Atrele's Alchemy Guide
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:26 pm
To new players, the skill of Alchemy can be quite daunting. It's a time intensive enterprise, but it also provides some of the most widespread benefits of any skill that is not Spellcasting. It can be steady experience, provided one is supplied with the appropriate materials. Otherwise it can be quite an exhausting affair that will often leave you very vulnerable.
The basics of Alchemy
Alchemy is basically the art of taking six random components and turning them into six useful potions. There is significant randomness in the process of Alchemy, however the formulae are extremely predictable in a fashion. There are ways to reduce the randomness, available to alchemists of all varieties, of which I will also explain.
Requirements
The first thing to note is that ALL alchemical actions require either a factional alchemy bench, building chemistry facility, or magical font. If you are in a faction, the faction may spend Renown to have an alchemy bench in their stronghold if the building already does not have an innate chemistry facility. Hospitals, pharmacies and similar medical facilities can allow alchemy to be performed but are not the only locations: Castles, Distilleries and other locations may also have chemistry facilities. Finally, any font can be used to perform alchemical actions. The depth and element, or actually being tapped into the font are all irrelevant. As long as the font is visible it can be used. The Font can be tapped to perform tasks with the Font's MP instead of the alchemist's own, but the alchemist should be cautious: using the Font's MP will leave evidence and this can lead to font bars and traps laid against the alchemist, especially if the alchemist is casually rough with the font!
Components
Alchemical components are usually "natural" or "valuable" objects of some sort. These can vary from Sprigs of Holly to Chunks of Stygian Coal, to actual skulls. To find components, all the prospective alchemist must do is go to a location where components may be found, and search. Many outdoor areas are very good to search: Mountains and Graveyards in particular have a nice selection of components and good search odds. But if the alchemist needs Gold or Silver Ingots they're better off searching a bank, and good luck finding Paradise Water in Stygia!
Component Rarity: Each alchemical component is assigned a rarity value based on the alchemist particular skill/class. That is to say, the assigned rarity to particular components may be different if the alchemist is a Sorcerer, Shepherd/Pilgrim, or Defiler/Heretic. For example, the Bunch of Paradise Lilies is Common for angels, Uncommon for transcended, and Rare for demons. This does not apply to all components: the majority of components share rarity across class.
Special Components: Every alchemist gets one special component. This component will not be the part of any recipe, however this component can be transformed into any specific component for the cost of 3 AP and 5 MP. This means that if the alchemist can get a steady supply of this component, the alchemist can generate any recipe for an extra cost in AP and MP. Angels and Transcended use spellgems (listed as common), while Demons use Soul Ice (listed as Rare). (This Wizard is of the opinion that Defilers got the better option.) However, spellgems can be found in specific places (or even harvested!) while any Tier 3 demonic alchemist of even minor competence should have very little trouble acquiring Soul Ice.
Furthermore, there are special components known as Prima Materia: similarly to spellgems and Soul Ice, they will never show in any recipe, but they can be tranmuted into alchemical components. Greater Prima Materia can be transmuted to any component, while Lesser Prima Materia are limited to Common and Uncommon. In general, Prima Materia are fairly rare.
Experimentation
Once the alchemist has components, the next thing the alchemist must do is to conduct alchemical experiments. This is done through the Alchemy Tab. The alchemist merely needs to select any alchemical component they possess from the drop down, and then select the potion they wish to research with the other. Click the button, and for 3 AP and 5 AP, await your results. You also gain 20 XP for every alchemical experiment you perform.
In general the guesswork can be a problem, but as long as you have a safe place to do it and a means to heal yourself and remove poison, you should largely be fine. Here, angels and Good factions will have a significant advantage: the number of healers among the group will suffice to keep all but the unluckiest alchemist alive, and the presence of Aethersprites will all but ensure survival of any alchemical accident.
Forgetting a formula: If at any point of discovery you do not like the formula, you can Forget a formula for 5 AP and 5 MP. If you do, this completely erases the formula knowledge and generates a new random formula. The rules that generate the formula remain the same: one fixed, and five random components. Note that this will also allow the alchemist to experiment further with a recipe for experience points.
Recipes
Recipes always require six alchemy components, with each recipe being randomly and independently generated. That is to say: the recipe one alchemist will discover will not be the same as another alchemists discoveries (although, it is possible due to random chance). However, each different potion generates their recipe differently based on component rarity.
All potions will require at the minimum six components, of which will have at least one of each rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). The rarity of the other components varies across recipes, however a recipe's particular combination of rarities will ALWAYS be the same regardless of generation. This can be useful for encouraging successful experiments.
Often, a recipe may generate that requires multiple of a specific type of component (for example, 2-4 Chunks of Onyx for a Potion of Magic Recovery). This largely has no current effect on the recipe and is often simple chance. However, this does mean that the only way to know that all the instances of that component has been discovered without having the full recipe is to get a Nothing Learned result during experimentation. It also means any discovered component as well that recipe's fixed component will ALWAYS be safe when experimenting with that recipe: you either learn and lose nothing, or complete a successful experiment.
Production!
Once the Alchemist has a satisfactory full recipe, all they have to do is collect the specific components! For 5 AP and 5 MP, five of the six components will be consumed, and six potions are created and placed in the Alchemist's inventory. The Alchemist is then awarded 40 XP for the successful creations. Note that FIVE of the six components will be consumed, although which component is spared will be chosen at random. But this does mean you will always have one relevant component to that recipe after the potions are produced. Once you have them you can drink them, trade them, throw them in the faction safe, use them for target practice... whatever strikes your fancy! Congratulations, you have completed the Basic Alchemy course and can truly be called an Alchemist!
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Advanced Alchemy
Now that we understand the basics, we can delve into a few other possibilities.
The first is the ability to Recombine Potions for 5 MP and 5 AP. This takes two different potions (that is, two of the same potion cannot be used) to create a third, different potion and awards the alchemist 10 XP. This consumes both potions, essentially trading two potions you do not need for one that you do. You must know the recipe of the potion to be created.
The second is the ability to Transmute Crafting Components for 3 AP and 5 AP. This is really only of interest to crafters, of which to be fair does include many alchemists. One component will be traded for another component, allowing easier crafting. There is no rarity to consider when transmuting crafting materials: a Block of Wood will transmute into a Chunk of Iron as it can a Chunk of Steel, and a Chunk of Iron may similarly be transmuted to Wood, Iron, or even a Bottle of Gunpowder, and any other way around.
Further benefit comes from the 40 CP skill "Deep Alchemy", "Sacred Alchemy", and "Foul Alchemy", for Transcended, Angels, and Demons respectively. This skill expands Alchemy in multiple ways.
The first and probably most noticeable is that the Recipe list will be expanded by eight recipes: True Sight Potions, five weapon oils (which vary between each alchemist class), and two unique items depending on class, one of which will always be an Incense of some sort. Unlike other recipes, only ONE incense will be produced from a recipe.
The second (and in my opinion, strongest) ability is to transmute any particular alchemical component into another component of equal or lesser rarity. Note that this is where the differences in component recipes is most noticeable: for example a demon may transmute a Bunch of Paradise Lilies to any other alchemy component, while Transcended are limited to Uncommon or Common, and angels limited further to solely Common rarity. This means that as long as the alchemist has at least six rare components (or even four rare, one uncommon, and one common component), the alchemist can by and large turn them into any potion that they wish similar to Spellgems and Soul Ice, further reducing randomness in exchange for additional cost. This allows focusing on searching more component rich locations instead of travelling to specific locations to acquire the necessary components: Mountains and Forests are, in particular, good for this.
-----
Final Notes
Alchemy can be an extremely useful skill for any spellcaster: a factioned Alchemist will be one of the most valuable support producers for a faction, particularly raiding factions which often live and die by their logistics. Factionless Alchemists gains a wide variety of powerful survival tools to near-eternal invisibility, rendering specific damage elements almost completely impotent, mobility normally only provided by T3 skills, or even surviving and winning extended combat. In general, taking Basic Alchemy is never a bad idea for any spellcaster, and while it is up to the Alchemist's choice if they with to go further, Deep/Sacred/Foul Alchemy is never of negative affect and is useful to any Alchemist regardless of build or affiliation.
Thank you for reading this guide! Feel free to leave your thoughts or additional tips in the comments!
-- Atrele Kasha
The basics of Alchemy
Alchemy is basically the art of taking six random components and turning them into six useful potions. There is significant randomness in the process of Alchemy, however the formulae are extremely predictable in a fashion. There are ways to reduce the randomness, available to alchemists of all varieties, of which I will also explain.
Requirements
The first thing to note is that ALL alchemical actions require either a factional alchemy bench, building chemistry facility, or magical font. If you are in a faction, the faction may spend Renown to have an alchemy bench in their stronghold if the building already does not have an innate chemistry facility. Hospitals, pharmacies and similar medical facilities can allow alchemy to be performed but are not the only locations: Castles, Distilleries and other locations may also have chemistry facilities. Finally, any font can be used to perform alchemical actions. The depth and element, or actually being tapped into the font are all irrelevant. As long as the font is visible it can be used. The Font can be tapped to perform tasks with the Font's MP instead of the alchemist's own, but the alchemist should be cautious: using the Font's MP will leave evidence and this can lead to font bars and traps laid against the alchemist, especially if the alchemist is casually rough with the font!
Components
Alchemical components are usually "natural" or "valuable" objects of some sort. These can vary from Sprigs of Holly to Chunks of Stygian Coal, to actual skulls. To find components, all the prospective alchemist must do is go to a location where components may be found, and search. Many outdoor areas are very good to search: Mountains and Graveyards in particular have a nice selection of components and good search odds. But if the alchemist needs Gold or Silver Ingots they're better off searching a bank, and good luck finding Paradise Water in Stygia!
Component Rarity: Each alchemical component is assigned a rarity value based on the alchemist particular skill/class. That is to say, the assigned rarity to particular components may be different if the alchemist is a Sorcerer, Shepherd/Pilgrim, or Defiler/Heretic. For example, the Bunch of Paradise Lilies is Common for angels, Uncommon for transcended, and Rare for demons. This does not apply to all components: the majority of components share rarity across class.
Special Components: Every alchemist gets one special component. This component will not be the part of any recipe, however this component can be transformed into any specific component for the cost of 3 AP and 5 MP. This means that if the alchemist can get a steady supply of this component, the alchemist can generate any recipe for an extra cost in AP and MP. Angels and Transcended use spellgems (listed as common), while Demons use Soul Ice (listed as Rare). (This Wizard is of the opinion that Defilers got the better option.) However, spellgems can be found in specific places (or even harvested!) while any Tier 3 demonic alchemist of even minor competence should have very little trouble acquiring Soul Ice.
Furthermore, there are special components known as Prima Materia: similarly to spellgems and Soul Ice, they will never show in any recipe, but they can be tranmuted into alchemical components. Greater Prima Materia can be transmuted to any component, while Lesser Prima Materia are limited to Common and Uncommon. In general, Prima Materia are fairly rare.
Experimentation
Once the alchemist has components, the next thing the alchemist must do is to conduct alchemical experiments. This is done through the Alchemy Tab. The alchemist merely needs to select any alchemical component they possess from the drop down, and then select the potion they wish to research with the other. Click the button, and for 3 AP and 5 AP, await your results. You also gain 20 XP for every alchemical experiment you perform.
- Successful Experiment! The chosen component is part of the formula. This is simply added to your discoveries and you are awarded 20 XP. The component is consumed.
- Nothing Learned! The chosen component is part of the formula, and all instances of that component have been discovered. No XP is awarded, and the AP and MP of the experiment is not spent. Similarly, the component will not be consumed.
- Explosive Failure! The chosen component is NOT part of the formula. This results in an alchemical accident that can cause some random effect. Not all accident effects are deleterious, however one of the most common effects is a large chunk of damage that is fully capable of killing you and has already killed countless alchemists multiple times. However, either a separate instance of that component in another unknown recipe, or a different component in that recipe will be revealed. This will be added to your discoveries and you are awarded 20 XP. The component is consumed.
In general the guesswork can be a problem, but as long as you have a safe place to do it and a means to heal yourself and remove poison, you should largely be fine. Here, angels and Good factions will have a significant advantage: the number of healers among the group will suffice to keep all but the unluckiest alchemist alive, and the presence of Aethersprites will all but ensure survival of any alchemical accident.
Forgetting a formula: If at any point of discovery you do not like the formula, you can Forget a formula for 5 AP and 5 MP. If you do, this completely erases the formula knowledge and generates a new random formula. The rules that generate the formula remain the same: one fixed, and five random components. Note that this will also allow the alchemist to experiment further with a recipe for experience points.
Recipes
Recipes always require six alchemy components, with each recipe being randomly and independently generated. That is to say: the recipe one alchemist will discover will not be the same as another alchemists discoveries (although, it is possible due to random chance). However, each different potion generates their recipe differently based on component rarity.
All potions will require at the minimum six components, of which will have at least one of each rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). The rarity of the other components varies across recipes, however a recipe's particular combination of rarities will ALWAYS be the same regardless of generation. This can be useful for encouraging successful experiments.
- Potion of Water Breathing will always require 4 Common, 1 Rare, and 1 Chunk of Coral (which serves as the recipe's Uncommon component)
- Potion of Magic Recovery will always require 1 Common, 1 Uncommon, 3 Rare, and 1 Chunk of Onyx (which serves as a Rare component)
- Potion of Invulnerability will always require 2 Common, 2 Uncommon, and 2 Rare, one of which will be a Lead Brick (which is Uncommon for Angels and Transcended but Common for Demons).
Often, a recipe may generate that requires multiple of a specific type of component (for example, 2-4 Chunks of Onyx for a Potion of Magic Recovery). This largely has no current effect on the recipe and is often simple chance. However, this does mean that the only way to know that all the instances of that component has been discovered without having the full recipe is to get a Nothing Learned result during experimentation. It also means any discovered component as well that recipe's fixed component will ALWAYS be safe when experimenting with that recipe: you either learn and lose nothing, or complete a successful experiment.
Production!
Once the Alchemist has a satisfactory full recipe, all they have to do is collect the specific components! For 5 AP and 5 MP, five of the six components will be consumed, and six potions are created and placed in the Alchemist's inventory. The Alchemist is then awarded 40 XP for the successful creations. Note that FIVE of the six components will be consumed, although which component is spared will be chosen at random. But this does mean you will always have one relevant component to that recipe after the potions are produced. Once you have them you can drink them, trade them, throw them in the faction safe, use them for target practice... whatever strikes your fancy! Congratulations, you have completed the Basic Alchemy course and can truly be called an Alchemist!
-----
Advanced Alchemy
Now that we understand the basics, we can delve into a few other possibilities.
The first is the ability to Recombine Potions for 5 MP and 5 AP. This takes two different potions (that is, two of the same potion cannot be used) to create a third, different potion and awards the alchemist 10 XP. This consumes both potions, essentially trading two potions you do not need for one that you do. You must know the recipe of the potion to be created.
The second is the ability to Transmute Crafting Components for 3 AP and 5 AP. This is really only of interest to crafters, of which to be fair does include many alchemists. One component will be traded for another component, allowing easier crafting. There is no rarity to consider when transmuting crafting materials: a Block of Wood will transmute into a Chunk of Iron as it can a Chunk of Steel, and a Chunk of Iron may similarly be transmuted to Wood, Iron, or even a Bottle of Gunpowder, and any other way around.
Further benefit comes from the 40 CP skill "Deep Alchemy", "Sacred Alchemy", and "Foul Alchemy", for Transcended, Angels, and Demons respectively. This skill expands Alchemy in multiple ways.
The first and probably most noticeable is that the Recipe list will be expanded by eight recipes: True Sight Potions, five weapon oils (which vary between each alchemist class), and two unique items depending on class, one of which will always be an Incense of some sort. Unlike other recipes, only ONE incense will be produced from a recipe.
The second (and in my opinion, strongest) ability is to transmute any particular alchemical component into another component of equal or lesser rarity. Note that this is where the differences in component recipes is most noticeable: for example a demon may transmute a Bunch of Paradise Lilies to any other alchemy component, while Transcended are limited to Uncommon or Common, and angels limited further to solely Common rarity. This means that as long as the alchemist has at least six rare components (or even four rare, one uncommon, and one common component), the alchemist can by and large turn them into any potion that they wish similar to Spellgems and Soul Ice, further reducing randomness in exchange for additional cost. This allows focusing on searching more component rich locations instead of travelling to specific locations to acquire the necessary components: Mountains and Forests are, in particular, good for this.
-----
Final Notes
Alchemy can be an extremely useful skill for any spellcaster: a factioned Alchemist will be one of the most valuable support producers for a faction, particularly raiding factions which often live and die by their logistics. Factionless Alchemists gains a wide variety of powerful survival tools to near-eternal invisibility, rendering specific damage elements almost completely impotent, mobility normally only provided by T3 skills, or even surviving and winning extended combat. In general, taking Basic Alchemy is never a bad idea for any spellcaster, and while it is up to the Alchemist's choice if they with to go further, Deep/Sacred/Foul Alchemy is never of negative affect and is useful to any Alchemist regardless of build or affiliation.
Thank you for reading this guide! Feel free to leave your thoughts or additional tips in the comments!
-- Atrele Kasha