Part of the Mechanics Series:

Mechanics Hub: How the game works (Start Here).

Buildings Guide: Where the Blacksmith sits in your build order.

Commanders Guide: Who you are forging this for.

Quick Answer

Equipment is forged at the Blacksmith, which unlocks at City Hall 16. Each commander has six gear slots — weapon, helmet, chest, gloves, legs and boots — plus accessories. Forge the weapon first: it carries the largest single-stat contribution of any slot and it is half of your first two-piece set bonus. Then helmet, then chest, then gloves and legs, and boots last. The Blacksmith produces materials passively every three hours, so the single highest-value habit is simply never letting that queue sit empty.

Overview

Equipment is the progression system most mid-game accounts underuse, because it is slow, it is expensive in gold, and nothing about the interface tells you where to start. It is also one of the few places where a modest, patient free-to-play account can close a real gap on a spender, because the material trickle is the same for everyone.

The gear you forge applies to whichever commander wears it, so this is an investment in your primary field pair rather than in your account generally. Decide who you are building for before you spend a single blueprint.

The Blacksmith

Unlocks at City Hall 16 — the same level that gives you T3 troops. See the City Hall milestone table.

Inside it you can:

Produce materials. The Blacksmith generates materials passively, roughly every three hours. This is the core of your material income and it only runs if you keep collecting and restarting it.
Forge equipment from blueprints plus materials plus gold.
Upgrade materials from lower tiers into higher ones.
Dismantle gear you no longer want, recovering some of what went into it.

The habit that matters: collect and restart the production queue every time you log in. Over a month, an always-running Blacksmith produces materially more than a sporadic one, and it costs nothing but a tap.

The Four Materials

Every piece of gear needs some combination of:

Iron Ore
Leather
Animal Bone
Ebony

Materials, blueprints and finished equipment all run through the same five tiers as commanders: Normal, Advanced, Elite, Epic and Legendary. Lower-tier materials can be upgraded into higher ones at the Blacksmith, which is how a patient free player eventually assembles epic and legendary pieces without ever seeing a good drop.

Where Materials and Blueprints Come From

Beyond passive Blacksmith production:

The Tavern. Equipment chests, opened with the corresponding key — see the tavern and keys guide.
Sunset Canyon. Its material rewards were meaningfully increased and it is now a serious weekly source for a free account.
Ceroli Crisis and Ian's Ballads. Alliance boss events that drop blueprints and materials directly — Ian's Ballads hands out a chest of blueprints and materials after each boss, and higher difficulties pay better.
Lost Kingdom drops during KvK.
Daily quests, the Courier Station and the VIP shop.
Seasonal events, which periodically introduce exclusive blueprint sets.

If you take nothing else from this section: Sunset Canyon and the alliance boss events are where a free player's gear actually comes from. Skipping them is skipping your equipment progression.

Forging Order: Which Slot First

This is the question that matters most, and the answer is consistent across account sizes:

Priority	Slot	Why
1	Weapon	Largest single-stat contribution of any slot, and half of your first set bonus
2	Helmet	Completes the two-piece set bonus
3	Chest	Next-largest stat block
4	Gloves
5	Legs
6	Boots	Smallest marginal return per material invested
Later	Accessories	They multiply a complete set; they do not patch an incomplete one

Two consequences worth internalising:

Set bonuses are why order matters. Two pieces of the same set produce a bonus that neither piece gives alone, so weapon-then-helmet is worth more than weapon-then-boots even when the boots have better raw stats.
Accessories come after the set, not during it. They compound what a finished set is already doing. Bought early, they are a rounding error.

The Gold Problem

Forging is a serious gold sink — a single piece can run from a few hundred thousand gold to several million at the top end. Gold is already the scarcest of the four resources because Academy research eats it, and equipment competes directly with that research.

The practical answer is a dedicated gold gatherer running permanently — see best gathering commanders and the resources guide. Nobody forges a full set out of incidental gold income.

What Free-to-Play Should Actually Do

Pick one commander. Your main field primary. Gear follows the commander, so spreading it is the same mistake as spreading sculptures.
Keep the Blacksmith queue running. Every login, without exception.
Do Sunset Canyon and every alliance boss event. This is your material income.
Forge the weapon first, then the helmet, and take the two-piece bonus.
Upgrade materials rather than waiting for perfect drops. The upgrade path is how patient accounts get to epic tier.
Do not chase legendary blueprints early. An elite set you can actually finish beats a legendary blueprint you cannot feed.

FAQ

What level unlocks the Blacksmith in Rise of Kingdoms?

City Hall 16.

What materials do I need for equipment?

Iron Ore, Leather, Animal Bone and Ebony, in five tiers from Normal up to Legendary. Lower tiers can be upgraded into higher ones.

Which equipment should I forge first?

The weapon, then the helmet. The weapon gives the biggest single-stat gain and the pair completes your first set bonus.

How do I get equipment materials faster?

Keep Blacksmith production running constantly, and play Sunset Canyon, Ceroli Crisis and Ian's Ballads. Those are the reliable free sources.

Is equipment worth it for free-to-play players?

Yes, but slowly and on one commander. The material trickle is the same for everyone; the difference is that spenders skip the wait.

Can I get materials back from gear I don't want?

Dismantling at the Blacksmith recovers part of what went in, which makes it worth clearing out obsolete pieces rather than hoarding them.

Key Takeaways

Blacksmith at City Hall 16; production runs roughly every three hours and should never idle.
Four materials, five tiers, and lower tiers upgrade into higher ones.
Weapon first, helmet second — that pairing is your first set bonus.
Boots last, accessories after the set is complete.
Sunset Canyon and alliance boss events are the free player's material engine.
Budget gold deliberately; forging competes with Academy research.

Rise of Kingdoms Equipment Guide: Forging, Materials and Which Slot First