Alchemy - is it worth it?

[Sneakimus]

Hi there

So far in the main story I've finished the attack & destruction on the bandit/cuman camp, and I'm walking around with 16k groschen and not much to spend it on.

I was considering leveling alchemy, but I find that it is simply easier and simpler for me to just buy the potions.

Is there any reason why I should level alchemy?

[Anrock]

Yup. Alchemy is huge money saver (one bottle of schnapps costs ~160g from trader and for less than 20g you can get ingredients to brew around ~20 bottles) and stat booster (after learning alchemy 99% of time i'm under 2-3 potions at once)

It's better to spend your 16k to buy best horse + equipment or weapon and armor.

[STS]

Anrock is right about that but I'm guessing since you say you have not much to spend it on, you already have the best horse + equipment.
So it comes down to wether you like this kind of game mechanic in a RPG or not. Myself, I like stuff like that from time to time, gather the herbs you need (skill up Herbalism) and then brew a few potions and a few extra to sell and gain even more money you can't spent on anything at some point except maybe new maintenance kits :-).
Espacially certain potions like Nighthawk, Saviour Schnapps and Lazarus or Merigold, can be handy if you have enough on you or on horse, because these potions do cost a fair amount of groschen and you can't always buy enough at a time.
Alchemy can be a bit tedious till you reach level 10 though, at level 10 you can pick the "Autobrew" perk which helps a lot.

[76561188078797539]

Originally posted by Master:

Is there any reason why I should level alchemy?

You will need it along the way for a few of the side quests (or at least it helps having it at a decent level). If you're done getting filthy rich with Herbalism (though with Leg Day raising Strength becomes far more important than getting money from it after a certain point anyway), Alchemy will give you much greater profit. Although grinding till you can auto-craft potions can get boring.

The potions themselves are quite handy, but in 1.3.4 (last I played) I found no real need to use them aside from the occasional Marigold potion (mostly because I had a tendency to fall off steep inclines exploring). Perhaps later on they become more useful, or the combat changes in later patches might make them more viable now.

Also, 16,000 groshen is beggar's change ;)

Some of the best equipment will cost much more than that.

[Sneakimus]

Originally posted by Sheepify:

Originally posted by Master:

Is there any reason why I should level alchemy?

You will need it along the way for a few of the side quests (or at least it helps having it at a decent level). If you're done getting filthy rich with Herbalism (though with Leg Day raising Strength becomes far more important than getting money from it after a certain point anyway), Alchemy will give you much greater profit. Although grinding till you can auto-craft potions can get boring.

The potions themselves are quite handy, but in 1.3.4 (last I played) I found no real need to use them aside from the occasional Marigold potion (mostly because I had a tendency to fall off steep inclines exploring). Perhaps later on they become more useful, or the combat changes in later patches might make them more viable now.

Also, 16,000 groshen is beggar's change ;)

Some of the best equipment will cost much more than that.

I've yet to actually find any equipment above 4-5k in price, and a single Cuman encounter easily nets me 2-4k groschen from loot sale by using the millers, weapon & armorsmiths with whom I've 90+ reputation with combined with speech perks, such as Final Deal.


That said, I find potions extremely useful. Many of them gives 50% less damage taken, 50% more damage or raising str/warfare by 5 points without any drawbacks.
From a gameplay perspective, those are amazing boosts to my already OP Henry!

[Tempered]

Alchemy is useful in the beginning of the game to make huge amounts of cash and add a bunch of buffs to your skills. Some of the perks you get with alchemy can help you out as well.

[Mountain King]

Is there a reason to level it? Ehh, I'd say only to get auto-brew. There's no skill requirement for pots so you can craft all the schnapps and marigolds you want without grinding.

[MadDragon]

Only potions I've found useful is the nightvision one, simply because it's so damn dark at night even when moon is out. And the save potion, but only until I found the "unlimited save" mod which saved my butt many times due to the frequent crashes. (aside: of course, now it crashes 100% of the time at a particular point, so I can't play, but hopefully they'll fix it. Eventually.)

[WastedTrojan]

The potions can make you ridiculous, even early in the game. Go after a camp with a rage potion, vitality potion and bucksblood and you are a monster. +50% damage, -50% damage taken, +50% stamina. Of course Nighthawk potions are ridiculously good. Also Bane potions are great for poisoning weapons and food pots.

[Buldor]

As people have said, the potions are ironically so magically powerful you wouldn't of needed skyrim-esque spells haha. 50% extra stam regen, 50% damage increase, 50% damage reduction when hit, full health regen, night vision and so many more.

As people have said, you only need to level up to level 10 to get Autobrew which lets you skip the alchemy minigame. Find out where to find your fav potion materials (there is a garden for everything, normally near a town. I go to two which provides me enough for about 12 saves and enough mats for 12 of most other potions).

[freddebw2]

not in vanilla, using mods combat potions may or may not give the needed edge to win fights, together with slower money gain

[Vince]

The best thing to do is to keep your money and spend it on Tier 5 Horse + Noble bridle, Noble Saddle, and Military Shoes, that together will cost you somewhere in the range of 8-10k. Then spend the rest on arms + armour since you probably still have a decent amount of upgrades to get.

On Alchemy, the best thing to do is to collect a LARGE amount of herbs as you level and find spots for the harder to find ones where you can harvest them regularly. I find alchemy to be a huge benefit in the long run because you've got so many avenues you can take with it.

• Sell your pots
  
• Use them in combat
  
• For saving if you don't use a mod
  
• To help out with quests
  
• For gameplay benefits (nightvision pot)
  
• etc.

If you do plan on doing alchemy you'll really need to grind out to get AutoBrew which is a huge benefit as you only have to craft each potion once and then you can autobrew it as long as you have the ingredients, and there's another perk which makes more of each potion you autobrew. So you'll be getting 2-3 pots for the price of one.

Overall I don't worry about the money when it comes to Alchemy as I have somewhere in the range of 145k groschen right now from abusing the developers lack of thought when it comes to being overburdened. But I don't use a save mod and I never run out of potions due to my alch level and the amount of herbs I have stored in my home chest and that I keep on my horse with me.

Hope this is useful. :)

[Hippopotamus]

Could be good to brew a bunch of Bane, fun stuff to use in pots to poison people
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1356929704

[kooto]

Alchemy is good to have at beggining, later its not that important and making money with alchemy is the worst way of making money in the game. Never level alchemy just to make money.

[Verysalt]

My suggestion if you want some fun. DON'T sell anything, Whatever loot you get use it as replacement for your old things. And if you don't have to replace anything then simply throw it. I had the same problem - I had way too much money and because of that I had no reasons to explore and use all game features and mechanics. It should be sufficient enough from missions rewards and loot replacement to sustain your game play.

The rewards, alchemy and loots becomes meaningless if you can buy anything and fix anything and you still have 10k over in bank.