Aion Crafting Guide(part 1&2)

Just like in real life, some people are chiefs, some can craft furnitures, and some can tailor clothing, all of which are trade skills used to better our society. Likewise in order to create the illusion of a complete society, many MMORPGs has adopted the trade skill system or crafting system. There are a total of six different crafting skills that you can choose from in Aion. You can become an Alchemist, a Cook, an Armorsmith, a Weapon Smith, a Tailor, or a Handcrafter.

Usually the crafting systems are designed to support the in-game economy allowing players to become expert in certain trade skills and earn money with their profession. In a way, the crafting system is also a money sucker for the companies of those games, because while you might have gotten bored of the constant grinding to level up, killing monsters, or getting killed, the crafting system gives you something to do so you wouldn’t quit the game. Not everyone is going to like to craft, I personally don’t like crafting, but I still do it because it provides a good way to earn money in game, and some good gears.

If you are looking for a more complete guide for levelling faster, crafting professions, and earning kinah
then you should check out:Aion Guide
Accessing Crafting Windows

There are two ways to access the crafting menu, the first way is through the workstation, and the second way is by bringing up your skills window by pushing the K button by default and then click on the Crafting tab. Under the crafting tab you will see a list of all your crafting skills that you have learned as well as gather and Aether gather. Double click the skill you have learn and want to, to bring that the actual crafting menu for that particular skill, but keep in mind that you can only craft if you’re standing by the workstations. With the craft menu open it is actually pretty easy, on the top left you’ll see your current skill level, below that it is a list of items you have design for and can actually make. Select the item you wish to craft and on the right top it shows you what the you’re creating, below that is a list of ingredients you need. Finally at the very bottom of the right side, you’ll see 2 button Craft, and Craft all, basically you can craft 1 item at a time or however many you want by inputting a number in the bar beside the Craft button, or you can simply click Craft All to save some time.

Accessing Crafting Windows

The Aion crafting system is setup in different tiers, for which you first pay 3,500 Kinah in the Lesser tier. There are a total of 5 levels, Lesser, Regular, Greater, Fine, and Expert, but keep in mind that you can only Expert in two crafting professions. In order to reach the next tier or level in your crafting profession, you must max out your current tiers skill points. Every level has 99 points to fill, once you have reached the max, you must go to your profession skill trainer and pay to advance to the next tier. This might sound confusing so here is an example: as you start any crafting profession you have 1p/99p. Once you have reached 99p/99p, and you want to reach 100 p or beyond you must pay around 17,000 Kinah to your professions master/trainer.

Here is a price list for each level, keep in mind the price may change due to tax.

Lesser = ~3,500 Kinah
Regular = ~17,000 Kinah
Greater = ~115,000 Kinah
Fine = ~460,000 Kinah
Expert = ~1,500,000 Kinah

Here is a list of names of all 6 profession trainer for both Elyos, and Asmodians.
Elyos

Alchemy: Honir
Armorsmithing: Kinterun
Cooking: Lainita
Handicrafting: Lanse
Sewing: Zyakia
Weaponsmithing: Rogi
Asmodian

Alchemy: Diana
Armorsmithing: Vulcanus
Cooking: Hestia
Handicrafting: Utsida
Sewing: Daphnis
Weaponsmithing: Anteros
Choosing your Profession

There is no need to worried about choosing the wrong profession in Aion, all profession are useful it’s on way, some more so than other but it still depends on your class. You also don’t need to worried about limitation of being able to master only 1 profession, in Aino you’re allow to master all profession is you have the time, and money. However you’re only allow to choose 2 skills to become an Expert in, but do not worry you can max all 6 profession to 399 then worried about which you want to become an expert.

On average it takes about 2 hour real time to go from 0p to 199p in any profession, then another 10 to 12 hour from 200p to 399p. It also cost about around 2 million kinah to reach 399p for pretty much any profession, some can be cheaper. So if you don’t want to waste hours of your time, and 2 million kinah, it is a good idea to choose the right profession for you.

My general rule of thumb when it comes to choosing your Aion Crafting profession is to know why you’re even bothering to craft. Is it for money, or do you want to craft your own gears? If you want to earn money with crafting you should stick to Alchemy, Tailoring, Armorsmith, and Cooking, they are the best money earning skills. If you want to craft you own gear then stick to the crafting profession that can make your gear. For example: Templars should learn Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, or Handicraft for Accessories, Ranger should learn Tailoring, and Handicraft. If you’re still confused as to which profession is right for you read the section below with a detail overview of all 6 Aion crafting professions.

Alchemy

Everyone should master(399p Alchemy, but only Sorcerer, and Spiritmaster should become an Expert Alchemist if they choose to craft their own spellbooks and orbs. Alchemy is a very useful skill it can create a huge variety of consumable items such as varies of Potions, Scrolls, and even upgrade Manastones . Certain types of potions and scrolls are constantly in high demand, they are needed for PvE, and PvP, and being able to craft your own potion can save some money.

Alchemy is great way to earn kinah, you won’t get a large chunk of profit all at once, but slow and steady is the way of Alchemist. Apart from being able to make potions, and scrolls, Alchemist is the only class that can craft Temporal Stone which is need for campaign quest for both Elyos/Asmodian, and used to activated Artifacts during Fortress sieges, which makes crafting Temporal stone a great way to earn kinah. Sadly most Orbs, and Spellbooks that you can craft with Alchemy is crap, there is only a hand of good/useful orbs, spellbooks you can craft, and this is especially true for high level items. However, this can all change in the later patch of Aion, so keep your hopes up.

One more thing to keep in mind if you choose to become and expert alchemist, is that it can be extremely expensive to become and expert alchemist. However, luckily you can craft all of the useful consumable items without being an expert, and earn money.

Cooking

There are no surprises here. You will be making food and lots of it. The Cooking profession is very similar to Alchemy, it is a goods and commodities trade skill. Foods in Aion are consumable items just like potions and scrolls. they act like a portable buff. Whe you eat food in Aion, they’ll boost certain stats of your character temporarily. Just like Alchemy, you will be earn a steady income as a chief. Cooking is the easiest profession to become an expert, and most of the raw materials required are cheap, and easy to obtain. However, as an expert cook there isn’t much special food you can cook, other then Aether Jelly which is the best item to earn kinah with as a cook. Generally cooking isn’t a profession you should expert, but if you really don’t want to spent much money, and time in crafting, but still want to complete your Fenris/Miragent quest then I highly suggest you to become an expert cook. Note: you’ll need to become an expert in at least one crafting to complete all your Fenris/Miragent armor set quest at level 50, as the third quest require you to craft Hot Heart of Magic which requires 449p crafting in any one of the 6 profession.

Armorsmithing

Armor Smith is for crafting heavy armors, and shields. If your class uses any of the following: chain armor, plate armor or a shield. If you’re cheap and want to have very good gears, and you use heavy armors, then pickup Armorsmithing. Armor crafting is very time consuming, you’ll spent a lot of time refing ore into ingots, and then plate, chain ore wires. Armorsmithing is expensive but much better than Weaponsmithing, most of you cost are going to go purchasing materials require to refine your ores, and ingots, and some higher level armors that requires expert premium armor flux can be expensive.

Earning money with Armorsmith is actually not bad, if you can craft a few good high level armor, they sell very well and are good profits. The problem with armorsmithing is in order to craft unique blue, and gold armors, you’ll need to proc(If you don’t know what procing is please go to part 2 of this Aion Crafting Guide and read the procing section). The good thing about armorsmith is that it all unique armor only require a single proc, and that is why it is not bad to earn money with armorsmithing. Let’s say you don’t have the best luck in the world, and you craft 5 armor, out of the 5, one of them procs. You sell the other 4 to NPC vendor, and sell the proc armor on Trader Broker for a good price. At worse you break even with the cost of materials, and try it again. One last thing, it is recommend that you become an Expert Armorsmith if you choose this profession, as most of you money are going to come from crafting gold expert armors.

Tailor

Tailoring is much like armorsmithing, expect with cloth, leathers, and belts. If you’re a cloth, or leather armors, I highly recommending learning tailor. Tailor is time consuming but not extremely, it isn’t cheap but not expensive either. Tailor is not too hard to expert, and in general it works the same way as armorsmithing. It requires single proc for unique armors, but there is a slight difference, you’ll also need to proc materials. When refining raw materials such as rawhide to leather pads, you’ll have a chance to proc, and even double proc(unlike weaponsmithing, double procing on tailor mats happens all at once, it will simply proc, and proc again). Being able to proc materials is actually a very good thing, because most proc mats sell very well to other lazy tailors. This gives you a lot of chooses, refining tailor materials are relatively cheap, and if you proc you can either sell them or craft them in to armors yourself.

Using tailor to earn kinah is a good idea, on most server there usually is a good population of Assassins, Ranger, and Sorcerers. They all need cloth, or leather armors, which makes tailoring an ideal profession to earn good money with, there are still risks, but very small

Weaponsmithing

If you use a swords, maces, polearms, greatswords, or daggers, consider picking up Weaponsmithing. Weaponsmith is probably the most expensive crafting profession, it require lots of money, and very time consuming as well. Not only that, but if you’re unlucky it can be extremely expensive to become an expert Weaponsmith, and just like armorsmithing, the most of the worthwhile item to craft as a weaponsmith requires expert weaponsmithing.

Earning money with weapon smith is like gambling, I can’t say it’s bad but it definitely isn’t the best way to earn kinah. Let’s say you become weapon smith, so now you can craft some gold weapon which sell for 20million plus. So you begin to craft your weapon and then you realize you’ll need to proc 4 time in a roll just to get a gold weapon! This means you have to craft the white item and hope it procs green, then use the green weapon you crated earlier add some expensive materials, and hope it procs blue, then do the same and hope it procs gold. Keep in mind that you have around 25% – 30% chance of procing in general. If you’re lucky and proc four time in a roll, then you have just made yourself a huge profit. But most of the time you’ll break even, it isn’t bad to break even, but the amount of time it takes to just craft the item is huge. It can take up to 1 hour just to refine materials for a single attempt at a high level weapon, and if you want to do 10 try in a roll, it can take up to 6 to 7 hours just in refining materials. You can earn lots of money with weaponsmithing, but it is very risky.

Handicrafting

You can craft staffs, bows, and accessories(Earring, Necklace, Glasses, and Rings) with Handicrafting. Usually Rangers, Chanters, and anyone that want to craft their own accessories should learn Handicrafting. Just like weaponsmithing, all unique items crafted by handing crafting requires multiple procing. Depending on what you’re going to craft handicrafting can also be very time consuming, and costly. Staffs, and Bows are highly time consuming, and very expensive. Accessories on the other hand does not require a huge amount of time to craft, but can be somewhat expensive as well.

Your only chance to earn money with handicrafting is with accessories, and there are only a few accessories that are actually good enough to sell. On top of that most of the one worthy enough to craft requires you to be an Expert Handicrafter, and getting expert handicraft can be extremely expensive just like Weaponsmith, and Alchemy. Whoever said Handicrafting is the best profession to earn money with is wrong, I know I did before, and I was wrong. It is not it is almost as bad as weaponsmithing.

Crafting with Work Orders

Work Orders can be obtained through your craft profession trainer. Speak to your craft profession trainer and then click on the “Work Orders”. At the begining for every profession you’ll only have 1 work order to actually work on, the one that only require 1p since that’s all the skill you have. The good thing about the first work order is that it doesn’t not require you to buy any material from the material NPC (Note: There is a material NPC in every profession room that sells all the materials you need to complete every single work order there is.). Since the first work order is free, I suggest you take advantage of it and get at least 20p out of it, after that it gets a little slow.

As you’re profession skill level increases, you’ll see more and more work orders from your trainer. All work order difficulties increases in increments of 10p, so it goes like this, 1p, 10p, 20p, … 99p. Once you get pass 40p skill level in any profession, your trainer will have a maximum of 4 different level of work order for you. You’ll have the you current skill level work order, and 3 more work order that range 10 – 30 level below your current skill level. The reason why there aren’t more than 4 different levels of work order at once, is because you’ll not gain any skill from the work order 40 level and below.

Work Order Menu

One last thing to cover about work orders is what if you fail a work order completely, and run out of work order material to complete the task. The way work order works is the trainer ask you to craft a certain amounts of items, and there is always certain materials that are given by the trainer that you cannot buy anywhere else. The trainer usually give you extra material for 3 extra try then the number of items required, just in case you fail once or twice. However there are times(rare) that you’ll fail 4 – 5 times in a roll, and you have run out of the special materials given to you to complete the work order. So what you’ll have to do is go to your quest menu, select the Work Order tab, and abandon that work order before you can accept that work order again.
Obtaining Crafting Receipts/Designs

In general there are 3 different types of designs, there is the normal white designs, the unique normal color designs(green, blue, and gold), and finall the Balic(Balaur) Designs for crafting Balic(Balaur) items.

First lets cover the normal designs, most if not all of the white designs can be purchase from the NPC that sells you materials in the room you would be crafting. The green, and the blue designs can either by obtain by drops from mobs, work order rewards, or buy from other players(Expert Blue Designs, can only be acquired from drops as well just like gold designs). Finally the most unique gold designs, are only drops from high level mobs, the reason you cannot obtain gold design from work order is because all gold design are Expert designs, and once you reach expert there are no more work orders.

The best way to obtain green, and blue designs are by work orders rewards. Every time you complete a work order you’ll receive some sort of reward, most common are designs, and raw materials, but sometimes you’ll receive green/blue designs. The designs you get are based on the level of the work order you complete, you can only acquire designs that are range with in 0p to 25p below the work order level, or 0p to 30p level higher than your current work order. So if you want to acquire all the green/blue designs up to 399p, you better slowly move your way up on the work orders.

Now let’s talk about getting Balic Designs, once you become an Expert you’ll be able to craft powerful Balic gears, and items. In order to craft Balic items, you’ll need Balaur materials such as Hot Balaur Blood Stains, Thick Balaur Horns, etc… You’ll also need to refine those materials, and the designs for refining Balaur materials can be purchase from a special Shugo that is in the crafting area. For Elyos look for Ayurinrinerk in the Artisans Hall, and for Asmodian look for Lyeikunerk at the Temple of Artisans.

Getting Balic material refining design is easy, getting the actual Balic armor, and weapon design is hard, and annoying. First collect a bunch of Balaur Heart, or Hot Balaur Heart, at least 3 of either type. The regular Balaur heart can drop of any Balaur mobs level 40 +, while the Hot Hearts can only be drop from level 46 + Balaur mobs. Then you must take the hearts you collected, go to upper Abyss, and find a secret island that is not on the map called Tigraki Island. Once you arrive on the island you’ll see a bunch of Shugo friendly to both Elyos/Asmodians, and one of them I can’t remember the name would trade Balic designs for Balaur Hearts. You can either trade 3 Balaur Heart for green/blue level 30/40 designs, or 3 Hot Balaur Hearts for green/blue level 50 designs, also keep in mind that the design you get is completely random, so often you might end up with 2 to 3 of the same designs.

Tigraki Island
Here is a map that shows you where Tigraki is located on the Abyss click the small Image to Enlarge.
Crafting to Expert

Before talk about how to actually become an expert crafter, I just want to mention something extremely important. Something that have caused a friend of mine to remake his character after he hit level 50, and something that many player have quit Aion because of this. Keep in mind that once you start an Expert quest you cannot abandon it, or start any other expert quest. So for those of you who want to complete their Fenris/Miragent armor set, make sure are confident in completing your expert quest as some of them are can be extremely expensive.

Since we are on the topic of cost to become and expert, let’s go into it with more details. Many players probably wonder if is hard to become and expert, well it is and it isn’t, it depends on which profession want to become an expert in, and how lucky you are. Cooking is easy, it just takes a little time, and not costly at all. Tailoring, and Armorsmith are average it probably cost you at most 15mil. Weaponsmithing, Alchemy, and Handicraft is very hard, and extremely expensive, if you’re lucky and hit it on your first try then it’s cheap, but I have seen many players who have spent 50 million to 100 plus million kinah and still not an expert in those 3 professions. I’m personally an expert Weaponsmith it toke me 45 tries which cost around 40 million kinah, and that didn’t get me to expert. I was lucky someone was selling the weapon require to become and expert weaponsmith for only 36 million which I borrow some money my friend to but it off the trade broker.

How to Become an Expert Crafter:

The cheapest, easiest, and probably the best way to go from 1p to 399p is by doing Work Orders, period. Once you achieve 399p speak to your craft’s trainer click the work order button again, and you’ll see a new work order, a 399p work order. The 399p work order is the first step to become an Expert in your craft no matter what profession, it is different from all the other work order as you can only complete it once. After you’ve completed your 399p work order speak to your trainer again, and he’ll have your first expert quest which is pretty easy. Then there will be 2 more quest that follows, which will earn you the title of Expert crafter. I’m not going to list the 3rd quest that is required to become and expert, it is name [Expert](The Profession You Choose) Expert. All you need to do to complete that quest is to speak to Vidar/ in Pandaemonium/Sanctum.

Alchemy:

[Expert]Alchemist’s Test(Asmodian). – Craft 1 Noble Durable Truth Orb.
[Expert]Alchemist’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Proof Tomb.

[Expert]Passion for Alchemy(Elyos) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Truth Orb.
[Expert]Requirements for Alchemy Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Proof Tomb.

Cooking:

[Expert]Cook’s Test(Asmodian) – Craft 10 of each Tasty Hard-boiled Cippo, Tasty Roast Crasaur with Butter, Tasty Vigen Omelette, and Tasty Broiled Snuffler.
[Expert]Cook’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 10 of each Tasty Leopis Cocktail, Tasty Lobnite Cream Pasta, Tasty Snuffler Salad, and Tasty Crasaur Wine Steak.

[Expert]Passion for Cooking(Elyos) – Craft 10 of each Tasty Hard-boiled Perer, Tasty Charcoal-broiled Basilisk, Tasty Zigi Omelette, and Tasty Broiled Moonflower Fruit.
[Expert]Requirements for Cooking Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Proof Tomb.

Armorsmithing:

[Expert]Armorsmith’s Test(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Adamantium Shield.
[Expert]Armorsmith’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Orichalcum Shield.

[Expert]Passion for Armorsmithing(Elyos) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Adamantium Shield.
[Expert]Requirements for Armorsmithing Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Orichalcum Shield.

Handicrafting:

[Expert] Handicrafter’s Test(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Salix Staff.
[Expert] Handicrafter’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Asvata Bow.

[Expert]Passion for Handicrafting (Elyos) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Ulmus Staff.
[Expert]Requirements for Handicrafting Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Egrasi Bow.

Tailoring:

[Expert] Tailor’s Test(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Xilix Tunic.
[Expert] Tailor’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Tough Durable Jerkin.

[Expert]Passion for Tailoring(Elyos) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Sobi Tunic.
[Expert]Requirements for Tailoring Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Tough Durable Jerkin.

Weaponsmithing:

[Expert] Weaponsmith’s Test(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Adamantium Greatsword.
[Expert] Weaponsmith’s Final Exam(Asmodian) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Orichalcum Sword.

[Expert]Passion for Weaponsmithing (Elyos) – Craft 1 Noble Durable Adamantium Greatsword.
[Expert]Requirements for Weaponsmithing Expert(Elyos) – Craft 1 Worthy Noble Durable Orichalcum Sword.

How to Become Expert in 2 Craft Professions(Top-Expert):

As you probably know that you can become an expert in 2 different craft profession of your choice. Yes, this is true, but you must complete one expert quest at a time. In order to unlock your 2nd expert quests, you must first complete your first expert quests, and become and expert. After you have completed your expert quests, your must reach 449p in that profession to become a true expert. Only if you have reach 449p in your first profession, the expert quests will unlock for your second profession. Simple go to the train of your second craft profession, and complete the 399p work order, and do then complete the required expert quests for that profession, and then you’re a Top-Expert.
What is Procing?

In order to obtain unique items with bonus stats it must proc. When you are doing Armor smith, Weapon Smith, Handicraft, or Tailor most items are crafted as normal standard white name items, and they all have a chance to proc. For example if your crafting a white named plate boots, it would have a chance to proc as a green named plate boots. Another additional feature in Aion Crafting is that once a certain item has proc’d green, you have a choice to use a better receipt to proc it again into a blue or gold named item with super bonus stats. However if that fails you will at least have the green item.