Hammer Valley is an idle game where you can watch everyone work. The smith is the main actor: he digs, carries, strikes and sells, with you or without you. Behind him comes a crew, hired one at a time, each of whom takes one job off his hands and walks it for real on the map's roads. This chapter covers what the smith does himself, what his gear changes, and who you can hire on each map.
The smith on his own
Stop touching the controls for two seconds and the smith carries on by himself. He buys the first buildings on the map when he can afford them, then whatever the current objective asks for, and in between he does the next useful job: digging when the furnace needs raw, fetching fuel, carrying a hot bloom to the anvil, striking it, and taking the finished work to the buyer. In the valley he also walks to a fault and clears it if no hired hand covers it. Any key, tap or joystick move takes control back at once.
He leaves the skilled work to you. On Ironbridge, for example, he waits for the safe yellow heat and never chases the white flash, so master pieces only come from your own timing.
Your own hammer
In the valley, a lump of ore worked cold takes three strikes and sells as $2 of scrap. A hot bloom from the furnace takes five strikes and makes a piece worth $12. That gap is why the furnace is the first thing you build.
- Crits. Your own strikes crit 8% of the time, plus 4% for a Smithy roof (tier 2) and another 4% for the hearth (tier 4). Every crit adds 35% to the value of the piece on the anvil. During a hot run the chance jumps to 40%.
- Chains. Strikes less than about a second apart build a chain. The game calls out 10, 25 and 50.
- The tilt hammer. From Smithy tier 6 the wheel strikes on its own while you stand at the anvil. Tap on the blow and it counts as a crit.
- Faults. When a building stops (a clinker, a slipped rope, a jammed chute, a hung furnace, a boat on the mud), walk to it and act, or let the hand whose job it is go and fix it.
The gear shop
Every map has a shop (Odo's shop in the valley, Holloway's in Ironbridge, the Depot, the Chandlery, the Component Bay, the Stores) that sells the smith four pieces of gear. Gear is the one thing that travels with him from map to map.
| Gear | Each grade gives | Valley price |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer | Timing windows 4% more forgiving, and +1.5% crit chance | $71 |
| Boots | Walks 5% faster | $35 |
| Gloves | Hand work 6% quicker | $47 |
| Apron | Stands the heat and goes longer between meals | $59 |
Each map sells one more grade. The valley sells grade 1 (Iron-shod), Ironbridge grade 2 (Guild), then Mill, Dockyard, Carbon, Vacuum and finally Colony on Ares. A grade you skip is still for sale later, but at the later map's prices. Prices follow the map: the hammer is $706 in Ironbridge, $5,645 in Steelhaven and $42,336 in Port Sable.
When the smith is working by himself and has made his first sale, he walks to the shop and buys the cheapest piece he can once his cash reaches ten times its price. If you want gear sooner, buy it yourself. In the valley the apron and boots also change colour as they grade up.
Hiring the crew
Hands sign on at the crew building: the Hands' Home in the valley, the Guild Hall in Ironbridge, the Control Tower, the Dock Bunkhouse, the Habitat Ring, the Crew Habitat and the Colony Habitat. Each tier of that building makes room for one more hand, in a fixed order. When someone can be hired the building wears a gold badge, and the map's helper will remind you.
| Map | Who signs on, and at which tier of the crew building |
|---|---|
| Hammer Valley | Digger (1), Stoker (2), Striker (3), Carter (4), Foreman (5) |
| Ironbridge | Tam the Stoker (2), Bess the Wharfinger (3), Ned the Carter (4), Gideon the Night Watch (5), Abel the Hammerman (7) |
| Steelhaven | Dunc the Keeper (2), Mo the Loco Driver (3), Fitz the Crane Driver (4), Ruth the Night Foreman (5), Big Ans the Chief Roller (7) |
| Port Sable | Agnes the Melter (2), Teo the Crane Driver (3), Sal the Rigger (4), Ivo the Shift Boss (5), Captain Ruiz the Pilot (7) |
| Silicon Reach | Imre the Process Engineer (2), Nadia the Fleet Tech (3), Tomasz the QA Lead (4), Dr Achebe the Site Director (5), Marguerite the Launch Liaison (7) |
| Selene Station | Excavator Operator (1), Sinter Tech (2), Forge Operator (3), Driver Chief (4), Flight Director (5) |
| Ares Colony | Driller (1), Synth Operator (2), Forge Operator (3), Loadmaster (4), Flight Director (5) |
In the valley the Digger costs $40, the Stoker $70, the Striker $160, the Carter $300 and the Foreman $600. Each role costs the same multiple on later maps: ten times in Ironbridge, eighty times in Steelhaven, and so on. On Selene and Ares the crew are woken rather than hired, and the first bunk or dome comes free with the first order.
What the hands do
- The raw hand (Digger, Wharfinger, Loco Driver, Crane Driver, Excavator Operator, Driller) wins raw material and gets it to the furnace. Once a chute, bucket chain, tramway or belt is built, they load it instead of walking.
- The fuel hand (Stoker, Keeper, Melter, and their later equivalents) keeps the furnace fed and clears its faults.
- The striker works the forge. In the valley he is slower than you and never crits, but strike beside him and he puts his blows in the gaps between yours. In Ironbridge and Steelhaven he only signs on at tier 7, to run the small second forge in the hall, and his work never counts as proved or stamped. On the later maps that slot goes to someone else entirely: a harbour pilot, a QA lead, a forge operator.
- The carrier (Carter, Ned, Fitz, Sal the Rigger, the Driver Chief, the Loadmaster) takes finished work to the buyer. Once this hand is hired, the map pays without you.
- The night hand (Foreman, Night Watch, Shift Boss, Site Director, Flight Director) runs the map while you are away and spends the takings on up to four of the cheapest tiers when you return.
Hands are faster with every tier of the crew building (8% a tier) and of the logistics line (6% a tier). In the valley, bread from the bakery in the Home's larder makes them 15% faster while it lasts, and a bigger Home holds more loaves.
The smith's day
From Ironbridge on, the smith keeps hours. After a few minutes of work he needs a meal (a chop and a pint at the Chop House in Ironbridge) and in the dead of night he goes to bed. He does this by himself when left alone. The apron stretches the time between meals.
Crew tips
- Every hire frees the smith. Each job a hand takes is one the smith stops splitting his time across, so he spends more of it at the forge, where crits and master pieces come from.
- The carrier is the turning point. Until the carrier is hired, the smith's own walks to the buyer are part of every sale.
- Buy boots early on big maps. Port Sable, Silicon Reach and Mars are wide, and 5% a grade on every walk adds up.
- Raise the hammer before a master order. A wider timing window is the difference between a proved piece and a master one.