None of my characters have ever taken a crafting skill, because busywork is just something I don't normally want to bother with in RPGs. However it has come to my attention that grinders can be used to grate cheese, and grated cheese can be made into omelettes! All with zero skill. It makes me wonder which other crafting materials I should be hanging onto - normally I turn every reagent worth less than 100 zorks into lutefisk, and the rest go to Brax. List so far: _________ zero-skill arts & crafts: Food (any cheese) + Ingot Grinder = grated cheese egg + 3x grated cheese + Ingot Press = omelette cheese + bread + Ingot Press = grilled cheese (any steak) + BBQ = grilled steak egg + aqua vitae + grog + Porta Still = diggle nog (for the achievement) 4x egg + Ingot Press = deep omelette Reagents (any ore) + Ingot Press = ingot (various) brimstone + saltpetre + bituminous coal + Alchemy Box = black powder 2x egg + Alchemy Box = brimstone plastic ingot + Alchemy Box = empty flask Expendables (any ingot) + Tinkering = crossbow bolts (various) empty flask + aqua vitae + brimstone = 2x molotov cocktails rust + saltpetre + oil of vitriol + aqua vitae + Alchemy Kit = potion of lively regen Weapons (any orb) + Smithing Kit = cracked orb (iron or steel ingots) + Smithing Kit = crude swords, axes, and maces Any others that you've found? This could help anyone who doesn't take all 3 skills on their character.
4x diggle eggs makes you the deep omelet and all basic bolts can be crafted with tinkering gear and the right kind of ingot.
You can craft bolts from plastic ore, iron ore, brass ore and steel ore. and you can transform the raw materials of these into ores.
You can craft all the crafting level 1 items as well if you manage to find the tinkerers goggles, as they have 1 tinkering level. Whats cooler about that is if you equip them an duse the ignort grinder you will often get 2 ignots instead of 1, increasing your monies on your raw plat e.t.c
I took WereDiggle and am swimming in eggs/omelets. They have saved me a lot of crafting space. All other food items I make fukelist out of. Of the crafting equipment, I use the center 4... I forget the names. Elven Grinder, Alchemy Set, and the 2 chest looking ones. I make Lutefisk out of the anvil and other 2. I've not found the orb looking one yet. I basically make Omelets and Health Potions (rust and aqua vita) and Aqua Vitas out of the various alcohol drinks. Almost everything else is Lutefisked or sold to Brax. Anyways, those are the minimums for my playing right now and I don't think you need the Alchemy Skill for anything I've been using/creating.
Something I've found really useful is being able to craft handmade bombs with 0 tinkering levels. I guess being able to craft an aluminum tube will help you out at the beginning of the game, too, since it's a pretty decent melee weapon.
1 is pretty decent? I'd hate to see a bad weapon then. (the Aluminum Tube recipe seems to exist just so you can craft a Clockwork Bolt Thrower later in the dungeon)
Sometimes you just want that little bit of crushing damage, and for those who have absolutely no weapon skill, it's additional 1 point of damage, which can make the difference between your life and death in the first few rooms. But yeah, that's all subjective - those who are mostly melee characters will begin the game with much better weaponry, but for other characters it can be a godsend.
More things you can make with a smithy: Crude Iron sword (Iron ingot x2) Crude Steel sword (Steel ingot x2) Crude Iron axe (Iron ingot x2) Crude Steel axe (Steel ingot x2) Crude knife (Iron ingot) Broken orbs (Any non-broken orb -orb of nothing) Plastic ring ((lol) Plastic ingot) Being able to make crude weapons early on can help. Being able to craft broken orbs has also come in handy when trying to make different orbs if you have alchemy.
Reasons to have a Modular Alchemy Box with no alchemy skill: Black Powder (x1) = Brimstone + Saltpetre + Bituminous Coal. Molotov Cocktail (x2) = Empty Flask + Aqua Vitae + Brimstone. Empty Flask (x1) = Plastic Ingot. Brimstone (x1) = Diggle Egg (x2). Potion of Lively Regeneration (x1) = Rust + Saltpetre + Oil of Vitriol + Aqua Vitae. (sadly this recipe is hidden).
