Comprehensive guide to potion making

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Abstract

This document aims to provide a comprehensive guide to making potions, starting from basic considerations and how to start the skill and ending with a full list of available potions and their usefulness for potion makers as well as a section on "tips and tricks".

Preliminaries

Mortars and pestles

Mortars & Pestles have a chance to break of 1 in 300 uses. That means you will need a lot of them. You have basically three options of getting mortars&pestles:

  • Buy at general stores for 100gc,
  • buy from players or
  • make your own, once your manufacturing level is high enough you will be able to beat the NPC price but it will obviously take longer. You should make them at the Gypsum deposit.

Vials

You will obviously need plenty of Empty Vials to make potions. There are five options to obtain vials but only three of them will be feasible in the long run:

  • Get them from Harvy, this is the worst option, see below.
  • Buy Potions of Mana or Potions of Minor Healing from Mira. When you use those potions you will get an empty vial. You can try using them for mana or healing while fighting to get vials.
  • Buy them from players.
  • Make them yourself, if you want the crafting experience and already have a sufficiently high crafting level. Make sure that your break rate modifier is positive!
  • Buy them from Closca in Melinis for 5gc each. You can haul them to Thelinor by the cave from Melinis (you will need a Monster Magnetism Cloak or perk) or to South Redmoon by Hurquin - this route is free of aggressive creatures save Leonard at night but takes longer, or you can use the HazMat storage in Melinis; if you're not willing to teleport to range every trip, this will require monster magnetism as well and will take longer than the trip to Thelinor.

Food

You have the usual options and we'll discuss them by potion below. However the Potion skill comes with two advantages if you want:

at least from a sufficiently high level on and provided you can get your hands on the Book of Poison Antidote (or get lucky with a Scientists Day).

In the Money Talk subsection we'll look at different player types' outlook on ingredients for now let's just say that if you calculate with market prices for ingredients and value your own time, you will be better off buying feasting potions from NPCs.

High food items

Potions or items in general that require a large amount of food for creation pose the potential problems of

  • boredom if you're using feasting potions or
  • extra costs for antidotes and Health Essences if you're using toadstools or a combination involving toadstools.

And even if you're eating dead people you might regret going through your food so fast. If you're just going to make a few, possibly because of a request, waiting for cooldown, getting poisoned and such won't be so bad but for leveling you'll seriously want to consider saving your ingredients for a Day of Joule.

One obvious point to be considered when making high food items is finding a good food mix, even on Day of Joule. Things to be considered are

  • reduce the time you have to wait for food with cooldown (if applicable)
  • balance the waiting with chance to be poisoned (if applicable)
  • optimize use of food items (e.g. try not to "waste" the 5 food from feasting potions by going below 0 food prior to using them)

You will have to find a combination that works for you for a given item either by careful calculation or by trial and error, a combination (both of foods and the methods to get to a food combination) will probably do nicely in most cases.

Animal parts

There are a number of animal parts that are used in various potions, we'll discuss the usefulness and market for those below. As a general rule of thumb you might want to

  • kill everything that moves and isn't quick enough to get away and
  • save the bloody remains.
  • Especially beginners should remember to save the bones and the meat, furs and other parts usually will have a use or a market at some point.

Some animal parts will be extremely hard to come by later.

NPCs

Jayden (potion goddess)

As a serious potion maker you will most likely consider following Jayden for the experience bonus that her followers get. As attaining the higher ranks is quite expensive you might want to consider waiting until you really decided that potion making is a serious passion of yours or until you can easily afford it.

Money talk

As with almost everything in Eternal Lands you can consider everything except for wine, ale, mead and some of the books to be free in making potions. It is obvious however that obtaining some tools and ingredients takes time away from actually making potions. For some players and some items such as mortars and pestles, vials or meat this may provide a welcome opportunity for experience in other skills, for other players this might not be the case. What it comes down to is that depending on your playing style or philosophy you will find some potions more or less desirable to make, the most prominent being the ones requiring animal items and from those most likely feasting potions. From a serious potion maker's perspective, acquiring animal items by actually hunting for them takes a lot (too much) time away from making potions.

Schools

If you don't mind throwing your money to the wind for experience, schools provide a nice way of doing it and if you harvest everything on your own, you might not even "lose" much besides harvesting time and the vial and food cost. Once you can make True sight potions sufficiently well, you can even afford it but at that point the very same True sight potion will provide experience and income... (also compare note on Extracts in the potions section below).

A little math excursion

To determine when to start making a certain potion (or item in general) is difficult because of the stochastical nature of failures and successes. An in-depth discussion can be found in the probability guide.

For making potions you will have to include the price and break rate of mortar & pestle in your calculations, which comes down to 0.33 gc (100 gc cost, 1 in 300 chance to break) per attempted mix.

Ideally you don't fail and you don't lose ingredients, so your cost in making an item is the sum of the prices of the ingredients, the price for the food to make one item and the tool price per item (0.33 gc). However that's not reality, so you'll have to calculate with failures both critical and non-critical and you have to keep in mind the price that NPCs sell the items for, which might make making some potions unprofitable for you; while the fact that NPCs buy some potions will make some potions very profitable for you as well as set a lower bound for what you should charge players. With that said you will find, using the tools of the probability guide, that some potions will be profitable for you even if you loose half of your ingredients while others will never be profitable.

First steps

As with most skills, beginning a career as a potion maker can be frustrating and expensive. If you don't mind getting necessary ingredients yourself by harvesting or fighting you should fare reasonably well until you can start with the real potions. Later on that attitude/organization of your playing time will of course only increase your profits.

Quests

It is highly recommended that you finish the following quests.

Potion quest

The potion quest will get you almost to level 9, do it before you do anything else.

Wine quest

The wine quest will enable you to buy wine at 0.75gc (20 wine for 15gc) from Vesine, do it.

Potions for beginners

In the potions section below you will find that Potion of Mana and Potion of Minor Healing are your best potions to start out, if you make them while training your attack and defense levels. Another positive side effect of this approach would be that you can stock up on animal parts while training and you can use those to make those other low level potions requiring animal items as your potion level increases.

If you consider your expenses (price for ingredients, tools, books, food and time spent) you won't be making profit at this point, but if you think of the experience gained (at least at lower to middling a/d levels you'll always be able to find something that'll drop something that you can use for making potions) and consider the drops to be free, you'll come to have enough to level a bit. So what it all comes down to again is your preferred playing style being the decisive factor here. In theory you should do fine if your level is twice as high as the recommended level or higher if you want to make start with other potions.

The nexus requirements increase as you try to make more advanced (but still easy) potions, if you stayed on Potions of Mana and Minor Healing you will have to raise your vegetal nexus to 4 once you are ready for the next step.

Some potions require that you read the book on how to make them, Potions of Mana, Minor Healing and Spirit Restoration don't, however all that do, have the books of Biology, Biochemistry, Botanics and Advanced Potions as prerequisites. Frukas in White Stone sells them.

When to start SRs

We'll take the probability guide to determine a good level at which to start leveling with Potions of Spirit Restoration depending on your playing style. There are basically two things to consider:

  • real ingredients costs after critical fails
  • real food costs after non-critical fails

These two determine when you break even. We take the formulas from the probability guide and calculate the following table for ingredients of 100 Potions of Spirit Restoration, giving you the choice when you think it's feasible to start with Potions of Spirit Restoration

Level p Produced SRs Food usages
1 0.03 7 286
5 0.13 30 240
10 0.25 50 200
15 0.38 64 172
20 0.50 75 150
25 0.63 83 134
30 0.75 90 120
35 0.88 95 110
39 0.98 99 102

Remember, these numbers are calculated from expected values and don't take astrology into account either. So be conservative in your calculations.

Leveling

Once you get to levels where you can profitably create Potions of Spirit Restoration you are all set for a career as a potion maker. Have a look at the notes on other potions below to see why you're best off using these and True sight potions for leveling.

Potions of Spirit Restoration

These are the pots you will most likely make the most, at least until you can make True Sight Potions, depending on your playing style and preferences probably afterwards as well. Obviously you will have to start with getting the supplies:

Of course you can also buy the ingredients and get straight to mixing. Rinse and repeat.

Alternative ways to make Potions of Spirit Restoration

  • You can also try mixing them on site.
  • You can mix them while training attack and defense while on spawn, however, since you don't get the vials back and the weight of the ingredients is greater than the weight of the finished potion this doesn't seem to be a good idea. If you want potion experience during a/d training, you should consider and try Potions of Mana.

True sight potions

You have to determine a good level to start using the probability guide. We'll start out again with getting the ingredients. It's much more profitable for True sight potions to buy the ingredients than it's for Potions of Spirit Restoration, so if you find yourself in need of more ingredients and without motivation to harvest here you'll find a good investment opportunity. You will need

True sight potions give roughly twice the experience as Potions of Spirit Restoration do, but the latter is still a very good item to level with even at high levels, especially if you harvest your own ingredients. The reasons for this are obviously ingredients and food requirements (see high food items above).

Since True sight potions sell to Derzelas at 60gc, this potion will provide a nice and steady income for you.

Leveling alternatives

Alternatives for Potions of Spirit Restoration

The only alternative to Potions of Spirit Restoration are Potions of Body Restoration due to market and ingredients reasons: you can sell them to NPC at a similar price as Potions of Spirit Restoration - they weight less and stack, so selling to NPC is actually better than with Potions of Spirit Restoration, which is what you'll mostly have to do as demand is low. The disadvantages of Potions of Body Restoration compared to those of Spirit Restoration are the much longer harvest times if you harvest yourself (no double Sunflower patches and Rose Quartz seems to be longer than Blue Quartz) as well as the higher food demand, which will have the mixer waiting on cooldown more often than when making Potions of Spirit Restoration. If you buy the ingredients you will most likely be able to make similar experience and money per hour as with Potions of Spirit Restoration. On the other hand, you can consider the XP gain during a marathon grinding session. Compare 4000 mixes of SR's and BR's, and the 40k xp difference between the two potion types will seem to accommodate the extra harvesting time. This equates to roughly 570 fewer sets of ingredients (wine, quartz, vials, food, time...). Above all, 15gc per sale buys three empty vials from one BR potion, thus increasing your stock for the next phase of grinding.

Other potions around these levels (until you can start considering True sight potions) are unsuited for leveling due to either animal ingredients or no demand in combination with no NPC market.

Alternatives for True sight potions

Currently, the only potion which offers a similar cost-performance ratio is Poison Antidote. While the recipe calls for two more purchased items (ale), the other ingredients are harvested as opposed to roadkill (Deer Antlers). The extra cost may be a significant decision point when one considers that Deer Antlers don't stack while Poison Antidote do. This wasn't true before, however that was then.

Potions

In this section we'll discuss the different potions in regard to their potential usefulness for profit and leveling, where leveling entails making them in bulk and being able to sell them to players or NPCs.

Profits, benefits and costs are of course dependent on how you value your own time and the ingredients, as has been said in animal parts and money talk. Thus you might find some of the potions listed more profitable than presented below; in that case you might want to concentrate on the ones with some demand. However, as acquiring animal items in quantities suited for leveling takes a lot of time away from actually making potions, items requiring animal items aren't recommended for leveling in general.

  • Potion of Mana, there's no demand for this potion, however as the vial is returned upon use, they offer a training possibility in combination with other training (e.g. Magic or a/d).
  • Potion of Minor Healing, see Potion of Minor Mana, as both are very low level potions, you probably won't even see the small theoretical demand from quests.
  • Potion of Reasoning, there's no demand for these potions but if you don't value your bones, you can get some money back as Mira pays 15gc for these.
  • Potion of Physique, there's some demand but if you value the animal ingredients, which prevent it from being a leveling item, you can't make them for profit. Charge at least 17.5gc as that's what Mira pays.
  • Potion of Defense, these have some demand, but taking the value of the ingredients into account you will most likely make a loss with these plus the animal items prevent this potion from being a leveling item.
  • Potion of Coordination, these also have some demand and you might be able to break even. If you hunt your own Deer Fur don't forget to keep the Deer Antlers for Potions of Summoning later on.
  • Potion of Wildness, in theory you can break even when selling to players (but requires Wolf Fur), however there's been no demand so far.
  • Potion of Will, no demand, not a leveling item.
  • Potion of Vitality, no demand, puma fur makes this a potion unsuited for leveling.
  • Potion of Attack, there's some demand but the costs of the ingredients (or the time you have to spend getting especially the bear furs) makes them unsuited for leveling.
  • Potion of Spirit Restoration, discussed above. This is the potion.
  • Potion of Feasting, decent demand but you can't beat the NPC price even if you have the meat supplied on regular days. If made on Day of Joule, you might fare better but since you can get both similar experience and better money on Potions of Spirit Restoration and Potions of Body Restoration (and True sight potions later on) on any day, this potion is not recommended for leveling.
  • Potion of Body Restoration, see alternatives above, not as good as Potions of Spirit Restoration but nice if you don't mind selling mostly to NPC. You might want to consider keeping a couple hundred in stock for players doing the god quests.

Beyond vegetal 4

As a serious potion maker you will have to get your vegetal nexus to 5 sooner or later, simply because you want to make True sight potions. As with any other nexus, you should consider buying it from Costel. However, getting a vegetal nexus of 6 should be considered a luxury at this point, because the potions needing it are low in demand or there's basically no demand altogether. You should wait until you've made enough money with other potions (see above) to buy this extra nexus, unless you don't mind spending pickpoints on nexi or plan to reset of course.

  • Potion of Harvesting, there's no demand for this potion. The players who could benefit from it are the ones that can't afford to buy it. The White Rabbit Fur makes it unsuited and too expensive for serious leveling (Mira sells for 20gc, buys for 10gc).
  • Potion of Manufacturing, you might be able to sell a few of these at storages, the ingredients are harvestable so unless you bought them, it won't hurt to keep a few in storage but don't expect high trade volumes. Not suited for leveling.
  • Potion of Summoning, summoners will buy these in decent quantities (sometimes). The ingredients make them somewhat of a pain to create. Not suited for leveling.
  • Potion of Crafting, every now and then you might be able to sell a few of these. Don't count on it though. Not suited for leveling.
  • Magic Potion, there's some demand for magic potions usually by players that want to start draining mana early, as there's no competition from NPCs you should be able to charge a price that let's you break even or make profit. Not suited for serious leveling.
  • Potion of Extra Mana, if you're making a lot of Potions of Spirit Restoration, you will seldom need to make Potions of Extra Mana using the recipe, demand is usually driven by PK and PK events. It's certainly good to have a couple ready, not really suited for leveling.
  • Potion of Great Healing, currently the recipe is totally worthless and due to the influx by Desert Chimerans there's no demand by players that can't be satisfied by it. Do not make these unless by chance while making Potions of Body Restoration.
  • Poison Antidote, nice to make and there's some demand for them, the book seems to be rather expensive and you shouldn't expect to get the money back by making these any time soon. NPC buying price is less than for True sight potions and ingredients include twice the amount of NPC brew and they don't stack; makes them overall less attractive than True sight potions, but keep a good load in storage since if you're using Toadstools for food, you might end up being your own best customer for these.
  • True Sight Potion, discussed above.
  • Invisibility Potion, if you find a supplier for the furs or hunt your own, these are kind of nice, suited for leveling if you don't mind the long walk to the Aeth Aelfan pharmacy (pays 105gc) or can afford to have them sit in storage until you're able to sell them. The fact that Fluffy Rabbits and other monsters drop them as well as the animal ingredients, weight and the fact that they don't stack make them less than great potions to make in general.
  • Potion of Accuracy, there's a good demand for these. The furs make them unsuited for leveling and there's also an influx by drops, however if you can manage to get your hands on furs, these are nice to have. Since they aren't as nice of a profit as True sight potions, you shouldn't waste money on the book if you can't afford to.
  • Potion of Evasion, see Potion of Accuracy above, the same applies here.
  • Potion of Alchemy, demand for Potions of Alchemy is rare and the less than optimal ingredients don't recommend this potion for much except if you can get your hands on the ingredients for less than 100gc as that's what Closca will give you for them. Due to animal items involved this potion isn't suited for leveling.
  • Potion of Potion, if you're short on gc (aka haven't reached True sight potions yet), you shouldn't be worried about this potion. You will never get the money for the book back as there's no demand and NPC buying price isn't worth it.
  • Potion of Engineering, demand is low for these, the ingredients scream: do not level with me.
  • Potion of Cold Protection, no leveling item, due to low demand and ingredients.
  • Potion of Heat Protection, no leveling item, due to low demand and ingredients.
  • Potion of Radiation Protection, no leveling item, due to low demand and ingredients.
  • Extracts (Yarrow-Wormwood-Tulip Extract, Nightshade-Mullein-Dandelion Extract, Poison Ivy-Henbane-Poppies Extract, Red Currents-Blue Berries-Rue Extract, White Chanterelle-Ogre Toes-Tree Mushroom Extract, Wheat-Valerian-Mugwort Extract, Wheat-Daffodils-Feran Horn Extract) are used to make the mixtures below, the demand for the mixtures is changing at the moment due to the shapeshifting possibilities. Each takes more ingredients than the number of experience equivalent True sight potions and the gypsum makes them hard to make. If you decide to make them, make them at the gypsum deposit and stock up on gypsum (or do that while making mortars and pestles if you make your own), that way you can stock up for Scholars Day or Day of Joule. In that sense it's not a leveling item (better experience and money for True sight potions) but a "level blast for the prepared" item.
  • Refined Vegetal Mixture, if you took vegetal 6 and made the extracts, you might as well make this potion, see extracts above as to why this is not a leveling item and why this is no reason to take vegetal 6 for the casual potion maker. The use in Creature food gives an increase in experience and better income as well.
  • Mixture of Power, the same considerations as for the refined vegetal mixture and extracts apply here.
  • Creature food, if you made the Refined Vegetal Mixtures you can turn them into a profit with this item, the demand should be steady and increasing when more shapes are added to the game.
  • Potion of Attack Reduction, the usefulness of and demand for this potion is yet to be determined
  • Potion of Defense Reduction, the usefulness of and demand for this potion is yet to be determined

Strategies

Mortars & pestles

  • If you can't afford to break a lot, check your degrade modifier before starting a mixing session.
  • If you make them yourself, make them at the gypsum deposit, return with a load of gypsum. You'll have to bring food and the essences. Remember to bring some extra food just in case (depending on your manufacturing level) and the fact that there's an upper limit to the number of mortars & pestles you can make per run. This depends on what else you carry along.

Vials

  • If you decide to make them yourself, check your degrade modifier before you start a mixing session.

Animal parts

  • Don't level with potions that require animal parts.
  • If you don't have the animal parts needed for a potion, consider requiring them from customers as part of the trade.
  • Consider selling potions that require animal parts (or are hard to make in terms of ingredients) to friends only.
  • The Hawk Feathers for Jayden can be collected with some effort in Hurquin as there are two spawns that one can use for this purpose walking from one to the other and back. One is in the south, below the tavern and the other in the middle to north of the city with a eastward tendency.

Extracts

If you decide to make them, try how you like making them at least partially at the gypsum deposit. This lets you stock up on gypsum in case you want to use them for "experience boosts" later.

One strategy Ive heard some people use, is to harvest all ings for extracts, and make them in the potting school on scholars day. This results in x2 exp + extra exp from scholars Day. My guess is you can probably get up to 800 exp on some Extracts. --Nerdz 00:20, 10 January 2009 (CST)

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