The
crafting system in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co" target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online
offers players the opportunity to expand their arsenal of upgrades and
devices, and can even be a means of creating interesting new visual
elements for many of the available powers in the game. At first glance
the system can be a bit daunting, as crafting deviates from industry
norms in a few key areas while still providing a fairly robust overall
experience. To help players better understand what Research and
Development is all about, we’ve put together a complete guide
to crafting in style="font-style: italic;">Champions Online.


border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
style="background-color: rgb(204, 153, 51);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Contents:
  • href="#Crafty">A Crafty Contrivance
  • href="#Schools">Arms, Mysticism and Science
  • href="#Blueprints">Blueprints
  • href="#Components">Components
  • href="#Research">Research
  • href="#Development">Development
  • href="#Tiers">Tiers and Advancement



style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">A Crafty Contrivance name="Crafty">



The easiest means of picking up a crafting profession will be to follow
the quest chain, A Crafty Contrivance, which can be started in either
the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/canadacrisis"
target="_blank">Crisis in Canada
or href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/world/desertdisaster"
target="_blank">Desert Disaster
crisis zones just after completion of the Qulaar Invasion tutorial
mission arc. Be sure to check out our survival guides for each zone for
a complete walkthrough of the intro quests for crafting.



While the survival guides are a great means of getting pointed in the
right direction, they won’t cover some of the finer details
of what makes crafting tick in Champions, so read on for a complete
breakdown of the three main professions, their associated components
and last but not least the nitty-gritty details on research and
development.


style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Arms, Mysticism and
Science name="Schools">



Crafting is broken down into three main professions; Arms, Science and
Mysticism. While each of these professions offers a self-contained
overall progression, there are a few key areas that help distinguish
each of the three. It should also be noted that each character can only
progress in one of the available professions at a time, though
you’re also free to switch between then at any point. Doing
so will reset your advancement though, but you will retain any
previously learned recipes should you ever decide you want to switch
back.



The following details are a good starting point when trying to decide
which profession might synergize best with your current champion, as
Arms, Science and Mysticism each have a particular focus primarily
based on what href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/new/stats"
target="_blank">stats
any associated upgrades from that school can or
cannot enhance.



Below, you’ll find a complete breakdown of which stats are
not covered by that school’s upgrades, broken down by the
available upgrade slot types:



Arms:

  • Utility: No PRE
  • Defense: No EGO, END, INT,
    PRE
  • Offense: No PRE



Science:

  • Utility: No PRE
  • Defense: No DEX, REC, STR
  • Offense: No PRE



Mysticism:

  • Utility: No CON
  • Defense: No CON, DEX, REC,
    STR
  • Offense: No CON



Taking the stats listed above into account, you can make some loose
associations as to which Power Sets might be best suited for a
particular crafting school. For example a Sorcerer will benefit most
from selecting Mysticism while a character focused on melee attacks
might find more useful upgrades contained in the available Arms
blueprints.



Tip:
Certain instances or lairs will include interactive objects that
can only be used if you have the appropriate crafting skill of the
minimum required level. For example you might head into an underground
bunker to put a stop to one of ARGENT’s lieutenants and have
the option to disarm or even rewire the defensive weapons systems if
you have a high enough Arms skill.



style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Blueprints name="Blueprints">



A Blueprint is a recipe used to make
individual upgrades either for
your character, or to be traded with other players via the in-game
Auction House, while Schematics will teach you how to craft different
devices or consumables. Both can usually be purchased from NPC vendors
for the associated crafting school, though on occasion they might also
be obtained as quest rewards, loot or even from a highly successful
Experimentation attempt.



To learn a new blueprint or schematic, double click it in your
inventory and it will automatically be added to your list of known
recipes based on the particular category it falls under. Each of the
three crafting schools will have a uniquely named type of recipe for
each type of upgrade, as listed below:



Arms
Upgrades:

  • Fighting Techniques
    (Blueprint name: Kata)
  • Alien Biology (Blueprint
    name: Dossier)
  • Ordnance (Blueprint name:
    Diagram)



Mysticism
Upgrades:

  • Arcana (Blueprint name:
    Grimoire)
  • Avatars (Blueprint name:
    Apotheosis)
  • Enchanted Gear (Blueprint
    name: Imbuement)



Science
Upgrades:

  • Inventions (Blueprint name:
    Schematic)
  • Mutations (Blueprint name:
    Mutagen)
  • Exposures (Blueprint name:
    Catalyst)


style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Components name="Components">



Components are the building blocks for
crafting upgrades, devices, bags
and even certain power replacers in Champions Online and can be
obtained in one of two ways. The first of these is by interacting with
Skill Objects randomly placed throughout the world. These objects will
correspond to the three main crafting professions – Arms,
Science or Mysticism - and will have minimum skill level requirements
to use.



Skill objects include items such as weapons caches, portable labs and
mystical artifacts and are typically found near villains who would use
that particular type of item. For example you might find magical items
near members of DEMON or PSI, scientific equipment near VIPER agents or
weapon lockers near ARGENT members. This same rule holds true within
any instanced mission areas, so you might head into a building to stop
DEMON members from completing a ritual as part of a Patrol Mission, and
within the instance there may be Mysticism skill objects randomly
placed.



The second method for obtaining components is through conducting
Research, which will be described in greater detail below.



Components will have three main ‘frequencies’, or
degrees of rarity; Common, Uncommon and Rare. These frequencies are
represented by the color of the component name: Yellow for Common, Blue
for Uncommon and Purple for Rare. Most tiers will have 4 different
components for each associated profession, with some extremely rare
components thrown into the mix with higher tiers that allow you to
‘develop’ the highest quality for certain upgrades.


style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Research name="Research">



Research is the primary means of
crafting advancement, though on
occasion you may also gain advancement points by interacting with skill
objects. To conduct research, simply interact with a crafting station
for your chosen crafting school, and click on the
‘Research’ tab located at the top of the crafting
UI window. It’s also handy to keep your inventory open, as
research primarily consists of breaking down upgrades into their
individual components.



You can only research upgrades from your chosen crafting school, which
will be indicated on an item’s tooltip in the upper right
corner. Upgrades are most commonly obtained as loot, but many quests
will also reward you with a choice between a few different upgrade
options. So even if a particular quest reward isn’t an
upgrade you plan on using for your character, they can be an excellent
source of items to be broken down via crafting.



Any upgrades that can be broken down in your inventory will be
highlighted for easy reference, and from there it’s a simple
matter of dragging the upgrade and dropping it into the crafting window
with the Research tab active. Each item will be ranked based on a
combination of your current skill level and the quality of the item
you’re attempting to break down, with a score ranging from 1
to 5 stars. This ranking indicates how successful the research will be,
which can influence how many components you’ll gain and even
how many skill points can be gained.



From here it’s a simple matter of clicking on the
“Experiment” button located at the bottom of the
crafting window. Any components gained will automatically be placed
into your inventory, so be sure to have enough available slots or the
experiment will fail. You will also be alerted with an on-screen
message informing you of how successful the experiment was; the higher
the success the more overall skill points you’ll gain towards
the next crafting tier.


style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Development name="Development">



Now
that you have your inventory stuffed full of components,
it’s time to start crafting some shiny new items that you can
either equip yourself or sell to other players. To do so, simply click
on the Development tab in the crafting window, and this will bring up a
complete list of all the recipes you currently know. These can be
sorted in a couple of different ways; either by the item’s
level or by the specific category it falls under.



Clicking on a recipe will bring up a list of required components, with
any currently missing from your inventory appearing grayed out so
you’ll know which things you need to collect more of either
through research or from interacting with skill objects. To the right
of the required components you will also see an icon for the item
you’re attempting to create. Hovering your mouse over this
icon will bring up a tooltip containing the details for that particular
item.



Most crafted items could be considered ‘static’ in
the sense that a given recipe will net you very specific results. In
some cases, however, rare recipes will allow you to set parameters for
the overall upgrade quality and even which stats or bonuses the item
will contain. These recipes are distinguished on your list by having
their name appear in italics. Clicking on one of these will present you
with some additional options as described below:



Quality
– This can be adjusted from normal to rare. The
higher the overall quality of the item, the more components will be
required to craft it. “Rare” quality items most
often require one or more equally rare components, which are most often
obtained through interacting with skill objects.



Minor
Enhancement
– As
you progress, you’ll also
learn different types of Enhancements based on your current crafting
school. Minor enhancements will most often be associated with a
specific stat or group of stats that can be added to the recipe
you’re currently working with. Clicking on the minor
enhancement field will open a dropdown list that shows you what options
you currently have available. If an item can be crafted with
enhancements, a minor enhancement will be required before
you’re able to create the item. The specific enhancement you
select will influence which components are required for the item in
question.



Major
Enhancement
– These
work similar to minor enhancements,
though rather than affecting what stats will be added to an item, major
enhancements can add one or more additional benefits to your character.
These can include things such as an increased energy regeneration rate
or an overall boost to your crit chance or crit severity. As above,
selecting a major enhancement will influence which specific components
you need to craft the currently selected recipe.



Other items beyond upgrades can also be created through the development
process, such as devices and bags. Each crafting tier will open up more
powerful device schematics and larger bags which can give you a nice
boost to your overall inventory space. While the specific devices you
can create will be based on your crating school, those of you who are
tired of paying an arm and a leg to obtain new bags from other players
will be happy to know that each of the three crafting schools can
create their own.


style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Tiers and Advancement name="Tiers">



Crafting
advancement is broken down into tiers which are based on your
character’s current level, with each tier consisting of 100
skill points. Which recipes you can learn will be wholly dependent on
your current sill level which can be increased by combination of
interacting with skill objects and via conducting research as described
above.



The tier breakdown is as follows:


  • Tier 1 – Covers
    skill levels 1-100, and opens up upon selecting a crafting school
  • Tier 2 – Covers
    skill levels 101-200, and can be learned upon reaching level 10
  • Tier 3 – Covers
    skill levels 201-300, and can be learned upon reaching level 20
  • Tier 4 – Covers
    skill levels 301-400, and can be learned upon reaching level 30
  • Tier 5 – Covers
    skill levels 401-500, and can be learned upon reaching level 40



Raising your current skill cap is a simple means of visiting one of the
local trainers for your crafting school. Doing so simply requires that
you meet the minimum level and that you pay a small fee to open up the
next tier of progression.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Reuben "Sardu" Waters has been writing professionally about the MMOG industry for eight years, and is the current Editor-in-Chief and Director of Development for Ten Ton Hammer.

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