Crafting & Forging — Tales of Arise Guide

Crafting & Forging

In the vibrant world of Dahna, mastering the art of Crafting and Forging is paramount to your success against the Renan oppressors. These intertwined systems allow you to transform raw materials into powerful new equipment and enhance your existing gear, ensuring your party is always battle-ready. From early-game survival to late-game boss challenges, a keen understanding of these mechanics will give you a significant edge.

The Fundamentals: Crafting vs. Forging

While often discussed together, Crafting and Forging serve distinct purposes:

• Crafting: This process allows you to create entirely new weapons, armor, and accessories from scratch. You'll need specific recipes and materials, which are acquired through various means across Dahna. New crafting recipes become available as you progress through the story, defeat new enemies, and discover hidden treasures.
• Forging: This system focuses on enhancing the stats of your currently owned equipment. Forging requires specific materials and a small fee, and it can significantly boost a weapon's Attack, Elemental Attack, or an accessory's defensive properties. Each piece of equipment can be forged multiple times, with the cost and material requirements increasing with each enhancement level.

Where to Craft and Forge

Both Crafting and Forging services are primarily available at Blacksmiths located in major towns and cities throughout Dahna. You'll encounter your first Blacksmith early in the game in Cysloden. Always make it a habit to check the Blacksmith whenever you arrive in a new settlement, as new recipes and forging options often become available.

Material Management: The Backbone of Crafting

Materials are the lifeblood of both Crafting and Forging. They are obtained through several methods:

• Enemy Drops: The most common source. Different enemies drop different materials. Pay attention to the enemy information in your field guide to identify what they drop.
• Mining Points: Shimmering nodes found on walls and floors in dungeons and open areas. Interact with them to gather ores and other minerals. These respawn after a certain amount of time or after you leave and re-enter the area.
• Treasure Chests: Often contain rare materials or valuable crafting components.
• Sub-Quests: Completing side quests can sometimes reward you with unique or hard-to-find materials.
• Merchants: While not ideal for rare items, some basic materials can be purchased from general stores in towns.

Strategic Tip: Don't hoard materials excessively in the early game. If you have enough to craft a significant upgrade, do so. However, avoid crafting every single item just because you can. Prioritize upgrades for your main damage dealers (Alphen, Law) and healers (Shionne, Dohalim) first.

Crafting Strategy: Prioritizing New Gear

Crafting new equipment is crucial for keeping your party's stats competitive with the escalating difficulty of enemies. Here's a strategic approach:

Early Game (Calaglia & Cyslodia)

In the initial hours, focus on crafting the first tier of weapons for Alphen and Shionne. These provide a significant power spike over their starting gear.

• Alphen's First Upgrade: The Crude Sword is an excellent early craft.
  • Materials: 3x Sharp Fang (from Wild Boar in Calaglia), 2x Stone Fragment (mining points in Calaglia).
  • Benefit: Substantially increases Alphen's Attack, making early combat much smoother.
• Shionne's First Upgrade: The Crude Rifle is equally important.
  • Materials: 3x Sharp Fang, 2x Stone Fragment.
  • Benefit: Boosts Shionne's Elemental Attack, improving her healing and ranged damage.
• Early Accessories: Crafting basic accessories like the Stone Ward (reduces Earth damage) or Iron Pipe (increases defense) can be beneficial for specific encounters, especially against elemental-focused enemies. Materials for these are generally common drops from early enemies.

Mid-Game (Elde Menancia & Mahag Saar)

As you progress, new weapon types and more powerful accessories become available. Prioritize crafting weapons that offer higher base stats and consider accessories that boost specific stats or resistances relevant to the region's enemies.

• Elemental Weapons: Once you start encountering enemies with specific elemental weaknesses, crafting weapons with elemental attributes can be highly effective. For example, a fire-elemental sword for Alphen when facing ice enemies.
• Stat-Boosting Accessories: Look for recipes that provide flat boosts to Attack, Elemental Attack, or Defense. The Warrior's Emblem (Attack +) and Mage's Emblem (Elemental Attack +) are excellent general-purpose accessories.

Late Game (Ganath Haros & Beyond)

At this stage, you'll be crafting some of the most powerful gear in the game. Focus on weapons with high base stats and unique properties, and accessories that offer significant stat boosts or unique effects.

• Ultimate Weapons: The recipes for the ultimate weapons for each character often require rare materials from powerful optional bosses or late-game areas. These are typically the strongest weapons available and are worth the investment.
• Specialized Accessories: Craft accessories that complement your character builds, such as those that increase critical hit rate, reduce AG consumption, or provide resistance to specific status effects.

Forging Strategy: Maximizing Existing Gear

Forging allows you to continuously improve your favorite pieces of equipment, often making them competitive with newly crafted items, especially if they have desirable intrinsic properties. Here's how to approach it:

When to Forge:

1. Before Crafting a New Weapon: If you're close to crafting a new weapon but are struggling with a current boss, forging your existing weapon a few times can provide the stat boost you need to overcome the challenge without spending materials on a temporary craft.
2. For Accessories: Accessories don't get replaced as frequently as weapons. Forging your best accessories (e.g., those that boost Attack, Elemental Attack, or provide crucial resistances) is a highly efficient way to increase your party's overall power.
3. Ultimate Weapons: Once you've crafted a character's ultimate weapon, forging it to its maximum level should be a top priority. The stat gains are substantial and will be critical for post-game content.

Forging Tiers and Costs:

Each piece of equipment can be forged multiple times, typically up to +5 or +9, depending on the item. Each tier requires more advanced materials and a higher Gald cost. The stat increase per forge level is usually consistent for a given item.

Note: Specific materials, Gald costs, and stat increases vary greatly by item. This table is illustrative.

Common Pitfalls and Pro Tips

• Don't Sell All Your Materials: It's tempting to sell excess materials for Gald, but always keep a healthy stock, especially of common items. You never know when a new recipe will require them.
• Farm Mining Points: Whenever you're traversing a dungeon or open area, hit every mining point. The materials gained are invaluable and respawn.
• Check the Field Guide: Use your Field Guide to see what materials specific enemies drop. If you need a particular item, you'll know exactly where to farm it.
• Prioritize Main DPS and Healers: In the early game, focus your crafting and forging efforts on Alphen, Law (for physical damage), and Shionne, Dohalim (for elemental damage and healing). This ensures your core party members are always at their strongest.
• Consider Accessory Effects: Don't just look at raw stats. Accessories with effects like "AG Recovery Up" or "Reduce Elemental Damage" can be far more impactful than a slight stat increase in certain situations.
• The "Best" Accessory: While subjective, the Mystic Crest (reduces AG consumption) and Faerie Ring (reduces casting time) are often considered among the best accessories due to their universal utility for spellcasters and skill users. Crafting and forging these should be a priority once available.
• Dismantle Old Gear (Late Game): Once you're consistently crafting high-tier gear, some older, lower-tier items might become obsolete. While there's no direct "dismantle" option, you can sell them for Gald. However, always double-check if an old weapon is a component for a new, more powerful craft before selling it.

By diligently managing your materials, strategically crafting new equipment, and wisely forging your existing gear, you'll ensure your party is always prepared for the challenges that await them across Dahna. A well-equipped team is a winning team!