Guide for blacksmith/apothecary?

[Poki]

Is there any around?
I've been running a blacksmith for some days, but it seems I never get any profit, I hired 2 npcs but I always get less income than what I've been putting on.

What am I supposed to do to succed?
I just want some auto-settings that let me get REP without any money loss, it doesnt even need to make me rich.

[Jarlim]

Theres a bit alot of people miss when it comes to this, money in this game isn't 10-20k at a time, its tens or hundreds, making 50-200 brass/day is common early on, generally for blacksmith better items/ore sell for more so go out and mine ore rather than buy, swords and jewelelry sell for more than buckets and shovels etc. its not instant it takes alot of time and investment on the player to make it to the point where you can mostly automate. do it all yourself with no staff in the beginning, as you get perks it'll add bits and bits to making more money faster and easier. The game is designed to be be a slower buildup over time

[Poki]

Originally posted by Jarlim:

Theres a bit alot of people miss when it comes to this, money in this game isn't 10-20k at a time, its tens or hundreds, making 50-200 brass/day is common early on, generally for blacksmith better items/ore sell for more so go out and mine ore rather than buy, swords and jewelelry sell for more than buckets and shovels etc. its not instant it takes alot of time and investment on the player to make it to the point where you can mostly automate. do it all yourself with no staff in the beginning, as you get perks it'll add bits and bits to making more money faster and easier. The game is designed to be be a slower buildup over time

Nah, manual crafting gets really painful after the 5th order.
I just want to automate it to break even the costs, even if it doesnt give a profit.

[VeraelHasta]

At the beginning you will not make thousands of brass. Slight profit a day is the most you can count on.
Take your time to see what works with the schedule, if you need more workers or someone gets tired. Or reduce pay etc.
The perk which gives tips from people who like you is a huge help at the start to not be in negative.

Also mining ores yourself once per 4-5 days should be plenty enough for one blacksmith.

[Broseph]

You'll get perks pretty fast at first, and then it just about slows to a halt. Prioritize getting shop orders first, that way you can order things like buckets and scythes instead of having to craft them all.

You'll still make a profit, but not much. For the big money early on, pump out copper swords/fae ore swords.

Also be an awful person and barely pay your workers. As long as the counter person can get through a sale before the customer bar empties, and the blacksmith can keep up with orders, you're fine.

[jenaburwell]

I would also suggest that even with a staff, only open the store 5 days a week or less, and not that many hours. As long as your blacksmith can keep up with the ORDERS, stuff that people come in and order and wait to come back for - then you are all good. What you DON'T want is huge lines of people just buying up all your tin buckets and shovels faster than you can add them.

Also, closer to the beginning, stop by a couple times a week and make as many copper, zinc, fairy swords as you feel like, and they will sell really well and make a tidy profit. Just remember that once they are gone - every single person who can come in and talk to the cashier has a chance to order a sword and you won't have any. Same with all the other implements. Make sure that you have at least tin everything in stock, and you will fulfill every order. Any time that your cashier is there when your shelves are empty - you are paying someone for no reason and possibly getting negative rep.

My blacksmith shop is like a longer-term type of money-making. It goes up and down a lot with the cost of my orders (because I don't like to go mining), but I keep my general store stocked with a variety of things from pears to fancy food, and it makes me a smaller, but very reliable profit all day long.

[Poki]

Originally posted by Broseph:

You'll get perks pretty fast at first, and then it just about slows to a halt. Prioritize getting shop orders first, that way you can order things like buckets and scythes instead of having to craft them all.

You'll still make a profit, but not much. For the big money early on, pump out copper swords/fae ore swords.

Also be an awful person and barely pay your workers. As long as the counter person can get through a sale before the customer bar empties, and the blacksmith can keep up with orders, you're fine.

Lowering their wage might solve my problems.
How lower can I do it and get away with it? Will they accept 1 copper/hour before unionizing?

[Merlin Pharmakeus]

Blacksmith prices mainly depend on the quality unlike goods store (barter can give + 100% value to a low price item) so at the beggining you need a good smith but a bad seller with low charm. Speed is more important, sells already yield a lot of REP and the seller is eating your profits if you can't have quality ores. You can feed your employees to raise their stats and it's good to get infos at the same time. Invest in perks that increase smith stats first (2 first the third one is very pricy for low increase). Buy iron at the relevant blacksmith. Order and box perks become mandatory later when you get multiple shops especially for fae ores unless you want to spend all your time mining.
Ordering even items always yield benefits since it has a discount but remember to keep enough money to afford salary if not go selling items to other shops.

Apothecary need all rounder NPC since it does all and you just need to dump items with multiple traits.

You can also make two teams to avoid stamina loss and prepare for the future because your staff will become old with low speed.

[XartaX]

Goods store tends to be able to get a decent profit as long as you keep it stocked with random stuff.

Blacksmith seems balanced around having fairweather items and certain perks. You can get a weaponsmith perk that gives you 2x yield for example. And you can also get a fairweather item that doubles blacksmith yield (there's also one for apothecary). If you have those, you can go spend like 1 day smithing and have an insane amount of swords, with translates into huge profit.

[Broseph]

Originally posted by Poki:

Lowering their wage might solve my problems.
How lower can I do it and get away with it? Will they accept 1 copper/hour before unionizing?

I have my Salesman and Blacksmith both at 2b/hour, and the shop still functions enough to generate rep and make a little cash. I just pop in every few days and place orders now.

Other people here have mentioned things like stamina drain and stats playing a hand, which I know nothing about. Lots of good takes all around.

[Porcelain1985]

I've got a related question: I noticed that all NPCs, even the ones that formerly owned that particular shop always have 0 skills in blacksmithing/apothecary/goods store. Is there a way to increase that? I had my shops for several years now and my employees are still level 0.

[DeepRed]

Originally posted by Porcelain1985:

I've got a related question: I noticed that all NPCs, even the ones that formerly owned that particular shop always have 0 skills in blacksmithing/apothecary/goods store. Is there a way to increase that? I had my shops for several years now and my employees are still level 0.

They gain EXP by working at the store. By which, I mean they have to complete their designated tasks.

Let's say you have the Item Shop and hire... we'll say Holly Kettle, for example.
Holly's gonna have 0 experience (why people who owned the store before you bought it have 0 is a good question, though) and if you stand next to her while she's working and take all of the customers... yeah, her EXP isn't gonna increase. Ever. She has to be the one to deal with the customers.

The more hours she'll work, the more EXP she'll get (at the expense of being more tired). If there's items stored away, she'll automatically place them in the store (I believe this happens at the top of the hour? Not sure). I don't think that grants EXP, but it gives more items to sell which leads to more EXP for her.

Smithy is a bit different - the one in the front (meeting customers) gets EXP like Holly would. The other one? That one's getting EXP by smithing and finishing whatever item was being worked on.

It takes a while but after roughly two seasons of having the item shop, my 3 employees are all level 1 at least.