Crafting, is one of the three main spheres of Vanguard. The basic definition of a crafter is one who creates items. In Vanguard, crafting is a role that players choose and define themselves in term of the profession they have specialized in, and the level they have reached.
As a crafter in Vanguard, you will be called upon by players from all spheres (Diplomats, Adventurers and also other Crafters) who will at one point need something that only you may be able to provide. For adventuring, you can create everything from armor to weapons, cloaks and barding. For Harvesters, there are bags, clothing and harvesting tools. For Diplomats, there is clothing and jewelry.
Finding a Crafting Advisor
You begin crafting by speaking to a Crafting Advisor in any of the main cities near. If you find you are having difficulty locating one of these advisors, try asking a guard for directions.
The first thing the Advisor will ask is for you to select one of the three main Professions:
- Artificer (Carpenter/Mineralogist) - The artificer is a worker of stone, wood, and gemstone. Carpenters can create wooden melee and ranged weapons and they are the primary boat builders. Mineralogists create weapons made from stone, magical focus items, jewelry and provide a large portion of the items needed for player housing. Both can make various ranged ammunition as well.
- Blacksmith (Armorsmith/Weaponsmith) - The blacksmith works primarily with metal. They create a vast majority of the weapons, fashion all types of heavy armor and produce tools for harvesters and crafters. Blacksmiths also make some forms of arrows as well as fasteners and other items for boats and houses. The Armorsmith and Weaponsmith trades focus on their namesake, futher enhancing the knowledge of the crafter in either Weapons or Armor related items.
- Outfitter (Tailor/Leatherworker) - The outfitter deals in leather and cloth. Tailors fashion light armor, normal clothing, cloaks and inventory bags for all classes, plus they can upgrade cloth crafter gear. Leatherworkers fashion all medium armor, handwrap weapons, and saddlebags, and they can upgrade leather crafter gear. Outfitters in general also make sails for boats, various items for housing, and harvesting clothes.
Having chosen your Profession, the Advisor will guide you through a series of introductory quests to help get you on your way. These quests will provide you with some clothing, tools, and utilities, and will teach you the basics of the crafting process.
The introductory quests provide a lot of contextual advice so it is worthwhile to pay attention to them when they are displayed.
Note: Be careful not to buy clothing, or tools at the start of the introductory quests which might duplicate the ones that will be given to you, since you won't be able to sell back for what you paid for them.
What happens next
Once you have completed the introductory quests, you can proceed onwards with your crafting career.
There are three basics things you will do from here on out:
- Use Recipes to make Items
- Do Quests to obtain rewards
- Do Work Orders to obtain rewards
Using Recipes to make Items
This is the main purpose of being a crafter and involves taking raw materials you have obtained, refining them, and then creating finished items that you can use, sell, or even give away.
The bulk of the Recipes that you will use will be bought directly from an Artificer Instructor, Blacksmith Instructor, or Outfitter Instructor, and in each case you must be of sufficiently high level, have completed appropriate Tier Quests, and have high enough Faction before you may make the purchase.
Other Recipes may be obtained as rewards from Quests or Work Orders, or may drop as Loot when killing certain NPCs in and around Telon.
The Recipes that are obtained from Work Orders and as loot from killing NPCs are tradeable and you may be able to buy them on the broker.
Doing Quests to obtain rewards
Just like Diplomacy and Adventuring, Crafters can carry out a variety of Quests to obtain useful rewards such as Crafting Clothing and Tools, Recipes, as well as gaining Experience and Faction.
Quests require you to carry out a wide variety of tasks, including visiting certain locations and NPCs, as well as Crafting certain items (for which you will be given a temporary Recipe that will be taken away once the quest is complete).
Most quests have a minimum level requirement before you may start them, and require you to have a particular faction at a sufficiently high level. If you do not meet the faction requirement for a quest, you may be able to do another quest that rewards the faction you need, or do Work Orders that also reward the faction you need.
Doing Work orders to obtain rewards
All crafting areas have Taskmasters that give out Work Orders. A Work Order is effectively a simple repeatable quest where the sole task is to create 1, 3, or 5 of a particular item which you then take back to the Taskmaster for a reward.
When obtaining a Work Order from a Taskmaster, the Taskmaster will display a large list to choose from with difficulties ranging from trivial to impossible. Additionally, depending on which Taskmaster you are speaking to, you may choose which of your Crafting Skills the task will make use of.
The difficulty, number of items created, and the quality of the finished product you create will determine what sort of reward you will receive for each Work Order.
The best rewards are obtained when you carry out a Work Order that requires the production of 5 items, and you make them all the Grade A quality.
All Work Orders will reward you with Experience, Faction, and a small amount of coin.
Leveling Up
Leveling Up is your road to obtaining higher level recipes to make items, or obtain quests with rewards you want.
There are three ways to obtain experience to level up: Recipes, Quests and Work Orders.
Recipes will give experience on a sliding scale in accordance to your crafting level. As you gain levels the experience a recipe gives decreases. The recipe will eventually become trivial, yielding no further experience.
Quests will often reward large amounts of experience that will speed you along (providing you are not doing a quest well below your level).
Work Orders are a comparatively quick and easy way to gain experience since you never have to leave the crafting area. You will be rewarded experience for each item crafted (providing the work order is not listed as "Trivial" difficulty and you achieve at least Grade C quality) and will also be rewarded with more experience when you turn in the crafted items to the Taskmaster. Using your own materials gives a boost to your beginning quality. For example, using a grade A refined material will yield an 18% bonus to the work order. The bonuses decrease as the grade decreases.
When you reach Level 11, you will be able to choose from one of two specializations appropriate to your selected profession.
Additionally, at Level 11, 21, 31, and 41, you will be required to complete a Tier Quest before you will be permitted to purchase higher level recipes from your instructor.
Gaining Faction
Faction is very important to Crafters as it determines whether or not you are permitted to purchase a Recipe from and Instructor, or obtain a Quest.
In order to purchase Recipes from Instructors, you must have 100 points of faction per tier for the continent that you are purchasing from. When you complete the introductory quests you will have been given the necessary 100 points that enable you to buy the Tier 1 Recipes, and each Tier Quest that you complete for your own Continent will give you the extra 100 points of faction that you will need for the next set of Recipes. When you complete a Tier Quest on a different Continent, you will only be rewarded 50 points of faction for that continent, you will have to use other means to gain the extra 50 points you need.
The two ways to obtain faction are Quests, and Work Orders.
Continental Styles
The majority of Recipes that you can obtain to make Items are available in three separate versions specific to one of the three Continents of Telon: Kojan, Qalia, or Thestra.
The different versions of each Recipe produce items that have different stats. If a player requires an item with a particular stat, that may mean that the item has be be of the appropriate Continental Style.
You will automatically be able to purchase recipes of the style appropriate to the continent that your character starts on, but will be required to complete a Style Quest before you will be permitted to buy Recipes for either of the other two continents.
Once you have completed the Style Quest, there are no further quests you need to complete other than the appropriate Tier Quests as you Level Up.
Managing your Skills and Attributes
Your Crafting Skills and Attributes are extremely important and will determine whether you will make Grade A items, or fail completely when crafting.
These values are displayed on the Crafting pages of your Character Sheet.
Each value is the sum of two figures: An amount you control using the +/- buttons on the character sheet, and an amount from all of the Crafting Clothing you are wearing.
It is important to get all of these values as high as possible with no single value being excessively low.
During the crafting process, the level of success of every action and the rate at which complications occur is determined by the balance of your Skills and Attributes.
You may obtain better Crafting Clothing to increase your Skills and Attributes as rewards from Quests or Work Orders (or by buying items from the broker that others have received as rewards for Work Orders).
More Information
Learning How To Craft - A walk-through of the introductory quest lines with a visual tutorial of your first crafting projects.
Crafting Process
Explanation of crafting stations, progress, quality and complications.
Definitions
Explanation of attributes, skills, and actions.
Recipes and Work Orders
Explanation of work order types, recipe types, and recipe set-up. Explains catalysts and deconstruction.
Quests and Levels
Explanation of how quests fit into your level progression, explains specialization, style, and tier quests and faction considerations.