War-forging - the Royal Smith

The Royal Smith in the Lumbridge castle courtyard makes the best gear in the game - and no single grind produces it. Every war-forged piece takes the whole realm: a boss-tier base item, your Commendations from the war, runite bars from the smelters, and a coin fee. Not to be confused with the Forge, the Mire's rune→dragon anvil.

The recipes

Forging requires the rank of Knight (the finished pieces are Lord-tier to wear - the rank ladder stays king). Every successful forging is announced across the realm.

Body & legs - 25 Commendations + 20 runite bars + 250,000 coins each:

The helm tier - 15 Commendations + 1 Warden's ember + 10 runite bars + 150,000 coins:

Where the ingredients come from

• Base items - boss drops and deep-wilderness PK-bot loot keys. Tradeable: buy them if you'd rather.
• Commendations - paid on every WON march, campaign or conquest, scaled by your contribution. Untradeable - the one part of max gear no coin can buy.
• Warden's embers - the Grand March's prize: guaranteed for the Warden's top damage dealer, rolled for every other fighter. Tradeable.
• Runite bars - smelt them, or buy them off the skillers filling supply contracts.
• Coins - the fee is the sink that keeps the economy honest.

For where every base item and every other rare comes from, see Path to end game.

Can I just buy a finished piece?

Yes. War-forged gear is fully tradeable - a rich player can buy a Torva platebody off the grinder who made it, exactly like any drop. What can't happen is gear appearing from nowhere: every forged piece in the economy represents real marches fought by somebody. As the Smith puts it: "Sell it if you like. Somebody marched for it either way."