Alchemy becomes available once the Hero and the rest of the party reaches Peregrin Quay, thanks to Trode repairing the Alchemy Pot during the sea trip.
While at first, only two ingredients can be combined together, eventually the pot will be upgraded by Trode to handle three materials at once after the Pickham incident.
Success in Alchemy is key to getting some of the most powerful equipment available, so it's worth a go, however time-consuming.
While most recipes can be discovered from hints from people, inside books, or just by experimenting, there are four recipes that appear as notes dropped on the floor, as part of a game of hide-and-seek proposed by the armor shop merchant of Farebury; not only these notes are barely visible, they only appear in hard to find places after certain story events, and are furthermore, since they are not technically counted as items, not signalated by the Nose for Treasure skill. These four recipes are:
- The Thief's key Recipe, which appears under the bell of the church of Farebury, after talking about it to the local armor shop merchant behind the counter; this is the only one of his recipe notes that the story itself directs the Hero towards, as it is required to proceed forward.
- The Eros' bow Recipe, which appears at Pickham behind a set of crates next to the ladder of the wooden watchtower after retrieving the Magic Ship.
- The Imp knife Recipe, which appears in front of the fountain at Castle Trodain after defeating Dhoulmagus at the Dark Ruins.
- And finally, the Dragon slayer Recipe, which appears at Savella Cathedral, behind the transport chamber that leads to the Lord High Priest's Residence, after the appearance of the Black Citadel in the sky.
The armor shop merchant of Farebury will offer an hint to where to find the next recipe note, if spoken to after the necessary story events have been achieved; however, he will skip any previous hints, if multiple progression prerequisites have already been achieved, meaning that he will only speak about the most recently available recipe note. The 3DS version makes these notes slighty more easily findable, thanks to the balloon of interaction popping out when near them.
Alchemy List[]
*3DS Exclusive
Additionally, in the 3DS version, one more weapon recipe was available for a limited time only, due to one of its key ingredients, the Ye Olde Sword of Erdrick, being an exclusive DLC item. Since its official distribution has stopped, currently, there is not a legitimate way to obtain either this recipe, or item.
Weapon | Ingredient 1 | Ingredient 2 | Ingredient 3 |
---|---|---|---|
Erdrick's sword* | Ye Olde Sword of Erdrick | Liquid Metal Sword | Orichalcum |