Professions and Crafting

The six professions

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How much XP

• Gathering: 8 XP per hit, for the profession of the resource.
• Hunting: 25 Hunter XP for every wild animal you kill.
• Crafting: 1 XP per 5 seconds of the recipe's crafting time – at least 2 (Builder at least 8), at most 40 per craft. The recipe time counts, not the station's speed, so a busy station keeps earning.
• Placing building pieces gives no Builder XP.
• Turning coins into bars and back gives no profession XP.

Stages. Levels 30, 60, 90 and 100 are the stages I to IV (Miner I … Builder IV). Each stage:

• teaches its recipes by itself – the stage talent costs no points and does not show in the talent window;
• pays Valkyrian Tokens once: 10, 20, 30 and 40 on a standard server;
• adds its lasting bonus from the table above. The bonus follows your current level – a profession that sinks below a stage loses that stage's bonus.

The pool. All six professions share 250 levels, and only one can go above 90 – every character has exactly one master profession. When the pool is full, or another profession is already above 90, a level is held back, but your XP is kept. The Professions page shows your XP to the next level as a bar and the reason a level is held back.

The Professions page (Shift+P › Professions)

Every profession has an arrow you can click:

• So you can change your master profession without starting over: set the old one to Lowering, the new one to Rising.
• While you have banked XP, rising XP is doubled until the bank is used up. Each character has one bank for all six professions, and it feeds whichever profession is rising.
• Stage tokens are paid only once per stage, even if you reach a stage a second time.
• XP popups ("Profession experience: +8 Miner") show what you earn. You can switch them off under HUD in the Shift+P footer.

Faster profession XP: the Ouroboros card Mimir's Well (+5 % per card) and the inspiration card Sealed Card: Mimir's Pupil (+0.5 % to +4 %, by rarity; redeem it under Shift+P › Inspiration). Admins can raise or lower profession XP for the whole server.

What the stages bring

The master talents (Master Foundry, Master Bowyer, Master Fletcher …) need stage IV. Each comes in four ranks, one after the other: I at level 68 for 10 talent points, II at 78 for 14, III at 88 for 17, IV at 98 for 20.

Journeyman's Letters

A master of a profession can make Journeyman's Letters for that profession (Journeyman's Letter: Miner I … Builder II).

• A letter gives no stage tokens.
• Letters can be traded and mailed – a clan master can lift a friend's profession.
• New in this version: a letter also works when your pool of 250 is full. It takes the room it needs from professions set to Lowering. Without a lowering profession you get "Not enough room in your profession pool. Set a craft to Lowering first." and keep the letter.

The profession shop (Shift+P › Shop)

You pay with Valkyrian Tokens.

• Prices already include the shop factor (3 on a standard server).
• Articles of your own profession cost 10 % less per stage you hold, up to 40 %.
• Daily limits: 5 crates, 3 potions or kits, 3 repair kits, 2 mythic bar packs. The limits reset at 04:00 server time.
• The shop sells 5 Light, Medium or Heavy Padding directly (14, 27 and 41 tokens).
• Builders can buy Heartstones from Builder level 30.

Crafting quality

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Crafted weapons and armor roll a tier. The tier scales their stats:

• Vanilla recipes never roll below their normal quality, unless the server allows it.
• VAM gear of item tier 4 and up (arsenal, reforged and elder pieces) never rolls Junk.
• Tools roll only when the game counts them as weapons, like the crystal picks. Pickaxes, hatchets, sickles, cleavers and skinning knives keep their normal stats.
• New in this version: vanilla light, medium and heavy armor rolls a tier again at the bench.
• A crafter thrall at the station lowers the roll by 5 % per thrall tier, up to 20 % at tier 4. In effect every tier above Junk becomes 25 % more likely: Junk drops from 40 to 25 %, Epic rises from 1 to 1.25 %.
• The Ouroboros card Wayland's Touch adds 1 % Epic chance per card.

Rune sockets. Crafted gear also rolls 0 to 3 rune sockets:

Arsenal pieces get at least 2 sockets, reforged and elder pieces always 3.

VAM workbenches

Yield at the advanced benches (new in this version):

• Materials, potions, food and arrows keep ×1.5.
• Single pieces (items that do not stack) and everything that can be dismantled get only the recipe amount – so crafting and dismantling no longer makes something out of nothing.
• The Advanced Armorer's Bench and Advanced Blacksmith give no extra yield at all.

Thrall slot (new in this version): the simple and advanced Armorer's Bench, Furnace, Stove, Tannery, Artisan Table and Alchemy Bench have a thrall slot again; Carpentry and Blacksmith already had one. The Religion Station has none.

VAM furnaces burn fuel like the vanilla furnace – put fuel in and switch them on. The new model shows no flames or glow while it is running yet, so it can look off even when it is smelting.

Dismantling

• The Elder Dismantling Bench (150 Brick + 100 Insulated Wood, from the Simple VAM Workbenches talent) now returns the same share as Funcom's Improved Dismantling Bench: half of an item's repair materials, rounded up.
• Only items that the game marks as dismantlable and that have repair materials can be dismantled. Dismantling benches take no thralls.
• Rune Blades and the Rune Pick cost at most half of their crafting bars to repair, so dismantling them no longer gives back more bars than they cost.
• Specialist storage boxes, War Tables, the War Camp, the Leaderboard, weapon and armor displays and the Simple VAM Stove give back only part of their own crafting materials when you dismantle them or take them down.
• 143 VAM armor pieces (Valkyrian, Shadow Twin, Lava Legion, Mythical Crystal and more) can now be dismantled.
• Enslaver Bows can be dismantled.

Alchemy and the Alchemist's Cauldron

Where it starts: the talent Alchemy (level 10, 1 point) teaches the Alchemist's Cauldron (50 Stone + 100 Wood + 10 Iron Bars + 5 Brimstone, from your inventory).

The cauldron has a FLASK slot, a base slot, an additive slot and four ingredient slots. You can use two ingredient slots at first, the third from Provisioner level 30 and the fourth from level 60.

Your first brew – step by step

1. Drag a Water-filled Glass Flask into the round FLASK slot.
2. Put two different ingredients into the first two ingredient slots.
3. Press Brew – even when no shared effect is known yet. The cauldron says "No shared effect known yet - press Brew."
4. Two ingredients that share a hidden effect make a potion. If they share nothing you get Murky Sludge – that happens often and is not a fault.
5. Every effect you discover is written into your Alchemy Book. Two ingredients with the same known effect always brew something with that effect.

Good to know

• Recipes are never given; you find them by brewing. The ingredients work differently on every server.
• A single ingredient makes a tincture and reveals its first effect.
• A base (Firewater, Oil or Blood) and an additive are optional. Firewater, Oil and Blood need an empty Glass Flask instead of a water-filled one.
• Toxicity: every potion adds two stacks, a tincture one, a blood draught none. From twelve stacks no further potion works until your blood clears. Second Wind can save you only once every 10 minutes.
• With a full backpack the cauldron brews only as many potions as fit; your ingredients are not used up for nothing.

The Elder Forge

Where it starts: the talent Elder Forging (level 78, 15 points, needs Woodsman level 100) – or any reforged arsenal talent, which teaches the forge as well. The Elder Forge costs 10 Valkyrian Shards + 100 Hardened Brick + 50 Hardened Steel Bars.

What it makes

• Elder weapons: a Mythical blueprint of the weapon type + 6 Mythical Power Crystals + 5 essence (the Elder Scythe: a Mythical Spear Blueprint + 20 Mythical Power Crystals + 5 Holy Serpent Essence).
• All reforged arsenal weapons (see Arsenals).
• The four Magic Wings (only with a thrall, see Accessories), the Elder Weapon Repair Kit and Elder Armor Patch Kit, and the Elder Guardian parts.

Elder tiers. An elder weapon rolls its own tier from 1 to 5 instead of the normal quality (only the Elder Scythe rolls the normal quality):

Its weight is the normal value, its durability up to twice the normal maximum. The quality seal shows the elder tiers 1 to 5 with the five stones from Junk to Epic. Admins set the chances on the Elder Forge admin page.

Runes

Where it starts: the Smith talent Rune Smith (level 40, 6 points, needs Smith level 30). It teaches the Rune Forge, the Rune Anvil, the first two rune tiers and the Rune Blades.

Making runes. Runes are forged at the Rune Forge – tier I from Iron Bars, Brimstone and Crystal, tier II from Steel Bars, Blood Crystal and Steelfire. The strongest runes come with the master stages of the professions (e.g. Rune of Penetration III and Rune of the Warlord at Smith IV, Rune of Wrath at Hunter IV, Rune of the Bulwark at Builder IV, Greater Rune of the Feather at Provisioner IV, Rune of the Gatherer at Woodsman IV). They also drop from bosses and vaults, and Rune Stone Bags hold runes.

Rune drops (an extra roll on top of the boss's own loot): vault bosses on the Isle of Siptah 35 %, Accursed and Black Corsair bosses 15 %, Mi-Go 10 %.

The runes: Sharpness I–III, Penetration I–III, Impact I–II, Bleeding, Venom, Balance, Endurance, Harvest I–II, Toughness I–II, the Feather (Lesser, normal, Greater), Embers, Frost, the Shieldwall, the Gatherer, the Warlord, the Bulwark and Wrath.

Setting runes

1. Open the Rune Anvil and put the item in.
2. Set runes into its free sockets. Each rune fits only its kind of item – weapon, armor, shield or tool.
3. An item takes one rune of each family: Sharpness I and II count as one family.
4. Runes come out again at the Rune Anvil without being lost.

• More sockets: the Rune Chisel (Smith level 60) opens a fourth socket on an item with exactly three; the Greater Rune Chisel (Smith level 90) a fifth on an item with exactly four. Five is the most.
• Accessories take no runes (new in this version). A rune you try to set into a bag or ring comes back into your bag.
• Rune of Penetration II fits sockets 1 to 5; it is refused only when the item already holds Penetration I or III (one rune of each family).
• Careful: reforging a weapon, turning it into a two-hander or building it into a guardian uses the item up – its runes and opened sockets are lost. Take the runes out at the Rune Anvil first.

Accessories

Back, Neck, Wrist and two Ring slots sit in your inventory beside the armor slots. Drag an item onto its slot or right-click it to wear it; right-click a slot to take it off.

• Torch Bracelets (talent at level 17) give light that leaves both hands free. All colours except white now give off twice as much light.
• Wings are for show: the four Magic Wings ([Red], [Purple], [Blue], [Green], 10 Mythical Power Crystals each at the Elder Forge) and the Equivocus Wings do not let you fly. The Equivocus Wings come only as an admin spawn (item 90999358).

Only the thralls Sarpendon and Shadow Twin Maria can make the Magic Wings: place one of them in the Elder Forge. You cannot learn the wings as a talent.

Arsenals

Fifteen arsenal sets – weapons, shields, a bow, arrows and a set Blank – need the Smith master stage (Smith level 100):

How a piece is made – example Ancient Copper Sword

1. Craft the Ancient Copper Blank: 28 Infused Copper Metal Bars + 4 Valkyrian Shards + 4 Glowing Green Crystals (Improved Blacksmith's Bench).
2. Craft the sword: 1 Mythical Sword Blueprint + 1 Ancient Copper Blank (Improved Blacksmith's Bench, 300 s).

Weapons are made at the Improved Blacksmith's Bench, shields at the Improved Armorer's Bench, spears at any blacksmith's bench, bows and arrows at any specialized carpenter's bench.

Blueprints come from the talents Apprentice Scribe (level 60, Smith level 60; the Apprentice Blueprint Book) and Journeyman Scribe (level 68; the eight weapon blueprints directly at the Mythical Scribe Table).

Reforged arsenals. Fifteen reforged talents (level 70 to 98, 12 to 20 points) need their base arsenal, the Reforged Copper Arsenal and Smith level 100; each includes its reforged bar. A reforged weapon is made at the Elder Forge from the base weapon + 25 reforged bars of its set + 2 Mythical Power Crystals + 6 essence or 10 Valkyrian Shards. Example: the Reforged Copper Bar is 3 Infused Copper Metal Bars + 1 Bronze Metal Bar at a VAM furnace.

New in this version

• New looks for the Lava, Jade, Ice, Vanir, Bone and Chitin arsenals, and corrected material settings for all 15 sets.
• VAM melee weapons cost as much stamina per attack as the game's own weapons of the same kind (before, many cost about half).

Gold as a material

• Gold veins give silverstone in VAM, on purpose: silver is the everyday currency, gold is rare.
• Goldstone comes from Gold Mines on clan territories (see Clans and Territories).
• New in this version: Goldstone smelts into gold bars again – 3 Goldstone → 1 Gold Bar at a furnace, 10 s. You need no talent for it.
• Gold bars can no longer be cast into gold coins, and neither gold bars nor gold dust can be exchanged at the Treasure Coffer. Gold coins come from bosses.
• Gold bars are an ingredient, for example for the Leaderboard and gold dust.

Rare resources

• Glowing gems come from Crystal Rocknoses. They walk among ordinary rocknose herds, and each of the seven colours carries its own gem. They are now twice as common.
• Valkyrian Shards: 3 Glowing Dust of one colour → 1 shard at the Artisan's Worktable. The talent Grinder (level 17, 4 points) teaches the seven shard recipes. Shards replace the Fragment of Power wherever the Valkyrians forge.
• Elder Wood: felled trees now and then (1 to 2 %, by kind of tree), but not with every tool; the Rotbranch boss always.

Farming and cooking

• Woodsman I teaches VAM Farmland and the crops Tomato, Wheat, Lettuce and Potato with their seeds. In a planter, 1 seed + 1 Compost grows into 10 crops (Wheat 20) in 570 s.
• Woodsman II teaches 7 herbs – Reen's Blossom, Bulvei Root, Nomad's Myrtle, Scourge Thorn, Sifamortis Thistle, Tormenthull and Laizeall Wort (1 seed + 1 Potent Compost → 10, 1,140 s) – and their 7 seeds.
• Seeds: 1 crop + 5 Alchemical Base → 2 seeds at the Alchemy Bench, 120 s.
• Valkyrian Cuisine (level 40, 6 points, Provisioner level 30): flour, dough and 26 dishes at the stove, each with an attribute bonus.

Themed storage

Every box accepts only its own category.

• The storage chests of earlier versions became Strongboxes.
• Benches and PvE building reach into boxes up to 40 m away; admins can raise that range. Benches only use boxes owned by you or your clan.

Tips

• Pick your master profession first. Only one profession goes above 90. Arsenals need Smith 100; the Advanced VAM Workbenches and Elder Forging need Woodsman 100. A smith gets the Elder Forge through the reforged talents instead.
• Clans: different masters in one clan complement each other – and Journeyman's Letters lift a friend's profession to 30 or 60.
• Smith is the slowest profession (only crafting time at smithing benches counts). Set other professions to Held to bank XP, use Mimir's Well, or ask a master smith for letters.
• Put a crafter thrall at every station that has a slot – better quality, and an Epic is 25 % more likely.
• Loot first, then harvest: see Known issue below.

Common mistakes

Known issue in this version: from Hunter level 30 the Hunter bonus also gives the weapon in your hand harvesting damage. Hitting a corpse with a weapon then harvests it, and the loot bag can get lost. Loot first, then harvest with a skinning knife or cleaver. A fix is on the way.

Related chapters

• Progression – inspiration cards and Ouroboros cards that boost crafting
• The World – where runes, figurines and rare materials drop
• Thralls and Animals – crafter thralls, breeding
• Clans and Territories – Gold Mines and Goldstone
• For Admins – profession XP, quality chances, Elder Forge chances, storage range