After 50 hours in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 I've finally succumbed to a life of crime, and the Legacy of the Forge DLC is entirely to blame

Maybe it was when I was pouring poison into a beer barrel in the dead of night to kill some unsuspecting bandits, or perhaps it was when I was pilfering through someone's house and picking locks to pinch valuables, but at some point, I came to the unwelcome realization that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Legacy of Forge DLC is turning me into a no good criminal. I really should have seen this coming. After all, if anything was going to spell my fall from grace after 50 odd hours, it was always going to be in the name of beautifying and upgrading my very own place to call home in Warhorse's medieval open-world.

As soon as I heard about the expansion, I knew it was so incredibly me-coded. With its slice-of-life feel and its focus on blacksmithing – which is one of my favorite pastimes in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – I could hardly wait to pack in my adventurous ways and settle down in my newfound forge in Kuttenburg. I'd planned to live out my days as an honest blacksmith, and my time with the DLC certainly started out that way. But over time, my desire to get lots of groschen started to get the better of me… and before I knew it, I was an honest blacksmith no more.

You're one heck of a blacksmith

The expansion couldn't have come at a better time for me. I'll be the first to admit I'm terrible at the combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but thanks to my investment in charisma and speech, I'd managed to get pretty far into the game using my silver tongue. Whenever combat was absolutely necessary, I'd somehow managed to scramble my way through battles by the skin of my teeth, but once I reached the sprawling city of Kuttenberg, things changed.

A quest eventually rolled around that proved a little too tricky for me to bluster my way through, and after several attempts, I eventually called it a day and stepped away from the RPG. I figured I'd return at some point, get a better handle on the combat, and eventually rescue Capon from yet another kerfuffle. I quickly adjusted my plans, though, when Warhorse announced the Legacy of the Forge DLC. I mean, who cares if I'm hopelessly stuck in the main game when I can simply trade in my sword and shield for a hammer and whistle my way to success as a blacksmith?

Surely I could even make myself some shinier equipment down the line to help me in the base game, and improving my skills as I took on other pursuits couldn't hurt, either. Little did I know, though, that the main skill I'd be improving in the expansion would turn out to be the very one I'd completely neglected: thievery. Once I joined the Blacksmithing guild after passing the initial trial that introduces you to the DLC, it wasn't long before I clapped eyes on my forge.

To begin with, it's a pretty run down place, and after putting in some manual labor to clear out rubble from the bottom and top floors of my new digs, I was confronted with the very thing that would soon cause my honest downfall. Just by the blacksmith forge are three tables with floor plans for each part of your home. Here, you can access the many ways you can upgrade the place, from adding useful features to the yard – such as a washing tub to clean your clothes or a smokehouse for your food – to repairing the broken roof and decorating your bedchamber.

While you'll need to earn prestige by completing Guild activities in Kuttenberg in order to unlock more advanced improvements, you'll also need a heck of a lot of groschen. As I wistfully looked at a shiny new sign for my blacksmithy, and a bookshelf that would replace some rundown equipment, I was immediately brought back to my Animal Crossing: New Horizons days. The many bells Tom Nook demanded from me to expand my home with new rooms felt insurmountable at times, but nothing beat the feeling of completely paying off every installment.

With the promise of feeling that same sense of satisfaction in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I set out to become an honest to goodness blacksmith and earn my keep. I did have every intention of getting more groschen honestly through the commissions I could take on in the city. While one job did bag me a handsome sum, as the days rolled on with so many horseshoes and axes behind me that only got me a pittance, I started to get impatient. Even when I started making goods outside of commissions to put in a box to sell off (Stardew Valley-style), I still wasn't making the kind of groschen I needed.

Home improvement

It wasn't until I took on an investigation activity for the guild – which saw me hunt down lost goods at a bandit camp — that I started to change my tactic. With the quest giver offering up various approaches, I decided to opt for the most underhanded option to avoid combat at all costs. With some poison in hand, I spiked their beer, waited for some of the bandits to fall, and killed off the rest as they slept. Honorable? No. Effectively easy? You better believe it. Ransacking the camp and looting every corpse of its gear proved to be very lucrative, and with the quest requiring me to unlock a chest, the solution to my groschen problem started to come into view.

I needed to learn the ways of thievery and pinch as much armor and loot as possible. Then I could haggle for better prices and sell it all to pay for those sweet, sweet home upgrades. Up until this point, though, I'd barely touched a lock or stolen much of anything; such was my desire to make Henry a good, honorable fellow. At the base level of 16, my medieval heroics meant that my thievery know-how was at a very low five, which was absolutely coming back to bite me. So, loaded up with a wealth of Quickfinger potions I'd brewed myself, and dressed in my best black ensemble, I waited until night fell and started down my dishonest path.

No home in Kuttenberg is safe anymore, and ashamed as I am to admit it, I've gone from never stealing anything to robbing the city blind. My stealth and thievery skills have already improved in spades since I began the expansion, and my approach has proved to be very effective in terms of earning large sums of groschen, because my forge is benefitting from it greatly. My bedroom even has a fancy green door now… Sure, I might not feel all that much pride in how it came to be there, but it really brings the room together.

Before you judge me too harshly, I've been trying to balance out my underhanded ways by continuing to complete commissions. Hell, I even helped a woman salvage her marriage through my work behind the forge. So doesn't the excuse a bit of thievery here and there? Maybe I'll just pretend I'm some kind of blacksmithing Robin Hood now, making goods for the poor, and stealing from the rich. At least then Henry can still be some kind of hero – even if I'm not.

Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tap into the same thing that makes The Witcher 3 so compelling – and it's something I'm always looking for in RPGs.