Crafting basics

The following list might help you choose a crafting profession depending on your class:

Cooking Make food or beverages that give buffs and purify contaminated materials.
* Recommended Class: All
Handicrafting Make precious metals, wooden weapons and small parts.
* Recommended Class: Ranger and Chanter
Weapon Smith Make matel weapons
* Recommended Class: Warrior series and Scout series
Armor Smith Make metal armors, helmets and shields
* Recommended Class: Warrior series and Priest series
Sewing Make cloth armor and leather armor
* Recommended Class: Scout series, Mage series and Priest series
Alchemy Make potions, magical weapons and items can upgrade the equipments
* Recommended Class: All

The following are the two gathering skills:
Icon Name Description
Extract Vitality Extracting various vitality on the earth – herb, meat, wood, ore and so on
Extract Aether Extract the Aether floating in the sky to get the Aether crystals

For Asmodians, go to the Temple of Artisans in Pandaemonium and find:

* Alchemy: Honir
* Armorsmithing: Kinterun
* Cooking: Lainita
* Handicrafting: Lanse
* Sewing: Zyakia
* Weaponsmithing: Rogi

For Elyos, go to the Artisans’ Hall in Sanctum and find:

* Alchemy: Diana
* Armorsmithing: Vulcanus
* Cooking: Hestia
* Handicrafting: Utsida
* Sewing: Daphnis
* Weaponsmithing: Anteros

Each character can learn every craft and reach a skill of 399; however each character can only become a master at one craft.
The Basics

Aion crafting window

Now that you have learned a craft, there are a few important guidelines to follow. The first is accessing your craft window. To do this, open up your Skills window and select the Crafting tab, then Right-Click on your craft to bring up its window. At the top of the window, under the name of the craft, is your experience bar. If you just learned it, it will say ‘1/99′. As you get closer to 99, just like gaining regular experience, the bar will fill up. However, when you max out at 99, you will need to return to your craft’s expert (the names listed above) and pay to learn the next level.

The following are the prices to pay.

* Lesser = ~3,500 Kinah
* Regular = ~17,000 Kinah
* Greater = ~115,000 Kinah
* Expert = ~460,000 Kinah
* Master = ~1,500,000 Kinah?

When you pay the price above to learn the next level, you will gain 1 skill point. For example, if you are at 99 and pay ~17,000 Kinah to become a Regular crafter, your skill will become 100.The large area below the experience bar in the crafting window is the list of your recipes. They are organized by category and you can hide or show each category by clicking the box to the left of the category name. When you accept a Work Order, they will automatically be the first category.

The two boxes on the right side, called Product and Required Materials, are just that. When you click a specific recipe, the end result will appear in the Product box and the required materials to make that recipe will appear in the Required Materials box.On the bottom right of the window are two buttons and a box in-between them. The right button is to craft the number in the box of the currently selected recipe. The left button is craft all, which places the maximum number you can craft of the currently selected recipe into that box.

When you are actually crafting, the success or fail rate is dependent on your skill compared to the recipe and chance. If your skill is equal to that of the recipe’s level, your chance of failing is around 33%. If your skill is 3 points higher than that of the recipe’s level, your chance of failing is around 15%. If your skill is between 5 and 10 points higher, your chance of failing is minimal. Once you are above 10, your chance of failing is incredibly low. Once the recipe turns grey, your chance of failing is 0.

Lastly, as you level up, visit the same merchant as you do for supplies to purchase some of your craft’s recipes. The rest of the recipes can be obtained through quests or are dropped.
Actually Crafting

Handicrafting Alchemy Armorsmithing

Sewing Cooking Weapon Smith

If you just started a craft, go to your craft’s expert and accept the work order for ‘1P’ (stands for a skill level of 1 point) by clicking ‘Craft Request’. Now, find a workstation and Right-Click it to bring up your craft window. Select the recipe for the work order. Since the quest requires that you make 3 Gritty Clams, change the ‘1′ to a ‘3′ in the box and then hit the craft button. As you’re crafting, each time you fail, hit the > arrow to increase the amount you need to craft to fulfill the quest.

Tailoring work ordersOnce you are done, return to your craft’s expert and turn in the work order. Continue this process until you are at a skill of 10 and can receive your first real work order. When you accept the quest for the work order for ‘10P’, open your craft window and select the recipe for the work order you just accepted. Now look at the required materials.

As a general rule, multiple each material by however many finished products you need to complete the quest (if you have the work order for 10P, this number is 6), and then multiple that by a factor of 6 (that is around the least amount of attempts you can possibly do to raise your skill to the point where you can accept the next work order). Once you have calculated how many materials you will need, visit the merchant, who is also inside of the crafting room, and purchase those materials. As your skill becomes higher, it will require more than 6 work orders to raise your skill level by 10.

As a general rule, I usually purchase one extra the amount of work orders I think will raise my skill level by 10 since there are usually failures at the beginning. If you purchase exactly the right amount and fail just once, you won’t be able to finish your last work order and will have to buy more materials. However, purchasing one extra will give you the cushion to fail up to 6 times (more at higher skill levels).

If you need clarification on this, let’s take a look at an example. If you just learned Cooking, you would accept the work order for ‘Salted Pujery Supply 10P’. Open your craft window and select the recipe for ‘Salted Pujery’. The required materials are your given materials and 1 Salt. Now, the required amount of finished products for the quest is 6. Thus, multiple 1 Salt by 6, which is 6 Salts. Now, you need a skill of 20 to obtain the next work order, so multiple the 6 Salts by 7 (6 and 1 spare), which is 42 Salts. Now, visit the merchant and purchase 42 Salts.

The next part is a trick that you will love. Position yourself between your craft’s expert and the closest workstation. Then put yourself as far away from the workstation as possible, but still able to craft. You should be exactly in the middle between the workstation and your craft’s expert. As you finish each work order, simply Right-Click your craft’s expert, turn in the work order, accept the new one, chance the number from ‘1′ to ‘6′, then hit the craft button. You won’t even have to move! This can save massive amounts of time if you plan on crafting for a long time.

Now that you know the basics of crafting and how to craft work orders to raise your skill, the next part of the guide will go into detail of the benefits of each craft.
Detailed Overview of Crafts

This section is aimed at providing you what each craft can make, how difficult or expensive it is to craft, and who the craft itself is good for.
Alchemy

Alchemy is used for creating potions, scrolls, Manastones, orbs, and spellbooks. Other than orbs and spellbooks, all of the creations are considered commodities. Thus, they are not very difficult to craft and are not sold for a lot of Kinah. At all times, you can find lots of potions, scrolls, and Manastones through a Trade Broker. Furthermore, the materials required for crafting these items can be easily found as well. The main perks of Alchemy are having access to your own potions, scrolls, and Manastones (something we all use frequently and may not want to have to buy) and to create orbs and spellbooks if you are of the Mage class. I would not suggest picking Alchemy to simply craft orbs and spellbooks to sell, as there are better crafts for that.

I strongly suggest picking up Alchemy if you are of the Mage class, and simply suggest it for those who gather lots of herbs and want to use them for something. One negative for being an Alchemist is that it requires lots of inventory/bank space. There are lots of various materials (lots of herbs, basic materials, and Manastones) required to craft everything, which can fill up inventories fast.
Armorsmithing

Armorsmithing is used for creating shields, chain helmets, plate helmets, chain armor, and plate armor. Armorsmithing is very useful to have if you are of the Priest or Warrior classes, as you can fill 6 or 7 inventory slots with high quality crafted gear, making a big difference in your character’s statistics. Armorsmithing really only requires Aether, ore, and Kinah. If you are like me and want a full set of the best possible gear, you will spend 5 hours gathering hundreds of ore and Aether to craft 5 of one item in order to get a ‘proc’ out of it. This not only is a huge time sink, but it also becomes very expensive, as turning raw ore into usable ingots is very expensive. And if you do not ‘proc’, the failed item is barely worth as much as you spent on it.

However, it is very nice to be able to have a full set of great gear every 5 levels. Basically, if you are a Priest or Warrior, I’d suggest picking up Armorsmithing; even the basic recipes craft decent gear. If you get ‘proc’s, all the better. As far as using it to make money, it simply requires too much time to be of any real value, but occasionally you will have an extra ‘proc’d item that will sell for a lot.
Cooking

Cooking is only used for creating food. This, more or less, is used for temporarily boosting certain statistics. It is fairly inexpensive to cook and I would suggest it to anyone who uses food on a regular basis. However, there is little money to be made from it if you include the time it takes to gather and cook. Also, you can simply purchase food off of the Trade Broker or from a merchant with near the same benefits for a reasonably cheap price. If you plan on consuming lots of food, as in never being without a buff, then I’d suggest it. However, if you only plan on using food for groups or hard areas, I wouldn’t suggest spending the time raising it up.
Handicrafting

Handicrafting is used for creating rings, earrings, necklaces, glasses (head slot), bows, and staffs. Handicrafting is both expensive and time consuming to craft, but also the best craft for making money. For jewelry, gems are the primary material. It is fairly uncommon throughout areas and can only be gathered once per node, unlike everything else that can be gathered 3 times. This increases the amount of time required to gather lots of materials for attempts. Also, it is pretty much required to ‘proc’ on the initial recipe to make anything of value, both to you or to someone else. Once you do proc, you can then use that for an even better recipe, which also has a chance to ‘proc’. Even if the second recipe doesn’t ‘proc’, you will still have a very valuable item to use or sell. If it does ‘proc’, the value triples.

Overall, Handicrafting is the best craft for making money. You can spend 2 hours gathering and create a few valuable pieces of jewelry that will sell for lots of money, let alone, good rings, earrings, and necklaces are hard to find other than from Handicrafting. If you choose Handicrafting as your main or secondary craft, you will not be disappointed. I would highly suggest Handicrafting for Rangers and Chanters, but really for anyone who is willing to craft, period, as it is very rewarding.
Sewing

Sewing is used for creating belts, cloth helmets, leather helmets, cloth armor, and leather armor. As the same for Armorsmithing, this craft is mainly designed to be used by the other two classes: Scouts and Mages. There is not a big market for making money from this craft and it is just as time consuming and costly as Armorsmithing. If you are a Scout or Mage, I would highly suggest using this craft, even if you do not want to invest the time to create full sets of ‘proc’d gear; as the basics are still useful. And the occasional extra ‘proc’d piece will sell for a pretty penny.
Weaponsmithing

Weaponsmithing is used for creating daggers, swords, maces, greatswords, and polearms. Weaponsmithing is both costly and time consuming to create, but fairly rewarding. If you are a class that uses any of the above weapons, I definitely suggest picking up this craft. However, you can go without it and purchase similar items from the Trade Broker for similar prices. For instance, if a 100 damage sword can be crafted for roughly 100,000 Kinah in materials and failed attempts, then there’s probably a 90 damage sword for sale through the Trade Broker at 90,000 Kinah.

The real benefit from Weaponsmithing is gathering lots of materials and attempting to get as many ‘proc’s as possible and then selling the ones you don’t use. Weaponsmithing works similar to Handicrafting where you need to ‘proc’ the regular recipe in order to use in another recipe and then ‘proc’ that to get the best result. Even if the second fails, you still will have a valuable item. If it succeeds, you will have a very valuable item. The best results can fetch prices in the millions, which is attractive at any level.

Overall, Weaponsmithing is not a bad craft for any class that uses the weapons listed above, but I definitely suggest it for Templars, Gladiators, and Assassins.