method but if you want to gain experience, you're better off with other ways to get metal. Besides, you'll need a significantly high Smithing level for this.

Giants' Foundry Strategy Guide

Setting the temperature of the sword to the very edge of the acceptable range, whether during heating, cooling, or working the sword, isn't particularly useful. However, more experienced players may find the slight margin it provides comforting for various reasons. For those seeking tighter temperature control, the following strategies may be helpful:

1. Transitioning between tool extremes: Players can left-click the tool at the right time, immediately transitioning from fast adjustment to slow adjustment, and spending a few ticks refining the last bit of travel. Alternatively, more practiced players can right-click the tool and wait to click the fast adjustment option again. This resets the rate back to the base one, allowing for more precise control.
2. Passive cooling for fine-tuning: With the hammer and polish wheel, passive cooling can allow the temperature to be brought slightly higher than the required range, trickling down onto the very high end of the range just as the player arrives at the machine. This requires finesse, as neither the passive cooling nor the precise temperature can be easily controlled.
3. Monitoring temperature oscillations: Keep a close eye on the white outline around the temperature range, especially when on the edge of the temperature ranges while working a machine. If it disappears, try to disengage immediately to avoid damage.
4. Progress management: Completing a stage of progress within one round of cooling or heating is exceptionally difficult without sweet spots, particularly on longer swords. Sweet spots are unreliable and without bonuses from the Smiths' Uniform, may not complete certain actions in one go. It's usually not worth attempting to push the temperature to the very edge of a range to maximize a single adjustment, as the margins of completion are often too great to compensate for squeezing extra temperature range out of precise control.
5. Choosing less populated worlds: Consider playing in less populated worlds to avoid occasional tick stutters or delayed input responses, which may lead to unintended interactions with machines and potential damage.

While using your Foundry Reputation points to get more molds might seem optimal, it's much better to focus on getting the Smiths' Uniform pieces instead. In doing this, you're able to increase your chances of success in the minigame.

Hourly Rates

Below is the table detailing the average experience and gold rates for optimal alloys, considering average commission scores, optimal molds, optimal player performance, and without the Smith's Uniform. Keep in mind that Kovak will give you different commissions. This table also doesn't consider how you perform per request. Additionally, changes in Grand Exchange market prices will affect expenses and profits when you're opting to buy your metals.

How Is Sword Quality Calculated In Giants' Foundry?

One of the more baffling aspects of this activity is actually understanding the results of what you do. The quality of the sword you make will be the basis of the experience and coins you earn. Higher-quality swords are also harder to craft. 

The swords' quality is also determined by adding the metal score to the mold score. This ranges from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 199. 10 means using all bronze bars without a matching mold, while 199 is usually obtained using high value metals plus a good mold. Damaging the sword by using the wrong tool or incorrect temperature results in a loss of 10 quality points each time it occurs.

The most effective method to get more points involves crafting an alloy by combining multiple metal types in the crucible. For example, while a sword crafted entirely from rune has a base value of 60, one made of equal parts adamant and rune can actually have over double the base value, totaling 130. Adding bars to the crucible necessitates the same level as smelting that type of ore in a furnace. Temporary boosts can be employed to add higher-tier bars to the crucible.

Here's a look at the value of the metals.

If you're short on metals, you can also refine metal weapons and armor that you make by using your Smithing skill. Each piece of armor should require at least two bars of metal to create.

A higher metal score doesn't just mean higher sword quality, it can also mean that the sword is harder to create. This table shows how many sections you'll need to make depending on the weapon's metal score.

It's also worth noting that the size of the temperature bars that appear when doing the minigame will increase as the metal score increases. It scales linearly down to half of its full size once the metal score reaches 130 points. With that said, it's recommended to lower the metal score when you're still just practicing the minigame.

Now on to the mold score. This represents the combined bonuses for the two styles specified in your commission given by Kovak. The highest achievable score is 69 points and this is for a Light Flat commission using optimal molds. While using only default molds, the best possible score is 46 points for a Narrow Heavy commission. Other commissions are around the range of the high 50s to 60s in terms of their best possible scores. On the other hand, the lowest scoring commission is Broad Light. It comes with 24 points using default molds or 49 points with optimal molds.

It's important to note that the mold score does not affect the difficulty of crafting the sword, unlike the metal score. That said, whether you’re practicing or not, it’s best to use the best molds available to you at the time. This will allow you to unlock better molds as well. This table shows off the default molds in the Foundry.

As you progress through the minigame and get awarded more foundry reputation points, you can unlock more molds. To purchase all of the molds, you'll need a total of 5400 points. You're allowed to temporarily boost your level to purchase and use molds that you don't meet the level requirement for. However, if your level drops below the requirement before pouring the melted metal into the mold, you won't be able to use them. Once the metal is poured, you can continue working on the preform, even if your level drops below the requirement for the molds used in its creation.

Kovak will shake things up by giving you a variety of combinations for objectives within the minigame. Assuming you're aiming to get the highest sword quality possible, belowis a table of the best combinations that you can get.

Giants' Foundry Rewards

The rewards you can get on the minigame will be dependent on how much you're willing to spend. As you complete commissions, you can get Foundry Reputation. Aside from molds, you can use the points to get more rewards at the Reward Shop. Here's what you can buy.

Players mostly do this minigame for the colossal blade. It's a highly valuable item that those who prefer melee combat will love. When you're attacking targets of size 1x1, the Colossal Blade's stats are similar with the barrelchest anchor. The difference is that it has a slightly higher slash bonus compared to the anchor's crush bonus. What's even better is that has lower requirements than the barrelchest anchor, which demands 40 Strength, 50 Prayer, and 40 Ranged for completion of The Great Brain Robbery quest. This makes the colossal blade a great alternative for the anchor. Particularly when it comes builds with lower Prayer, such as the 15, 31, and 43 Prayer builds.

The Colossal Blade needs to be unlocked only once. If lost under any circumstance, it can be re-acquired from Perdu for 300,000 coins, provided you don't already possess another copy. In PvP encounters above level 20 Wilderness, the item will drop as 225,000 coins for the killer.

The colossal blade lacks a special attack which could be a deal breaker. However, it compensates with a passive effect that makes short work of larger monsters. Itt's passive effect enhances the wielder's maximum hit against larger enemies. This effect is calculated as MaxHit + [2 x min(MonsterSize, 5)], meaning the maximum hit is increased by double the monster's size value, but capped at 10. Here, MonsterSize represents the number of game squares on one side of the monster's occupied space. For instance, Sarachnis, a size 5x5 monster, has a MonsterSize of 5.

Aside from the colossal blade, you should focus on getting the Smiths' Uniform as well. The Smith's gloves give a chance of bonus progress with each machine tick, and when combined with the full set, this bonus is guaranteed. This effectively increases the experience gain by approximately 15%, depending on the sword's difficulty. Combining the Smith's gloves with ice gloves allows for seamless retrieval of the preform.

After handing in a blade, Kovac restores 50% of your run energy. Even without wearing the graceful outfit, it's highly unlikely that you'll deplete your energy, so the outfit isn't necessary. With 75 agility and without wearing graceful, you can wear approximately 15 kg of additional gear along with the preform. To offset the negligible weight of the preform and the Smith's Uniform, you can use weight-reducing items like the hood and cape, if desired.

Ready For The Giants' Foundry?

The Giants' Foundry can seem intimidating at first but in reality, it's not as complicated as others make it out to be. It's an excellent minigame that rewards you with very important items. With proper technique and a sound strategy, you'll be able to get all of the rewards from the shop in no time.