Forge It Anew: sword shards, repairs and tempering

Start from your current inventory

Compare weapon damage and effects at the same item level. The weapon catalogue includes all five reconstruction stages and links back to the relevant repair or tempering step.

Obtain the starting sword

The starting weapon comes from A Monk and a Saint, beneath Svartrau Cathedral. Its completion reward includes Broken Sword of St. Mihai. A player who starts by collecting shards still needs this part of the quest.

The Journal provides several cathedral leads, so use your current objective rather than assuming every investigation must be completed:

1. Follow the Albertus lead if it is active. He is in the Middens, the abandoned district of Svartrau. Follow the writings on the walls; if your objective changes to finding a way to communicate with him, finish that step before following his cathedral lead. The walkthrough’s Albertus section starts at 53:50.
2. Find out where the crypt is and recognize Mihai’s symbol. The cathedral Journal points to the treasury, frescoes, broken stained glass and library as sources of information. These are investigation leads, not four sword fragments.
3. For the library route, obtain access and read the chronicle. The deacon offers access in exchange for finding Radu, the caretaker. Once inside, use the library index to locate the chronicle and the pulpit to browse the Annals. The relevant entry places the crypt beneath Mihai’s memorial stone in the side courtyard by the cloisters.
4. Find the memorial stone bearing his symbol and enter the crypt. Explore it and complete the encounter with Saint Mihai. Follow any remaining sword-pickup objective, and check Inventory for the broken sword before leaving.
5. Search Mihai’s cell with Focus Mode. His notes point toward an uriashi smith in the mountains. Read the Journal’s new objectives before setting off for the shards.

If the cathedral is closed to the public, its Journal provides a separate objective to get inside at night. Follow the route your current quest state offers. A closed daytime entrance does not establish that the entire sword quest is unavailable.

Communicate with Albertus

During the writing conversation, pick up the charcoal and complete the history he is trying to recall. Choose these entries in order:

1. [pick up a piece of charcoal]
2. [write: 'Abelard the Sorrowful.']
3. [write: 'Svartrau plaza.']
4. [write: '...his penance, the place of his redemption.']
5. [write '...never once set foot inside it.']
6. [write: 'St. Mihai, a great warrior, arrived at Vale Sangora...']

He then explains that the silver sword was interred in the crypt beneath Svartrau Cathedral. Asking directly about the sword in the middle of the writing exercise does not replace completing his account.

Open the library and identify the memorial

For the deacon’s route, ask about the crypt, suggest it may have been built over, and accept his request to find Radu. Leave for the courtyard, turn left and continue until a well is on your right. The almshouse entrance is beside it.

Ask the residents about the caretaker. One resident offers a paid lead: Radu used a secret entrance to the sealed plague wing upstairs. Investigate upstairs with Focus Mode and follow the entrance objective into that wing. Prepare for the monster encounter, then return to the deacon and report what you found. He opens the library and names The Annals of Svartrau Cathedral as the book to read. Use the index and pulpit to read the relevant entry; it places the entrance beneath the memorial stone in the side courtyard by the cloisters.

To recognize the symbol, speak to the craftsman working on the stained glass. Ask about the old window and its broken glass; when the reconstruction option is available, ask him to put the pieces together and pay him. He identifies Saint Mihai’s personal sigil. Use that symbol to identify the memorial stone, then enter the crypt. These glass pieces are part of the cathedral investigation, separate from the blade shards collected later.

The cathedral walkthrough from 1:18 provides the continuous route through the almshouse, library and memorial if you need the connecting passages.

Story spoiler: the encounter beneath the cathedral

Mihai is still alive when Coen finds him, and attacks before they can speak. The quest includes defeating him. Its conclusion awards the damaged sword; the nearby readable explains why its repairs were left unfinished. Do not mistake finding the readable for obtaining the weapon itself.

Collect the three blade shards

All three locations provide Sword Shard. Track the corresponding Journal entry to distinguish an unvisited location from one you already searched. The maps and clues inside the caves point toward the other locations.

North of Maragir Wealds

Follow Forge It Anew: Do Not Disturb. The map at 1:07 places the cave north of Maragir Wealds, against the mountain side. Look for the wooded, rocky entrance beneath the tree roots; the approach has a trail of blood.

Enter, defeat the kobolds and investigate the cave with Focus Mode. Search the altar area for the fragment. Inspect the crude map as well: its other marked nests give you leads for the remaining shards. If you entered from the abandoned camp, use Focus Mode there and follow the bloody trail to this cave.

The western cliffs near Rockfalls

Follow Forge It Anew: Hostile Takeover. The route from 1:27 starts from the Svartrau Outskirts map and points west toward an isolated cliff formation. Approach from the east, then climb the rocky slope on its southern side to reach the cave.

Defeat the monster and investigate the chamber with Focus Mode for the fragment and map. The Journal describes this as the nest near Shrike’s Crag. The video enters the Rockfalls area on the approach; use the cliff and cave together as your landmark rather than searching only beside a fast-travel point.

The soldiers’ camp near Tantari

Follow Forge It Anew: Executive Order. This branch involves a cave that the soldiers have already searched. Investigate it and follow the lead to the nearby camp; a cave marker alone does not mean the fragment is still inside the cave.

Search the camp and enter the tent. The fragment is in a small chest on a barrel to your right. The actual loot screen at 2:17 shows the shard in that container. Check the small chest rather than leaving after searching the soldiers.

Return to the uriashi blacksmith

The Journal places her north of Parlita, toward the mountains. The map sequence from 2:29 locates the mountain valley northwest of Briar Sloughs, near Uriashi Hermitage.

Bring the sword as well as the fragments. Introduce the broken sword if you have not shown it to her, then use the available blade-shard dialogue. With all three fragments and the original sword, the complete hand-in is “I have all the blade shards.”

You can also hand over a fragment for a repair. Partly Restored Sword of St. Mihai and Mostly Restored Sword of St. Mihai are intermediate stages; they do not indicate that a different sword must be found. Keep the current weapon and return with the remaining fragments.

After the full repair, continue the conversation. Restored Sword of St. Mihai looks whole, but the blacksmith explains that it still needs tempering and describes a small path through the nearby forest.

Finish tempering the sword

Follow the blacksmith’s path to the ancient place. The Journal changes from finding the location to learning about it and defeating the shadows. Inside, the carved stone chamber and large red sphere distinguish it from the shard caves.

Prepare for combat before advancing. The final-chamber footage shows the Echoing Anger encounter beneath the sphere. Use the combat guide if you need help managing recovery and groups.

After the fight, return to the stone pedestal and select Finish the Ritual. Follow its displayed time preview before confirming; this is a further quest action after the repair. The interaction at 2:11:06 shows the pedestal after the enemies are cleared. Finish the sequence: the inventory confirmation at 2:12:06 removes Restored Sword of St. Mihai and adds Imbued Sword of St. Mihai.

Leaving with a restored sword finishes the repair, but leaves this final step outstanding.

When the blacksmith will not progress

First check the state that changes the answer:

• Three shards, no sword: finish A Monk and a Saint and obtain the broken weapon. The Journal’s “rest of the sword” is a separate prerequisite.
• Already made repairs: inspect the partly or mostly restored weapon and the remaining fragments. Use the available fragment hand-in instead of looking only for the all-three option.
• Already restored: stop using the repair dialogue and follow the tempering objective.
• A cleared cave still has a marker: inspect its remaining clues with Focus Mode and check the specific Journal objective. For the Tantari branch, the soldiers moved the object of your search to their camp.

Players have also reported a repeating or inescapable blacksmith conversation. These reports are distinct from lacking the sword. The developer’s fixes and known issues mention the uriashi blacksmith, but that does not establish that every later dialogue-loop report is resolved.

If your inventory and objective match the expected hand-in and the conversation still loops, keep an earlier save available and report the exact dialogue, objective and sword stage through the game’s support channel. This guide does not promise that collecting another fragment, reloading or waiting will fix that state.