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Getting started with Potion Craft can be intriguing and fun but also confusing–by nature. The game features role playing game elements mixed with strategy and casual gameplay. It’s one of the hottest games out there for alchemy sims, but quickly has become a diverse favorite for gamers. I’ve taken some time to compile some tips and tricks I think are essential to the full release version of this game and will guide you through some of the basics before you’re ready to move onto the esoteric full-of-secrets-adventure that is Potion Craft. Anyway, there is a lot to get through but an easy explanation for all. So let’s take a look a look at some of the commonly addressed topics of the game and see how they work.

Table of Contents

PREFACE: Using THE MAP in Potion Craft to Learn New Recipes

The map is one of the most important parts of Potion Craft. When you begin, it might seem vague and slightly unpredictable. There is a method to it though. Being an alchemist, it’s best to think of the map as a form of divining. Say a customer needs you to make a potion. Thumbing over an ingredient may show you where brewing it will lead you on the map. Stack ingredients in the cauldron to reveal paths, sometime obscure (which is good), to learn a new recipe that you’ve combined the correct ingredients for. (If this still seems confusing check out my YouTube video linked at the bottom of this tutorial, or click here to link directly to the video on my channel.)

The Absolute Essentials for beginning Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator ⚗️

There are some main things to know. The first is that, although there is a ton of content for exploration, you’re not particularly bound to any one narrative in the game. Yes, there is a journal of sorts with a log, achievements necessary to unlock, and a natural progression to the game. For the most part though the game exists as more of a unique variation of the rogue-like genre, more specifically sim rogue-like.

You’ll start the game, settling into an old manor with a garden, laboratory, shop, and bedroom. You’ll be able to move between areas of your home–left for the shop, right for the garden, up for the bedroom, down for the basement, and in the middle for the alchemy lab. The goal is to collect herbs from your garden and use them in the lab to make and sell potions to paying customers. The variety of potions you can make is vast and diverse. Mostly in the beginning though, you’ll need to make a lot of healing potions and poison–yep, there are some darker themes to Potion Craft–mostly just in your standard RPG themes way though.

Using the Laboratory to Make Potions in Potion Craft

The genius of Potion Craft is how gameplay uses a very interactive approach for a pretty straightforward concept. The steps to make potions in Potion Craft are:

1. Take inventory of or collect herbs from the garden
2. Receive orders from customers in the shop
3. Follow recipe directions & mix the ingredients using the following steps
4. Grind necessary ingredients in the mortar and pestle
5. Adjust experimental recipes based on where the map leads you
6. Stir the ground herbs in your cauldron with a ladle until the blue bottle has moved to your target recipe spot
7. Use the bellow (that fan thing on the left of the cauldron) to heat up your cauldron
8. Do not panic if you mess up, there is no time limit, and you can always dismiss a customer if you’d rather move on.
9. Eureka!

Recipe Tips – Figuring Out How To Make New Recipes

As far as recipes, the previous section is for the most part just that with varying layers of rank and skill. As you progress through the game, you will need to brew more and more complex potions using different ingredients. These ingredients are always shown on the right side of your screen in the inventory along with your potions. Certain recipes require some puzzle solving. For example, if a customer says they need something that produces heat, you might want to try grinding some firebells to see if they make a potion that involves fire. You will only know for sure though if you pay attention to the map, which brings me onto the next section.

Using the map becomes more and more interactive the more you play. It is important because this is how you will unlock recipes. As it is, however, the map is hidden on the edges, so you will need to take some risks to find the path.

Ingredients Tip: It might seem at first like Potion Craft asks you for something you don’t know about yet. That is sort of true. One of the most personal touches on this is determining ingredients for new recipes, it is basically a puzzle game mechanic. Read the descriptions of ingredients to find the path–it might involve word association like fire and heat just like the Firebell example.

Customers and Haggling

Next up, customers, one of Potion Craft’s major gameplay settings. There are a few things to know about customers. They will usually tell you about some kind of issue they are having and what kind of potion they’d like in very simple non-technical skills; such as “My head hurts, do you have anything for pain,” and you make a healing potion.

When interacting with customers, also traveling merchants, a great way to earn extra gold–in fact, an essentially crucial way is haggling. This is mechanic requires some experimentation in the beginning, but you should catch on quick. Press “Haggle!” when the red dial moves over a yellow block to tip the scales of negotiation in your favor. You can unlock the talent tree around the second chapter to upgrade your haggling as well as other skills, like the map visibility.

Your Garden & Other Beginner’s Tips

Always remember to visit your garden. It provides a bounty of ingredients for your business and new varieties will appear on different visits. Also, it is a very minor detail, but make sure to use the bedroom upstairs above your laboratory when business slows down for the day. This will reset your customers and replenish your garden for a new day.

Here is a quick summary video, where I’ll walk you through the tutorial of the game and talk about this guide if you wish for a more audio-visual approach:

That’s it For Now

Thanks so much for check out this guide, I hope it helped you. If you have any questions be sure to ask in the comments below. Thanks so much for checking out my guide and stopping by Mr. Dave Pizza. I hope you found it interesting.