Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Legacy of the Forge review – Kuttenberg’s finest

When I first played Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 at the start of 2025, I was genuinely frustrated with the combat for hours, and how it felt like it gatekept me from exploring and enjoying the rest of the world. Those complaints mostly subsided when I found the riposte technique, and the more time that passes, the more I forget my frustrations and have grown to love KCD2. After finishing every available quest – aside from repeat fights and a few bugged objectives – I relish the chance to return to the game, but Legacy of the Forge is quite different from the rest of the game.

While the Brushes of Death DLC mimicked the main game – giving players a self-contained story and questline to follow – Legacy of the Forge is unique. Here you’ll be taking ownership of a forge on the outskirts of Kuttenberg, and you’ll be spending thousands of Groschen to upgrade every aspect of it. This forge acts as the best home base to return to in the entire game, and includes a conveniently placed fast travel point that I wish had always been there.

After the previous forgemaster died, the forge caught fire, and the apprentices went their separate ways, leaving the widow Magdalena by herself. Henry, being the good Samaritan, gladly volunteers to spend time and money on the forge, and sets out to become a member of Kuttenberg’s Blacksmith Guild. After joining the guild you’ll be regularly tasked with requests from the other Guild Masters, customers, and the mysterious criminal, Ragman. 

New quests relating to the Blacksmith Guild and your forge pop up daily. For some of them, you’ll be representing the guild while completing dice, dueling, and archery challenges, while for others, the Ragman will have you breaking into homes, or you’ll simply need to forge an axe for the local housewife. 

The challenges can feel a bit repetitive, but they’ll also surprise you. A judge for the archery contest goes missing, and you’ll find him beaten and robbed down the road, postponing the challenge while Henry hunts down the culprits. You’ll be asked to remove a tooth for a local man, but his fear will lead to Henry doing the job with his fists. The quests from the Blacksmith Masters are more similar to the quests of the main game, but with a thinner story to carry the action and investigation.

The experience is carried along by Henry’s mission to repair the astrological clock in the center of Kuttenberg. The forge was actually where Henry’s departed stepfather worked as an apprentice, and you discover that he had his own detailed plans and designs to repair the clock before he was betrayed and left the city. The blacksmiths of the city remember “Frisky” Martin, and will give Henry new insight into what his father figure was like as a young man — though the nickname gives most of it away.

Overall it's a far slower adventure than KCD2’s previous DLC, and feels as if it should instead be played alongside the main game. My 110+ hour save game left me with little else to do but the forge’s new quests, which made them feel mostly repetitive and uninspired. If you return to your forge at the end of each in-game day though, when you need to rest up and eat, it becomes a great little side activity you can accomplish slowly over the course of the game. While completing the new forge quests are the main way to increase your Prestige and get access to new upgrades, you can simply load up a chest at your forge with armor and weapons you “acquire” while playing, and Magdalena will passively sell them off for you, earning coin and Prestige.

As the Prestige of your forge increases, you get access to a variety of upgrades, including an armorsmith, a foundry, beehives, a shed for your horse, a laundry tub, a washtub, an alchemy station, unlimited food and alcohol — basically everything you need to gear and up and prepare for a tough mission. You can even upgrade your bedroom with items that give you buffs, in addition to cute decorations. It’s very satisfying to see your run-down forge blossom into one of the nicest buildings in town, and one of the DLC’s highlights.

How much you enjoy Legacy of the Forge comes down to how much you’ve played KCD2. If you’ve still got hours of quests to plough through in Kuttenberg, then Legacy of the Forge is the perfect accompaniment that gives you more to do. If you’ve already exhausted the game, though, then the quests here will feel a bit thin. It depends on what you’re looking for, but I enjoyed returning to Kuttenberg and becoming the most respected blacksmith in town. I just know Martin would be proud.