Crafting
[ Home ] [ Up ]

Basics

    The process is simple, gather resources, create components, then create items.  Formula are what allow the crafter to create something.  When you join a school by talking to a school trainer, you can get training items.  Sometimes they will give you basic Formula or forms for short.

    You must Scribe the form.  Right click on the form and left click on Scribe.  The formula for that item is now scribed into your Create list.  Now you can click on the Create Item button, find the item in the list, click on it and click on the Create button.  The Create screen will tell you what resources, tools, and machines are required to craft that item.

    For example the Blacksmith and Outfitter will give you the Beginner Metal Bar formula if you join their school and click on training equipment and don't already have it. Right click on the form and scribe it. This formula gives you the "recipe" for making Bronze, Iron, and Silver bars.

    At level 1 or 2, you will only have the smelting skill to make bronze bars.  If you click Create Item button then click on Bronze Bar then click Create button, a window will pop up telling you you need Smelting Tongs as the tool, Smelter as the machine, and 5 Copper & Tin Ore to make a bar.  The trainer will have given you a training Mining Pick, training Smelting Tongs, and training Smithing Hammer.  Find the Ore mine in your town (Rock signs show the way), equip your mining pick and start mining that copper & tin ore.  When your inventory is full, go to the smelter and create bronze bars.

    The bronze bar creation screen will have a couple of slider bars.  One is the chance of creating an item (Higher Success Rate).  Leave this set to the default 100% (only used if you are short on materials and you want to take a chance - I never use it).  The other is batches, click the arrow to the right of the scale to maximize the number of batches that will be created (depends on the amount of ore and skill you have).  If the required tool is red, click on the button next to it and the proper tool if in your inventory will be equipped.  If the required machine is red, then you must physically move close to the required machine (Smelter).  This screen will show you what you are creating, the skill used (Smelting), the minimum skill required (1 for bronze), your current skill level, and efficiency/optimum skill.  The minimum skill is the required skill you must possess to create that item, if you don't have it, this line will be red.  The optimum skill is the skill required to be 100% efficient, as you level you gain skill and your efficiency will increase.  At first it will take 5 ore to craft a single bar, then later 4 then 3 then 2.  At 100% efficiency and forever thereafter, it will take 2 ore to craft 1 bar.  As you create bars you gain experience and your experience bar will increase.  When your experience bar reaches 100% you will level.

    When you have enough Bronze Bars, now you can create an item, say a Bronze Dagger.  The process is the same, only the machine is an Anvil and the tool is a Smithing Hammer.  This is the way item creation (Crafting) works in every school for every item.  Every item in the game can be crafted given the prerequisite skills, tools, and machines.  Note that as your level/skill/efficiency increases, the experience you get from crafting items decreases and your progress in leveling decreases.

Imperial Lore Tokens / Forms

    To get forms, you need to have Imperial Lore Tokens, the little green balls in the above picture are Beginner Imperial Lore Tokens.  You exchange those for forms at a Lore Master.  Both a Beginner and Journeyman Lore Master are in the courtyard of city hall in Sslanis.  You can spin the wheels of chance and expend one token for one form if you greet the Lore Master.  Or you can trade with the Lore Master and drag and drop tokens from your inventory into the items giving window of the trade window to purchase forms directly.  If you spin the wheels of chance, be prepared to get duplicates, triplicates, and quads of forms you may already have and don't need.  As the Lore Master says, it is in your school and totally random.  When you are first starting out, this is a good approach.  Later on, you will want to purchase specific forms.  To get the tokens, perform level oriented task quests for your crafting school trainer.  In addition, some monsters drop tokens when you kill them.  Sometimes you can find tokens and/or forms on the pawnbrokers and consigners.  Each form requires a prerequisite skill level to scribe.  Additionally, some forms are available from the crafting schools trainers.  Initiate a trade with your trainer and see what they offer.  Forms bought from your trainer use coin not tokens.

Imperial Bounty Markers / Techniques

    The green dollar bill looking thing in the above picture is an Imperial Bounty Marker (IBM).  You spend IBMs on Techniques or Techs for short.  You exchange IBMs with Quartermasters located in South Tazoon, Kion, Augendale, Mahagra, New Rachival, and Dalimond.  Except each quartermaster caries a different tech.  YOu exchange IBMs for the techs by initiating a trade and dragging and dropping the IBMs in the items giving window of the trade window.  Some monsters drop IBMs when you kill them and sometimes they are available on consigners and pawnbrokers.  The QMs and the Maggot man on the docks in Dalimond will exchange resources for IBMs.

    If you have Techs and they can be applied to a particular item you are crafting, they will appear in the Techniques Available window of the item creation screen.  Use the arrows below the Tech Available window to apply and remove techs to the item (Techniques Applied window).

    Some techs can increase the skill requirements to craft and/or use the item.  This is not firm yet, AE continues to change this as players get angry.

    To apply a tech, it will require additional resources.  Usually these resources involve only resources that are dropped by a monster when you kill them and loot their corpse.  An example is the Speed I technique that requires 2 Zombie Fingers.  This tech also requires Dim Essence Orbs, but those can be made.

        The different level techs give increasing bonuses.  For example Speed I gives +3 to speed, Speed II gives +5 to speed, and Speed III gives +8 to speed.  These values continue to change as well.

    Obviously, the higher the tech, the more IBMs it costs.  And...once again AE changes this too.  Currently they cost 5, 10, and 15 respectively.  Tier 4 and Tier 5 techniques are currently monster drop only.

    Unlike forms, techs require no skill to scribe.

Pawnbroker / Consigner

    In every town you find a Pawnbroker (sometimes 2 or 3) and a Consigner.  You can buy and sell items to these NPcs by initiating a trade with them.  Pawnbrokers buy low and sell high, plus their stock times out quickly and items just disappear.  Consigners will list an item for you for a week at 10%.  The valuable items in the game should be kept in your vault or listed on consigners.

Vault /Silo

    Every town has a vault.  You have your own personal vault that can use to store items.  You have the same vault no matter what town your in.  You can view the contents of your vault from anywhere (V key for me) but you must be close to your vault to put items into and take items out of the vault.  You can do quests with the vault keepers to add space to your vault, the max is 5 add ons.

    You can build structures in this game, every player is entitled to one plot of land.

Crafting Theory

1.  To gain the highest experience points and level the fastest, craft the item(s) you can barely create.  On the item creation screen, the skill points required to create the item and the skill points you currently have are displayed.

2.  Once you make a high level in one school, it is often very easy to level in another.  The Craft Schools are linked via Craft Skills.  To see the schools and their inherent skills, browse http://community.istaria.com.  This is because the various schools share skills and once a skill is attained, it does not go away by joining another school.

As an example, I will us the following schools because I am familiar with them; Blacksmith; Outfitter; Tinkerer.  Linked skills are color coded, unlinked skills are black.

 The following Skills can be learned in The Blacksmith School:

Armor Use  7

Fletching  8

Logging  7

Lumbering  8

Metalworking  8

Mining  7

Quarrying  7

Sculpting  8

Smelting  8

Stoneworking  8

Weaponcraft  8

Woodworking  8

 The following Skills can be learned in the Outfitter School:

Armor Use  7

Armorcraft  8

Clothworking  8

Foraging  7

Leatherworking  8

Mining  7

Smelting  8

Spinning  8

Tailoring  8

Tanning  8

 

 The following Skills can be learned in the Tinkerer School:

Armor Use  7

Clothworking  8

Earthencraft  10

Leatherworking  8

Metalworking  10

Salvaging  10

Sculpting  10

Tinkering  10

Transmutation  8

Woodworking  8

 

Exploring ore crafting, ore is mined, smelted into bars, and then crafted into items.

The Mining skill determines how much ore per swing of the pick axe.  As the Mining skill increases, the more ore you get per axe swing.  No experience points are earned by basic gathering.  Obtaining more skill points per level for gathering skills allow you to gather quicker.  The faster you can gather, the faster you can make experience crafting.  So the faster you can gather ultimately means the faster you can level.

The Smelting skill determines how many ores it takes to make a bar.  As the Smelting skill increases, the less ore it takes to make a bar.  Using less ore per bar translates into crafting items that give experience points faster and faster leveling.  Schools with this skill obtain experience points by smelting ore into bars.

The Metalworking skill determines how many bars it takes to craft a tool.  As the Metalworking skill increases, the less bars it takes to craft the tool.  Schools with this skill obtain experience points by crafting bars into tools.

Therefore, a Blacksmith or Outfitter gain skill per level in mining and smelting (mine and smelt faster) and gain experience on smelting (level faster).  Both gain experience by crafting items (level faster), but the Outfitter only gains experience for crafting armor where the Blacksmith does not.  The Blacksmith gains experience crafting tools and weapons but the Outfitter does not.  The Tinkerer gains experience by crafting tools and tinkerer items.  But the Tinkerer does not gain Mining or Smelting skills.

Therefore, a high level Blacksmith can mine ore quickly and make more bars per ore which helps the Outfitter or Tinkerer to level faster.  Also, a high level Outfitter can mine ore quickly and make more bars per ore which helps the Blacksmith or Tinkerer to level faster.

Notice the Outfitter does not gain Metalworking and cannot make his own tools, so you may want to level in Blacksmith first.

Also, notice the Tinkerer does not gain Mining or Smelting, so if you want to be a Tinkerer, you might want to level in Outfitting First because Outfitters also gain Foraging, Tanning, Clothworking, Tailoring, etc.

Finally, the path I chose was to level in Blacksmith, then level in Outfitter then level in Tinkerer.  Leveling in Blacksmith took a long time (it will no matter what you pick to start with), but then leveling in Outfitting and Tinkering went much faster due to the base resource gathering and processing abilities.

Additional benefits of obtaining skills in multiple schools vice leveling really high in one:

a)  There are side benefits of having other skills.  Following the previous example, as a high level Blacksmith you will still only be able to forage hides from maggots at the rate of one per stroke.  That is because the Blacksmith doesn’t get Foraging skill.  But the Outfitter does get Foraging skill.  So by leveling quickly as an Outfitter, the foraging skill increase results in multiple hides per stroke.  That means significantly decreased time to obtain Maggot hides and thus IBM’s from the Fisherman in Dalimond and finally getting Techniques from the Quartermasters faster.

b)  What is unique about Horizons is that you can become anything and everything.  Leveling in one School does not limit you in another, it actually helps you.  As your skills become higher and broader, the more you can do as an individual and the more you can aid the group.

c)  The high attributes you make in Crafting can help in Adventuring.  For example, a Blacksmith gains strength per level.  A high strength really helps when slinging a sword or axe resulting in hitting for very high hit points.

These three schools extend quickly into all the others.  Say for example building structures.  A Blacksmith/Outfitter can quickly level in Mason, Fitter, Carpenter, and Weaver.  All the schools are linked, you can master all of them in different orders.  The key is to do what you enjoy doing and visit Tazoon to investigate the schools, skills and their linkages.

3.  A good balance between making money and experience is creating items and selling them to a Pawn Broker.  To maximize for experience, skip the Pawn Broker, and just deconstruct the item.  At this time, there is a gap of 50 skill points between items for a Blacksmith, but the gap in Outfitting is only 10.  That means an Outfitter has a particular item for each level they should be crafting where a Blacksmith may be crafting the same item for 5-6 levels.

4.  Forget efficiency.  The game continuously generates resources automatically.  This is not true for your skill levels or your abilities.  If anyone tries to tell you not to do something because you are inefficient, then they don’t have YOUR best interest at heart.  Forget them, do what is best for you and build your character, unless of course you like leveling slowly or being a slave.  The first school you take up is going to be the hardest and longest.  As it progresses you will be able to bring other related schools up faster.

5.  There is no difference in experience based on location.  There are some areas that are better because the resources are closer to machines, the resources spawn faster, the linked fields are closer together, or the fields are closer to pawnbrokers/consigners/plots.  But that is it, you will get the same experience making a brick in Sslanis as in Kirasanct.  So if you want to help build something as part of a group, go make yourself a level one (1) whatever.  There is no need to do things that don’t gain you experience just because someone else is a higher level.  The group doesn’t need one or two high level whatever, rather a bunch of high level whatever.  And the only way that is going to happen is if you start from level one.

6.  There is a difference on what machine you use.  Expert machines (buildable on player lots) give a +75 bonus to skill.

Advanced

1.  Make the lowest level item in the highest tier you can make.  Most levels are gained through resource conversions.

2.  Tech up jewelry, tools, gauntlets, mask, shoulderpads.  Can also tech cargo gear but if doing multiple schools you can clog your vault.

3.  Buff up with gifts and enhances.  Every skill has a major stat that powers it, test by casting them on yourself watching the skills page.  A T5 enhance can get 5-8 extra skill points.

4.  Consider leveling miner or gatherer first.  The extra points per level in raw harvesting skill helps a bunch.  Store converted resources on consigner, switch to another school, then craft items.  Repeat as necessary.  Good to pace crafting school in front of harvesting school.

5.  Once you are optimum on an item consider stopping and bringing up other related schools.  You can actually level too far in a given school.  Every level after optimum on a resource conversion you lose XP.  Calculate what level to raise another related school.

6.  The world placement of resources and proximity of those resources to complete machines plays a large role in selecting school level order.  Try some areas out and time your runs.

7.  This is why its so difficult to say go to this level in this school stop and then...etc.  Your stat points affect your current craft skill ratings tremendously.  Depending on how many stat points you get from your adventurer (points per level and assigned training points), your current skill can be much higher than base.  Also, your teched items are a huge variable.

As an example, on blight, world access to sandstone, slate, and obsidian is very good.  Short runs to machines and plenty of resources.  Once at obsidian level miner to optimum on making bricks then bring up all the related schools, blacksmith, scholar, mason, spellcrafter.  Then level miner to optimum on mithril to bring up blacksmith, armorer, jeweler, weaponsmith, fitter, outfitter.  Now when I say "bring up" I mean level to the appropriate level without going beyond optimum skill on resource conversion, let the harvesting school set the skill level for optimum.  For example a miner gets 10 points per level in smelting a blacksmith gets 8.  Lets say your miner is optimum on making mithril bars at level 72, your base smelting is 720 (even though current is 1075 through stats, buffs, expert machine and techs).  Divide 720 by 8 and you should level blacksmith to level 90, stop and then level the other schools like fitter which gets 9 points in smelting per level to 720/9 = 80.

8.  No need to be level 100 unless you just want bragging rights, silk cargo gear and an obsidian disk works just fine.  Bring up all your schools in unison as described above, then when done, level them all to 100.

9.  Beware Scholar gets spinning skill per level.  Beware leveling Tinkerer, it should be the last school.  Tinkerers get no points for resource conversion but great points in metalworking, leatherworking etc, include that in your calculations to lay out a leveling road map.

10.  Adventurer helps crafting.  Not only because of training point assignment, stat increases per level, and higher tier buffs, but also most of the resources are covered by mobs nowadays (although not all).  So consider leveling an adventurer to 100 first.  On the other hand, crafting helps adventuring by stat point increases per level and you can make your own gear.

All logos and trademarks are copyrights of their respective companies.  This is a private non-profit personal site.  This page was last modified on 10/12/08 .