Part 3

Learn about item synthesis in As Dusk Falls, including elemental values, traits, effects, properties, and synthesis skills like Power Transfer.

Each item possesses fixed fire, water, air, and earth values. As you add ingredients during synthesis, their elemental values are incorporated. The final elemental values determine which item effects are activated. Equipment does not have innate elemental values, but other items do, which are used to trigger specific traits.

Traits are integral to synthesis, allowing you to modify elemental values, quality, gained properties, and CP (Crafting Points) consumption. Ingredients can have up to two traits, which are fixed. When ingredients are added, their traits are moved to a stockyard that can hold a maximum of five traits, with effects activating each time a new ingredient is added.

During synthesis, the four elemental bars visually represent the required values for unlocking each effect. Effects for attack and healing items can alter their damage or healing output, while accessory effects can fundamentally change their function. An item's quality significantly impacts its effects, so consider this when synthesizing items for use.

Properties are bonus effects that can be added to your items. Until Ayesha acquires the Power Transfer synthesis skill, only an item's innate properties can be applied to it. The property gauge, located in the lower right corner of the screen, indicates when a new property will appear and increases by an amount equal to the ingredient's level. Some properties are exclusive to specific item types, such as attack/heal/support items or equipment.

Tip: You can efficiently search your items by navigating to your container, pressing select to display all items, then pressing triangle and choosing the specify option. This allows you to quickly check for items with specific traits, properties, or of a particular category.

Certain traits and properties can be combined to create enhanced versions. Typically, two lower-tier versions of a trait or property merge to form a higher-tier one. For instance, 'Good w/ Liquids' and 'Nice w/ Liquids' combine to create 'Great w/ Liquids,' and 'HP +10' and 'HP +15' result in 'HP +25.' The trait 'Heighten Power' is unique and can combine with most lower-tier traits.

Synthesis Skills

Synthesis skills are crucial for crafting items with specific effects or properties. They may consume CP but offer potent benefits during synthesis. To use them, press left or right on the d-pad when choosing the order of ingredients. Only one skill can be applied per ingredient.

• Draw Power (5 CP) - Enhances the property gauge gain by 15 when used with the next ingredient, enabling the unlocking of high-level properties with low-level items.
• Power Pour (10 CP) - Allows for ingredient duplication, with a cumulative 50% CP cost increase per use. This is useful for getting traits onto the stockyard or manipulating elemental values.
• Power Transfer (5 CP) - Enables the transfer of an ingredient's properties onto your item, essential for crafting Ultimate Equipment and other items.
• Power Denial (0 CP) - Deleting unwanted properties is necessary when aiming for specific item properties, as only five properties can exist on an item. This prevents desired properties from being overwritten.

Tip: Using Power Pour can rapidly deplete your CP. You can intentionally do this to lock an item's quality, elemental values, and properties. Since Power Denial costs no CP, you can still remove properties even after your CP is exhausted.

Recursive Synthesis

Items and accessories can possess duplicate properties. One method to obtain multiple copies of a property is through recursive synthesis. For example, the Tonic item can serve as the (Nutritional) ingredient in its own synthesis. Obtain a desired property on another ingredient, such as Distilled Water, and transfer it to the Tonic. You can then create another Tonic using the same Distilled Water and one of the newly crafted Tonics, transferring properties from both to acquire two copies. Repeat this process to accumulate the desired number of property copies.

Ultimate Equipment

Whetstones and Dyes

Weapons and armor are acquired from enemies rather than crafted. Instead, whetstones and dyes created via alchemy are used to transfer properties to equipment. The most effective method for creating ultimate equipment involves crafting multiple whetstones/dyes that transfer one or two properties, rather than attempting to create a single item with all desired properties. A whetstone or dye can transfer up to five properties per use, depending on its effect. Weapons and armor cannot have duplicate properties, so carefully select the properties you wish to apply. When using a whetstone or dye, properties listed at the top of the selection are transferred first. If unwanted properties are present on your whetstone/dye, using the Power Denial skill to remove them can simplify the process.

Some particularly useful properties include:

• Red Power - Found on Aurora Stone from (Alt) Steinfeder. Grants +10% Fire, Ice, Lightning damage and +3% Damage done absorbed as HP.
• Spirit Power - Found on Spirit Magnet from Wilbell event boss and her bazaar shop afterwards (limited availability). Grants +15% Fire and Ice damage.
• Soul Words - Found on Word Stone-Ma.