Blacksmith Class: 200 Diamonds for One Bench Tier — the Tier You Stop Having Once the Bench Hits 4

The Blacksmith is the class for players who build things. It costs 200 Diamonds, it arrives holding a Hammer, and from Level 1 onward it lets you craft from the next crafting bench tier without upgrading the bench first — up to Tier 4.

This page is about the parts of the class that the perks table does not show: exactly which bench upgrade the over-level perk saves you, the wall at Tier 4 where it stops mattering, why Level 2's discounts are something you plan around not at all, and the arithmetic behind Level 3's scrap perk.

For what the bench ladder costs in materials, see How to Get Scrap. This page starts from the bench numbers that page already verified and works out what they mean for this class.

At a Glance

The one-line version: the Blacksmith is a time class, not a damage class. Its Level 1 buys you the one bench upgrade that costs the most in your whole run, and then stops existing. Everything after that is a bonus with a random or conditional payoff.

What You Actually Own When You Spawn

A Hammer. That is the entire starting kit.

The Hammer is a build tool — it places structures and picks them back up, including traps. Fandom's own tips note that you can place a Bear Trap with it and lure animals onto it, then collect it again. Both Fandom and the other wiki we use add the same caveat, and it is worth knowing before you plan a trap-based build: bears and polar bears do not trigger bear traps. The Hammer has no published damage or swing rate anywhere we trust, so we are not going to give you a number for it.

So you buy the Blacksmith for the perk, not the tool. Every other 200-Diamond class in the shop hands you something you can fight with. This one hands you a hammer and a recipe shortcut.

Level 1: What the Bench Skip Actually Saves You

The perk reads as "craft from the next crafting bench tier, up to Tier 4." Put next to the verified bench ladder, that becomes much more concrete.

That is our own How to Get Scrap page's verified ladder. Read it against the Blacksmith and three things fall out.

One. The perk is worth the most exactly once, and it is the most expensive step. The 3 → 4 upgrade is the single heaviest rung in the ladder: 20 scrap, 30 wood, and 2 Cultist Gems, and those gems are the slow part — they only drop from an entity that has to be killed last, and our Cultist page covers how badly that counter behaves. Standing at Bench 3 as a Blacksmith means you skip the step that costs you the most time, on day one, without spending the gems.

Two. The perk's payoff is measured in gems, not scrap. You save 20 scrap and 30 wood at most, which the scrap page calls 81 total scrap for the whole ladder. What you cannot shortcut is time. If Cultist Gems come slowly in your run — which the Ice Temple page argues is avoidable, since the temple's gems come out of a beam rather than out of a kill — this perk is enormous; if your team is already swimming in them, it is worth much less than the price tag suggests.

Three. The window closes at Bench 4, and it closes hard. The perk says "up to Tier 4," and Fandom's wording is explicit that Tier 5 is excluded. That means:

• Bench at Tier 1 or 2 → skip one rung, save a small amount.
• Bench at Tier 3 → skip the 3 → 4 rung. This is the jackpot.
• Bench at Tier 4 → the "next tier" would be Tier 5, and Tier 5 is excluded. The perk has nothing left to do.

That third row is the part most guides leave out. The Blacksmith's headline perk is not a permanent 200-Diamond advantage — it is a front-loaded one that expires the moment your bench reaches Tier 4. Every guide we found lists it as the class's main selling point without mentioning that it ends. PC Gamer gives the class 4 stars and calls all its perks "easy to unlock," but the same review is the only one that names the real cost: Level 3 "is challenging to coordinate if random teammates grind scraps themselves."

One question nobody answers: the Level 2 requirement is "upgrade the crafting bench 20 times" and Level 3 is 40 times. But the ladder above only has four rungs, so 20 and 40 upgrades cannot be the same action applied four times. Either the counter keeps counting past Tier 5, or it counts something else — possibly across entire runs rather than a single one, which is how several other class counters appear to work. No source states what is being counted, and the two requirements do not clarify it either. We are leaving it open rather than inventing an interpretation.

Level 2: Two Random Recipes, and You Cannot Plan Around Them

At Level 2, two random crafting bench recipes get a heavy discount — Fandom puts the discount at around 40%, and both Fandom and the site we mirror call it "heavy" while giving the same rough figure.

The word that matters is random. You do not choose which two recipes. They change run to run. Both Fandom and the mirror site say the same thing in plain terms: treat it as a bonus economy, not something to build a plan around.

Two consequences worth stating:

• In a team it is a team perk. The discount applies to everyone at the bench, not just the Blacksmith. So the value scales with how many people are spending the camp's resources.
• In a team it can be wasted. A 40% discount on a recipe nobody in your group was going to craft is worth exactly nothing. Same trap, same cause as Level 3 below: this class hands out value to the camp, and a camp without a build plan does not convert that value.

Level 3: The Grinder Perk, Noticed in Arithmetic

The Level 3 perk is a chance of extra scrap from items you put in the grinder. The detail version comes from the Fandom mirror: it is roughly a 10–15% chance, it yields about 2 extra scrap, and — the one people miss — it only activates on scrap, not wood. The grinder visibly sparks when it fires.

That is enough to do the honest sum. If the chance is 10–15% and each success returns 2 scrap, the expected value per grind is roughly:

• at 10% → about 0.2 scrap per item ground
• at 15% → about 0.3 scrap per item ground

Against a ladder that costs 81 scrap in total, that is a slow drip, not a shortcut. It matters in long runs and in teams where several people are grinding, and it does nothing early. It is the weakest of the three perks by a distance, and it is the one PC Gamer flags as needing coordination, because a teammate grinding their own waste without the perk firing does not care what the Blacksmith's odds are.

Note also that this is not the same machine as the tier-5 Recycler our scrap page recommends late. The grinder is the early trickle; the Recycler is the late-game conversion of spare Forest Gems.

Where Sources Disagree

Is This a Team Class or a Solo Class?

Both, in opposite directions — and this is the real decision.

With a team that builds, the Blacksmith is close to the strongest 200-Diamond purchase in the shop. Level 1 saves the most expensive bench step, Level 2 discounts two recipes for everyone, and Level 3 pays out across repeated grinding. PC Gamer calls it "good for co-op survival," and the mirror wiki calls it "one of the best economic and support-focused classes in the game." If you have someone who wants to build walls, traps and structures, this class multiplies that person.

Solo, it is much narrower. You still get the Level 1 shortcut, which is real. But Level 2's random two recipes are only useful if you were going to craft them, Level 3 only fires on your grinder runs, and the counters are unusually demanding — 80 and 250 crafted structures are build-heavy requirements in a game where most players spend their days exploring and fighting rather than placing shelves.

And then there is the horizon. If your run is long, you pass Tier 4, and Level 1 evaporates. The class does not get bad at that point; it becomes a plain Hammer with two weak perks hanging off it.

Blacksmith Against the Other 200-Diamond Options

The shop makes you choose, and the comparison is sharper than it looks:

• Against the Poison Master — the other 200-Diamond class with a page here. Poison Master trades you a fighting kit (Blowpipe and Poison Armour) plus a support perk at Level 3 that buffs your teammates' damage. Blacksmith trades you a building kit whose value is entirely front-loaded. Same price, opposite halves of the run: one is for the nights where things are trying to kill you, the other for the days where you are trying to finish a base.
• Against the Fire Bandit — the third name at 200 Diamonds, and the one that hands you a weapon (Infernal Crossbow) rather than a mechanic. See the Fire Bandit class page for where its own wall sits. If you want 200 Diamonds to buy damage on night one, that is the trade, and it is the cleanest one of the three.
• Against the cooking line (Chef / Cook) — Chef is a 150-Diamond class in the same "camp economy" family; there is no page on this site for Chef yet, so we are only recording the adjacency. If the problem is food rather than structures, that is a different purchase.

Put plainly: buy the Blacksmith if someone in your run is going to build, or if you personally enjoy building. Not because 200 Diamonds should buy you a speedrun, but because this is the only class in the shop whose entire identity is the camp.

Is It Worth 200 Diamonds?

Yes in a team that builds. Hesitantly, on a solo run where you are the builder anyway. No if you bought it expecting a weapon.

The case for: Level 1 skips the most expensive bench step in the game for free, and that step is gated by Cultist Gems, which are the slowest resource in the ladder. Nothing else at this price buys you that much early.

The case against: the perk expires at Tier 4, Level 2 is random, and Level 3 is a 10–15% trickle that needs a grinder to activate and a teammate who understands why he should be grinding in the first place. Three perks, and two of them are conditional.

Our honest read: this is the most specialised class we have priced. It is not a pick for a first 200 Diamonds — the Poison Master will do more for a new player who is still learning what the game's threats are. It is a pick for run number ten, when you already know that your camp is the bottleneck.

Tips That Change How It Feels

• Do not upgrade the bench past Tier 3 until you have used Level 1. Every upgrade you make yourself is an upgrade you did not get to skip. This is the whole class in one sentence.
• Tell your team before you upgrade. The mirror wiki's tip is the same and it is the single most valuable thing on this page: call out the bench tier skip so nobody spends 20 scrap and two Cultist Gems on a rung you could have skipped.
• Craft early, build often. Both level counters run on structures you crafted — cheap ones count. Our scrap page is blunt about the fast way to fabric them, and the mirror wiki suggests shelves for the same reason.
• Know that the perk ends. Once the bench is at Tier 4, the Level 1 benefit is gone. If you are on a long run, plan your Tier 4 timing rather than assuming the shortcut lasts the whole game.
• Grind scrap, not wood, if you want Level 3 to fire. The perk ignores wood entirely, which is easy to lose an hour to.
• Bring the Hammer to trap spots. Placing and collecting bear traps is free with this class, and it is a way to defend a base while you are out building — just remember bears and polar bears walk past them.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Level 1 skips the single most expensive bench step for free, including the Cultist Gem cost
• Real value on day one, before any other economy class has paid off
• Level 2 discounts apply to the whole team
• Fastest route to Tier 4 gear in a co-op run
• Bear traps are cheap and reusable with the Hammer
• PC Gamer rates it 4 stars and calls every perk easy to unlock

Cons

• Level 1 stops working once the bench hits Tier 4
• Level 2 picks its two recipes at random, so it cannot be planned
• Level 3 needs a grinder, fires 10–15% of the time, and ignores wood
• The counters (80 and 250 crafted structures) are the heaviest build demands of any class we have priced
• Nobody explains what "upgrade the bench 20 times" counts
• Weakest solo pick of the 200-Diamond classes, and the only one that gives you no weapon at all

FAQ

Does the Blacksmith's crafting skip work forever? No. It reaches Tier 4 and Tier 5 is excluded. Read the two together and the perk stops doing anything once your bench is at Tier 4. That is our reading of the published ceiling — the ceiling itself is agreed, the expiry point is ours.

Which bench upgrade does it actually replace? The 3 → 4 upgrade: 20 scrap, 30 wood and 2 Cultist Gems. At Bench 1 or 2 it replaces a much cheaper rung instead, so the saving shrinks the earlier you buy it.

Is the discount on Level 2 guaranteed? Only in the sense that two recipes are always on sale — which two are chosen at random, roughly 40% off. Plan for it as a bonus.

Does Level 3 work on wood? No. It only fires on scrap placed in the grinder. Grinding wood does nothing for the perk.

Is the Blacksmith good for solo play? Narrowly. You keep the Tier 4 shortcut, which is already a lot. But Levels 2 and 3 both reward a camp with more than one person in it, and the level counters want you placing hundreds of structures.

Should I buy it before or after the Poison Master? Poison Master first, if you only have 200 Diamonds and you are not yet sure what your runs are missing. Poison Master teaches you something about fighting; Blacksmith only pays off if you already know the camp is the slow part.

Sources

Consistent across Fandom, PC Gamer, the mirror wiki and a class guide, used as fact: price, Hammer starter, Level 1 reach with the Tier 4 ceiling and Tier 5 exclusion, Level 2 discount count and requirement figures, Level 3 perk name and both requirement figures.

Single sources, used with attribution: the ~40% discount size, the 10–15% chance, the +2 scrap return, the scrap-only trigger and the Tier 5 expiry line — the mirror wiki (BreezeWiki's Fandom mirror). The bear-trap caveat, the random-recipe warning and the "treat the discount as a bonus" framing — Fandom. The 4-star rating, "easy to unlock," the Level 3 coordination warning and the stated class role — PC Gamer.

• Fandom — Blacksmith
• BreezeWiki mirror — Blacksmith — the 10–15% / +2 scrap / scrap-only detail
• PC Gamer — All 99 Nights in the Forest classes — ratings and the co-op caveat
• Our own How to Get Scrap — the bench ladder in full, and the 81-scrap total
• Our own Cultist page — why Cultist Gems are the slow part of that ladder

Related Pages

• All Classes — the Blacksmith at 200 Diamonds beside every other class in the shop
• Best Class by Role — the crafting role row, and what else fills it
• How to Get Scrap — the full bench ladder this class skips a rung on
• Poison Master — the other 200-Diamond class, and the opposite half of the run
• The Cultist — where the Cultist Gems that gate Bench 3 → 4 actually come from
• Ice Temple — the steadier gem route that does not depend on the last kill
• How to Get the Chainsaw — the bench-tier item worth saving scrap for
• The Cultists' Stronghold — where a lot of that scrap comes from
• How to Get Diamonds Fast — the grind before the 200-Diamond purchase