Guide

Crafting & Invention

Crafting is where the good gear comes from. Nothing you find in the wasteland matches what you can build once you have the recipe, the skill and a workshop to do it in.

What a recipe needs

Four things, and all four have to be there:

The blueprint.
The ingredients, in your inventory or the storage at that location.
The right facility, at a high enough level.
The required skills, at the required level.

Crafting also charges a small fee against the value of the ingredients.

Blueprints

Tier 1 blueprints are permanent. Craft from them as often as you like.

Tier 2 and above are consumed on use. Some skills or items may give you a chance to keep one anyway.

Basic blueprints are sold by NPC traders. Better ones are found, earned, or invented.

Tools

Many recipes require a tool in your inventory. Tools are not consumed, but you need the right one to start.

Gathering needs tools too, and the tool tier gates the resource tier: a makeshift axe will not fell the good timber. Better tools also improve your chance of an extra unit.

Which building does what

Workshop: weapons, armor, ammunition, tools, equipment, engineering
Smith: smelting ore into metal, and heavy equipment
Leatherwork: tanning hides, and leather armor
Kitchen: cooking, and extracting ingredients
Lab: chemistry and medications
Library: writing books and manuals

Buildings have levels, and advanced recipes need the higher ones.

Deconstruction

Deconstruction takes an item apart to understand it. It runs at a workshop, needs a deconstruction kit, and gives research insights - not materials.

Different items yield different kinds of insight: metallurgic, ballistic, and so on. Which insight you need depends on what you are trying to invent.

Invention

Invention turns research insights and lower level blueprints into higher tier blueprints.

Salvage and dismantle

Salvage breaks pre-war junk into useful materials.

Dismantle breaks crafted gear back into about a third of the materials that went into it.