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Hi everyone!
We really hope you’ve been enjoying the Mandragora Demo and have been having fun experiencing many of the core game features highlighted in this Dev Diary series!
Now it’s time for another installment, focusing on another key feature - one that’s crucial to success in Mandragora:
Today’s topic: Crafting & Caravan NPCs!
As we already mentioned in our previous Dev Diary about Gear Progression, Items are a huge part of Mandragora: you can find, earn, or craft over 350 Items and 110 Consumables & Enchants during your adventures.
Today we’ll go into more detail about the Crafting part - how and with whom you can craft powerful Items.
Artisan Vendor Basics
During your adventures, you’ll encounter dozens of NPCs, and among them, 7 skilled Artisan Vendors that can join your Caravan and travel with you on your journey. (You’ve probably already met some of them while playing the Mandragora Demo!)
All Artisan Vendors start at Artisan Level 1 when they join your Caravan. They can level up when you craft Items, Consumables or Enchants with them. As they level up, they’ll learn how to craft new and better Items for you. You’ll also be able to find new Diagrams which you can give them to unlock new craftable Items.
Each Diagram has a Diagram Level. Your Artisan must reach the same number Artisan Level in order to be able to craft it.
Crafting gives the most XP to Artisans when the Diagram Level matches theirs. More experienced Artisan Vendors gain less experience from lower Diagram Level crafts, so it’s always a good idea to craft Diagrams as they become available - provided you have the Materials for it!
Carts and Tents
Each Vendor will have their own place at your Caravan. Some will set up their Tents, while others will move in with their Carts.
Vendor Carts and Tents can also be upgraded for small bonuses, such as cheaper crafting, longer-lasting effects of Consumables or extra Material drops!
Beside crafting Items for you, all of the Vendors have some stockpiles as well, so it is always worth checking out what they sell.
(Just make sure you don’t make the mistake of asking Yrsa the Goldsmith about where she manages to acquire such stunning gemstones…)
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get to know each Artisan Vendor and learn more about what kind of useful skills they have that can help make your adventure that much more epic.
Ulfar is a skilled Blacksmith who can craft Weapons, Shields, and Mail or Plate Armor for you. He can also smelt raw ores you have gathered.
When you open the Craft menu, you can find all the information you need before deciding what to craft, organized into 3 main sections:
The top left part shows the list of craftable Items and the currently selected Item. The number beside it shows how many you can craft with the Materials you have.
Also in the top left, you can find filters which will become very useful when the Vendor becomes more experienced and has dozens of Diagrams to craft.
The top right part shows detailed information about the experience of Ulfar, the crafting cost of the selected Item and your Material stocks.
The bottom part shows your currently equipped Item compared to the selected Item, which can help you to decide whether it’s worth crafting or not.
We talked a little more about how to decide which Weapon to equip in our previous Dev Diary about Gear Progression, so be sure to check that out if you’d like to learn more about Weapons and what to wield!
Shirin may appear to be just a humble tailor, but using her services can help mean the difference between victory and defeat. She can craft Bandages to heal you, and Armor Kits to temporarily strengthen and increase your Armor.
For example, there are two small but key early-game items she can craft for you:
- Light Leather Armor Kit: Increases Armor by 25 for 10 hits.
- Linen Bandage: Restores 150 Health over 10 seconds.
And of course she can also craft Cloth and Leather Armor for you - and even if you prefer to wear Heavy Armor, her skills are still important as she can provide Cloth and Leather Capes for you.
Alannah is the one to go to when it comes to all things alchemy. There are 2 main types of Consumables she can craft for you: Potions which you can drink, and Oils which you can use to coat your Weapon.
She also has a small garden which you can use to grow your own Herbs from the Seeds and Spores you have gathered during your adventures.
You can place a Seed or Spore onto an empty slot, and after a while, you can then harvest the Herbs which can be used to brew Potions.
Let’s see some examples of her Recipes:
- Minor Stone Skin Potion: Increases Physical Resistance by 10 for 60 seconds.
- Minor Rage Potion: Increases Physical damage and attack speed by 5% for 20 seconds.
- Lesser Chaos Oil: Adds 25 Chaos damage to the Weapon’s damage for 30 hits.
- Lesser Venomous Oil: Adds 15 Poison damage and 10% chance to apply Poison for 30 hits.
Rhys has great knowledge of the occult, making him skilled at crafting Runestones for you that can be used to enchant certain Items: Helms, Chest Armor, and Weapons.
If you’d like to learn more about Enchanting, be sure to check out our previous Dev Diary where we talked more about just that.
Rhys can also craft Relics which can make your Spells stronger as well as provide different valuable bonuses.
One example of these powerful Relics is Cornucopia, a Wyld Relic which, like all Relics, offers the Discharge Ability - and it provides you with a potent 17% Spell Buff and +10% Magic Critical Chance.
To learn more about Relics and their Discharge ability, you can revisit our Dev Diary on Class Playstyles where we talk about them in a little more detail when discussing the Spellbinder class!
Yrsa is a pro when it comes to jewelry making, and can craft Rings for you.
These can be incredibly helpful, as Rings can give you unique bonuses that are not available on any Armor or Weapon.
You can also equip up to 4 Rings at a time, so you can also combine these bonuses to best suit your build.
Here are some early-game Rings that Yrsa can craft for you:
- Weakening Stone Ring: Increases Weakness chance by 7%.
- Arcanist Ring: Increases Magic Critical chance by 5%.
- Assassin Ring: Increases Physical Critical chance by 5%.
Gerald Borough is a special NPC. He might not be able to craft, but he’s still a very resourceful guy!
He provides the Map for you, by piecing together the Map Fragments you gather all around the world.
He also collects useful information about any enemies you encounter, which you can review in the Bestiary by talking to him. The more times you slay a certain enemy, the more information you’ll learn about it from Gerald.
Gerald can also supply you with handy Items such as Lockpicks, Warpstones, and Throwing Knives.
- Warpstone: Teleports you back to the Caravan. Cannot be used while in combat.
Graeme can cook delicious food for you, which you can use to restore or increase your Health, Mana or Stamina. The higher his Artisan Level is, the better food he can provide using the ingredients you collect.
While these foods do provide useful bonuses, it’s important to remember that you can only have 1 food effect on you at a time.
Here are some of the delicious early-game Recipes Graeme can cook:
- Bread: Increases Max Stamina by 10 and Move Speed by 6% for 10 minutes.
- Cabbage Dumplings: Restores 50 Health and Mana over 2 minutes.
- Mushroom Stew: Increases maximum Mana by 30 and restores 0.5 Mana per second out of combat for 10 minutes.
- Rabbit Broth: Increases Maximum Health by 50 and restores 1 Health per second out of combat for 10 minutes.
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And that’s a wrap!
We hope you enjoyed this latest Dev Diary highlighting Crafting & Caravan NPCs - and that you’re already looking forward to crafting cool stuff in the full release!
Curious to already experience a taste of these features first-hand? Don’t forget: the Mandragora Demo is still live here on Steam and ready for you to dive in!
And, as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this latest entry. Be sure to share your feedback in the comments below or over on our Discord!
