there are a few decent guides to alchemy stones out there, but they are missing some key information, and most are outdated from the rework patch that came after mediah. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BUT WHEN SHOULD I FOCUS ON A STONE?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ alchemy stones are expensive as fuck. that's why sharps are 227m and have been since they came out. considering the state of the game, I wouldn't suggest chucking money into these until you're at least at DUO armor/weapons all around. if your decision is TRIs, accessories, or start your alchemy stone, I would say you should start doing your alchemy stones. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULDN'T START PREPARING NOW (see bottom section) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE BASICS - GETTING ONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ so alchemy stones, as the name implies are crafted through alchemy. it requires skilled 5 to attempt to make an alchemy stone with the recipe: -8x Shining Powder (you should recognize the rest, but this is just a leftover from doing any alchemy -5x Blood of the Sinner -6x Powder of Time -9x Pure Powdered Reagent -9x Clear Liquid Reagent so you throw these things into an alchemy tool and the output is a 25% split between 4 outcomes. - outright fail - life stone (life skills) - destructive stone (damaging stats) - protection stone (defensive stats) yes its an even split between the four. and the recipe itself is almost 1m so it is a bad idea to try to craft expecially if you're looking for a specific stone. you can buy them all from market for 300k if you want to start fresh however that probably isn't the best idea. sparing you looking down to where I go into upgrading your stone, the higher tier you can afford to buy your stone at, the more cost efficient it is. the raw market value of the materials to upgrade your stone is higher than the cost of the stone itself at that tier. That being said, if you have the materials around to upgrade it and you don't have to buy them, its up to you as to how much you want to spend in money vs. raw materials. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WHAT/WHY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ simple rather poorly translated chart as to the benefits of each stone. the color of the text is the required grade of the stone to get that line (life stones only increase gathering drop rate if they're yellow, etc.) life is phenominal for any skiller, protection makes tanks and evasion builds unkillable (muskan/pro stone/evasion gem sorc is filthy), and destructive makes your rangers attack faster (and I guess wizzys too >.>). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~REPAIRING YOUR STONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ yes you have to do this regularly. every use of an alchemy stone costs 1 durability. when it hits 0, you have to repair it. life alchemy stones last for 10 minutes, while the other two last for 3 minutes. meaning that a full durability bar in combat is only 300 minutes - 5 hours, and for life skills you get 1000 minutes. repairing is rather easy if you keep up with you alchemy - pure powdered reagents / liquid reagents - 1 durability per any T2 blood - 4 durability per any alchemy oil - 10 durability per since you should be crafting one blood or another anyways to level your alchemy, I would suggest using bloods. if you are buying right off market, usually reagents cost less though. (simple question - are any of the bloods less than 4x reagents?). oils just aren't worth it. use the ones you craft for the daily's then ignore the fact that oils exist. *note: repairing costs one of the material per tier of the stone to repair. T1 - 1 durability per 1 reagent. T2 - 1 durability per 2 reagents. so on ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPGRADING YOUR STONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ this is the fun part. IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN DOING ALCHEMY YOU CANT UPGRADE YOUR STONE. your ability to upgrade your stone is simple. stone tier has to be less than or equal to your alchemy tier. beginner alchemists can only upgrade a T1->T2, apprentice can upgrade T2->T3, and so on. to get the highest tiered alchemy stone you actually need guru level (master 31) alchemy (therefore the second to bottom line on the chart above is the highest possible in game until further notice) kinda sucks, but I digress. what most people should be aiming for is a yellow tiered sharp stone. then you only have to get to artisan alchemy which isn't THAT hard. to upgrade your stone you need the highest grade materials of the stones specific type: ------ destructive - crystals of any ore ------ protection - sturdy plywoods ------ life - special plants what's neat is bddatabase tells you the exact exp values of the materials. but tldr: destructive should be enhanced with platinum/mythril whenever possible because they use HALF of the metal solvent of the others AND have the highest rates protection is really just choose your favorite wood from the 250k list. life should be upgraded by whatever is cheapest on market proportional to its rate (usually sunflowers in my experience). if you're growing yourself, do strawberries. the exp value of stones is equal to 1m * tier so do the math on that. (grade doesn't affect exp) when you get above 80% you can start enhancing. (1 weapon black stone) the way this works is the success rate falls from ~40/30% (my sample size is low, sue me) to 1% (realistically down to 5% at sharp because you aren't getting to the top 2 tiers any time soon) as you go up grades and tiers. success is an estimated 50/50 of going up a grade or a tier (possibly 2 grades apparently). the modifier for the success rate is equal to the experience % on the stone (so T1 white with 150% exp is a 60% success). at higher tiers/grades theres a chance it will degrade on fail or maybe even break, but I haven't gotten there yet, so I don't know numbers and such. loss leaves you with half of the experience you had for the enhance, success zeroes out your exp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~HOW TO PREP FOR YOUR STONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ so even if you aren't getting a stone now, if you get ahead of the game with mats, your life gets alot easier. ----- destructive prep step 1: get both platinum nodes (iron at abandoned iron mine and omar lava cave) step 2: get savagery node (excavation at lynch farm ruins) step 3: memorize this formula whenever you feel like starting your stone, take your platinum stockpile and your metal solvent stockpile and go to town. leftover metal solvents should be used on titanium (if you have the val node for it) if you don't have any of the high priority ores. ------ protection prep step 1: trees step 2: trace of earth node (ancient stone chamber node) step 3: tree stumps node (treant forest + another one in mediah) same thing. make a billion plywood hardener, and sit on your stuff until you're ready to start. ------ life prep step 1: level farming on special strawberries the end. just have alot of them o_o
