Alchemy

From OblivioWiki

Alchemy is a magic arts skill that allows the player to concoct potions and to utilize the aspects of various alchemical ingredients, such as plants and meats. Alchemy enables the character to create beneficial potions which can be used to heal or temporarily improve statistics, or to create poisons that you apply to weapons to inflict the effect on the next attacked enemy.

Governing Attribute: Intelligence

[edit] Skill levels

• Novice: Recognizes the first potential alchemical property of a substance.
• Apprentice: Recognizes the first two potential alchemical properties of a substance.
• Journeyman: Recognizes the first three potential alchemical properties of a substance.
• Expert: Recognizes all four potential alchemical properties of a substance.
• Master: Can make potions from a single ingredient.
  • Only the first alchemical property is used for a single ingredient potion.

[edit] Alchemy basics

Alchemy, though it may seem difficult to understand and use, is a powerful skill in the game. Creating potions, hoarding ingredients and carrying around the required apparatus may seem tedious, but the benefits of not having to rely on buying potions and the ability to produce self-made higher magnitude and longer duration potions, possibly unlike any potion you might obtain through buying, speak for themselves.

Also, creating and selling potions can be a good way to make money, as they tend to be relativley valuable [depending, of course, on character skill level and alchemical equipment] and ingredients are, for the most part, very cheap, and can be harvested in the wild or even taken from [unowned] crates lying outside in cities.

Your skill in alchemy does not affect how many potions you can have in effect at one time. Only four potions can be in effect simultaneously regardless of skill level.

[edit] Alchemical tools

For the main article, see Apparatus.

A mortar and pestle is all that is needed at first, plus the ingredients. Additional tools improve your potion's quality. The quality levels are: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master. Your character has to be in the respective skill level in Alchemy to use the appropriate apparatus quality level. So, for example, a novice alchemist cannot use the Journeyman, Expert and Master apparatuses and so forth.

Mortar and Pestle: The one apparatus that is required is the mortar and pestle. This is the basic apparatus you need to combine two or more ingredients into a potion.

Retort: The retort is optional and increases the magnitude and duration of all positive effects. The Retort has no effect on poisons.

Calcinator: The calcinator is optional and increases the magnitude and duration of ALL effects, both positive and negative.

Alembic: The alembic is optional and decreases the magnitude of all negative effects. So if you are planning on creating just positive effect potions, you will not necessarily need this apparatus. The Alembic has no effect on poison.

[edit] Ingredients and poisons

Ingredients are the basis of Alchemy. Each provides up to four effects. At least two of the ingredients must have at least one same effect to create potions. At the 'master' level, however, potions can be created from a single ingredient.

Poisons are a special kind of potion that consists only of negative effects. These can be created using the standard alchemical tools in the same way that a potion is created, but care must be taken to use only negative effects. If positive and negative effects are mixed the result will be classed as a potion and will not be usable on weapons as poisons are.

[edit] Creating potions

[edit] Alchemy interface

(1) The name of your potion.

(2) The four different apparatuses that are available are shown here, if they reside in your inventory. The strength of your potion will depend on the grade of the apparatus.

(3) Up to four ingredients can be added to mix a potion.

(4) The effects that result from combinations of the selected ingredients are displayed here, with effect values and lasting time.

To create a potion, click on the mortar and pestle in your inventory. The Alchemy Interface will show up. You need at least two ingredients with at least one effect that is the same. For example, both Stinkhorn Cap and Wisp Stalk Caps have Damage Health as their first effect. Select both ingredients and the effects that the potion will have when combined will show up on the right (4). Again, the strength of the potion is determined by the grade level of your tool(s) and your own skill level.

Note that the final weight of the potion is the average of each ingredient used to make it. This is important if your character has a limited carrying capacity. When looking to create a large number of potions or poisons that have to be carried, sort the ingredient list by ascending weight and look for the lightest possible combination of ingredients that will produce the desired effect.

[edit] Alchemy trainers

• Refer to the Trainers page.

[edit] Books that permanently increase the Alchemy skill

(These books will not increase your alchemy skill past 100)

• Song of the Alchemists
• A Game at Dinner
• Mannimarco, King of Worms - found in a display case in the Mystic Archives in the Arcane University
• De Rerum Dirennis - Skingrad: All Things Alchemical, 2nd floor shelf, northeast corner.
• Calcinator Treatise

[edit] Leveling text

Apprentice-level text:

Your stained fingers attest to your diligence in mixing potions and learning their secrets. You are now an Apprentice of Alchemy. All potion ingredients have four potential effects. You can now automatically identify the first two effects.

Journeyman-level text:

Your stained fingers attest to your diligence in mixing potions and learning their secrets. You are now a Journeyman of Alchemy. All potion ingredients have four potential effects. You can now automatically identify the first three effects.

Expert-level text:

Your stained fingers attest to your diligence in mixing potions and learning their secrets. You are now an Expert of Alchemy. All potion ingredients have four potential effects. You can now automatically identify all the effects.

Master-level text:

Your stained fingers attest to your diligence in mixing potions and learning their secrets. You are now a Master of Alchemy. Normally it takes two or more ingredients to make a potion. As a master Alchemist, you can create a potion from a single ingredient.

[edit] NPC Dialogue

Once your Alchemy skill reaches 70 or higher, NPCs will say to you: "How about mixing up some potions? You look like quite the alchemist."

[edit] Usefulness

Alchemy can copy any cast on self spell effect from any school of magic. Alchemy can also be used to make poisons. Poisons can be made with multiple effects in order to dish out quite a bit of damage. For example you can make a poison that does shock, fire, and health damage all at once. You can also make poisons to damage fatigue, silence opponents, and paralyze. The downside to poisons is that several creatures in the game are immune to them.

[edit] Strategies for making poisons

Poisons should be thought of as more of a mass-manufacturing process than an effort to make single very powerful potions. Although it is certainly handy to have a potion on hand that deals damage health, damage magic, fire damage, and damage fatigue, such a poison would chiefly be used against a boss rather than the typical enemy a player might encounter. Given the rarity of true boss characters in Cyrodiil, the bulk of poisons a player manufactures will be used against common bandits, necromancers and animals. Therefore, it is wise to make many simple damage health poisons instead of a few very powerful multi-effect poisons. At higher alchemy levels - even with poor equipment - poisons quickly become very deadly, and a player may well find themself dialing the game's difficulty up in order to keep things challenging.

Mass-producing damage health poisons is a straightforward process. For lower-level alchemists, Nightshade is a poisoner's best friend. Particularly abudnant in the Nibenay Basin around Fort Irony, Nightshade is common all over Cyrodiil, with the exception of the mountains and swamps. Gathering up a large supply of Nightshade is important, as it can act as a base for other more exotic damage health ingredients such as Harrada Root, Stinkhorn, and Wisp Stalk Caps.

Once at expert level, making poisons becomes very simple. The West Weald is home to many good sources of poison ingredients, including Peony Seeds and Dragon's Tongue. The vineyards just west of Skingrad are the greatest single source of crops in all of Cyrodiil, and grapes have a damage health effect. Combine them with Flax, a very common and colorful plant that grows nearly everywhere, and a player can mass-produce poisons on a nearly limitless scale. The poisons will be very simple, but the sheer number of them will make short work of nearly any vulnerable enemy.

Note that it is important to have back-up methods of fighting, as poisons are inneffective against the Undead, Argonians, and various other resistant enemies such as a Will-o-the-Wisp.

[edit] Easy money using Alchemy

In addition to making potions for your own benefit, a budding alchemist can make a significant amount of money from selling their products, while dramatically raising their skills. For details on a number of options, see the article on power leveling. You will make money buying all the food off a merchant and selling it back as potions.