Heavy blows, all forged

HAMMERFALL, HOME RUN, EARTHSPLITTER: a warhammer in hand, a war club and a greatsword in the sockets, all three FORGED.

Triad awakenings

Now and then the awakening draft deals a TRIAD: one MYTHIC card that wakes three cards from three schools into one. GALLOWS STORM, one of three, sets off DEATHMARK and ARC as one, and every mark the cut passes on rides the bolt to five more. It comes as a gift: the wave's own draft still follows.

Fire and stone, all forged

FLAME WAVE, COMET FALL, STONE HAIL: a flamberge in hand, a flail and a sling in the sockets, all three FORGED.

Rings of steel, all forged

REAPING CIRCLE, PIKE RING, RICOCHET RING: a scythe in hand, a halberd and a chakram in the sockets, all three FORGED.

Crescents, all forged

HARVEST MOON, CRESCENT MOON, DUNE CUT: a sickle in hand, a bardiche and a khopesh in the sockets, all three FORGED.

Storm

LIVE WIRE and TETHER from the bar, a NOOSE drawn with the blade, JOLT, STORMROD and ARC from the awakenings, and the crossbow's BOLT STORM at FORGED.

What resets, what stays

The game keeps three ledgers, and each one turns over at its own pace.

Each run starts fresh. The awakening draft deals a new hand: three cards to choose from each time, up to ninety-nine in a run. The two weapon sockets start empty, and every weapon in them climbs from LV 1 again. When the crystal breaks, the hand is gone, but nothing you picked up is lost: the bank keeps every shard, gear goes to your bag, and the experience is already yours. Even a run that broke early leaves you stronger.

Each melt starts the forge over. Between runs the forge spends your banked shards on seven rows and on the sword's tier, from Chipped Iron up to Godsteel. When the climb slows, melt the sword. Its tier goes back to one, the forge rows and the bank empty, and the melt pays embers: the deeper you reached and the higher the sword stood, the more. Embers buy relics, rank by rank, and right after each melt every ember you spent comes back free, to spend again another way.

Everything else is yours for good. No melt takes:

• your level, up to 3000, and every skill point it paid
  
• your skill tree: nine player skills on 28 nodes
  
• your signs, five shapes drawn with the blade
  
• your level cards, one kept from every tenth level, sixty in all
  
• your relics, 39 in all, and every rank you bought
  
• your gear: sixteen slots, seven rarities, eighteen uniques
  
• every weapon you have won, thirty-nine beside the sword
  
• every theme you have opened, thirteen in all
  
• your achievements, 46 in all, and the bonus each one pays

So a melt is never a loss. It trades a sword for relics that never leave, and the climb after it is faster than the one before. Every run adds to the third ledger, and the third ledger never shrinks.