Optimum Crafting Guide

Cheap routes for making all components and potions.

Notes

Most potions will be made with one ingredient for each element. So you only need to consider how to make each element based on the upgrades you currently have in your lab.

There are only a small number of cases where a single ingredient can provide more than one element in a way that is actually useful for any recipe. These will be listed separately in the sections below.

The game prices ingredients and potions based on the sum of the tiers of all components they contain. The interactions involved across recipes can be complex, but a good rule of thumb is that you lose money whenever you Dry, and you gain money whenever you Mortar.

For example, the Heat Resistance potion requires drying Cocoons twice and is less profitable than the Cold Resistance potion which only requires single drying. Healing, however, uses the mortar twice and is substantially more profitable than Invisibility which uses the dryer three times.

Red Berry is never used in optimal crafting, because all of its components can be made from Coal and it is substantially more expensive.

Unstoppable Life should pretty much never be used unless you did your upgrades in the wrong order and got stuck with no other way to get Purity.

Fuga should be used as little as possible.

Without Upgrades

In the initial condition of the game, you can make all elements except Purity, but some will require expensive ingredients.

• Cure: cut Heat from Coal.
  
• Heal: cut Heat from Coal, then Mortar level 1.
  
• Growth: cut Purity from Parsley or Order from Vines.
  
• Life: cut Purity from Parsley or Order from Vines then Mortar level 1.
  
  
• Poison: dry a Blue Cap.
  
• Disease: dry a Blue Cap, then Mortar level 1.
  
• Bane: cut Corruption from a Fuga and dry. Beware: Fuga can be very expensive.
  
• Death: cut Corruption from a Fuga, dry, then Mortar level 1. Beware: Fuga can be very expensive.
  
  
• Heat: dry Coal.
  
• Fire: cut Life from Coal.
  
• Destruction: cut Life from Coal, then Mortar level 1.
  
  
• Cold: dry a Cocoon twice.
  
• Ice: dry a Cocoon,
  
• Cessation: dry a Cocoon, then Mortar level 1.
  
  
• Ground: cut Death from a Blue Cap.
  
• Gravity: cut Life from Vines.
  
• Order: cut Life from Vines, then Mortar level 1.
  
  
• Wind: cut Cold from a Polar Fish and Dry.
  
• Motion: cut Cold from a Polar Fish.
  
• Chaos: cut Cold from a Polar Fish then Mortar level 1.
  
  
• Ignorance: dry a Bug twice.
  
• Darkness: dry a Bug twice, then Mortar level 1.
  
• Corruption: cut Death from a Fuga, dry, then Mortar level 1. Beware: Fuga can be very expensive.
  
  
• Clarity: cut Life from a Healing Herb.
  
• Light: cut Life from a Healing Herb, then Mortar 1.

You can also make the following combinations useful for particular recipes:

• Darkness + Ignorance (for Invisibility or Deception): dry a Bug.
  
• Clarity + Light (for Cat's Eye): cut Order from Carambola. However, beware that by default a Carambola is more expensive (360) than two Healing Herbs (320) so in normal circumstances this is a bad idea.
  
• Disease + Poison (for Poison): cut Order from Blue Cap.
  
• Heal + Growth (for Regeneration): cut Purity from Healing Herb.

It is also possible to make both elements of Beauty in one shot by cutting Cold from Unstoppable Life and then drying it. But because Unstoppable Life is extremely expensive, this will probably never be worth it compared to making the individual components from Parsley and a Healing Herb.

Mortar Level 2

This is probably the most valuable upgrade you will make. It gives you the ability to make the element you originally couldn't:

• Purity: cut Life from a Healing Herb, then Mortar level 2.

And also gives alternative, cheaper ways of making some of the elements:

• Bane: dry a Blue Cap then Mortar level 2. (Blue Cap is usually cheaper than Fuga)
  
• Corruption: dry a Bug twice then Mortar level 2. (Bugs are usually cheaper than Fuga)
  
• Growth: cut Heat from Coal, then Mortar level 2. (Coal is usually cheaper than Parsley)

It also enables the following single ingredient combinations:

• Growth + Order (for Plant Growth): cut Heat from Ginger Root then Mortar level 2.
  
• Corruption + Chaos (for Command Creature): cut Heat from Harpy's Feather then Mortar level 2.
  
• Death + Bane (for Bane): cut Order from Blue Cap then Mortar level 2.

Mortar Level 3

This is a relatively minor upgrade compared to level 2. It affects only the extremes of the Life/Death chain, because the other chains do not have enough elements on them for a three point upgrade to be possible!

• Death: dry a Blue Cap then Mortar level 3. (Blue Cap is usually cheaper than Fuga)
  
• Life: cut Heat from Coal then Mortar level 3. (Coal is usually cheaper than Parsley)

Cleaner

The main benefit of the Cleaner is to enable the use of the Harpy's Feather, which is otherwise very rarely used because it contains items from 3 different chains and removing just one (with the cutter) does not give a combination matching any recipe. Usually the Cleaner is used to remove the positive Fire trait, since Fire is much more economically obtained via Coal.

Most of these processes substitute a Harpy's Feather for a Polar Fish or a Bug, so are only useful if Harpy's Feathers are cheaper.

• Motion: cut Corruption from a Harpy’s Feather, clean positive polarity, then Mortar level 1.
  
• Wind: cut Corruption from a Harpy’s Feather, then clean positive polarity.
  
• Ignorance: cut Chaos from a Harpy’s Feather, then clean positive polarity.
  
• Darkness: cut Chaos from a Harpy’s Feather, clean positive polarity, then Mortar level 1.

If you have a level 2 Mortar, the following are also available:

• Chaos: cut Corruption from a Harpy’s Feather, clean positive polarity, then Mortar level 2.
  
• Corruption: cut Chaos from a Harpy’s Feather, clean positive polarity, then Mortar level 2.

You can also make Cessation with less steps:

• Cessation: clean a Cocoon with positive polarity.

Finally, it is possible to make Purity by cutting Life from Unstoppable Life and then cleaning it with negative polarity. However, this is probably a bad idea because Unstoppable Life is very expensive. The only reason to do this is if you are stuck needing Purity and you have the Cleaner but not a Level 2 Mortar.

Juicer

The Juicer's adjustments are relatively limited and usually reduce the number of steps needed.

• Wind: juice a Harpy’s Feather for Chaos. This takes 1 step instead of 2.
  
• Ignorance: juice a Harpy’s Feather for Corruption. This takes 1 step instead of 2.
  
• Ground: juice Order from a Ginger Root. This only matters if Ginger Roots are cheaper than Blue Caps.

There are also two other recipes it makes possible that are probably never worth using:

• Purity: juice Purity from Unstoppable Life. This takes 1 step instead of 2 but is still a bad idea unless you somehow don't have Mortar level 2 by the time you get the Juicer.
  
• Light: juice Unstoppable Life for Purity then Dry. This is probably never worth it as it is the same number of steps to use a Healing Herb, but cheaper.

Potions and Profits

Potion	Profitability	Conditions
Regeneration	+600	Once learned, profitable at all times, more so with better mortar.
Bane	+550	Profitable if made from Blue Cap and Polar Fish (Mortar level 2)
Command Creature	+530	Profitable if made from Blue Cap and Harpy's Feather (Mortar level 2)
Resurrection	+460	Profitable if use Level 3 Mortar to make Life from Coal
Reverse Aging	+380	Profitable if use Level 3 Mortar to make Life from Coal
Plant Growth	+340	Always profitable, more so with better mortar
Cure Bane	+250	Profitable with level 2 mortar; don't use Cleaner
Beauty	+220	Always profitable as long as you don't use Unstoppable Life
Burden	+180	Always profitable once you can make it
Obedience	+180	Profitable only if made with Harpy's Feather
Poison	+150	Only with Cleaner or Juicer
Healing	+130	Always profitable, a good beginning standby
Luck	+100	Profitable with level 2 mortar; don't use Cleaner
Paralysis	+90	Always profitable once you can make it
Love	+60	Only profitable with Cleaner and level 2 mortar
Light	+60	Always profitable, not as good as Healing though
Strength	+60	Profitable only if made with Harpy's Feather
Cold Resistance	+10	Always profitable, but only just
Cure Disease	+10	Always profitable, but only just
Slow Fall	-10	Cleaner reduces loss
Enlighten	-10	Always loss-making
Cat's Eye	-10	Always loss-making
Deception	-10	Always loss-making, more so without cleaner
Levitation	-10	Always loss-making, much bigger loss without level 2 mortar and cleaner
Agility	-10	Always loss-making, more so without cleaner
Truth	-70	Level 2 mortar makes this not a ludicrous loss
Invisibility	-100	Always loss-making, more so without cleaner
No Sleep	-120	No sleep? Try no money
Jump	-120	Forget the customer, the deal can go jump
Heat Resistance	-130	Cold as ice and worth about as much

Note that all potions are profitable if they are "potion of the day", so sell your loss-makers in these conditions only.

[///Q_Q///]

I am in the process of making my own profit chart, may I ask how you calculate the profit? I understand all the potions are sold at the end of the day, but each day you also gain a certain amount of money (the amount seems to be randomized, I have notice anywhere from 50 to 63 so far). So don't exactly know how much of the money is gained from the daily money vs sold potion.

[hyphz]

Whoops, the grammar generator had the wrong inputs! Will fix.

[Mr. September]

I thought Cocoon had Heat (level 1 Heat) and Cessation (level 3 cold) so Heat reduces to nothing and Cold Level 2 remains when tried?

[hyphz]

Cocoon has Fire/Cessation so drying gives Heat/Ice, then Mortaring just gives Fire/Cessation again?

[Mr. Mew]

Cessation can also be made without upgrades:
Dry a Cocoon then Mortar level 1

[Mr. Mew]

Great guide, just one thing that can be improved:
"Darkness + Ignorance (for Invisibility or Deception): cut Order from a Bug and Dry."
You can just dry the bug, that will get rid of the Ground aspect in the process.

[Mr. September]

This is a great guide and covers what I was lazy to type out! Thank you for your work my dude!