During your adventure, you’ll come across many different resources. On defeated enemies, in chests, at merchants… and, of course, in the wild. This page provides an overview of the different types of resources and how to use them to create weapons, armor and other useful items.
Gathering
Materials can be collected by anyone, and no special skills are required. There are, however, a number of talents that make harvesting easier or increase the quantities obtained. Trees, minerals and plants reappear once a day. Once an area has been harvested, move on to another area if you’re still short of materials. While you’re harvesting, be careful – dangerous things can happen around you!
Woodcutting
Wood is used extensively for all kinds of crafts. Trees can be found all over the world (but avoid deserts…). Not all trees can be cut down, only straight, middle-aged ones, which are ideal for craft. When you get close to a suitable tree, small particles of light will indicate that it’s a woodcutting target. Equip yourself with your axe and start by striking the trunk. It will eventually fall, so be careful not to get in the way!
Once the trunk is on the ground, use your axe to cut logs.
Mining
Mainly needed for weapons and armor, metals are also available through exploration zones. Sometimes you’ll find a small deposit hidden between two rocks. But the main source are veins. These are large piles of ore that can be seen from quite a distance. Finding one usually yields generous quantities of ore, so grab your pickaxe and get to work!
Harvesting
Useful for consumables, but also for creating enchantments and fabric, plants are highly prized. To find them, keep your eyes peeled as you explore, as there are a wide variety to pick up. When you get close to one, just like wood, small particles of light indicate that it’s a harvestable plant. Grab your sickle and get that precious plant!
Hunting
Wildlife abounds in Aelys. Beyond the dangerous monsters, many creatures are ideal for hunting, as they are abundant and not very dangerous. These include deer, wild boar and rabbits. The best way to find them is to get lost in the exploration zones. Hunting yields mainly meat, skins, furs and bones.
Beware, many game animals will flee at the sight of you. It’s a good idea to take along a ranged weapon, such as a bow or suitable spells… running after a deer while brandishing your sword is likely to be ineffective. A good hunter kills his prey before it even sees him, and here again, talents such as stealth are very useful.
Monster hunting
Monsters are a good source of all kinds of resources, as they too often crave something. Defeating goblins, for example, will regularly yield ores, as they love shiny things and use them as currency among themselves. More powerful monsters are also sources of unique magic items and higher-level leathers. Dragon scales are not as useful as fish scales, after all…
Crafting
There are a several crafting professions that can be useful to players. As these represent a substantial amount of work to integrate into the game, we’re starting with the most important ones. We’ll be adding more as development progresses. Crafting use resources you’ve harvested (or bought from other players or NPCs).
The principle
Each crafting profession is divided into 3 operations:
- Refining, which involves smelting ores into ingots or peeling an onion.
- Crafting, which consists in creating the basis of your item, i.e. forging a weapon from ingots or cutting and sewing your fabric rolls.
- Enchanting, for items with magical properties. This phase is common to almost all profession. You need to use an enchantment scroll on your item, and perform a series of incantatory movements to apply the enchantment.
Each operation is a mini-game that requires both precision and speed. The higher your score in the mini-game, the greater your chances of obtaining bonuses when the object creation is complete. For example, if you achieve excellent scores, you may be able to recover some of the materials or create a useful by-product. Conversely, if you completely fail a mini-game, you risk losing materials.
Naturally, the higher the level of the object created, the greater the difficulty of the mini-games. There are also ways of reducing the difficulty of the mini-games, which we’ll explain later. Enough to allow crafting fans to truly become masters of their favorite art.
Crafting requires the use of crafting stations, which are available in all towns, but not always in outposts. Simply walk up to them to access the crafting interfaces. Other players using the station are then temporarily hidden from view, so you don’t get in each other’s way.
First priority crafting professions
Here are the professions we’re currently working on. We hope to complete them all during the alpha.
Blacksmith
Create heavy armor, swords, shields, harvesting tools, grapples and nails. They use mainly ores, but also some wood and leather.
Tanner
Create intermediate armors, but also numerous sub-components such as straps, laces and reinforcements, which are useful for other crafts. They mainly use leather, furs and some fabric.
Tailor
Create light armors, as well as yarns, ropes and rolls of fabric used in various recipes for other crafts. They mainly use plants and some leather.
Second priority crafting professions
Once the first priority professions are complete, we’ll take care of integrating those secondary ones. Until these are included, players will need to trade resources with NPC craftsmen to obtain the desired items.
Enchanter
Create scrolls used by other craftsmen to create magical items, but also other unannounced types of item. They can also disenchant magical objects to recover materials.
Alchemist
Create potions, but also paper and ink, which are very useful for enchanters, and some specific items that have yet to be announced.
Carpenter
Create furniture for housing, bows, wooden shields and numerous sub-components for other crafts.
Cook
Create all kinds of edible dishes that can be used to provide temporary bonuses to players, or simply to celebrate and fill your belly! Cheers!
Goldsmith
Create equipable magic rings and accessories, as well as numerous high-precision metal parts useful for various housing items or specific equipments.
Preview of it in action
A few glimpses of crafting and harvesting were published in DevLog #8, so don’t hesitate to take a look!