Welcome back to our Dev Diary series, where we take you behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the features shaping Mandragora as we approach its release. In today’s entry, we’re focusing on another integral part of your journey: Crafting & Caravan NPCs.
As we discussed in our previous Dev Diary on Gear Progression, items play a massive role in Mandragora. Across your journey, you’ll have the chance to discover, earn, or craft over 350 items and 110 consumables and enchants.
Today, we’re diving deeper into the crafting system, exploring how and with whom you can create powerful items to support your journey.
Artisan Vendor Basics
You’ll meet numerous NPCs throughout your adventures, including 7 skilled Artisan Vendors who can join your Caravan and travel alongside you. (If you preorder Mandragora on Steam, you’ll gain access to the playable Preview build, where you can encounter some of them firsthand!)
Each Artisan Vendor begins at Artisan Level 1 when they first join your Caravan. By crafting items, consumables, or enchants with them, they’ll gain experience and level up. As they grow in skill, they’ll unlock the ability to craft more advanced and powerful items. You’ll also have the chance to discover new crafting diagrams, which you can give them to unlock new Craftable Items.
Each Diagram has a Diagram Level, and your Artisan must reach the corresponding Artisan Level to craft it.
Artisans gain the most experience crafting items that match their current Diagram Level. As they become more experienced, crafting lower-level items yields less experience. To ensure they continue progressing efficiently, it’s a good strategy to craft Diagrams as soon as they become available, provided you have the necessary Materials!
Carts and Tents
Each Vendor will establish their own space in your Caravan, with some setting up Tents and others moving in with their Carts.
You’ll also be able to upgrade these Carts and Tents, unlocking small but useful bonuses like reduced crafting costs, longer-lasting Consumable effects, or increased Material drops.
In addition to crafting Items for you, all Vendors maintain their own stockpiles of goods, so it’s always worth checking out what they have for sale.
(Just make sure not to ask Yrsa the Goldsmith how she manages to acquire such stunning gemstones…)
Now that we’ve covered the essentials, let’s take a closer look at each Artisan Vendor and explore the unique skills they bring to the table.
Ulfar is a skilled Blacksmith capable of crafting Weapons, Shields, and Mail or Plate Armor. He can also smelt any raw ores you’ve gathered along your travels.
When you open the Craft menu, you'll find all the necessary information organized into 3 main sections to help you decide what to craft:
The top left section displays a list of Craftable Items, with the currently selected Item highlighted. The number next to it shows how many you can craft with the Materials you have available.
Also, in the top left, you'll find filters. These become especially helpful as the Vendor gains experience and their available Diagrams expand.
In the top right section, you'll see detailed information about Ulfar’s experience, the crafting cost of the selected Item, and your current Material stocks.
At the bottom, you'll be able to compare your currently equipped Item to the selected one, helping you determine whether it's worth crafting.
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 seem like just a humble tailor at first, but her services can have a significant impact on your success in battle. She can craft Bandages to heal you and Armor Kits to temporarily enhance your Armor.
Two key early-game items she can craft include:
- Light Leather Armor Kit: Increases Armor by 25 for 10 hits.
- Linen Bandage: Restores 150 Health over 10 seconds.
In addition to healing and defensive items, Shirin can craft Cloth and Leather Armor for you. Even if you prefer Heavy Armor, her skills are still important, as she can provide Cloth and Leather Capes to complement your gear.
Alannah is your go-to expert for all things alchemy. She specializes in crafting two main types of Consumables: Potions, which provide various beneficial effects when consumed, and Oils, which can be applied to your Weapons for temporary buffs.
Additionally, Alannah has a small garden where you can grow your own Herbs using Seeds and Spores you've collected throughout your journey.
You can place a Seed or Spore into an empty slot in Alannah's garden, and after some time, you'll be able to harvest the Herbs. These Herbs can then be used to brew a variety of Potions.
Here are a few examples of the recipes Alannah can craft for you:
- 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 a 10% chance to apply Poison for 30 hits.
Rhys is highly skilled in the occult arts, making him the perfect person to craft Runestones for you. These Runestones can be used to enchant specific items, such as 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.
In addition to crafting Runestones, Rhys can also craft Relics that enhance your Spells and offer various valuable bonuses.
One example of the powerful Relics Rhys can craft is Cornucopia, a Wyld Relic. Like all Relics, it grants the Discharge Ability and also provides 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 specializes in jewelry making and can craft Rings for you. These Rings provide unique bonuses that can't be found on Armor or Weapons, making them highly valuable.
You can equip up to 4 Rings at a time, allowing you to combine these bonuses in a way that best suits your build.
Here are a few 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, using the Map Fragments you collect throughout the world to help you chart your progress.
Additionally, Gerald maintains a Bestiary that tracks the enemies you encounter. By talking to him, you can review detailed information about the enemies you slay. The more times you take down a certain enemy, the more information you’ll learn about it from Gerald.
Gerald can also provide you with useful items, including Lockpicks, Warpstones, and Throwing Knives.
- Warpstone: Teleports you back to the Caravan. Cannot be used during combat.
Graeme can cook up delicious dishes that restore or boost your Health, Mana, or Stamina. The higher his Artisan Level, the better the food he can prepare using the ingredients you collect.
While these meals offer valuable bonuses, remember that you can only benefit from one food effect at a time.
Here are some delicious early-game recipes Graeme can whip up:
- 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 Max Mana by 30 and restores 0.5 Mana per second out of combat for 10 minutes.
- Rabbit Broth: Increases Max Health by 50 and restores 1 Health per second out of combat for 10 minutes.
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We hope you enjoyed this Dev Diary entry, highlighting Crafting & Caravan NPCs. We’re excited for you to start crafting unique and powerful items in the full release. Want to experience a taste of these features right now? Preorder Mandragora on Steam today! Unlock exclusive digital rewards and gain instant access to the Preview 1 build—your opportunity to explore the world, experiment with gameplay, and shape your strategy before the full release!
And, as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this latest entry. Be sure to share your feedback over on our Discord server!
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