Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Upgrading armor and weapons?

How is it done?

I'm carrying around all kinds of metal scraps and iron/steel ingots, but can't for the life of me figure out how to use them to make my armor or weapons better.

I'm assuming I need Blacksmithing skill, right?

You are correct that you need blacksmithing, but you also need a hammer and CRAFTING.

Because of how poorly put together the crafting system is, I'll do my best to break this down for you, because what your asking cannot be directly answered with a few simple here do this.

All crafting works on a drag and drop system, meaning you drag one item over the other, and if it can be crafted it will pop up with box and you click the check mark.

However not all items are created the same way with that drag and drop system, making it not only inconsistent and annoying as shit, but because it also follows no logical pattern and items made out of certain material, cannot be upgraded with the material that item is made out of. For example:

Leather items CANNOT be upgraded with leather Scraps
Wooden items CANNOT be upgraded with Wood
Cloth items such as belts and sarongs CANNOT be upgraded with cloth scraps.
Robes CANNOT be upgraded at all

For example MAKING a metal weapon requires you to only drag and drop an item from one part of your inventory over another, while UPGRADING that same metal weapon requires dragging the weapon to an WETSTONE without needing any materials.

Making metal armors are done the same way you make a metal weapon HOWEVER upgrading a metal armor is done 2 ways.
You can either drag the armor over an ANVIL OR just take material that's compatible with that armor (Which also doesn't make any sense) and drag and drop it directly in your inventory without the need for an anvil.

The procedure for making and upgrading is wooden weapons such as bows and stave's and the material needed makes absolutely no sense. In order to upgrade a Staff or club (Blunt weapon) you have to use Moonstone, while upgrading a bow requires a BOW STRING.

To Upgrading leather armor is somewhat logical because you have to drag the armor over a mobile campfire (Giving the impression that you're boiling it) however this only works with LEATHER armor Other Leather items such as, Helmets, boots, and bracers are a lost cause.

The whole system is fucked!

Just check the sticky with the crafting recipes.

He asked HOW to create and upgrade. You're only directing him to something that shows WHAT TO USE which doesn't answer what he is asking. You also failed to explain what [CR] and [BR] mean. The abbreviation being used makes no sense either.

It should be [CL] and [BL] L = Level

The thread shows the requirements for each combination and which combinations are possible.

I am not sure why some gamer(s) are having so much trouble with the recipes: If both items are in your inventory, use drag and drop, otherwise drag the item from your inventory to the stationary item (anvil, forge,...).

You can drag metal scraps onto certain body armours (cloth and leather) in order to make them better.
You can also drag metal scraps onto an anvil in order to create boots and you can drag an drop a hammer (regular, not a repair hammer) onto metal scraps in order to make armour.

You can drag an ingot onto an anvil to create a weapon.

Yes, you'll need blacksmithing skills.

Also, don't worry about not understanding this crafting system, because it's a mess.
Larian really needs to do something about it. I dunno who of them thought the system as it is would be a good idea.

Because it doesn't quite work like that and it's not that simple.

You obviously didn't read anything I posted above.

I must concur. I've put in 100+ hours in the game now, and I still have no firm grasp on the crafting/blacksmithing. It's illogical as hell.

It's an ok-to-good game on several fronts, but this crafting/blacksmithing system is definitely one of its weaker points.

I...sort of get *what* they were going for... the concept of having different ingredients and things you find that you can use in different ways to create different stuff, is, on itself, not a bad idea. But it just gets complicated in what you can make (at some point, I just resorted to drag everything on everything else, to see if there was something craftable being made by it), but worse, there is also very little logic to it. Thus, the *execution* of the idea is poorly implemented too. It makes no sense you can upgrade metal armor with metal scraps, but you can't upgrade leather armor with leather scraps. No, wait... that's not it. You can sometimes with some armor (chest) but not with other armor, like helmets. Or bracelets. Or other stuff.

As you and others have said: sometimes it's just drag-and-drop, sometimes you need the anvil, sometimes it's still something else. A whetstone upgrades weapons without anything else, sometimes you can upgrade by metal scraps too, sometimes you can't, or you can with one piece of armor, but not with another, even if it's made of the same material... etc.

Then there are magical upgrades possible too, and those aren't any more logical. Sometimes you can upgrade by one way, but not by another, with the same mechanism, but with different objects. Sometimes it just gets added (+1 fire for instance), sometimes it just gets overwritten (+1 insight but you loose everything else, as with a third eye magical helmet, for instance). One would have also logically assumed that wood or woodscraps would upgrade my staff and bow, just like metal scraps do with other stuff... but that ain't so.

It...really makes little sense.


Whomever thought this out at Larian clearly wasn't thinking straight. EVEN if one wanted to give a lively crafting/blacksmithing system - as said, I think I know what they were going for, and the basic concept isn't bad - as it is, it's much, much too convoluted, and illogical in it's execution.

If there is anything they need to work on in the next game, it's this. It *must* be made more logical and more streamlined. As it stands now, it just gets frustrating, instead of being enjoyable.

For the rest, however, I thought this to be a decent game. The 'action points' old style kind of RPG-playing isn't really my genre all *that* much (been since Pool of Radiance D&D game since I played this way), but one gets used to it, and it's ok. Still like the 'dragon age' or 'drakensang', or even 'Divinity 2' way better though; more to my taste (game-playing wise), but to each it's style, I guess.

All in all, it's a fairly good game, though maybe a little too much hyped up. After all, it's not THAT of a fantastic, superb, original game as it was made out in the press. But it's still a good game in its genre, and reasonably enjoyable if you like RPG's (especially old-school ones). Realising it's made by a relatively small indie company, it's quite an accomplishment too.

But the crafting/blacksmithing system... yeah, that really needs an overhaul in the next game.