Crafting

About

You can create equipment for your Heroes and machines for your Tower by crafting. Crafting allows you to get assorted equipment and machines without relying on random loot drops where it usually gives you unwanted things. Things you can craft include Weapons, Armor and Machines. As random drops only grant up to Uncommon rarity items (besides monster drops), crafting is the only way to obtain anything of Rare or higher quality, outside of certain milestone rewards (such as 4,000 and 6,000 catacomb points, floors 27 and 29 of the Wizard Tower, or spending 2 million gold during a Dragon's Hoard). This is likely intentional, as Weapons, Armor, and Machines can be crafted, so there is no point in allowing anything above Uncommon to be found randomly, as they would be too valuable to be dropped randomly, whereas Rare or better quality monsters are found randomly because they can't be crafted, only found randomly or from special campaigns.

All crafting recipes need to be researched before you are able to make them indefinitely, though you need the required artisan levels. The second step requires gold and resources in order for you to craft the specific item or machine.

Artisans

Artisans allow you to research better equipment and machines, which depend on certain artisan levels. These include the Blacksmith, the Alchemist and the Engineer. All artisans require Artisan Points to be upgraded; alternatively, gems can be paid if a player has no remaining artisan points. The max level is 55, and an artisan cannot be higher level than your keeper level.

When you first start, the artisans can be unlocked and first seen in the final stage of 1-3 Caravan Rescue of A Shadow Grows, but after rescuing them they can no longer be seen in the level.

Artisan point costs to level up follow these formulas:

Artisan Level	Artisan Point Cost
1–23	(next level)2
24–28	(next level)3 ÷ 15
29–49	(next level)3 ÷ 10
50–54	(next level)3 ÷ 3

1 gem seems to be worth about 19.5 artisan points. The shop rate on special promotions is 1 gem for 20 artisan points. This means paying gems for artisan points in the shop is useless, since you can spend them directly on the artisans at any time for a similar price.

Recipes and Crafting Levels

Recipe Research
duration	gold cost
30s	100
15m	400
45m	900
2h	1600
8h	2500
15h	3600
1d	4900
1d12h	6400
2d	8100
2d12h	9000
3d	10000
5m*	12100
5m*	14400
* only exist as epic recipe

Recipes are unlocked by researching them in the crafting menu. Each type of equipment (weapon, armor, machine) can have 1 recipe under research at a time, for 3 total recipes being researched simultaneously. The duration and cost increase the further one moves down in the recipes (cost is always the recipe's distance from the first recipe, squared then multiplied by 100). Importantly, epic recipes are always only 5 minutes to research but they can only be found randomly from chests once the prerequisite recipe (for that particular class) has been learned. These are shown in the table.

Improving artisan's increases crafting levels. This is not a unique boost in stats; you can also craft the item at a lower level and upgrade it through combines for the exact same effect. The depicted level is only the minimum result from crafting. Often the item can come out at a higher level, up to 5 levels or the maximum level that the item can be, whichever is lower.

Crafting Components

Crafting needs crafting components in order for items to be made. Rarer items require more and expensive resources. High Artisan level require more and expensive resources. Components from common to rare are:

Components		Apply to
	Hardwood	All
	Steel Bar	All
	Mystical Essence	All
	Adamantine Bar	All
	Arcane Shard	Rare+ crafts, also a few uncommon recipes
	Celestial Orb	Rare+ crafts, also a few uncommon recipes
	Void Core	Super Rare and Epic crafts only

Components Strategy

All components are required to craft an item except Celestial Orbs and Void Cores as noted above. Machines however tend to demand fewer components and do not follow the same rule.

All components can be found as random loot from any PvE or PvP battle. Bulk amounts of components, particularly the rarer components, are best obtained through milestone rewards from Festival Events, the Catacombs, or the Wizard Tower. A couple of the bonus campaigns also offer crafting component rewards, although Void Cores won't appear until level 40+ missions.

List of Craftable Items

Weapons

• One Handed Slashing
• One Handed Hacking
• One Handed Stabbing
• Wand
• Two Handed Slashing
• Two Handed Hacking
• Two Handed Stabbing
• Staff
• Bow
• Fist

Armor

• Cloth
• Leather
• Chain
• Plate

Machines

• Damage Dealer
• Warrior
• Tank

Crafting Strategy

It's not recommended to purchase artisan points from the shop. A slower leveling pace with many feasts will guarantee enough crafting points without paying any gems at all.

Focus one artisan at a time, according to a crafting goal in mind (such as the Rod of Ruin). This also means researching one recipe line at a time.

Plan ahead for your resource needs. Begin securing the rarer resources, especially Void Cores, as soon as possible. This is most easily done by saving up for Festival Events, although the Wizard Tower and Catacombs can help somewhat. The Catacombs unfortunately can be quite grueling to reach Void Cores at low levels.

Avoid crafting low-level (common/uncommon/rare) items. While Void Cores are commonly considered the limiting resource, don't underestimate the intermediate resources which are used up by lower-tier items. Mystical Essence for example is often spent in 100+ amounts to craft an epic item, yet still 30-50 for cheaper items. It is possible to run out of these as well.