Alchemy Guide: Basics of Tools, Ingredients, & Gear

Alchemy in BDO allows you to make a large variety of elixirs and items that buff just about anything you can think of, giving everything from Combat to Life Skill buffs.

Alchemy Benefits:

• Make millions of silver each day in Imperial Alchemy
• Craft Lightstones, vs paying Dalishain 20mil for 1.
• Earn Alchemy Byproducts:
  • Contribution EXP + Alchemy EXP
  • Alchemy Ingredients

Alchemy is a fun Life Skill that can be simple if you are ok with slowly leveling. It can also be complex, depending upon the difficulty of the recipe and how rare the mats are.

Alchemy NPC Vendors

There are several NPC Vendors you can use in Alchemy.

The first vendor you’ll need, will probably be a General Goods Vendor, located in all major towns and cities.

General Goods Vendors:

• Sell basic Alchemy Tools and an ingredient for crystal making.
• Sometimes have different titles like Quartermaster, Miscellaneous Merchant, and Villa Manager, etc.
• Find the nearest one by clicking the Find NPC icon on the top right of your window (It looks like a magnifying glass)
• You can find other important Alchemy vendors this way as well, by typing into the search. For example, you can type, “Herb”, “Mushroom”, or “Seed”. If it is in their name or title, it will show.

Alchemy Vendor for Seeds

Ingredients can also be obtained via the Farming Life Skill.

• Seed Vendor: Ahr in Calpheon City
  • buy Seeds to grow your own herbs and food.
  • costs from 220 silver to 4.5k silver each
  • Carrot Seed
    Garlic Seed
    Grape Seed
    Hot Pepper Seed
    Olive Seed
    Onion Seed
    Pepper Seed
    Pumpkin Seed
    Strawberry Seed
    Sunflower Seed
    Withered Acacia Seed
    Withered Grape Seed
    Withered Sunrise Herb Seed
    Withered Wheat Seed

Farming & Gathering for Alchemy

Seeds for Mushrooms (aka hypha) and herbs are obtained on the marketplace or as a rare drop by gathering its plant with a hoe.

For example, one of the most in demand herbs, Fire Flake Flower, can be obtained by gathering Fire Flake Flowers in the forests with a hoe, until you obtain seeds. This is true for most herbs and mushrooms.

A cluster of Fireflake Flower can be gathered on a hill top, north of Quint Hill node and east of Port Epheria. These have the greatest chance to drop Fireflake Flower Seed. View on bdocodex.com.

Truffle Mushroom Hypha

When crafting via Alchemy, there is very rare chance to proc Unknown Seed as a byproduct. Combine Unknown Seed with Truffle Mushroom through Processing→Simple Alchemy to create a Truffle Mushroom Hypha that can be planted in a fence, grown, and harvested for an average of 60 Truffle Mushrooms. The Truffle Mushroom Hypha can only be harvested and not bred for more seeds. Surprisingly, the hypha grows into a huge tree!

Trace of Nature

Trace of Nature is obtained via Processing (L) → Heating any Rosar or Yuria weapon, monster zones, worker excavation nodes, and gathering.

Trace of Nature is used to make tier 2 bloods like Wise Man’s Blood.

For example, one very helpful node located in Balenos, called Ancient Stone Chamber, gives 27 Trace of Nature each day, using a level 30 Artisan Goblin worker from Velia.

This is one of many nodes that gives Trace of Nature.

Many Excavation nodes are hidden and have to be purchased in person at their Node Manager, even with a Value Pack buff on. This often requires you to purchase the main node first with CP, then you will see an option to spend Energy at the Node Manager NPC. Energy cost is usually 35… don’t be surprised if you pass out from utter exhaustion for speaking so effusively to your sneaky Node Manager. 😉

Alchemy Tools

After obtaining your Alchemy Ingredients for your first recipe, you will need to choose an Alchemy Tool.

Get an Alchemy Tool:

• NPC General Goods Vendor (very limited selection)
• Marketplace (nice selection, but supply and demand pricing and availability)
• Craft one by purchasing a Tool Workshop type of housing and hiring a worker
• 1 time quest. (details below) and a daily alchemy quest from Liana to repair it. (Liana’s Life Skill Quests)
• Daily quests for Oxiterr Crystals in Everfrost
• Daily quests for Sangpyeong Coin in LoML
• Purchase one of the best Alchemy Tools with 300 Loyalties.

New Player Advice:

If you are new to the game with little Contribution, money, and resources, just purchase a cheap Alchemy Tool from the vendor for 5,000 silver. Lara is the General Goods Vendor in Heidel.

The Advanced Alchemy Tool on the Marketplace, is one of the best available, giving -1 second Alchemy time reduction and 900 Durability.

Alchemy Basics: Obtain Residence

After you have gathered your Alchemy ingredients, you will need a Residence.

Many players choose Calpheon City for their Alchemy head quarters because of the Alchemy ingredient vendors located there. Sometimes ingredients can be hard to find on the Marketplace.

Another popular choice is Olvia due to the repeatable Alchemy quests there.

However, many use Heidel or Velia, because they are there most often fishing or enhancing.

For a detailed guide on how to purchase a home and the best Residence locations, please view our Residence Guide.

Alchemy Tool Installation

After you have purchased Residence housing and gathered your Alchemy ingredients, go inside your Residence and click “Place Mode” button at the top of the screen.

Look for your Alchemy Tool icon in the furniture inventory window. It will be at the top left, before the Pearl furniture options.

Click the Alchemy Tool icon then mouse over to the room and click again. Press the down arrow key (or spacebar) to place the tool. You may move or rotate the tool if you wish. Press Esc key to exit placement window.

Approach the Alchemy Tool and press the R key to open up the alchemy window. All Alchemy recipes are shown. There is also a crafting database in game (F2 button).

Alchemy Level Benefits

Crits on Recipes:

Alchemy level determines which recipes you can craft, but also when their critical versions start to occur. For example, Elixir of Time can be crafted by a beginner alchemist immediately. After Professional 1 or higher is obtained, the crit of the recipe, Elixir of Flowing Time, will also be 1/3 of the time.

Alchemy Level Impacts Alchemy Mastery:

The higher your Alchemy level, the more Alchemy Mastery you will obtain. This gives many different beneficial Alchemy buffs. Alchemy Mastery Guide.

Max Procs on Recipes:

You need to be 10 levels above the Alchemy Level minimum requirement listed on the recipe in order to get max procs.

The proc rate starts at 0.15 and increases up to a maximum of 0.3, 10 levels after the requirement for the recipe. For example if a recipe requires Master 1 then you will require Master 11 to max out rare procs.

Alchemy Substitutions

Alchemy Ingredient Grades:

White > T2 Green Grade > T3 Blue Grade

Ingredient amounts in recipes can be changed based upon the grade of the ingredient.

• 1 green = 3-18 white
• 1 blue = 18 or more white.

To see more details about material substitutions in recipes please view this awesome infographic that Summer created.

Alchemy Byproduct

While crafting alchemy recipes, you will sometimes get Mysterious Catalyst. Exchange it to an NPC for one of the following:

• Exchange 10: Contribution EXP 900 and Alchemy EXP 30,000
• x10: Clear Liquid Reagent x200
• x10: Powder of Darkness x200
• x10: Powder of Flame x200
• x10: Powder of Rifts x200
• x10: Powder of Earth x200
• x10: Powder of Time x200
• x10: Shining Powder x5

Exchange NPC:

• Major Cities → Dalishain
• Olvia → Bofin

To easily find the nearest NPC, right click Mysterious Catalyst and select NPC Location. Autopath (T button) and done.

Mysterious Catalyst has a proc rate of 14% for most alchemy recipes. That means every 100 crafts, you will obtain 14 Mysterious Catalyst. (ex. Elixir of Time)

Alchemy Quests for Beginners

There is an Alchemy quest line for beginners that will help you learn the basics and gives Alchemy Exp and other rewards.

Where to Begin: Glish, SW of Heidel

Gathering Level Requirement: Apprentice 2+

• Gathering Guide
• To obtain Beginner 5, you can gather with a tool or complete the [Gathering] quest line under “Sugested” tab in the Quest (O) window.

Daily Alchemy Quests

There are also repeatable quests you can do that give Alchemy Exp and Alchemy materials.

For more info, please see Alchemy Quest Guide.

Alchemy Time Gear

Base Alchemy time is 10 seconds.

The goal is to eventually obtain 1 second Alchemy time.

Alchemy Mastery clothes give a bonus to Alchemy time, but don’t give Alchemy Exp. But there are many ways to boost Alchemy Exp. Please see my Life Exp Item List.

Any combination of the following:

• Pavilla Costume: -2s (2200 Pearls, )
• +3/+4 Silver Embroidered Alchemist’s Clothes OR TET Gorgath/TRI Manos Alchemist’s Clothes: -4s/-5s
• Treant’s Tear/Life Spirit Stone/Khan’s Heart Life/Sharp Alchemy Stone of Life: -1/-1.1/-1.3/-1.4s
• Seafood Cron Meal: -0.6s
• Verdure Draught: -1s
• Advanced Alchemy Tool: -1s
• Lightstone Combo: -2s (A Fragment of a Star, a Spoonful of the Moon)

The Shai Alchemy Advantage

Shai is the only class that starts with Professional 1 Alchemy and Gathering. She also has a useful passive skill that gives her more LT than other classes per level.

See all of her Alchemy buffs below.

Alchemy Bonuses:

• Gathering & Alchemy starts at Professional 1.
• 10 Skills that give up to +5% Gathering/Alchemy XP.
• Skill that gives 300% Combat XP buff from Gathering/Alchemy
• Light Bag: Passive skill that increases the amount of Weight Limit you gain when you level up.

Imperial Alchemy

Imperial Alchemy is the process of taking Alchemy Items and putting them into a box.

Processing (L) → Imperial Alchemy

You deliver the boxes to an Imperial Crafting Delivery NPC located in major cities like Heidel and Calpheon City.

Equip Alchemy Mastery Gear before turning in any boxes to increase your silver.

For more details, see this Imperial Alchemy Guide.