Crafting

## Overview

Crafting is the combining of crafting components (raw materials or other items) to create new, often more useful items, or the usage of such components to repair or modify existing items. Crafting is an umbrella term that include activities like repairing or creating modifications to weapons and armor, making weapons and armor from scratch, repairing or creating modifications to vehicles (Mechanics), creating equipment items like containers and firearm suppressors, creating consumable utility items like throwable weapons or explosives, creating food items (Cooking), creating ammunition (Handloading), creating barricading materials (Barricading), and breaking down complex items into raw crafting materials and other components (scrapping items). Some types of crafting must be done at special crafting stations (for example most vehicle modifications cannot be done from the inventory alone), but generally normal crafting (crafting items that fit in the inventory) can be done from the inventory/crafting menu.

## Crafting Recipes

Crafting recipes are items, usually lists, that state the exact amount of ingredients needed to craft a certain item. Acquiring and collecting crafting recipes is the best way to have a wide variety of items to craft. Having a recipe in the inventory creates a crafting shortcut in the crafting menu or the inventory menu's favorited recipes - this means that the item can be crafted quickly at the press of a button.

Recipes acquired from the game world exist simply for guidance by giving the player character an exact ingredient list to make crafting easier, but generally, recipes are not required to craft most items. Experimentation and memory of successful crafting combinations can create many crafted items without recipes on hand, but having a collection of recipes in the inventory will make crafting much simpler and faster by creating shortcuts for each recipe on hand. Recipes are usually just sheets of paper - lightweight and do not take up much space in the inventory.

#### **Logging/saving crafting recipes:**

Logging a crafting recipe means having a crafting recipe in the inventory and bringing it to a player safehouse or survivor hub for "deposit/logging". This means the recipe will be saved and the crafting shortcut can be used at any player safehouse or survivor hub, even if the physical recipe item is no longer in the inventory. It is important to log crafting recipes as soon as possible after they are acquired, as some recipes are unique and if lost, are gone forever. To log a crafting recipe, simply place the recipe item in any **personal stash**. The recipe will then be saved throughout all player safehouses or survivor hubs, and the physical recipe item can be taken back from the **personal stash** if the player so desires. Otherwise, the physical recipe item will remain in that specific location's **personal stash** unless removed. Any recipes that have been "deposited" or "logged" at a player safehouse or survivor hub will be available for shortcut crafting. This makes crafting items at safehouses or hubs a quick and easy process without needing to remember a recipe, or tediously place individual crafting components together in the crafting menu. Saved recipe shortcuts are only available inside a safehouse or survivor hub. Outside of one, physical recipe items must be carried in the inventory to have a crafting shortcut, or a recipe must be favorited in the inventory menu.

#### **Creating crafting recipes:**

If a crafting recipe is discovered through experimentation or remembering of an ingredient list, it can be written down in any form of writing material and a physical recipe item will be created for that item and added into the inventory, which can be then logged/saved at safehouses no differently than any other acquired crafting recipe. This can be manually done by the player character using writing materials, but it can also be done automatically, as there will be a pop-up option to automatically write down the recipe (given there is writing material in the inventory).

#### **Crafting items without recipes/losing recipes:**

It the physical recipe item was lost before it could be logged at a safehouse and the player character desires to craft an item, it can still be crafted... as long as the ingredient list is remembered. Losing the physical recipe item simple means there just won't be a shortcut button to craft it quickly - it doesn't at all prevent the player character from crafting the item. Lost recipes can also be "recovered" using the writing method - if the player character remembers a crafting combination but has lost the physical recipe, it can be written down to create a "homemade recipe" which functions exactly the same as any other recipe.

Most craftable items do not even require a recipe to even be found to craft, as they can be crafted simply through experimentation. The simpler crafting recipes (ex. molotov) can easily be found out through experimentation and common knowledge, while more complex recipes are difficult to figure out through experimentation alone.

There are a few items that cannot be crafted through experimentation - this means the recipe must be acquired. These exceptions are often rare and advanced weapons, armor, or consumables that are not available to craft from the beginning of the game without recipes due to game balancing reasons.

#### **Finding Crafting Recipes:**

Crafting recipes are acquired in many different ways:

* Given as rewards from quests
* Found in the world, usually in scripted locations
* Found on enemies as loot items
* Can be found as part of some random encounters
* Bought from stores - many lost recipes can be reacquired this way, but rarer ones are more difficult to find in stock
* Already saved in safehouses from the start of the game due to chosen traits or occupations
* Created by the player character by writing a "successful recipe" down, manually or automatically

## Crafting components

All craftable items and recipes require crafting components, or ingredients, to create them.

For more information about crafting components, a full list of them, and where to find them, see: Crafting Components

## How to craft

Normal crafting can be done either through the inventory or the crafting menu. The crafting menu is most useful when recipes are in the player's inventory, or in safehouses and survivor hubs, where every saved recipe is available to craft (whether straight from the inventory or at a crafting station). Otherwise, crafting can be done in the inventory, where individual crafting components are added/dragged into the crafting box and the **Craft!** prompt is selected. Crafting stations in the world make crafting much faster and easier with a more organized interface, and the ones at safehouses and survivor hubs store recipes to make crafting as simple as pressing one button.