New Relics and the Funerary Sword — Forging & Performance Update

Hello, smiths!
Thank you for playing ForgeTax and sharing your feedback. This update adds new challenges and rewards, while making items and relic bonuses easier to use and notice at the forge.

New sword, relics, and achievements

• Added the Funerary Sword to the ghost merchant, with evolving appearances from +0 to +20 to collect in the codex.
• Added 8 achievement-unlocked relics, rewarding sword breaks, Frenzy, surplus tribute, merchant purchases, and contract milestones.
• The new relics are the Undertaker's Ledger, Butterfingers, Undying Wick, Royal Change, Dragon's Pardon, Wandering Ghost's Ledger, Sickle and Hammer, and Lifetime Contract.
• Unlocked relics join the item pool. Lifetime Contract can appear in later runs too, starting from round 9.
• Added 7 Steam achievements, bringing the total to 19. All achievement names and descriptions are now available in the game's 9 supported languages.

Consumables, simplified

• The anvil now offers five usable items: Cracked Dragon Scale, Regret Clockwork, Red Chalk, Powder Pouch, and Cold Star Shard. Their controls have been arranged in one row.
• Ghost Delivery Note immediately reserves 2 extra basic swords for the next supply when purchased. Incense of Oblivion immediately lowers dragon anger by one stage, once per run.
• Red Chalk now doubles Great tickets for the next strike.
• Cracked Dragon Scales are sold one at a time, at a lower price than the previous two-scale bundle.
• Removed Forging Oil, Muffled Candle, Emergency Steel Core, Contract Revision Ink, and Echo Powder from sale.

Existing progress and unlocks are preserved. Unused removed items in older saves are refunded at their former base prices, and stored delivery notes become next-supply bonuses. Effects already activated remain until their remaining use or duration ends.

Clearer feedback and presentation

• Improved notifications and sound feedback for new codex appearances, relic unlocks, and conditional relic bonuses.
• Added anvil hints for leaving the sword with right-click or taking it with E.
• Made the tutorial skip hint visible in the upper-right on repeat runs, and improved the Frenzy-charge demonstration and contract explanation. The first run still includes the tutorial.
• Improved lighting and impact feedback during the dragon's second warning and third tail sequence. After a missed tribute, the dragon throws your replacement swords more aggressively.
• Adjusted broken-bar checks to use the sword body's actual thickness, excluding visual effects from size checks.
• Refined small swords on the merchant display, scrap models, item materials, and action-specific sound effects.
• Fixed the contract end date on the clear screen and unlock notifications being obscured by the ending.

Performance and languages

Optimized repeated visual and interface work during forging and Frenzy, and debris processing during the tail sequence. We also revised some image and build compression. We will continue investigating remaining frame-time spikes across different PCs.

Added Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Traditional Chinese, for 9 supported languages in total. Store descriptions are available in the new languages, and the AI disclosure now includes AI-assisted translation and localization.

For players who opted into anonymous play records, performance records now better distinguish forging, Frenzy, and sword-break issues. Participation remains optional and can be disabled in settings.

Please share bugs or balance feedback in the comments or our bug-report thread. If your report needs a save or log file, you can email [email protected]. The sword, relics, round, and steps leading to the issue are especially helpful.

Thank you!
— GraveYard DEV