The latest entry in the long running Atelier series, Atelier Ayesha: Alchemist of Dusk, brings a lot of familiar gameplay to the table, but changes a few things up. One change involves how you obtain item quality and item traits while using alchemy. In previous games, synthesis involved choosing your traits, letting time pass and, if you surpassed your synthesis level, hoping for the best. Ayesha’s synthesis process can seem daunting and rather confusing, but once you have alchemy mastered, the payoff is huge, dispelling any need for time consuming grinding. Check out the video below for a quick breakdown on creating powerful items!
Choosing Ingredients that are Beneficial
Choosing proper ingredients is key to getting an effective result during synthesis. Your highest rated items typically will not yield the best results, specially when crafting critical high level battle items and accessories. Keep your eye on the estimate bars in the bottom right corner and ‘synthesis traits’ when you select ingredients.
When synthesizing one time use items, the higher the quality the more potent the effect. However to achieve an even better result, look to increase the elemental bars. The elemental bars below quality will have tick marks, which will add unique traits once the final product is crafted that GREATLY increase the item’s effects. Sometimes an ingredient may be poor quality but have a high elemental impact. There are two different kinds of traits: item and synthesis. Synthesis traits are only active when in the synthesis stock yard, and item traits are transferred to the final product. Try to choose a good balance of synthesis traits and item traits for a balanced outcome. I went with the ‘Amazingly Made’ trait to push quality over 100 adding more damage at the expense of a higher MP costs.
Strategic Synthesis
Once you are ready, head over to the synthesis room. This is a two step process (specially at higher levels): choosing the right synthesis skills and ingredient order. As you achieve higher alchemy levels your ‘CP’ increases and more options are unlocked to produce higher quality items. If I just threw all four items in I would use 71/88 of my CP reserve. While going over your CP reserve nulls any bonuses you achieved, using most of your CP by activating the the synthesis skills: ‘Power Pouring’ and/or ‘Draw Power’ Functions truly gives you the edge as an alchemist. Power Pour can be tricky as it not only costs, 5 CP to activate but doubles the ingredient’s CP cost and its effects. When synthesizing low-level ingredients, a high level Ayesha should have enough CP to Power Pour without hitting 0 CP.
I stick with ‘Draw Power’ on two of my most powerful ingredients, adding +15 to all traits. Choosing which order each item is added can drastically change the outcome. The trait ‘Usage Ease’ lowers my over all CP costs and while ‘Amazingly Made’ adds +15 quality to the overall finished product. While these traits are in the stock yard, they remain active as the rest of the ingredients are added. Some ingredients, such as the Golden Hive, have rare traits that null CP costs giving you the ability to stack power pours to your hearts content. After all is said and done, I still had 30/88 CP and probably could have gone for a power pour, but I had already maxed out the items quality at that point. You have to remain mindful. The higher the level and quality the outcome, the longer it takes to synthesize. The magic mirror item is essential for wiping out high level groups and end game boss battles! Hopefully this guide will have you preforming Alchemy like a pro and cut down on spending previous days grinding to overcome the intense boss battle Ayesha has to offer! Feel free to add any other tips and tricks in the comments below! For more tips like this, check out the oprainfall forums!
