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This Guide serves to help level up the crafting skill, and how to profit!

For each level, recipes will be listed as used in quests, recipes that are good for leveling up crafting, and recipes with items that can be mass produced for profit.

A complete list of recipes are available on the Crafting page. Hovering over a blueprint in the rarity column will also display whether it is a standard "random" blueprint, or if it is from a specific shop.

Level 0

Quest Recipes: Steel Ingot, Hard Hat, Crowbar, Short Barrel, Gunpowder, Pistol
Leveling Recipes: Steel Ingot
Profitable Recipes: Crowbar

Material Storage is a first priority unlock.

The quest can be started by talking to Mikey, at Hive Outskirts -> Crafter's Guild -> Tool & Material Merchant. He asks you for some Steel Ingots, a Hard Hat, and a Crowbar. All 3 of these recipes can be bought from Hive Outskirts -> Crafter's Guild -> Blueprint Merchant. This will henceforth be referred to as the Blueprint Shop.

Next, unlock the Black Market which is a shop that sells a bunch of rare recipes. There is a walkthrough to unlock it here: Black Market.

Buy the Short Barrel, Gunpowder, and Pistol recipes. This is because there is a daily quest to craft a Pistol for 750 energy and eventually this will become profitable to complete.

After unlocking the Material Storage, if you have a lot of credits, do the Material Storage Expansion I quest located within the storage. It requires 4 Artificial Wood and some tools that can be purchased from the Tool & Material Merchant. This will jump start your leveling process.

The rest of leveling can be done by crafting Steel Ingots. The ore for these can be obtained by renting drones at Crafter's Guild -> Rent-A-Drone Service - Outskirts Mining. Use a level 1 rental drone with 5% Reliability and run Mining level 1. [u]Be sure to save the Steel Ingots you craft.[/u]

Crowbars can be crafted for profit, and another daily task, so you should save the Steel Ingots to craft Steel Plates when you hit level 1, but also keep a few spare for the daily task.

Level 1

Quest Recipes: Steel Plate
Leveling Recipes: Steel Ingot, Steel Plate, Copper Ingot, Knuckle Duster, Gyro Balance
Profitable Recipes: Knuckle Duster, Arm Blade, Dagger

Level 1 unlocks the most profitable recipe: Knuckle Duster. You can purchase this recipe in the Black Market

The Material Storage Reinforcement quest is good for experience, and requires 4 Steel Plates (which you should have enough to craft if you saved Ingots leveling up to 1).

Keep crafting Steel Plates with your Steel Ingots, and make Copper Ingots with your copper ore. If you manage to obtain a Gyro Balance recipe in the Timed Weekly section of the Blueprint Shop, that can be used to level as well.

At level 2 Steel Ingots start having an experience penalty, so prioritize crafting those for experience first.

Arm Blades replace Crowbars as the most profitable iron ore recipe, though they require Fabric. You can purchase Fabric on the market, gather it from scavenger drones, or find it at a higher price within the Tool Shop if you have the credits to spare, but this is not recommended.

Daggers can be profitable when sold on market to new players trying to level up, but this should not be relied upon.

Level 2

Quest Recipes: Steel Plate, Poison
Leveling Recipes: Steel Plate, Copper Ingot
Profitable Recipes: Sniper Rifle

Do the Material Storage Expansion II quest. It requires 2 Artificial Wood and 2 Steel Plates.

Then craft Steel Plates and Copper Ingots to level up. At level 3 you can craft Bronze Ingots which make better use of your copper ore, so prioritize crafting Steel Plates if you can.

Sniper Rifle can be profitable because it is used to craft an end game weapon (Double Barrel Sniper Rifle)

Level 3

Quest Recipes: Steel Plate, Copper Plate, Circuit Board, Wires
Leveling Recipes: Bronze Ingot, Upgraded Revival Kit
Profitable Recipes: None

This is a key level to reach. Now you unlock the ability to craft your own Miner and Scavenger drones, meaning you no longer have to pay 100c to rent drones. Plus you can enhance your drones with abilities to make them better at finding materials.

You will want to craft your Drone Bay first, which uses 2 Copper Plates, 1 Steel Plate, and 3 Fiberglass. Fiberglass can be purchased from the Tool & Material Merchant or found through scavenging.

Then craft a Miner Drone. It takes a Hard Hat, 2 Circuit Boards, 2 Steel Plates, and 2 Power Cells. If you haven't purchased the Circuit Board recipe, it can be found in the Blueprint Shop. Power Cells are rewards for Daily Quests.

Put your Miner Drone skill point in Durability. The best build for leveling up a drone is: Durability 5 -> Efficiency 3 -> Automation -> Advanced Automation 2. Automation ensures you minimize your downtime when your drone is not on a run. Durability 5 lets you run higher level runs with 0% chance of failing due to danger.

The Upgraded Revival Kit recipe can be found by using Rare Blueprints without any recipe attached to them. These can be found from the Research Lab job, from a level 80 hunt group called Markswomen, from Daily Quests, and from higher level Outskirts Scavenging. Alternatively you can use the Item Data field in Market Search and buy the recipe from other players.

Upgraded Revival Kits are the cheapest way to level up crafting from 3 to 9 since you can buy a revival kit and small medicine for 12c and sell the upgraded revival kit back to the game for 8c (only a 4c loss). The downside is they give a pathetic amount of experience and require you to grind a ton.

You don't unlock any more profitable recipes, so keep crafting Knuckle Duster and Arm Blades if you need cash.

The Material Storage Expansion III quest is available at level 3 as well and requires 4 Steel Plates. This is the final Material Storage quest you can do.

Due to the abundance of crafting quests at level 3, it shouldn't take much grinding at all to get to 4. You can even save your quests for level 4 since they won't give an experience penalty then.

Level 4

Quest Recipes: None
Leveling Recipes: Large Barrel, Bronze Ingot, Bronze Plate, Upgraded Revival Kit
Profitable Recipes: Pure Revival Kit

Level 4 unlocks a bunch of recipes for leveling up in the Blueprint Shop. Iron Ore becomes useful for leveling again since you can make Large Barrels and they give decent experience (and can be sold back to game to reduce losses). Focus on Upgraded Revival Kits and Bronze Ingots because they take an exp penalty next level.

Pure Revival Kit can be found from Epic Blueprints. They can be less expensive for healing than upgraded revs. You may find it more profitable to trade morphines for credits and continue grinding upgraded Revival Kits, as level 10 Crafting Pure Revival Kits (220hp heal) are always in high demand. Epic Blueprints drop from high level scavenging, and the special NPC Aiden.

Level 5

Quest Recipes: None
Leveling Recipes: Large Barrel, Bronze Plate, Polearm, Silver Ingot
Profitable Recipes: None

The Polearm recipe is available from the timed weekly Blueprint Shop, so you can use it to level if you can obtain it. It's a good use for your iron and copper ore, otherwise put it towards Large Barrels and Bronze Plates.

Now you can finally dump all the silver ore you've been gathering from mining into silver ingots. This level shouldn't be a problem due to the high xp granted by silver. Upgraded Revival Kits are still an option if you need to grind as well.

Level 6

Quest Recipes: Silver Plate, Bronze Plate
Leveling Recipes: Polearm, Silver Ingot, Silver Plate, Manganese Plate
Profitable Recipes: Abyss Crystal Refining, Charged Targeting Module III

This level unlocks the Drone Bay Expansion I quest which lets you construct a second drone in your bay. You should use this spot for a Scavenger Drone. Scavenger Drone takes similar resources to Miner Drones, but requires a GPS Device. This is a reward from a daily quest so should be easy to obtain.

A viable build is to put 4 points into Durability on your scavenger drone, since that's all you need to run level 10 scavenging. You can find Epic and Godlike blueprints on this level which are great for leveling crafting. If you need credits then run level 6 scavenging instead, you can use fabrics to craft Arm Blades and sell the rest of the junk like Lead, Stone, Charcoal, Fiberglass. After 4 points in durability, the rest is up to you really, but I would personally go Efficiency 3 -> Automation -> Advanced Automation III.

If you stumble upon Abyss Crystal Fragments, you can finally craft those into a full Abyss Crystal using the Abyss Crystal Refining recipe. This recipe is obtained from Godlike Blueprints, which are only found from Aiden or scavenging level 10.

Charged Targeting Module III can be found from Epic Blueprints. It's listed as profitable but requires a bunch of steps before you can even make use of it. You need to craft a Targeting Module first, which has its own recipe in Rare Blueprints. Then charge it with Power Cells and Large Power Cells. This scales minorly with crafting level, so many save them for when they hit level 10. Then you need the Intermediate Item Study ability learned. Then you can use your Charged Targeting Module if it has >10 trades to perform an Overcharged Scan. Then hunt the NPC it tells you to and you'll find a rare item (an Abyss Crystal Fragment if you're lucky)

Level 7

Quest Recipes: None
Leveling Recipes: Void Axe, Silver Hard Hat, Gold Ingot, Steel Plate, Medical Crate
Profitable Recipes: Upgraded Serum

First, use all your gold ore you've been hoarding to craft Gold Ingots. After that is where you have to get creative to level up. Void Axes are a timed weekly Black Market recipe. Silver Hard Hats and Medical Crates are timed weekly Blueprint Shop recipes. These 3 recipes, while inconsistent to grind, can give a ton of exp.

Upgraded Serum is a recipe found in Epic Blueprints. It can convert an Avatar Blood into a powerful Serum that is amazingly efficient for avatars with a big hp pool. Yet relatively low xp. As always, Upgraded Revival Kits can be used to grind if you run out of materials, but they take a huge exp penalty at this level.

Level 8

Quest Recipes: None
Leveling Recipes: Void Axe, Silver Hard Hat, Gold Ingot, Gold Plate, Havoc Launcher
Profitable Recipes: Cow Bell, Scout Drones, Q15

Another level where you have to get creative. The Havoc Launcher, Q15, and Cow Bell recipes are found in Godlike Blueprints. The Scout Drones recipe is found in Black Market timed weekly.

Havoc Launcher takes a lot of steps to craft, Grenades -> Grenade Launcher -> Havoc Launcher. The Grenades and Grenade Launcher recipes are timed weekly Black Market recipes. It's not ideal for leveling, but if you get tired of waiting for gold ore to drop from your drones, then go for it.

Cow Bells are good for profit if you can find Abstruse Crystals to use as optional items.

Scout Drones are conditional, they require you to kill the weekly NPC X-1025 for Defense Bots and use those in the recipe. But if found, they may be made into a viable piece of gear that may be used, or sold, and X-1025 is an easy kill for new avatars.

Q15 is very difficult to craft, but if you're willing to grind it out, it can be sold for profit. This weapon is a staple of end game builds so is always in high demand.

Level 9

Quest Recipes: Gold Plate, Silver Plate
Leveling Recipes: Havoc Launcher, Gold Plate
Profitable Recipes: Double Barrel Sniper Rifle

DBS is an end game weapon and worth a ton, but requires a level 5 sniper to craft so it takes ages.

Leveling is insanely difficult here.

Make sure you craft the Drone Bay Expansion II quest, that gives a bunch of EXP and allows you to craft one more drone in your bay.

The only reason for wanting level 10 is for the title Forge Master, and because some recipes will yield higher output like Charged Targeting Module III, Upgraded Revival Kit, Pure Revival Kit, Upgraded Serum, Cow Bell.

Aside from that you can stay at level 9 if you want, there are no usable recipes at level 10.

BTW, Godlike and Epic Blueprints give a lot of exp at level 9 if you use them and roll a recipe you've already learned. That and Gold Plates are really the only feasible ways of hitting level 10.

Summary (TLDR version)

Here are the major milestones if you're looking to craft for profit:
Level 0 - Crowbar, Rent Miner and Scavenger Drones, Material Storage
Level 1 - Knuckle Duster, Arm Blade
Level 3 - Craft a Miner Drone
Level 6 - Craft a Scavenger Drone
Level 8 - Cow Bell, Q15, Scout Drones
Level 9 - Double Barrel Sniper Rifle

Once your miner and scavenger drones hit level 10, you can buy System Restores from Sector 2 -> Boon Ship for 25 Boons each. Reset them and go this route:

Miner: Durability 3 -> Combat 1 -> Efficiency 5 -> Resourcefulness Scavenger: Durability 3 -> Combat 1 -> Primary Weapon Slot -> Efficiency 4 -> Resourcefulness

Equip a good weapon on your scavenger, preferably Rapid Lasers or Heavy Railguns.

Run level 1 mining and level 6 scavenging. Combat allows you to get the maximum amount of drops on each run if you win every battle (which you should).

This is what to do with your materials:

- Repair your drone with stone and lead. - Fiberglass can generally be sold back to the game if you already made your miner/scav drones. It's used for Circuit Board -> GPS Device -> Targeting Module -> Charged Targeting Module III, but you get enough GPS Devices from the drone daily quest. - Use flint and charcoal for crafting gunpowder if you get the Pistol daily quest. - Save hemlock and nightshade for crafting Poison if you get that daily quest. - If you do find yourself with an excess of flint and charcoal, sell it back to the game. - Craft+Sell Arm Blades with your iron, manganese, and fabric. - Craft+Sell Knuckle Dusters with your copper. - Craft silver hard hats (if you do crystal mining) with your silver, or sell ore on the market. - Craft Cow Bells if you have Abstruse + Nulls, or just sell your gold ore on the market if you don't. - Grind out Snipers and T2 Railguns and craft Double Barrel Snipers + Q15s for profit. - Hunt X-1025, hope for Defense Bot drops, and Craft+Sell Scout Drones (or just hunt somebody else, every snpc has its benefits lol) - Sell Artificial Wood on the market for maximum profit, or craft them into Medical Crates if you wanna gamble for meds. - Morphine you get from Med Crates or scavenging lvl 6 can be converted into Pure Revival Kits for efficient healing. - Buy cheap av blood on market and convert to serums for heals.

Lazy Route

If you absolutely hate leveling up crafting, then you can avoid it for the most part and sell all your drone drops on the market.

You'll still need to reach level 3 crafting to craft a Miner drone, but after that, you don't need to touch crafting.

Spec your miner drone like this: Reliability 3 -> Targeting 5 -> Quality Control 3 -> Secondary Skill Slot

Then do level 1 mining runs with Targeting on Manganese ore, and Quality Control on Iron ore. You'll get way more Manganese ore than usual with this method.

At the time of writing this post, Manganese Ore is selling for 180c each on the market. This is, of course, dependent on the market, and the market does fluctuate, so keep that in mind. Experiment with drone builds to find other money making routes if Manganese demand falls.

For scavenging, you could attempt to get level 6 crafting to craft your own Scavenger Drone, but otherwise just rent a level 1 drone. Sell all the junk you get like lead, fabric, charcoal, flint, stone, fiberglass, and you should be able to cover the 100c rental cost and more every time.