Oblivion talk:Alchemy/Archive 1

This is an archive of past Oblivion talk:Alchemy discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Oblivion Skills Trail

I created a new breadcrumb trail for all the skills, but now I have a problem with this page/skills =) I added it as a second trail because I'm not sure what to do... is having two trails a Bad Thing^TM ? --MrMostard 09:40, 31 July 2006 (EDT)

Two breadcrumb trails is fine; there are already other pages with two trails (e.g., Oblivion:Generic_Staves). --Nephele 12:08, 31 July 2006 (EDT)

Which ingredients to save?

When you first start out it might be hard to know which ingredients are rare and which ones are common. If you are trying to level up your alchemy quickly you probably want to make potions with just about anything that combines. Perhaps we could make a short list with ingredients it would be nice to save until reaching journeyman, expert and master level?

1. Is this possible in practice? Items like Fire Salts might be difficcult for a level 2 character to get a hold of, a level 15 that's been to oblivion a few times has a ton... Also, a thief has different needs than a fighter or a mage. There are lots of other examples like this. Does that make such a list too dependent on other variables, or could it still be of some help?
2. Assuming there are a few common ingredients many find themselves running out of... How should the list be sorted?

• Example: Fire salts, rare until reaching level xx and Fire Atronachs start appearing.
• Example: Elf Cup Cap, can be difficult to find enough if you rely on fortify strength. Otherwise OK

I have started a list below, please add or comment on the above. Dieter 04:06, 28 July 2006 (EDT)

My two cents (hopefully not overly influenced by my current pessimistic mood). It seems hard to make this type of list be generally useful. As you say, different characters will rely on different types of potions; different characters will spend times in different areas and therefore naturally have different supplies of different ingredients. Also, an ingredient that may be valuable for one effect at alchemy=75 may also be one of the only ingredients to give you an effect at alchemy=25 (Harrada, for example: should you hoard it to make paralyze potions, when early on it's one of the only ways to make damage magicka potions?).

On a more constructive note. I'd recommend only taking into account effects that appear at alchemy>50. The secondary effects (i.e., alchemy=25) appear so quickly that I don't think it's worth saving up for them (even starting at alchemy=5 you have to make less than 40 potions to get to alchemy=25; anyone can easily do that from vegetables).

And some ingredients are impossible to find early in the game. In my alchemy testing, I scoured Cyrodiil for daedra silk (the only way to make burden potions at alchemy=5) and couldn't find any, even in the alchemy stores, until my character reached about level 15. Others you can find limited quantities of early on (fire salts, i.e., can be found in one of the mage's guilds, and is randomly stocked by by alchemy stores even at low levels).

So, hopefully these ramblings are somewhat useful.... --Nephele 11:39, 28 July 2006 (EDT)

Commonly available ingredients that you tend to run out of:

• Aloe Vera (combines with other ingredients to make Restore health & fatigue early on)
• Harrada (easily found in Oblivion, but you need to know that you should pick them up when you are there!)

"Limited edition" ingredients from quests:

• Painted Troll Fat

Potion effects

Not sure if a random list of potions available to be made at each level is the best way of doing things... Might redo it into a table or something, or even just a huge number of pages with ingredients and so on. Saw a good version of this for Morrowind somewhere, will try to dig it up for reference. Endareth 21:20, 28 March 2006 (EST)

I agree on what you write Endareth. A list of ingredients and their effects would be nice and a list of common potions like it exists now aswell. In a wiki i don't think there is the possibility or necessity to list all possible potion combinations, but rather a list by ingredients or effects.

One note on the side: It occured to me, that when i stumbled in here, that someone simply copy/pasted text from my site (including typos!), but did not ask beforehand if this is okay. Don't get me wrong, the information on my site is free to use, but if someone copy/pastes it, i would regard it courtesy to at least ask. Some text i did copy or write off from a guide myself, but 90% have been written by myself in my own words. So please, just ask. I mean, just look at the bottom of this page (when you edit) concerning copyright ;)

I just noticed this comment, and I'm guessing it was written a while ago. Because looking over the page just now I realized that I have either substantially revised or written from scratch almost the entire page. So I think this complaint has been addressed!--Nephele 02:35, 17 July 2006 (EDT)

Hehee. I already did the ingredients list. :) However, it needs to be filled with all the effects. As well as a spell effects list. Feel free to thank me for the hard work I put in them. :P -FMan/TX (Finland)

Best Potions

I just figured I would note two of the most useful potions that I have found, should someone wish to incorperate this info into the main article (Im not so confident of editing other people's work :). Alchemy is very easy to get up high, and once you have master equipment you can create unbelievable effects. And the Best part is that all potion effects -=*Always*=- stack upon each other. I basically use alchemy for making two types of potions. For example, and I am at level 42 right now, with 100 alchemy, Expert Mortar & Pestle, Expert Retort, Master Calcinator, and Master Alembic. My Favorite Potion is Feather Potion. With my current EQ I can make Feather potions for 254 points that last for 705 seconds (Over 11 minutes). I never have to make loots runs because I can drink four of these and it adds 1000 to the wieght I can carry for over 11 minutes. The easiest components to make these out of are Flax seeds and Sacred Lotus seeds, as these are very common ingredients. I always carry at least 20 of these potions with me and my loot runs for oblivion gates usually net me about 50-70k gold (Master Mercantile). My second favorite potion (being master alchemist) is chameleon potion. As Chameleon is the main effect of blood grass (very common in oblivion gates) I can make these out of one blood grass (for 35% Chameleon). Drink three of these and you are completely invisible and can beat and bash your enemies with impunity.

-Oberon69 (Oberick)

FYI: Best possible Feather potion is 272p, 880s (14 minutes & 40s) --Robert Smith 10:22, 20 May 2007 (EDT)

Deleted Text

NOTE: Although the Poisoned Apples have a 'Deadly Poison' alchemy effect, they cannot be distilled into a poison to apply to a weapon. The poison is ingestion only, and even a Master will only be able to create a potion of 'Deadly Poison'. As this can only be used on oneself, it is of strictly limited utility. For information on the Posion Apples, please see the section on the Dark Brotherhood.

I deleted this text (it was in with alchemy mastery levels) since it didn't really fit into that section. The info is already included in the alchemy ingredients page, which seems to be a more appropriate place.--Nephele 14:34, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Alchemy Nitpicks

I've been trying to make sense out of alchemy statistics: making tons of potions and keeping careful track of how variables (such as skill level, intelligence, luck, equipment) affect the potions (strength, weight, cost, etc.) Now I'm trying to make sense out of all the info, and as I make sense of things I'll be adding to the alchemy page. At the moment, I'm seeing some discrepancies with what's posted on the page.

Alchemy's governing attribute is Intelligence. It has a substantial influence on your skill, the more intelligent you are the more potent the potions you can create are

• Can anyone confirm this fact? I know in general skills are affected by attributes (i.e. blade damage increased by strength) but alchemy seems to be quirky.

• I've been making feather spells using flax seeds and venison. Some of the stats I've gotten relevant to intelligence are (all other stats identical, e.g. always using a complete set of novice equipment):

alchemy level	intelligence level	luck level	feather magnitude	feather duration
37	50	65	72	273
37	55	65	72	273
75	55	65	93	356
73	55	65	92	352
75	100	60	92	352

So an intelligence increase of 5 has absolutely no effect. Small differences between int=55 and int=100 are due to the difference in luck. alchemy=73+luck=65 is effectively the same as alchemy=75+luck=60 (+5 luck = +2 skill) so these tests show no effect of nearly doubling intelligence.

• Testing this is made more complicated by the fact that alchemy seems to be controlled only by your base level of alchemy and luck: using fortify/drain/damage (as spells or potions) does not alter potion strength. In all my tests the intelligence level is gained "naturally" through attribute bonuses when the character levels up.

So: any reports of intelligence actually altering potion strength?? --Nephele 13:46, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

It definitely did in Morrowind but I haven't tested it in Oblivion, so this may be just an assumption made by an ex-Morrowind player. --Actreal 19:20, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Thanks for the info. I've gone ahead and modified the page's statements about intelligence.--Nephele 03:34, 25 June 2006 (EDT)

NOTE: Stronger Apparatus can be obtained as a random loot from boss-level Conjurers or Necromancers, or their chests. Best place to look for them is Fort Linchal (north of Kvatch), The Hall of Knights, right just on the first fork inside the fort.

• Based on this tip I raided Fort Linchal, and found no alchemy apparatus at all. It seems like the game's random loot may make it impossible to recommend specific places to go for alchemy apparatus. Should this statement be limited to a generic recommendation to check conjurer- and necromancer-lairs? --Nephele 13:46, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

One more request for feedback. I had the understanding that when you reached a new perk level and could recognize more ingredients, potions you had previously made were liable to suddenly have new effects appear (e.g. at alchemy=24 you make a restore fatigue potion with apple and bread loaf... when your alchemy bumps to 25, that potion will now show two effects: restore fatigue and detect life). I'd swear I'd even noticed this happen. But now in my potion testing I am completely unable to get this happen. I've tried multiple different combinations, going from 24 to 25, 49 to 50, and 74 to 75, and never get any new effects appearing on previously made potions. Was I just deluded in the first place: do potion effects never get retroactively altered? Or can anyone document seeing this happen (hopefully with some specifics so I can try to figure out the conditions)? Thanks. --Nephele 15:30, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

I can confirm that it is definitely more difficult to do alchemy at higher skill levels, as it's harder to find combinations of ingredients that will do what you want without unintended side-effects. (Particularly if you're levelling slowly and can't get good equipment yet.) The Apple+Bread Loaf example you mentionned is one I have definitely seen. It may be that such changes do not happen unless you close and then re-open the Alchemy window after reaching a new perk-level, much like the weight calculation discussed on the main page, which is calculated only the first time per session or level that you create any given potion. -- TheRealLurlock 17:51, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

To clarify: new effects will definitely appear in new potions that you go to make (and without closing and reopening the alchemy window, if my notes are correct). What I'm wondering about is in old potions that you made before you got the new skill perks. Do the effects of those existing potions ever change based upon your new knowledge?--Nephele 18:21, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

Short answer: No. I have never seen existing potions change qualities, and I don't think it is possible. Once the game creates a potion, it doesn't store what level of Alchemy you had when you made it, it just creates a potion with the effects described in the Alchemy window at that time. --Actreal 19:20, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

It pretty much looks like the answer is no. I must have misinterpreted some of the descriptions of how alchemy works. Thanks for straightening me out (and preventing me from wasting even more time on this wild goose chase!).--Nephele 03:34, 25 June 2006 (EDT)

Clean Up ?

Hi All, I'm a big potion maker and would like to clean this section up as follows:

Sort List by Effect

by first, Second, Third and so on effect

I think this much is pretty much already covered by Ingredients and Oblivion:Alchemy_Effects.

Hmm. I mean so you can find all "Shield Effect" and "Restore Effect" potions grouped together. It would mean duplicating a few effects. but some like

Restore Health

Restore Magica

Restore Magica + Shield

Restore MAgica + Reflect Spell

Reflect Effect

Reflect Damage

Reflect Damage + Restore Magica

Reflect Damage + Shield

Shield Effect

Shield

Shield + Reflect Damage

Shield + Reflect Damge + Feather

Poisen Other

Fire, Health, Shock

Health, Fire, Shock

Shock, Fire, Heath

--Samstern 20:41, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

For clarification (and perhaps to also answer Lurlock's question), I assume you're just talking about reorganizing the potions listed in the "Useful Potions" section.--Nephele 21:44, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Yes. That's a really good point. I'm only interesting in orgnizing the best potion recipies.— Unsigned comment by Samstern (talk • contribs)

The question is - where do you draw the line? Do you include every possible combination of two effect-potions? How about three-effect or four-effect potions? Heck, I can make a single potion with EIGHT effects. (Both varieties of Vampire Dust plus both varieties of Bonemeal at Expert level, for example.) The possibilities are nearly limitless. I mean, we can organize what we have so far, but there's no way a list like this can be in any way conclusive or all-encompassing. A better idea might be if somebody could program a java-app calculator or something like that where you can choose ingredients from lists and see what you get, then link to it. I seem to recall somebody did that for Morrowind. Not my forte unless you want it in Shockwave format. (I do Director programming at work, so it wouldn't be THAT difficult, but many people don't like Shockwave, and that's all I know, so hopefully somebody else will come up with something eventually. Also, I can't host it anywhere, so we'd need that as well.) Anyhow, I think there's really only so much you can do in this respect without going overboard. --TheRealLurlock 22:54, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

I was not thinking of an exhaustive list. Rather, The most commonly used compound potions: Battle Shields ( 2 or 3), Most Effective Poisons (4 to 5 here), Battle Restoratives (not many in this class - perhaps 2 to 3). In fact I would go a step further, perhaps we should only list those potions that a person could reasonably find enough of the main ingredients to make say 30 doses of a given potion with. Between those two limits, we can really narrow the range to perhaps 15 - 20 distinct potions that have the most appeal. This approach would rule out things like 8 effect potions (you can only make a limited number in a given game and only then at master level).

Then we could make ANOTHER list of really oddball and unique potions like those that NEED both sets of bonemeal, those that use Painted Troll Fat, etc. This would be a less pressing (and useful) endevour.— Unsigned comment by Samstern (talk • contribs)

I second the idea of having this be a list of particularly useful potions, made using only non-obscure ingredients. I'd see one purpose of the list as being a starting place, to give people an idea of what some of the powerful things are that you can do with potions. As for the exhaustive option, there is already an "Oblivion Alchemy Wizard" [1] (except they've got mistakes in some of their ingredient effects...). I'd love to see something better (i.e., no mistakes in ingredients, add in the ability to calculate potion strengths, etc.) set up here somehow. I could set up a CGI script that does this, but I can't help with the where-to-host question; also, it's possible java could be a better scripting option....--Nephele 00:51, 15 July 2006 (EDT)

Break out potions whose variable effects will prevent drinking your full allotment of poitons during a battle.

Example: Feather Effect lasts a long time. If combined with a short effect spell like Shield or Restore Health/Magica, you cannot drink another potion in it's place for some time. Example: At the beginng of battle and 50th LEvel Alchemist will: Drink a REstore Health, Drink a Shield + Feather, NExt Drink a Restore MAgica. MAxed out at three potions. One Game minute later the Shield effect has ended but the feather effect lasts. This casues the alchemist to be unable to add a new shield effect or drink a potion of healing. The result? Chopped Alchemist. That's why I never use allot of the listed "Buff" potions.

What say the crowd? Is it okay to go ahead and make thease changes??

--Samstern 19:40, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Sounds great to me. Definitely some alphabetizing would be useful. And your point about long-lasting potions is a good one, too (I've gone back to playing a character who counts on potions for Feather in the last couple days, and just an hour go was realizing how that limits the amount of healing I can do during a battle). --Nephele 20:12, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Do you know how to predict how long each potion will last? If so, that information would be welcome. I'm sure it's some formula based on you Alchemy skill, plus possibly Willpower, Intelligence, and/or Luck, plus each effect has its own base duration, but I'm not sure how you'd determine that except through lots of testing... --TheRealLurlock 20:13, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Good Question. How about we rather we first sort them into Very Short ( 0 to 15 seconds ), Short (15 - 30 seconds) Medium ( 30 - 90 seconds), Long (90+ seconds). So even though there are diffent levels, Light and Feather are always long, Most are medium, Poisens are short or Very Short (Both poisen self and poisen other).--Samstern 20:40, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Give me another couple days, and I should have some equations ready for calculating potion magnitude and duration. Right now I can tell you for a potion using only a mortar and pestle exactly what it's mag/duration are; I'm trying to work out the details of the other pieces of equipment. If the info would be useful sooner, I could prioritize writing up what I've already figured out, and delay figuring out the rest.--Nephele 21:40, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

To save yourself allot of work, why not just list the strengths with a matched set aparatus at each level, and then break out what adding a master piece to a set of expert equiptment would yeild?

Side Note: I'm visiting Family and will be out of computer reach until July 18th. So I will not be able to interact again until that point. --Samstern 21:50, 14 July 2006 (EDT)

Calculating Potion Strengths

OK, I've attempted to summarize my findings on potion strengths. The equations I've come up with can exactly calculate the magnitude and duration of some 3800 potions/poisons that I've now made. The problem is that there are multiple quirks/exceptions that I'm guessing are caused by Bethesda typos in the code. If anyone looks through the history of what I did this afternoon, I started with about twenty different equations that cover all the different cases. I then realized that probably there is a set of master equations that is supposed to be universally applicable; and then three typos that introduced three exceptions. So that's how I've now tried to present things. I need to go over things again and make sure I've transcribed everything properly, but at this precise moment I need to take a break (or more to the point, the dog is desperate for his walk), so I'll save a final check for later. If anyone in the meantime has suggestions for how to make this mess any cleaner, let me know!--Nephele 20:58, 15 July 2006 (EDT)

FYI, I've now gone through and double-checked that all the equations were copied in properly, and I've tried to do what I can to make sure it's semi-coherent. I've also done some work on the Oblivion:Alchemy Effects page, in particular adding the maximum possible strength of each possible effect to give everyone some idea of the relative strengths of different potions (and highlight just how incredibly powerful high-level potions can be... take those damage poisons, add in a six-times sneak attack bonus and those poisons are scary deadly).--Nephele 01:56, 17 July 2006 (EDT)

Base magnitude formula

The base magnitude formula can't possibly be correct. For instance, for the strongest restore health potion, I'm getting: [(100+25)/(10/10)]^2.28=125^2.28=60388.58 Please clarify if I got something wrong there... Also, I don't quite understand what is meant with "strength". Pascal 12:41, 29 August 2006 (EDT) Pascal

Yep, there were some mistakes there. Thanks for pointing this out. There were actually two mistakes in that one equation, which have now been fixed. The equation in this case is supposed to be [(100+25)/(10/10*4)]^(1/2.28). So the answer is 5 pts magnitude, 18 sec duration. (Adding calcinator and retort effects will increase these values). And I tried to improve the description of strength, actually renaming it to "Magicka Cost"... let me know if that helps.

Since you're probably the first person to actually try to apply these equations, I'd welcome any feedback on them. Also, by the weekend I should have a beta version of my alchemy calculator available, which will (among other things) calculate all these magnitudes and durations, so not everyone has to work through all this math. --Nephele 14:02, 29 August 2006 (EDT)

Well, that seems much better, but with the strongest alchemy equipment I get 15 (rounded) for the final magnitude, which still isn't correct. Someone try and check the factors for the "most effects"-equations. Pascal 13:56, 30 August 2006 (EDT)

I'm not sure what you're saying is the "correct" answer. I calculate that the maximum possible strength for a restore health potion is 13, not 15 (see Oblivion:Alchemy Effects for the maximum strengths calculated for each effect). The one caveat in this is that I have not yet tested a master-level calcinator. However, the strengths of calcinators at all other levels agreed with all other pieces of equipment, so it seems reasonable to assume that a master level calcinator has a strength of 1. Other than that, these equations have been tested for MANY different combinations of equipment, and in particular they work for every single effect when using master mortar+pestle plus master retort plus master alembic plus expert calcinator.

If you do have a full set of master equipment, I'd love to know the potion strengths that you get using a master calcinator, and plug them into my analysis. --Nephele 14:31, 30 August 2006 (EDT)

I've tested some effects using the master equipment, and I couldn't yet find any for which the calculated values weren't right. Pascal 13:51, 2 September 2006 (EDT)

Alchemy Questions: Potion Stacking, Poisons, etc.

I have a few questions about how potions function in Oblivion. Bear with me if any of these have already been answered elsewhere.

1. Do poisons effects 'stack'? That is to say, can you apply the same poison effect several times on a target? For example, if I hit an enemy with a 'damage health' potion that does 3 damage/sec, then hit it with an identical potion before the duration of the effect is over, is the target now taking 6 damage/sec? Preliminary testing has led me to believe that this is not the case, but I'd like to be sure. On the same note, if poisons don't stack, then what happens when you have overlapping poison effects? Do they work like spells, where the first effect is overwritten by the second?

2. Can more than one kind of poison be active on the target at once? For example, if I hit the enemy with a 'damage health' potion and then a separate 'silence' potion, will both effects take hold on the enemy, or will the first be overwritten by the second?

3. Do enemies use potions? I'm using Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (wouldn't play without it) and I believe I've seen enemies using potions, but I'm not 100% sure that it's actually a potion they're using and not some kind of spell or innate ability. If enemies can use potions, are the mechanics any different than for human players? How do they choose which potions to use?

4. Quick question about the 'silence' effect from potions: is it ineffective on certain enemies? I've come across certain enemies (like 'mystic imps' - they're creatures from the Overhaul, though, so I'm not sure how relevant this is to the main game) that seem to still be able to cast spells even though they're silenced. I don't think they're resisting it, either, since I haven't gotten any messages to that effect. The only thing I can think of is that their spells are some kind of innate ability, and that's why silence isn't having an effect - does Oblivion differentiate between spells and innate abilities? — Unsigned comment by 68.46.97.0 (talk)

For #1 and #2 I'm not positive, but I think in both cases the answer is yes.

For #3 definitely yes. Some NPCs can randomly have both potions and poisons as part of their inventory (Bandit is the one type of NPC that so far has been documented well enough to give this info). Mostly NPCs just have healing potions. They'll have a probability that the potions are in their inventory; then the number and strength of potions is taken from a leveled list (so the higher your character's level, the better quality potions the NPCs can have). The AI then determines whether or not they use the potions during combat, presumably based upon how much damage they've taken so far.

For #4 some enemy spells are immune to silence. This is determined on a spell-by-spell basis, not a creature-by-creature basis. So for example, with basic ghosts the Snowball spell is not immune but the Ghostly Touch spell is immune. So if you cast silence on a ghost, they will no longer have a ranged attack available, but can still use their touch attack spell. (It's not the best example when talking about poisons, since ghosts are immune to poisons, so they'll be completely unaffected by a silence poison. But it's the one case I've done testing on myself). It seems like generally spells that are considered to be lesser powers are immune to silence (although it's not a hard rule).

These answers are based upon non-modded Oblivion; I have no idea about the details of how NPCs and creatures are implemented in OOO. But the basic game features should be the same. --Nephele 17:24, 10 January 2007 (EST)

Regarding your question #1: It would make sense for this to be similar to spell effects. That is to say, the same effect (same poison) will overwrite itself but differently-named poisons or effects will stack. To test this, make two identical "damage health" or "damage strength" poisons but call them "poison 1" and "poison 2" and apply them to an enemy one after the other. To test it even more easily, make two identical restoration potions (for example "restore fatigue") with different names (e.g., "main course" and "side dish") and drink them both at the same time. You should get double the effect.

I would be pleased to hear results of this experiment: Do potions and poisons always stack, even when they're identical? Or is my analysis above more accurate? --Potion Addict

Dissimilar potion effects

Another weird alchemy comment/question. As I'm sure many people know, it's possible in Oblivion make potions where the ingredients don't quite match up. For example, to create a Damage Strength/Damage Endurance poison, I could combine Tiger Lily Nectar and a Bread Loaf (which have the Damage Strength effect) and a Somnalius Frond and a Summer Bolete Cap (which both have Damage Endurance). The problem is, neither of the first two have any effects in common with the second two. In this case, the only way that I've found to get all of these ingredients together is to first find a "linking ingredient" that has an effect in common with both the ones I want to put into the potion (like a Radish, for instance: it has a Damage Endurance effect in common with the Somnalius Frond and Summer Bolete and a and a Restore Fatigue effect in common with the Bread Loaf), and then remove the unneeded linking ingredient afterward. It's clunky and a real pain in the butt. Does anyone know of a mod that "unlocks" all alchemy ingredients so you can put any two together in the pestle even if they have dissimilar effects? Thanks.

No mod is needed. When you are in the alchemy menu, there is a button to click to "show all ingredients". Clicking that makes all of the ingredients show, even if they don't have any common effects. --Nephele 17:52, 19 January 2007 (EST)

Huh, I never noticed that in all my months of playing. It's weird what you can overlook once you've become accustomed to something. --Stemmers? 01:54, 20 January 2007 (EST)

Shivering Isles - Journeyman Calcinator

It might be worth noting in the Apparatus that the Duke of Mania seems to keep a Journeyman Calcinator in his room, on a table with several pieces of Alchemy ingredients and apparatus.

Levelling up alchemy

I think you also get experience in alchemy by 'sampling' (harvesting) ingredients too, albeit a minute amount. Once, I picked a piece of corn and my alchemy skill increased. Could someone look into this? Tentacle 05:35, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Any chance you ate the corn? Eating ingredients (wortcraft) will increase your alchemy skill. But just picking ingredients won't. The construction set lists exactly what actions will increase a skill, and how much experience is gained for doing that action. And for alchemy there are just the two actions: making potions and eating ingredients. Also, I've never had alchemy increase from picking ingredients... and I've done some bizarre alchemy experiments where I'm pretty sure an increase like that would have shown up (e.g., harvesting hundreds of ingredients with an alchemy=5 character, in preparation for tests of alchemy potion strengths). --Nephele^Talk 11:47, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Bizarre Alchemy Glitches

After many a painstaking potion-making session after a farm raid, I've discovered that its possible to create one more potion than you are able to ingredient-wise by hitting Create fast enough. Generally, this has only affected me since I became a master of Alchemy. Another bug is that when large amounts of potions are made in a single alchemy session, say 100 Restore Fatigue potions, 10 Damage Health potions and 5 Resist Frost potions, some potions will turn into 'Name Potions', with absolutely no effects and a low price (i.e. my Restore Fatigue potions are worth 50 gold, but these Name Potions are only worth 35). Is there any way to fix this? Tentacle 14:08, 27 May 2007 (EDT)

Effective Alchemy

If was doing some test with the great Alchemy Calculator. Results about cost seems to be correct using the calculator so my guess is that the formula on this page is wrong.

Effective Alchemy = Alchemy_Skill_Level + 0.4*Luck_Level

Correct formula?

Effective Alchemy = Min (Alchemy_Skill_Level + 0.4*Luck_Level - 20; 100)

--Robert Smith 07:28, 20 May 2007 (EDT)

Yep, there was a mistake, it should be 0.4*(Luck_Level-50)... which is the same as what you gave, but just in the same format as elsewhere (e.g., Luck), and makes it more obvious that at Luck=50 there is no effect. The min part is described in the text following the equation. --Nephele^Talk 12:45, 20 May 2007 (EDT)

Prev: None

Up: Oblivion talk:Alchemy

Next: Archive 2