Perfect Potions Guide: Kingdom Come Deliverance

Learn the secrets of potion brewing in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II! Discover how to improve potion quality, find recipes, and master the boiling process with our expert guide.

Hey there! So, you want to get into brewing some potent potions in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, huh? It might seem a bit daunting at first with all the alchemy gear, but honestly, it's pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. You'll need some ingredients, usually herbs, and access to an alchemy bench. The good news is, the fire's always ready, and you've got an endless supply of the basic alchemical bases like water, wine, and oil. You don't even strictly need a recipe if you know what you're doing, but they sure do help!

The quality of your potions can range from weak to normal, strong, or even Henry's own special brew, which you unlock with the "Secret of Secrets" perk. Better quality means better effects – more healing, longer buffs, fewer nasty side effects – and a higher selling price. Plus, if you snag the "Secret of Matter" perk, you'll get 4-6 potions per batch instead of the usual 3, which is a massive efficiency boost!

Now, there are a couple of ways things can go wrong. Using low-quality or dried herbs can definitely lower your potion's quality. The main things to watch out for are messing up the recipe steps (like not grinding an ingredient or using the wrong amount) or, more commonly, messing up the timing during the boiling process. The sandglass isn't exactly precise, and the timing window can be tricky, especially when your Alchemy skill is still low. Don't get discouraged if you're not brewing top-tier potions right away; as your Alchemy skill increases, the game becomes more forgiving of minor mistakes.

Quick Search:

• Potion Quality Overview
• Recipes and Ingredients
• Boiling and the Sandglass

Recipes and Ingredients

While you don't *need* recipes, they're super handy. You can usually buy them from merchants – alchemists, herbalists, or even those with less reputable professions. Some you might even learn from quests. Once you get a recipe, make sure to use it from your inventory to add it to your alchemy tome. If you learn one from an NPC, it'll be added automatically. At the alchemy bench, you can check your learned recipes anytime without penalty. It'll show you exactly what ingredients you need, how much, and what steps to take. This is a lifesaver for avoiding mistakes with ingredient order or amounts.

Boiling and the Sandglass

The alchemy bench itself might look a bit complex with all its parts, but if you're following a recipe, most of it is pretty foolproof. The only part that really requires some skill is boiling, and most potions need to be boiled, sometimes multiple times. The more boiling steps a recipe has, the more chances there are for error, so this is where practice really pays off.

Fortunately, there's a neat trick to make boiling much easier. Once you've got your base and the ingredients that need boiling in the cauldron:

1. Lower the cauldron.
2. Immediately use the bellows ONCE.
3. As soon as you finish with the bellows, flip the sandglass.
4. Raise the cauldron off the flames BEFORE all the sand has fallen out of the top half of the sandglass!

Try to do this smoothly, with no downtime between lowering the cauldron and flipping the sandglass, aside from Henry's animations. Most recipes don't even need the bellows, but using them once helps get things boiling faster and seems to sync up better with the sandglass. Wait until the sandglass is almost empty, then lift the cauldron. This method helps nail the timing for that perfect boil!