Alchemy and You: The Art of Cylinder-Slinging

A rudimentary guide on Battle Alchemy and Transmutation and how its skills operate. Hopefully this guide can prove useful to those who aspire to shoot death-water at things. This guide covers basic alchemy skills, tips, and other alchemical tidbits that one might find intresting.
(Updated with a new section)

Introduction

If your reading this guide, chances are your a newbie who joined this game and wants to be a Battle Alchemist (or a Construct Alchemist, I have some tips for that too) Or somebody who would want to make fun of my inexperience or myself as a person, or point out all my spelling errors. Either way, welcome.

Firstly, what is Alchemy? In this game, it is the manipulation of elements to reshape the world or fight against adversaries, using a device called a cylinder to fire elemental crystals to do battle.

As a skillset, Alchemy focuses less on dealing large damage to large areas like magic would, but instead focuses on control and versatility. As each skill has unique effects on targets and ways of operating.

Thus, Alchemy is more defensive, with skills that hinder and interfere with enemies as well as damage them.

Starting out, and the gear you need to do it

Now, lets get started, if your creating a new character, you'll want to select either battle alchemy or transmutation (construct alchemy) as your active talent. Your active talent gives boosts to a selection of skills within a certain field. (Melee combat, magic, different kinds of crafting, ect)

Selecting either alchemy talent will start you out with a beginner cylinder and 300 Water Crystals, 300 Fire Crystals, 100 Wind Crystals, and 100 Clay Crystals. These crystals are the ammunition for your basic alchemy skills. You can get more crystals as well as new cylinders at the alchemy stores in Taillteann and Tara.

You will also start out with some of the basic skills for your talent, and will do a tutorial instance to explain how these basic skills work.

Now, for your gear.


Golly gee whoever made this is really talented (http://familiamabi.seesaa.net/ Theres the creator's website. I think. Its in moonspeak :V)

Your cylinder is the most crucial tool in your arsenal. An Alchemist without his cylinder isn't exactly going to be useful. You cannot use your alchemy skills without a cylinder equipped. However in melee its about as effective as your bare hands (In fact you pretty much do use your bare hands when attacking with a cylinder on) so having a secondary weapon to fall back on would be a good idea.

Your crystals are also important, as previously stated, they are your ammo. Your basic 4 element crystals power your 4 basic alchemy attacks. Also, these crystals, with other materials, are used in steam ovens in Taillteann to create crystals for your advanced alchemy skills.

Finally, another piece of gear you may be intrested in later on is the Alchemy Crystal Bag, sold at alchemy shops for 24,000 gold, this is a special item that takes up 4 horizontal spaces in your inventory and acts like an item bag that only holds alchemy crystals with 27 slots in a 9x3 grid. (Also, any crystals aquired will automaticlly be put in the bag) It requires the inventory plus service which you buy with microcurrency. However, it may prove useful for those who need to free up space in their inventories. it should be noted that if the inventory service expires while this bag is in use, one can still use the crystals inside for their skills, but cannot put any more in until the service is renewed.

As well, you will want armor and and some scenarios, you'll want allies to aid in combat.
And of course, you'll need your skills.

Important People, or "Remember their names, you'll be screaming them later"

There are a few npcs that will provide crucial services to allow you to continue effectively in your practice of Alchemy.

Eabha is the kid at the east side of the Taillteann Alchemist House, near the dry ovens. He sells cylinders and repairs them at a 97% success rate, and also sells the 4 elemental crystals for 500 gold per 50 or 1000 gold per 100. You'll be coming back to this kid a lot as your cylinder and your crystal supplies both wear down.

<Dorren is the old lady at the west side of <the Taillteann Alchemist House, near the <steam ovens. She isn't as crucial, however, she does sell two books to learn the Fragmentation and Summon Golem skills, as well as selling low-quality crystals for advanced magic spells.

Heledd runs the Tara Alchemy> Shop, providing the same services> as Eabha. However, her success> rate for cylinder repairs is at 91% Due to this, her repairs are cheaper.

Your skills, or "Finally we're getting to the good part!"

Now lets talk about your skills. A few things first.
First, some, more advanced skills require you to beat mainstream quests that you wont initally have access to, so such skills will only be given simple explanation, more focus will be on the skills you can initally get.
Secondly, We will start with the Battle Alchemy skills, covering transmutation skills in the next section.

For training these skills, the relative rule of thumb for offensive skills is higher ranks will require you defeat more enemies with higher strength then you. Holding ALT will allow you to view monster's strength relative to you. Indicated by a word to the left of their name. "Weakest, Weak, Normal (no word), Strong, Awful, and Boss"

When you start out, you'll have two active Battle Alchemy skills, Water Cannon, and Wind Blast

Water Cannon is your basic damage dealer, operating pretty much the same as a magic firebolt. It uses water crystals (of course) and can be charged up to five times to deal more damage to a single target. Charging up the skill more allows you to do more damage in one strike, but will guzzle through your crystals if you overdo it. So use discresion when deciding how many charges to use.

Wind Blast operates much differently, it deals less damage, but can send a single target flying across several feet. Its best use is to gain some distance between you and an adversary in combat, and thus buy time to charge another skill. Wind Blast charges faster, but cannot be charged more then once, using one wind crystal per use. It has no inital cooldown, but if used multiple times rapidly, the icon will blink black in your hotkey and you will get a warning. Use the skill again during this warning period and you will trigger a 45 second cooldown. So dont overdo it.

There are 2 other basic alchemy skills you should learn as soon as you can, Flame Burst, and Sand Burst

Flame Burst allows you to turn your cylinder into a flamethrower, shooting out a jet of fire that can damage multiple targets. It uses fire crystals, and like Water Cannon, it can be charged up to 5 times to deal more damage.
To obtain Flame Burst, Talk to Eabha (the kid you buy your alchemy supplies from) in Taillteann with the Skills Keyword with Rank D Water Cannon and Rank D Wind Blast, then bring him an Arat Crystal.
Arat Crystals can be aquired as drops from enemies in shadow missions, or for an easier alternative, aquired from other players, or purchased from trading posts for 4000 ducats (which involves using the commerce system)

Sand Burst is used to blind targets, which effectivly makes them temporarily defenseless. It uses clay crystals and can be charged 5 times, unlike other skills however, each charge is fired individually. The usefulness of this skill can be debated because its chance to blind is based on the strength of the target against the rank of the skill. However, some enemies may be especally vunerable against it.
Like Wind Blast, overuse of this skill will trigger a lengthly cooldown, so don't go overboard.
To obtain Sand Burst, talk to Lucas, the owner of Emain Macha's pub, The Bean Rua. (You'll have to come at night and buy a ticket to get in) And use the skills keyword. (you'll need the alchemy mastery passive skill. but that shouldnt be a problem) then go talk to Eabha.
Sand Burst is very easy to train compared to other skills, as the only requirements are to use the skill and succesfully blind opponents. Train it on foxes in your spare time.

Frozen Blast allows you to spray out a freezing mist that roots foes in place, its great for crowd control or temporarily nullifying a threat while you and your allies focus on something else. It also reduces the defenses of the affected targets. Leaving them ripe for your most powerful attacks.
This skill requires blizzard crystals which are made with 3 water crystals, a wind crystal, and a snowball
To learn Frozen Blast, Talk to Dorren at the Taillteann Alchemist house with the Skills Keyword with at least Rank A Water Cannon and Rank Novice Synthesis, get a snowball from hitting the snowmen in Sidhe Sneachta, a custom-built snowman in the Physis Homestead or defeating Snow Spiders, and bring it back to her.
Training for this skill initally involves creating blizzard crystals, from Rank 9 onward, most training will come from defeating frozen enemies.

You'll also have passive skills that enchance your abilites further. Let me show you them.

Alchemy Mastery enhances the effectiveness of all of your alchemy skills. It may be tricky to advance, but you should invest in it to enhance your overall effectiveness
Initally, the primary form of training for this skill will be crystal production. Creating either Alchemy or mana crystals (See Advanced Construct Alchemy pt2) will provide most of your training. From Rank C, you can earn more training from using alchemy in combat and defeating enemies. From Rank 9, Synthesis and Fragmentation, as well as using Barrier Spikes and Summon Golem will provide training.

These 4 skills each contribute to alchemy skills of the respective element. The Clay Alchemy Skill is under the Transmutation talent, and thus won't get a exp boost if your Active Talent is Battle Alchemy.
These skills train with the use of the respective skills, and thus train alongside them.

Chain Cylinder is a toggleable ability which grants a chance to load more then one charge in a single use of Water Cannon, Flame Burst, or Sand Burst. You have a chance to aquire this skill upon using any of these skills. Hope you get it sooner rather then later.
This skill is trained by using skills after their charge count is boosted from this skill activating. The number of extra charges added will matter, especially in the higher ranks.

Construct Alchemy, or "Lets throw sh*t into the dry oven and see what happens"

Construct alchemy as a crafting skill is rather unconventonal as far as crafting in this game goes. instead of trying to make specific items by recipes and ingredients, you experiement with putting diffrent items into a dry oven to see what comes out.
You gain these skills automaticlly if you select Transmutation as your active talent and complete the tutorial quest, otherwise, you will have to resort to other means to attain them.

The Dry oven will be the second best friend of a Construct Alchemist. (The first best friend being their cylinder) It is where their skills are put to use breaking things down and putting them back together in new and unexpected ways.

Synthesis basiclly amounts to putting three or more different items into the dry oven and seeing what comes out.
WIth this skill, you can recombine items to makes new things, make gear with enhanced stats, make useful resources, or make unique items you cannot aquire any other way.
There are still fixed recipes you can use to make specific items, like glittery paper, or ice mines you can deploy to trap monsters in frozen death.
One great use for this skill is duplicating items, most crafting materials and special alchemy crystals can be multiplied by putting them into the dry oven alongside an arat crystal and 3 holy waters
To learn this skill if you did not select Transmutation for your talent, Talk to Dorren with the Skills Keyword with a current level of 30 or higher and at least Rank Novice Fragmentation.


Fragmentation is the opposite of Synthesis, taking things apart. With Fragmentation, you can take certain production items and destroy them, getting back some or all of the materials used to make them. Its straightfoward, put the item of interest into the box, if it can be fragmented, you'll see the sucess rate, and the potental results of what you could get.
To learn this skill if you did not select Transmutation for your talent, Read the book "About Synthesis and Fragmentation in Alchemy" sold by Dorren in Taillteann for 14,200 gold.

Transmutation is a passive skill that enhances your ability to create with alchemy, it increases the success rate of Synthesis, Fragmentation, Mana Crystallization, Crystal Production and Metal Conversion. The boost grows stronger as the skill ranks up.
You learn the skill after attempting Synthesis, Fragmentation or Mana Crystallization. Or automaticlly after completing your Transmutation tutorial.

Alchemy Mastery also influences your abilites in these skills, and is later trained with their use.

Might as well talk about making crystals as well.
The steam oven is used to produce crystals required to use advanced alchemy skills, you will be able to produce a crystal after learning the appropriate skill. Transmutation and Alchemy Mastery both enhance your ability to make crystals, and are trained by your doing so. Like it or not. you'll need to get good at crystal production to be a better Alchemist.

The Advanced Skills, or "First 3 generation quest chains first, these skills later"

Ok I think I hammered that point in enough, Might as well mention these advanced skills for sake of clarity.

Each of these skills requires its own type of crystal, crafted at a steam oven, to use (Except for Heat Buster, which requires 5 fire crystals)

Life Drain is a powerful alchemy attack with a straightfoward use. Get hurt. load crystal, point at target, and watch as their health plummets while yours is filled up. This skill allows you to drain life from targets and incapacitate them.
The Life Drain crystals required to use this skill are made with a clay crystal, fire crystal, water crystal, wind crystal, and a mystic pearl.
Life Drain is aquired after beating the G9 quest "Scouting Mission"

Shock is a grand thermoelectric display of telling every enemy within a 5 foot radius to suck it.
Shock is a skill that allows the user to apply a sheild of fire and wind to themselves or a party member, a pet, their own summoned Golem, or a monster. All enemies within radius of the applied target periodiclly get zapped, and the target may still move and use other skills while shock is active.
Shock crystals are made with 3 fire crystals, 1 wind crystal, and royal jelly.

Shock is learned after beating the G11 quest "Shock." However, to advance the skill beyond novice. you must gather 10 pages and put them into a book in order, similar to how fireball is learned. (I.E. an annoying and expensive pain in the neck from my perspective)

Heat Buster allows you to blow adversaries to smithereens after pelting them with your other abilites.
To use the skill, build up pressure in your cylinder by using other alchemy skills, once the skill is ready, its icon will glow, use the skill, and it will consume 5 fire cylinders and allow you to shoot out an explosion that damages multiple enemies and pushes you back.
Heat Buster is learned after beating the G12 side mission "Underground Waterway Investigation"

Advanced Construct Alchemy, or "Imma make it rain!"

There are also some special skills a Construct Alchemist can learn to further enhance their effectiveness. Lets start with the active skills in the Transmutation talent

Summon Golem allows you to, what else? Summon a damn golem. A remote-control golem at that. When the golem is summoned, you take control of it to attack monsters, however, you are defensless while your controlling your golem. When you are not controlling the golem. it will mindlessly follow you where-ever you may go. And you may switch between controlling your golem and controlling yourself at any time during the golems duration.
There are 5 grades of golem crystal, each stronger then the last. You'll unlock the use and eventual crafting of each progressing grade as your rank in this skill increases. (However, you will never be able to craft the highest grade, which is Magic Golem Crystal.) Also, your rank in Clay Alchemy will influence the size and power of your golem.
To learn this skill, Read the skill book "Alchemy and Battling" purchased from Dorren in Taillteann for 28,800G.

Barrier Spikes is a construct alchemy skill that allows you to create a wall to impede adversaires. The skill can only be used in dungeons and shadow missions. As the skill advances, the wall will damage those who attack it, and later, allow friendly ranged attacks through it.
The skill requires Barrier Spike crystals that are made with 1 clay crystal and 3 firewood.

Barrier Spikes is learned from beating the G9 quest "Alchemist Seal"

Rain Casting allows you to create a rain cloud. No tribal dancing required. You might ask "Why in seven hells would I need to make a rain cloud?" Well, good question. Rain clouds enhance the sucess rate of fishing, production and alchemy for all underneath it, much like when it rains normally ingame. Also, it makes Water Cannon do more damage. As you enhance the skill, the cloud grows bigger and more effective, (Alchemy Mastery handles the "getting bigger" part) And at rank 1, your clouds shoot lighting bolts that scramble monsters and reset their aggro.
Rain Casting requires cloud crystals made with 10 clay crystals, 10 water crystals, 10 wind crystals, and a clump of pollen.
Rain Casting is learned during the G10 quest "Rain Maker - Irinid"

Advanced Construct Alchemy Pt. 2 or "Firey Death in a crystal"

Lets go back to the ovens for our last two advanced Construct Alchemy skills.

With Mana Crystalization, you can take advanced magic spells, (Fireball, Ice Spear and Thunder) and shove them into crystals so any random joe with a cylinder can make full use of them. To use this skill, go to a steam oven, cast the spell of your choice, charge it up nice and good, then put in a crystal (fire crystal for fireball, water crystal for Ice spear, and wind crystal for Thunder) and hope for the best. the power of the resulting crystal depends on your rank in Mana Crystalization, and the rank of the spell. However, the process will be more effective if you have somebody else do the casting for you. (In this case their rank in the spell will be factored in) Just click "Request cast" in the crafting menu with the caster of interest in the same party with you, and actually there with you, at the steam oven.
You learn this skill during the G9 quest "Fallon's Request," Dorren will teach you the skill. She's cool like that.

Metal Conversion allows you to turn ores or ingots of metal into other kinds of metal. When your rank is high enough, you can turn Iron into gold, (Which is every Alchemist's wet dream apparently.) Or turn ores into special metals that you cannot aquire otherwise, or even gems. Sparkly. When using this skill, you play a spinny wheel minigame that can influence the end result rather good if you do it right.
To learn this skill, either complete your transmutation tutorial or complete the G10 sidequest "The Corrupt Alchemist," which is received from Heledd in the Tara alchemy shop by using the Skills keywords on her or it may be automatically received after completing the G10 quest "Temple Knights"

More Cylinders, or "Advanced Alchemy Hardware 101"

A few final things to note before I head out. Let me talk about the hardware some more.

There are special elemental cylinders that enhance the effectiveness of skills of that element while reducing the effectiveness of skills of other elements. There's the normal ones you can buy from alchemy shops. And more powerful types that are harder to get ahold of, but have greater boosts, and penalties.

The Basic Elemental Cylinders

In order: A Fire Cylinder, Clay Cylinder, Wind Cylinder and Water Cylinder


And the rarer, Advanced Elemental Cylinders


In order: A Volcano Cylinder, Earthquake Cylinder, Hurricane Cylinder and Tidal Wave Cylinder


Finally, there is the Tower Cylinder, or as I could refer to it, "Alchemy Cannon"
Unlike other cylinders, the Tower Cylinder must be set up before loading and firing offensive alchemy skills. While using the Tower Cylinder, you aim it similar to a turret. but still select targets to fire at as you load your skills. In order to get the most out of the Tower Cylinder, you'll need to talk to Lennox, the inventor of this wonderful device, during the G12 quest "All Out Attack!" After that little chat, the range of your alchemy skills increase by 80% and their damage and effectivness by 50% when using the Tower Cylinder, making it great for holding a line or provide long range support.

Other Skills, or "It isn't just about cylinders and ovens?"

There are other skills outside of Alchemy you will want to look into getting to suppliment your craft. To train, gather materials, or enchance your presence in combat.

With the Mining skill, you will take up a pickaxe to gather ores, as well as Cuilin Stones, the primary ingredient to make golem crystals. On that merit alone, Mining is a skill you'll want to put a few ranks into, ores can be gathered to use in metal conversion, or to refine ingots to break down with fragmentation
To learn this skill, just grab a pickaxe and get to it.

Metallurgy allows you to, basiclly, pan for ores in the beaches and shores of the Iria continent. It can be used to gather ores for conversion, like mining. However, failure with the skill yeilds unknown ore fragments, which are used to make ice mines, and can be converted into other metals. so you'll want to keep this skill at a low rank to take full advantage of the failure.
To learn this skill, talk to Effie in Qilla Base Camp about skills when your exploration level is 6 or above.

With Weaving, Refining, and Potion Making, you can create products that you'll use to train your fragmentation skill, weaving is the easiest of the three skills to get and make said products with. But potion making can prove useful because hey, when has being able to make your own health potions ever been not useful?
To learn weaving, talk to Malcom at the Tir Chonaill General Shop with the skills keyword.
To learn refining, talk to Elen at the Bangor Blacksmith Shop with the skills keyword.
To learn potion making, just pick up a potion kit sold at Healer Stores.

Herbalism is practiclly required if you are gonna be making potions. As it allows you to pick herbs that would otherwise be a pain in the ass or outright impossible to gather. It also provides an absurd contribution to your medicine talent, (ranking it up to F can bring it from nonexistant to green rank. Thats 4 talent levels of advancement) which will net you more mana and stamina.
Base herbs can be loacted in some areas in the world (Like if you see "Base Herb" floating above an otherwise normal patch of land.) And other variates are found in dungeons or some types of herb patches can be built in homesteads for convenience.
To learn the skill, complete the Healer's House part-time job at least 10 times then talk to Dilys or Manus, they will offer to teach the skill, at which point you accept, then gather a single base herb for them. At this point you will not be able to easily pinpoint base herb patches in the world outside of dungeons (As besides the floating name they are completly invisible) But you can still locate and gather from them. Such patches are located in the western forest in Dugald Aisle or the southwest corner of the Dunbarton area. just make sure theres nothing in your hands and move your mouse around in these areas until it becomes an open hand. indicating that you can gather there.

You'll want to learn fishing in order to obtain Mystic Pearls, the main ingredient for Life Drain Crystals. Mystic Pearls are found from fishing in Lake Neagh in the Abb Neagh area. But be careful, a giant lake monster known as Neid might show up.
To learn fishing, pick up a fishing rod and some bait from general stores.

Combat Mastery will increase your maximum health, thus allowing you to withstand more damage without dying. I shouldn't have to explain why you'd want to advance this skill.

Counterattack allows you to defend against an enemy's attack and instantly retaliate, adding a percentage of their attack power to yours for the strike. It is very useful against faster targets. Since it loads faster then Wind Blast, and also as a knee-jerk reaction. However, it has a short cooldown, and immobilizes you while its active.

The Critical Hit skill will cause your critical attacks to do more damage. It will not enhance your critical rate itself. But with a high critical rate and a high rank in this skill, you can do devastating levels of damage in shorter periods of time. This skill affects all of your critical damage. not just from melee, so regardless of talent of style of combat. you will want to invest in this skill.

Conclusion, or "Oh hey, extra advice!"

Well, thats all you should have to know about an alchemst in a simple, comprehesive guide. At least, I think it would be comprehensive. I hope you may refrence this guide as you grow as an Alchemist. Let me give you some final tips.

- Loading Alchemy skills costs stamina. So have plenty of that. Advancing Production Mastery can net you more stamina

- Learn other skills in combat and life fields to supplement your needs, a strong counterattack or windmill might just save your life.

- Blacksmiths love Construct Alchemists because Synthesis can replicate ingots, giving the smith more to work with

- Refiners, Weavers, and Potion Makers love Construct Alchemists because fragmentation allows them to take their products and get the materials back, allowing them to further train their skills without having to gather more materials themselves.

- Puppeteers should love Construct Alchemists because the special metals they make with metal conversion (like tin, or nickle) are used to make Marionette Potions, the only items that can actively heal their puppets besides repair kits.

- Synthesis can net surprising, and at times, pleasent results. Its all about what you put in, and what you could get out.

- If your going to ego your cylinder (make it a spirit weapon), do not use the male spirit. Apparently it comes on to you all the damn time.

Please leave any comments down there. And have a nice day. Good luck! :>

All ingame sprites and images taken from Mabinogi World Wiki and belong to Mabinogi, Nexon, and devCAT Studio

Mabinogi is copyright to Nexon and devCAT Studio

Please dont sue

[Recosy]

Dunkacino!

[Dubious Dogious]

Thanks friend

[kaiyl_kariashi]

For a long time, nothing boosted alchemy. It was very front loaded, but fell off towards Hard and Elite difficulty levels once you'd gathered the handful of skills and enchants that boosted it.

Due to scaling going completely insane back around g16, they overhauled Alchemy to scale off different core stats.

HP, Stam, or MP.

It varies from skill to skill which one they use, though in general the more HP, Stam, or MP you have, the stronger your alchemy will be. (Life-Drain is boosted by HP lost instead).

[megageek2013]

So what stats actually contribute to boosting damage or does it just not work the same as other combat talents
i.e. close combat is boosted by strength, or do none of the stats contribute directly to alchemy

[El Gatito Super Pequeño]

If you would like to leave updates here in the comments, feel free.

[El Gatito Super Pequeño]

Yes I am aware, thank you.

[Crow]

Really outdated. :/

[TakeMyLunch]

a few outdated things, but otherwise solid guide.

[Chaos]

Outdated guide now as you dont make skill crystals anymore

[Snowtiger]

Very helpful, thanks for all the work.