Don’t want to settle for the vanilla gear that’s strewn about dungeons or purchasable in shops? Then Dragon Star of Varnir has the cure for what ails you: crafting.
What Is Crafting?
Unlocked early in the game, you can go to the Witches’ Workshop in order to make new equipment. Technically, you’re making elixirs and using those to summon dragons who drop the actual equipment, but the concept is the same as what you’d find in other JRPGs.
In any event, whether it’s a new scythe or pair of boots, then you can probably craft it. In fact, the only stuff you can’t craft in this game are accessories and consumables. Everything else is fair game.
How Do I Craft?
As expected, you’ll need to do a bit more than just heading to the Witches’ Workshop and making whatever you want. There’s a process to these things.
Here it is in full:
Step 1: Finding New (Elixir) Recipes
Before you can make anything, you’ll obviously need a recipe to follow. There’s a few that you start off with, but the majority have to be discovered through methods such as:
- Completing quests.
- Inside treasure chests found in dungeons.
Step 2: Collecting Materials
You can’t make equipment out of nothing, so you’ll need to collect the correct materials first. Fortunately, these materials are classified depending on location, so you’ll always have an idea of where to get them. For example, if a recipe calls for a Death Dragon Eye, then you know you that you’ll be able to find it by gathering or defeating enemies in the Forest of Death.
As an aside, I should mention that this design does make forging high tier gear a bit difficult when coupled with the soft time limit. Standard gear might require materials obtainable for a single dungeon, but special ones can require up to four.
Needless to say, you don’t have time to search through multiple dungeons just to make a single piece of gear.
Step 3: Catalysts
An interesting facet of the crafting system is that rather than having each recipe correspond to specific equipment, it corresponds to their tree. For example, using Elixir of the Wise will yield items with the “of the Wise” prefix.
Furthermore, crafted equipment vary in rank (up to +9) resulting in better results if RNG is willing.
As you might suspect, this all means that there is a random element to crafting, but there is a way to exercise more control over the process: Catalysts.
Earned through a variety of means, such as quest rewards or purchases, Catalysts help ensure you get almost exactly what you want whenever you craft. You’ll eventually be able to dictate whether you get weapons, armor or boots while crafting, though there will still be some variance in their rank.
Here’s the full list:
- Dragon Soul: +1 to +3; Any
- Silver Soul: +3 to +5; Any
- Silver Fang: +2 to +4; Weapons
- Golden Soul: +5 to +7; Any
- Golden Scale: +3 to +6; Armor
- Golden Fang: +3 to +6; Weapons
- Accident Soul: +3 to +6 (There’s a chance while mixing elixirs that you’ll get one of a different type. This increases the chances of that happening)
- Platinum Soul: +7 to +9; Any
- Platinum Fang: +5 to +8; Weapons
- Platinum Body: +5 to +8; Body Armor
- Platinum Leg: +5 to +8; Leg Armor
Step 4: Making Equipment
After completing the previous steps, all that’s left is to make the elixir of your choice and have a character drink the elixir. Upon doing so, a dragon will be summoned, and your final task will be to defeat it in order to get the piece of equipment that you were after.
Just be conscious of who drinks the elixir during this final step: any character will suffice if you want armor, but you’ll need to choose a specific character when going after weaponry.
That’s it for crafting in Dragon Star Varnir. Just be mindful of the recipe and catalyst, and you’ll be making equipment that lasts long after you’ve made it. You’ll save time, money and won’t be punished in terms of difficulty.
