Trash Goblin & The Artist of Brimhaven DLC Review

Game: Trash Goblin & The Artist of Brimhaven DLC
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Spilt Milk Studios Ltd | Gamersky Games
Controller Support: Yes
Steam Deck: Verified
Price: US $ 19.99 | UK £ 16.75  | EU € 19,50
Release Date: May 28th, 2025

A review code was provided, and many thanks to Plan of Attack.

Trash Goblin is a 2025 puzzle game developed and released by Spilt Milk Studios Ltd. It was released in 2024  in Early Access, and you can read my impressions here if you’re curious. This month, the developers released version 1.5 of the game and its first official story DLC that serves as a mini sequel after the conclusion of the main game as part of the new version.  

The Premise of Trash Goblin

In Trash Goblin, we play as a young goblin who runs their shop, where they repair and clean trinkets and sell them to an endless stream of colorful and quirky customers. We earn money to upgrade our shop, tools, and personal space.

The Gameplay of Trash Goblin

In Trash Goblin, we have to clean, repair, and even upcycle trinkets and then sell them to customers. We start with three basic tools on our workbench – a sponge and a chisel for cleaning and pliers for repairing and upcycling. As we progress in the story and earn more coins, we can purchase more tools of the trade and upgrade our workshop.

The new 1.5 version brings us a brand-new tool, affectionately called Hugh, which allows us to collect and build a sort of database of all the textures we see. Basically, the tool lets us replace a trinket’s material with wood. The material is basically a color with some texture-like effect. Once we’ve collected the material, we can use it on another trinket. In Trash Goblin, we have about 30 distinct materials to collect, mix, and match. However, once we’ve collected a material/color, we can use it for our item only. We can’t purchase any colors from the store, so if a customer requests a specific color combination, we’ll have to check our stash to see if we already have it in the database.

We have several areas. The most important area is the workshop, where we have our workbench. The trinkets come in a bag, and we open them with the chisel and start chiselling immediately, clearing a block puzzle. Some of the blocks we clear easily with one hit of the chisel, others require more mouse clicking. Some of the blocks, once clicked, have markings indicating they are parts of the trinket itself. Once all the rubble is cleared, we have a dirty trinket. Since removing the blocks takes a whole activity slot and cleaning takes another, it’s wiser to store the trinkets without cleaning them.

Some customers don’t need clean trinkets anyway. We clean using the sponge, and we have a percentage indicator of how far we are in the cleaning. The new version of the game is a bit more generous with the percentage, so when we have some dirt left, the game will automatically complete the job for us. I am not going to lie – cleaning with the sponge wasn’t my favorite part of the game by far. Thankfully, we can buy soaking tubs relatively early and thus at least partly automate the cleaning. When we are repairing or upcycling an item, we will need to clean the parts. We cannot repair a dirty item. 

The trinkets aren’t what you might expect, after all, the game is called Trash Goblin. We are talking hilt of a dagger, wooden eye, lid of a beer stein, a lich crown, parts of a mushroom doll, and so on. The new version of the game adds more than 50 new trinkets, such as artisanal leg, broom head, various dwarven-made hardware, diamond flute parts, charms, and so on. Overall, the current version of the game boasts hundreds of trinkets and accessories and thousands of combinations and variations to find, clean, upcycle, sell, and collect. Sometimes customers require a clean item; other times, it could be dirty. They can ask for a specific combination of items, or even for an item in any state. Repairing or upcycling an item can be anything from reuniting a pot with its lid or finding a unique charm to slot into a lich crown.

The other areas are the storefront, where we interact with customers; the Aemon area, where we sometimes see our boss and sometimes don’t; where we can buy some tools initially; and our living area, where we can see our bunk bed. We have a limited amount of activity slots in a day – 6 in total, after which our goblin needs to sleep for the new day to start. Saving is automatic and happens at the end of the day. 

There’s no need to wait for customers at the storefront. We can putter away at the workbench, and a handy little bell will announce when we have a customer. Each customer has their mannerisms, character, and quirks. They make their request, and we can either help them now or dismiss them until we find what they are looking for. At the top of the screen, where we can see the list of active tasks, there’s also an option to call back a customer whose order we’ve fulfilled. This only works for named customers: for unnamed customers, once dismissed, they will not come back for the same item. A marked improvement is how quickly we find what we’ve been asked for.

Once we are ready with the order, we place the item in front of the customer. Some customers will offer us coins, and we can accept or haggle a bit. For others, we will be the ones asking for coins. We can choose to be generous by asking for a lower price, thereby improving our reputation and relationships with the other characters. The price differences aren’t that big, so it might be wise to seek a better reputation, rather than money. We accept the payment by placing the bag of coins in your inventory.

The inventory is on the left-hand side of the screen, but the space is minimal, so storing items on the workbench makes a lot of sense. In later stages of the game, when the store is open, you can purchase extra shelving for the workbench. We also have a customization mode that allows us to buy additional storage space in the inventory, among other things. Later versions of the game, especially the last one, add lots of space to store trinkets all around the shop, as well as storage. We can also buy store upgrades to improve sales and cosmetic upgrades for our personal space. 

In the inventory, in addition to the stash, we also have a Trinketpedia and a Reputation tab. The Trinketpedia tracks every single trinket in the game and keeps a record of whether you’ve discovered, cleaned, upcycled, and sold each one. At a later stage, there’s also an option to purchase some trinkets you are looking for. The Reputation tab shows us how we are doing in our relationships with other characters. The final (for now) version of the game has about 40 unique characters.

The Artist of Brimhaven DLC

In the new story DLC of Trash Goblin, The Artist of Brimhaven, Aimon, our boss from the main game, asks for our help in restoring the ruined district of Brimhaven, Silver City, to its former glory and giving hope to its residents. To do that, we will repair and sell trinkets and invest our coins in upgrades for the district. The new story starts immediately after the main story ends. This is also where we will be using the new tool – Hugh to change materials and colors of the trinkets and basically make art. Aimon is the driving force behind our career as artist trash goblins, requesting sculptures from our trinkets and sometimes asking us to recolor them using Hugh.

Upgrading the buildings will require coins or sometimes specific trinkets. Once we’ve fulfilled the requirements for the upgrade, we will see the end result in a few in-game days.

The Artist of Brimhaven is priced at US $ 9.99 | UK £ 7.45  | EU € 8.49 and, of course, requires the base game.

Some Other Things

The main storyline takes about 20 hours to complete, and the new DLC adds about 5 more hours of gameplay. The game also includes the District Travel feature, which lets us explore four other areas of the city to sell trinkets in pop-up shops. 

Trash Goblin has Steam achievements but no trading cards. The game features basic audio and video settings, as well as an automatic save system. Also, the game, at least for now, uses an automatic saving system and doesn’t support multiple save files. 

If you are migrating from the Early Access, keep in mind that the progress is not carried over. That being said, the developers are keeping an Early access copy of the game and have written a guide on how to access it. Another thing to note is that to access the DLC, you need to complete the main storyline. I didn’t have any problems running the game; the only mild bug I had was when using the soaking tub- taking objects out of it is a bit of a struggle, but still doable.