Crafting in Free Realms has an overall system that’s pretty familiar to the average MMO gamer, but with some slightly unusual methods.

Going through the steps to make a weapon in Free Realms involves two different jobs and a few mini-games.

The first job you’ll need (unless you want to buy the materials) is the Miner which will allow you to gather the ores and smelt them into use-able bars for a Blacksmith. Finding some mine-able ore is easy as they are scattered throughout the world; once you find a node it will launch a mini-game:

Harvesting Ore

This game works a bit like the harvesting mini-game. You match the different colored rocks to break them apart and try to force the ore and gems (in this case copper and turquoise) to the bottom of the grid. Once they reach the bottom they will fall into their respective mining cart.

Whenever you gather any materials, or refine anything, it will show up in your inventory. There’s several different filters to go through but the one that displays what materials you currently have looks like this:

Materials

You’ll need to keep track of how many crafting materials you have, just like most MMOs.

After gathering the ore you then need to refine it. This can be done at a forge. Note: you will need to purchase the appropriate coal to use in refining, like the Singing Coal below, from a supplier — there is usually one nearby.

Smelting

The smelting process is another mini-game that is similar to cooking:

Bashing Ore

You start the process off by hammering the ore, breaking off the excess rock and flattening the metals. The gauge near the hammer displays the strength that the hammer will hit with — you want this to be full so you’ll get the most out of each swing, unless you are trying to finish as fast as possible.

Pouring...

Next you have to pour what seems to be the crushed ore from one container into another. This is done by holding down the left mouse button and pushing it forward — the farther you push the faster it will pour. You want to stop on the yellow line exactly. (I’m sure that was pretty self-explanatory)

Heating up...

Next is to heat up the forge. Holding down the mouse button again you simply drag the mouse left and right as fast as you can — it does seem like keeping a fairly even rhythm helps.

Pouring... again

Last is pouring the molten metal into bar molds. This is done like the other pouring step, only you have to really control the speed that you use. Pouring too fast or too slow will cause you to spill which will reduce the number of bars you end up with.

After all that’s done you’ll have some shiny new crafting materials in your inventory and you’ll be ready to start making things as a Blacksmith. Thankfully, there’s just one mini-game to play to craft items — but you’ll also need to purchase some materials from a supplier to make them.

Smithing

This mini-game is very similar to the mining one. You need to get the ores/rocks out of the way and let the hammers fall down; the hammers will begin filling up the mold at the bottom. This game is timed so you will need to work a bit fast or fail. After you finish you’ll have created a new item.

Crafting in Free Realms has quite a few steps involved and a decent time investment. I haven’t gotten far in it since I’ve been doing other jobs, as such I can’t really say if the items higher up are worth crafting or not. But, the system is certainly different and fairly enjoyable. I do really like the smelting stage, like the cooking one, since it is more involved and kind of ‘mimics’ the real process. I wish the smithing was a bit more involved; I wouldn’t mind hammering out a shiny new weapon on an anvil.