Crafting

Crafting is a very important aspect in Fallen Earth and a lot of the games content is based around this. Hopefully this will help you on your way to becoming a master crafter.

Ok so let’s get started…
I’ll try to break it down into “Basic” and “Advanced” sections.

Basic Crafting
101: So what is crafting?
102: What are the different "Types" of crafting I can do? Can I do them all?
103: I can't put AP's into Crafting skills...What’s wrong?
104: How do I start to craft?
105: Where do I get the materials/components for Crafting? Is anything required every time?
106: Must I stand still and craft?

Advanced Crafting
201: My Tradeskills won't go any higher than XX...Why is that? XX would be a level.
202: What is a 'Crafting Facility'? And what does it do?
203: What is the difference between "Scavenging" and "Salvaging"?
204: I’m unable to harvest something, what am I doing wrong?
205: I want to make something to travel on, how do I do this?
206: Doing missions are good for crafters.


101: So what is crafting?
Crafting in FE is done by taking raw materials (scavenged or bought) and turning that into a finished item after waiting for an amount of set time. The best armor/weapons and all types of vehicles (Horse/ATV/Buggies etc) will be made with crafting...thus making it essential to be involved with crafting in some way. Even if it is just crafting your own ammo, get involved with the crafting system.

102: What are the different "Types" of crafting I can do? Can I do them all?
Armorcraft: Covers the making of armor and clothes.
Ballistics: Covers the creation of rifles and pistols, from zip guns and crossbows to sub-machine guns and assault rifles.
Cooking: Covers the preparation of food, which can provide a number of recovery-oriented buffs.
Geology: Allows the player to harvest minerals from mining nodes and to refine metals into higher-grade components.
Medicine: Covers the creation of all manner of medical equipment.
Mutagenic: Covers the creation of mutation injectors and other devices that support the use of mutations, such as gamma restorers.
Nature: Allows the character to harvest components from animals and plants in addition to producing some items and refine some components. You create Horses with this Tradeskill.
Science: Covers the creation of chemical boosters, special optics, Ammunition, Motorised Vehicles, and similarly advanced items. Also allows the refinement of some components.
Weaponry: Covers the creation of melee weapons.

In addition to those, there are three gathering skills; Scavenging, Nature, Geology. These are the main skills used to harvest resources.

It is possible to master all Trades, as you are able to craft everything. Though mastering all Tradeskills will be a hard task, you will be rewarded for your dedication. But for starting off it is recommended to stick with one or two Tradeskills that complement each other E.g. Ballistics and Science. As a crafter you should be focusing on all of the gathering Tradeskills plus your one or two crafting paths.

103: I can't put AP's into Crafting skills...What’s wrong?
The Tradeskills are raised by use…not AP's. Meaning that you will have to make items to increase the level of that trade. AP is used solely for Stats/Skills/Mutations…Not Crafting.

104: How do I start to craft?
I'll be using the Tradeskill "Ballistics" as my example.
1) Picking a town labeled "Crafting" from the town selector would be the first move you should make...other towns are just as good, it just may be easier to find materials and recipes at designated "Crafting" towns. I choose South Burb as I am more familiar with it.


2) Decide on which Tradeskill/s that you want to work on first. Then travel around your chosen town until you find a person with 'Tradeskill* Trainer' in their title.
* The word Tradeskill may be replaced by the name of an actual Tradeskill or not. E.g.: Ballistics Trainer.

Next would be to buy some books for that Tradeskill as these will teach you the different recipes for the items. IIRC you start with 11 in each Tradeskill so the starter books would cost no more that 100 white chips ea. I bought Zip Guns.

Now for looking at your recipes you just learned and getting the materials.

1) To open you recipe window press L (Default key). Click on one of the tabs and find your recipe. For me I would click on the 'Three Bullets' icon which would bring up all my Ballistic-making recipes. Then I would click on the '+ Zip Guns' to expand it.


The red numbers on the right hand side mean that you cannot make that, white means that it is your level and will get a skill up, green means you may get a skill up and gray means you won’t.

2) I then would click on a recipe with a white number...an example of this would be the 'Zip Gun Ammunition' in Zip Guns. Doing this will show you a list of materials and the amounts to which you need. Moving your mouse over the item will tell you what it is. The little ‘80’ shows how many items you make when you click the ‘Create’ button once. If it has no number there, you only make one.

105: Where do I get the materials/components for Crafting? Is anything required every time?
Yes, when crafting you will need a Tradeskill kit...EVERY time. The one I would need is a 'Ballistic Tradeskill Kit'. IIRC you start with one of every kit (except Mutagenics). If you happen to lose/sell yours there is a book which teaches you how to make the Tradeskills kit.

Getting the components is the "Fun" part. There are two ways that you can approach this....buy them from a vendor/other player or scavenge them yourself.

There are three types of nodes that you should be on the look out for when gathering resources. And they are; Harvest Nodes, Scavenge Nodes and Mine Nodes. These are the symbols that show on your mini map. Harvest Nodes require Nature to loot, Scavenge requires Scavenging and Mine Nodes require Geology.


Those towns labeled "Crafting" *should* have a decent supply of nodes for you to find. Asking in game where to find a specific component if you are having trouble would be your best bet of finding help...


Once you have the amount of materials you are asked for (all the squares will be green) Click the create button. Another screen should pop up....I move that to the top of the screen and minimise it. Here is an image of the screen that pops up. The image shows the name of the item you are crafting, the time left, a picture of the item, the amount you have que'd up to craft and a progression bar.


Once the recipe has finished crafting click “Complete” to gain your items and experience.


106: Must I stand still and craft?
The simple answer is no. Fallen Earth’s crafting system is designed so that you can complete missions, kill critters, raid towns, talk in chat and do what ever you like and the crafting keeps ticking over. Also you are able to log out and you crafting will continue to progress over night.

201: My Tradeskill won't go any higher than XX...Why is that? XX would be a level.
You will most likely be capped (meaning you cannot raise them unless you raise the base stats). What this means is that you will have to raise 2 of your stats in order to 'lift' this cap. All Tradeskills are based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Perception. They can be raised up to double the base value of the skill. Your Int/Perc also raises 1 or 2 points every level up.
Raising your stats looks like this;


You can see that my Intelligence capped for my level, I need to raise Perception in order for my crafting cap to lift. Raising a stat by 1 level costs 5 AP each time, so be sure to save some AP.


Here is an example with the math involved;
Your crafting cap is 2 *(Int * .75 + Per * .25). If your intelligence was 25 and your Perception was 17 then your crafting cap would be 2 * (25 * .75 + 18 * .25) = 2 *( 18.75 + 4.5) = 2 * 23.25 = 46.5 = 46 rounded down.


Here is a visual example.

See that Geology and Nature are ‘capped’? I would have to raise my Int/Per to raise them higher.

If we follow this table across;
“Ballistics” – Tradeskill name
11 – Minimum skill level
Progress Bar – graphical indicator
39 – Max level of Tradeskill
Total – Text indication of what you Tradeskill level is.

202: What is a 'Crafting Facility'? And what does it do?
A crafting facility is a building that once entered drops the time of crafting. Say an item took 11mins to make, it may go down to 9mins 30s within a facility. This may seem small now but later on if you are crafting vehicles it may shave hours or days off your total time. Each Tradeskill has its own facility. You will know you are in/near one as your location in social or on the mini map will change to "Ballistics Facility" or something similar.

They facilities can usually be found by the Tradeskill trainers.

Each Tradeskill has a corresponding symbol that you should look for if you want to craft in that facility. The image on the right is showing them.

203: What is the difference between "Scavenging" and "Salvaging"?
Scavenging is getting materials from resource nodes. They may look like piles of rubbish, old cars, bikes, plants and mineral deposits. The different types of scavenging have already been covered, but I will show you them again.
Salvaging is breaking down an item; you or somebody else has made, for a share of the components. You need to have the required knowledge and level of the Tradeskill in order to salvage it. If you know how to make it, you can salvage it.

Example:
At my current level I would be able to salvage the Plattmaster 3000 PBG and Zip Gun Ammunition as I have higher level than what is required. I would not however be able to salvage the Plattmaster Warrior PBG as it requires a Ballistics level of 15, I currently have level 11Ballistics.

204: I’m unable to harvest something, what am I doing wrong?
Your problem is either; A) You don’t have the required level to harvest it, B) You don’t have the required knowledge to harvest it or C) You don’t have the correct Tradeskill kit to harvest it.

This is what it should look like, notice how nothing is red. If something was red, you are unable to harvest. The next few examples will show you the problems that you may be facing and the solutions.


A) The 11/15 represents “My Current Level/Level required”. It is the only thing which is Red so that is what needs to be changed. Try skilling up on some level 1 nodes first before attempting this.


B) And C) This example shows that two things that are wrong. You do not have the required knowledge and you don’t have the necessary Tradeskill kit to harvest. To gain the knowledge, visit the trainer for that Tradeskill. For this example I would need to visit a Geology Trainer, as Geology is the gathering skill that is used.


Every new clone should start with a Tradeskill Kit for everything (except Mutagenics). If you should lose yours; visit the same trainer you visited for the knowledge and he will be happy to sell you the Tradeskill kit OR the knowledge to make your own Kit.

205: I want to make something to travel on/in, how do I do this?
You have 2 options when you start out in making vehicles. You have a choice between varieties of Horses OR a variety of Motorised vehicles such as ATV’s, Dune Buggy etc… Creating horses requires you to use the “Nature” Tradeskill. And creating Motorised Vehicles requires you to use the “Science” Tradeskill. I will not go in depth on it in this guide.

206: Doing missions are good for crafters.
Tired of buying the books you need to craft?
Start running missions in those Crafter-friendly towns!
They can take a HUGE load off your hands as the town usually offers you books for each Tradeskill.
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This mission shows 3 Books as a reward for collecting something as simple as copper. You actually on need to get 4 pieces of it. Easily doable, and will save you chips.

One last note, I like to set my inventory up as pictured below. It helps keep all my Tradeskill related components in one section. To set it up like this, just click the icon the red arrow is pointing to and create a set of tabs for each category.

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Thanks for reading.
Hope it helped..