Legal

Community Rules

Version 2 · Last updated: October 25, 2026

Idle Forge lets players write things that other players read: World Chat, Clan Chat, the Clan Rules a Clan Lead writes, clan names and player names. These Community Rules say what is and is not allowed there, and what we do when someone breaks them. They are part of our Terms of Service. The game asks you to agree to them before you can write in World Chat, Clan Chat or Clan Rules, and they apply to every clan name and player name too.

Idle Forge is intended for players aged 13 and over, and chat is only for players aged 13 and over. If we learn that a player is under 13, their account is not closed: it continues in a protected mode without chat until they turn 13.

Who can use chat

The first time you open Forge Chat, join or create a clan, or choose your own player name, the game asks for your birth month and year. You answer once, and the game asks you to confirm it. We use your birth month and year to determine which features are available for your age. We don't ask for your exact birthday. If you are under 13, chat and some social features stay closed and you keep playing the rest of the game; they open automatically when you are old enough. Where the law requires it, your app store may also ask a parent or guardian to approve chat for a player under 18 before it opens. If you picked the wrong month or year, tap Contact Us in Settings and we will help you fix it. Read more in the Privacy Policy.

The short version

Be decent. No harassment, threats, bullying, hate or sexual content.
Keep it in the game. No personal details (yours or anyone else's), no links, no contact details, no asking people to talk in another app, no selling or trading accounts.
No spam, no scams, and no pretending to be Idle Forge staff or another player.
World Chat is read by every player. Write in English, and write as if everyone can see it, because they can.
Clan Leads and Captains can remove messages and mute members in their clan. Idle Forge can remove content and limit or stop someone's chat when they break these rules.
Report what breaks the rules and block anyone you do not want to hear from.
Need help? Use Contact Us in the game's Settings, or email support@pietersstudios.com.

What is allowed

Talk about the game. Share tips, ask for help, welcome new players, celebrate a win, look for a clan or new members, plan your clan war, joke around. Clan Leads can use Clan Rules to say what they expect from members, for example how active people should be. You may mention our Discord server by name ("ask in the Discord"), but not post invite links, Discord names or tags.

What is not allowed

Harassment and bullying. Do not insult, mock, pick on, exclude or keep targeting someone, and do not get others to gang up on a player.
Hate. No slurs or attacks on anyone because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age or any similar part of who they are.
Threats and violence. Do not threaten anyone, even as a "joke".
Sexual content. None at all. No sexual messages, comments, jokes or requests.
Grooming and approaches to younger players. Do not ask other players how old they are, and do not ask younger players for personal details, photos, to meet, to keep a secret or to talk somewhere else. See Keeping children safe.
Encouraging self-harm or suicide. Never tell anyone to hurt themselves. If you or someone you know is in danger, contact your local emergency number or someone you trust right away.
Personal information and contact details. Do not share your own or anyone else's real name, address, school, phone number, email address, social media handles, gamer tags in other apps or photos, and do not ask others for them.
Moving people to other apps. Do not ask or invite anyone to add you, message you or talk to you in another app, game or chat ("add me on…", "DM me", "what's your snap").
Links. Links are not allowed in World Chat, Clan Chat, Clan Rules, clan names or player names.
Illegal content. Nothing that breaks the law, for example threats, content that sexually exploits children, fraud, or selling illegal goods.
Scams and spam. No fake giveaways, no "free gems" offers, no begging, no flooding the chat with the same message, no advertising. In World Chat, use a recruitment card to find members, not repeated messages.
Cheating offers and trading accounts. Do not offer, ask for or advertise cheats, hacks, modified versions of the game, "boosting" services, or buying, selling or trading accounts or items.
Impersonation. Do not pretend to be Idle Forge staff, a moderator or another player.
Getting around the rules. Do not use misspellings, look-alike letters, symbols, spaces or new accounts to get around the filter, a mute or a ban.

World Chat

World Chat is one chat room for all players, in the World tab of Forge Chat.

Who can read it: every player aged 13 or over who opens World Chat.
Who can write: you can write once you have reached forge level 10, your account is at least 3 days old, and you have agreed to these rules. Until then World Chat is read-only for you.
Language: English, so that everyone can follow and our team can review it.
What others see: each message shows your player name, avatar and forge level, and the name of your clan if you are in one. Other players can open your Hero profile from it.
Limits: a message can be up to 120 characters, and you can send one message every 10 seconds.
There are no @mentions, no private messages, no images and no voice in World Chat.
Messages disappear after 24 hours. Only content that someone reported is kept longer, so our team can review it.

Recruitment cards. A Clan Lead or Captain can post a card for their clan in World Chat. It shows the clan's name, banner, members, how to join, play style and language, with a button to look at the clan; it has no free text. Each clan can post one card every 6 hours, and only clans that are open to new members and not full can post one. The player who posted a card, and any Lead or Captain of that clan, can delete it. Anyone can report it like a message.

Announcements. The Idle Forge team can pin one announcement at the top of World Chat, for example about an event or maintenance. Players cannot pin anything.

Clan Chat

Only your clan can read your clan's chat. Clan names and Clan Rules can be seen by any player who looks at the clan.
In Clan Chat you can mention a clan member with @ and their name. If that member allowed clan notifications, they get a notification on their phone.
A message can be up to 200 characters, Clan Rules up to 500. You can send up to 10 messages a minute.
There are no private messages, no images and no voice.
Messages disappear after 7 days. Only content that someone reported is kept longer.

How the game keeps chat safe

A filter checks everything you write before anyone else sees it. It tries to refuse links, email addresses, phone numbers, social media handles, the names of other chat apps and invitations to talk somewhere else. A chat message with words that are not allowed is hidden: you see it marked as hidden, nobody else sees the words. Clan Rules or a name with words that are not allowed cannot be saved. No filter catches everything, so please report what it misses.
Writing in World Chat is earned. The forge level, account age and 10-second limits keep throwaway and spam accounts out.
Two reports hide a World Chat message. When two different players report the same World Chat message, it is hidden for everyone straight away and our team reviews it.
A report about danger hides the message at once. When a player who can take part in that chat reports a message or Clan Rules with Threat or self-harm or Child safety, it is hidden for everyone straight away, in World Chat and in Clan Chat, until our team has looked at it. To stop this being misused, each player can do this only a few times a day; every such report still reaches our team as urgent.

Hiding after reports only hides the content: it does not count against the writer and does not mute anyone. If our team finds the content did not break the rules, it is shown again. The filter, the hiding after reports and the automatic short mutes described below are done by software: no person looks at them first. If you think one was wrong, ask us to look at it again (see How to appeal) and a person will decide.

How to report

A chat message or a recruitment card (World or Clan): press and hold it, then choose Report message.
A player in your clan: open your clan's Members list, tap the player and choose Report.
A clan's rules or a name: open the clan's info and choose to report the rules or the name.

Pick the reason that fits best: Offensive, Harassment, Spam, Threat or self-harm, Child safety or Other, and send. You can report the same message only once. World Chat messages disappear after 24 hours, so please report as soon as you can.

Reporting illegal content. If you believe something is against the law, report it in the game and choose the reason that fits: a report of a threat, self-harm or a child-safety concern always goes to a person. For a notice about other illegal content that we decide on individually, email us. Anyone, also someone who does not play, can send us a notice of illegal content by email: see Reporting illegal content. A person reads every such notice, and we tell you what we decided.

Reporting is private. The player you report, your clan and other players are never told who reported.

Something serious or urgent? If someone is in danger, report the message with Threat or self-harm or Child safety: one such report goes to our team straight away. You can also email support@pietersstudios.com with your player support ID (in Settings), the player's name, and the clan's name or "World Chat". If someone's life is in danger right now, call your local emergency number (112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US).

How to block

Press and hold a player's message, in World Chat or Clan Chat, and choose Block. You will no longer see their messages in World Chat or Clan Chat: their lines show as "Blocked message". Blocking only changes what you see. The player is not told, stays in their clan, and their war score and clan rewards are not affected. You can unblock them from their Hero profile, or from Blocked players in your clan's Members screen.

How to delete your own message

Press and hold your own World Chat message and choose Delete. It disappears for everyone. If it had already been reported, our team can still see the copy kept for review.

What happens after a report

Your report is saved together with a copy of what you reported.
A report of a threat, self-harm or anything that puts a child at risk opens a case straight away, even if it is the only one, and our team is alerted as urgent.
In World Chat, a message reported by two different players is hidden for everyone and a case opens.
Other reports are collected: when three different players report the same player within 7 days, a moderation case opens and our team is notified. A case also opens when a player keeps getting messages hidden by the filter.
A moderator looks at the reported content and the messages around it, and decides what to do. We look at urgent reports (threats, self-harm, child safety) within 24 hours and at other cases within 7 days.
You can follow your own reports in the game, under Forge Chat › Activity. We confirm each report we receive. When a person has decided on a case you reported, we tell you whether we took action, never what the action was, and how to ask for a review if you disagree.
Reports can hide content automatically, as described above, but they never punish a player automatically. Only a person decides on a warning, a mute by our team, a suspension or a ban.

What can happen if you break the rules

What we do depends on how serious it is and whether it keeps happening. Usually it goes in this order, but we can skip steps for serious breaks:

The content is hidden. By the filter, by a Clan Lead or Captain (in their clan), by reports (until we review it), or by our team. Hidden messages show as "removed" to everyone else.
A mute from your clan. Clan Leads can mute Captains and members, Captains can mute members, for up to 7 days. This mutes you in that clan's chat only. Leads and Captains cannot mute anyone in World Chat.
An automatic short mute. If 3 of your messages are hidden by the filter, or removed by a Lead or Captain, within 7 days, you are muted automatically: 24 hours the first time, then 3 days, then 7 days. World Chat and Clan Chat messages count together, and the mute applies to the chat where the third one happened.
A warning from our moderation team, shown in the game.
A temporary mute by our moderation team.
A chat suspension for a number of days: you cannot write in any chat, and you cannot choose a new player name or clan name while it lasts.
A permanent chat ban: you can no longer write in World Chat or any clan chat. This is the sanction for sexual content involving children, grooming and serious threats, even the first time.

Our team can also replace a player name or clan name that breaks these rules with one the game makes up. If we find we made a mistake, we undo it: hidden content can be restored and mutes, suspensions and bans can be lifted.

If we restrict you, we tell you why

If our filter, a report or our team hides something you wrote, or limits your use of chat, the game tells you what was restricted and for how long, which rule it broke, whether it was done automatically or by a person, whether it followed a report or was detected automatically, and how to ask us to look at it again.

Clan Leads and Captains

Clan Leads and Captains are players, not Idle Forge staff. They can remove messages and mute members in their own clan, and delete their own clan's recruitment cards in World Chat. They have no other powers in World Chat. If you think a Lead or Captain misuses this, report them or email us.

How to appeal

If you think a decision about you was wrong, email support@pietersstudios.com with the subject Moderation appeal within six months of the decision. Include your player support ID (in Settings), your player name, your clan's name or "World Chat", roughly when it happened and why you think the decision was wrong. A person from our team will look at it again, free of charge, and reply by email within 14 days. We will not tell you who reported you. If you reported something and disagree with what we decided, you can ask for a review the same way. You can also go to court; see our Digital Services Act page.

Keeping children safe

We have zero tolerance for content that sexualises children or tries to groom them. We remove it, ban the player from chat permanently, keep the evidence safe and report it to the police. Depending on where the people involved are, we also report it to Offlimits (the Dutch hotline for child sexual abuse), the UK National Crime Agency or the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Nobody may ask other players their age, or ask younger players for personal details, photos, to meet, to keep a secret or to talk somewhere else. If anyone does this to you, report them with Child safety, block them, and tell a parent or another adult you trust.

What we keep and for how long

World Chat messages: removed from the chat after 24 hours and deleted from our systems shortly after.
Clan Chat messages: deleted automatically after 7 days.
Moderation cases: a copy of what was reported and of up to 10 messages before and after it, kept for up to 180 days so our team can review it and decide an appeal.
Reports (including a short excerpt of what was reported, at most 120 characters) and the record of moderation actions: kept for up to 180 days.
The status of your own reports under Forge Chat › Activity: kept for 90 days.
If we report something to the police or another authority, we keep the evidence for as long as they need it, and at least a year for a report to the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children or the UK National Crime Agency.

Changes to these rules

We may update these rules, for example when the law or store rules change or to deal with new kinds of abuse. When we change them in a way that matters, we tell you in the game and ask you to agree again before you can write in World Chat, Clan Chat or Clan Rules.