Basic Guide to ArcheAge Crafting for Helping Players

ArcheAge is launching, Tuesday, September 16 at 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7). To help players, ArcheAge crafting guide on ARCHEAGE-STORE.COM 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

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.

Tips:

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.

Have Fun.