Basic Guide for ArcheAge Crafting

ArcheAge has a very extensive and immersive crafting system. Being a sandbox game many aspects of ArcheAge are player-driven, including the economy and crafting. With 21 different professions to choose from players have many resources available to them, from crafting equipment, building houses and ships, and even growing plants and trees or taking care of animals.

The following ArcheAge crafting guide will give you a basic list of all tradeskills (also called Proficiencies or Crafting Skills) in this game and explain what they’re all about. You can also learn a bit more about the Labor system and get some tips for leveling your professions.

LIST OF PROFESSIONS

	Alchemy	Alchemy is used to create potions to restore health and mana or add other buffs. Also creates enhancements, other crafting materials, dyes, Lunadrops, Lunastones, Archeum Dust, and talismans.
	Cooking	Cooking is a tradeskill which creates various edible food which gives temporary effects to your character, such as increased regeneration or stat boosts.
	Weaponry	Weaponry or weapon smithing enables you to craft metal-based weapons such as daggers, swords or axes. It also allows you to craft shields and explosives with various Ingots.
	Carpentry	A crafting skill focused on woodworking and crafting wood-based weapons (bows and staves), as well as furniture.
	Metalwork	Metalworking allows you to refine raw materials and ore into ingots, and allows players to craft heavy armor equipment and diving suits.
	Leatherwork	Crafting skill which focuses on tanning of hides and production of leather armour.
	Tailoring	Tailoring allows players to use various cloth and fabric to create cloth goods and armor.
	Handicrafts	Handicrafting enables players to craft jewelry such as rings, necklaces and earrings. Also enables you to create chests for clothes, musical instruments for bards, racing car parts, fishing tools and home decoration items.
	Mining	Mining allows you to gather different ores and stones from various nodes found throughout the world. By mining you can also gather usable crystals and gems.
	Machining	This profession produces various devices and vehicles such as tanks, gliders, tracors, submarines, and ships. Also allows you to upgrade machines.
	Commerce	Commerce allows you to craft trade packs (commercial boxes) and Auction House sales.
	Farming	Enables the growing, watering and harvesting of crops, fruits, vegetables and grains.
	Husbandry	Husbandry is a cultivation skill focusing on the development of livestock: butchering, milking, plucking, mount breeding, and more.
	Masonry	Masonry is a crafting skill devoted to stone work, and is required for producing different types of bricks out of stone. It also enables you to create Teleport Stones.
	Gathering	Gathering is a cultivation skill that covers both planting and harvesting herbs and flowering plants. Materials gathered are used for Alchemy.
	Logging	Logging is a gathering and cultivation enabling you to grow trees and gather wood logs.
	Printing	Printing profession is used for the creation of books, scrolls for improving equipment, and music papers.
	Construction	Construction is a crafting profession focused specifically on building structures, such as houses and ships. It allows you to spend less Labor when building houses and ships.
	Fishing	A gathering skill centered on fresh and saltwater fishing.
	Larceny	Larceny allows your character to steal easier, and is non-production skill that is leveled by stealing crops from player farms that haven’t been taxed or from “at risk” farms.
	Composition	This skill is centered on writing and composing music, and enables you to play music for longer with the advancement of the skill.

Last 4 professions (Construction, Fishing, Larceny and Composition) don’t actually create any items.

Majority of the professions in ArcheAge are done in such a way that you need to either combine several of them to be able to craft specific items, or trade with other players. As such if you intend to take up Alchemy, you should also consider leveling Gathering.

LABOR SYSTEM

Something that is commonly mentioned when talking about crafting in ArcheAge is the Labor System — and for good reason. Every crafting-related action you do whether it’s production or gathering will require a certain amount of Labor Points (LP). This does limit the amount of crafting work you can do, as once your Labor Points are depleted you can’t do further crafting, harvesting, planting, building or anything else. While the system is limiting your crafting efforts, it also allows for better economy where you can essentially trade with other players for their LP if you require any crafting work done and can’t do it yourself.

Labor Points recover on their own at a rate of 1 point every 5 minutes spent in-game (equals to 288 per day at most). Players with premium account can recover 10 points every 5 minutes while online and 5 points every 5 minutes while offline (1440-2880 LP a day). At first you will likely find yourself with plenty of LP, but more difficult crafting tasks later on in the game take up more and more LP, and you will eventually find yourself with depleted Labor. For example a simple task such as picking a herb takes 1-2 points, while building something more complex can take dozens of LP.

PROFESSION TIERS & LEVELING

Each profession in ArcheAge has 5 different skill levels: Basic, Novice, Veteran, Expert and Master. Leveling your professions takes time, and of course — Labor Points. Once you spend 10,000 LP in a given tradeskill you will advance from Basic to Novice. The table below gives you a more accurate overview of advancement:

All characters start with the “Basic” skill tier in all professions. The “Max Professions” column indicates the maximum number of professions you can have at that skill tier; essentially you can only upgrade 2 skills to the Master level. Increasing your proficiency in crafting skills reduces some labor costs, increase the amount or quality of items you can produce, and has several other benefits, so it’s certainly worth it.

In addition to gaining experience and skill by crafting and gathering you can also gain Vocation Points. Vocation Points can be redeemed like currency at the Blue Salt Brotherhood, which is a global partnership of gatherers and crafters who provide support to each other via training quests and specialty goods bought with Vocation Points.

SUMMARY

With 21 different Proficiencies, ArcheAge offers plenty of enjoyment for players dedicated to crafting. While you can engage in all of them, many professions are tied with one another and it’s best to focus on 2-3 of them at first and getting them to the Master rank. It’s especially important considering all crafting-related tasks use Labor Points which you have a limited amount of.

Leveling these crafting skills isn’t overly difficult but does take time. You can simply mine ore nodes to level up Mining, or cook food to level Cooking. Most actions that spend your Labor also give your character experience, and while it would take quite awhile you could technically level up your character to the level cap simply by crafting and never engaging in any combat.

We hope this basic guide of ArcheAge crafting and gathering skills will be of some help — if you have any questions or comments be sure to voice them below!