Crafting
A crafting archetype is a named operation on items that recurs across games: assembling an item from a recipe, salvaging one for parts, rerolling its properties, raising it a tier. Each entry describes one operation by its procedure rather than its name, lists the games that have it, and records for every game what the operation requires there, whether materials, a station, a known recipe, or a second item to sacrifice. The same operation often has different requirements from game to game, which is why they are coded per example.
15 archetypes, 117 examples. Crafting archetypes link to the mechanics they run through, among them resource conversion and item modification; they carry no design properties or effect tags, and they are not part of the patterns figures. Data: JSON, CSV, examples CSV.
Requirements
No cost
Needs nothing beyond the item itself and the action: a menu command with no fee, station, or material.
Materials
Spends gathered or dropped raw materials or components.
Currency
Spends money, a currency item consumed by the operation, or another spendable pool such as experience levels.
Station
Must be done at a workbench, forge, vendor, or other fixed place or device.
Recipe
Needs a recipe, schematic, or blueprint the player has found, bought, or unlocked.
Skill rank
Needs a profession or character skill at a minimum rank.
Reputation
Needs standing with a faction, guild, or vendor at a minimum level.
Sacrificed item
Consumes a second finished item, not a raw material.
Modification budget
Each item carries a finite allowance of operations that the operation spends.
Time
Takes a span of real or game time to complete.
Create
Makes a new item from inputs that are used up.
Blueprint Copying
Making, from a recipe or blueprint the player holds, a copy that permits only a limited number of production runs, while the original stays with its owner and can make further copies
Card Crafting
In a digital collectible card game, turning unwanted or surplus cards into a crafting currency and spending that currency, at a price set by rarity, to create a chosen card for the collection
Crafting Minigames
Making an item through a sequence the player plays out, such as timed strikes, chosen actions against a durability limit, or a puzzle, so that the item's success, quality, or yield depends on that play and not only on the inputs
Recipe Assembly
Making a stated new item by spending the inputs a fixed recipe lists, usually materials and often a station, skill, or fee, so the result is known before the attempt and the same inputs always give the same item
Recipe Discovery
Making an item by trying combinations of inputs whose results are not listed in advance, so that a recipe becomes known only once a combination has been made, after which the game or the player records it
Deconstruct
Breaks an item down into materials or components.
Reverse Engineering
Studying or breaking down a found item in order to learn how to make it, one of its parts, or one of its properties, so that the product of the operation is a recipe or knowledge rather than materials
Salvage
Breaking an unwanted item down into materials, components, or crafting value, destroying the item in exchange for inputs spent elsewhere, with the yield set by the item's type, rarity, or properties
Modify
Adds, removes, or changes a property of an item already held.
Affix Reroll
Spending a consumable item, a fee, or materials on an item already held to replace one or all of its random properties with new ones drawn at random from the pool the item can carry
Dyeing
Changing the colour of an item the player already holds by applying a dye item or a colour unlocked into a palette, so the item keeps its stats and properties and only its own appearance changes
Imbuing
Adding a stated property to an item already held by spending a consumable source on it, such as a filled soul gem, a formula's reagents, an enchanted book, or a bought augment, with the same result each time
Upgrade
Raises an item’s tier, level, or grade on a fixed ladder.
Tiered Upgrades
Raising an item held by the player one numbered step at a time, from +0 to +1, +2 and on, or up a fixed scale of grades, by spending a consumable, materials or a fee on it, so the item keeps its identity while its level climbs
Combine
Merges two or more items into one.
Item Fusion
Merging two or more finished items into a single item, usually of a higher grade or rarity, so that the inputs are used up and the result supersedes them, as when three gems of one grade make one gem of the next
Transfer
Moves a property, power, or appearance from one item to another.
Property Transfer
Moving a property, power, or level from one finished item onto another that keeps its identity, usually destroying the source, as when a stronger weapon is infused into a weaker one or an aspect is extracted and imprinted elsewhere
Transmogrification
Applying the appearance of one item, or of a look already unlocked, to another item the player holds, so the target keeps its stats and properties and changes only how it looks, usually for a fee at a service character
Restore
Returns a worn, broken, or spent item to use.
Repair
Returning a held item worn down by use, such as a weapon, tool or armour that loses durability or condition, to working order by paying a smith, spending materials or a kit, or using a skill, without making a new item
Operation by requirement
| Operation | No cost | Materials | Currency | Station | Recipe | Skill rank | Reputation | Sacrificed item | Modification budget | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create | 0 | 26 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Deconstruct | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Modify | 1 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Upgrade | 0 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Combine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Transfer | 0 | 2 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 3 |
| Restore | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |