Alchemy Stone System Update

Introduction

The Alchemy Stone System was changed to be more intuitive and player friendly for better progression!

• The devs say Alchemy Stones had become one of the "most burdensome" systems in BDO previously
• Since they'd received consistent feedback stating the difficulty was too high, they've tried to lower it
• You can now combine Alchemy Stones with your Vell's Heart for even better effects from using it 
• Faint Essence of Aether and Brimming Essence of Aether are new materials used for Alchemy Stones

Faint & Brimming Essence of Aether 

Since the devs planned to make the Alchemy Stone system more accessible and easier to manage, the first that's new is the introduction of Faint and Brimming Essence of Aether.

Faint Essence of Aether x20 can be obtained from defeating a Dark Rift boss, they've added a whole bunch of different drops and new additions to Dark Rifts bosses so if you haven't seen them yet, check out our guide: 

Faint Essence of Aether is then used to create Brimming Essence of Aether, here are the crafting recipes used to create them, if you forget, the recipes are on the faint essence tooltip in game: 

Brimming Essence of Aether Recipes
Recipe #1 (Simple Alchemy) Faint Essence of Aether x1 Sharp Black Crystal Shard x20     Recipe #2 (Simple Alchemy) Faint Essence of Aether x1 Oquilla Piece of the Old Moon x2     * Each recipe can be mass-produced by performing Simple Alchemy with 10x the materials plus Black Stone Powder x1.	▲ You can check the required materials and method in the item description for Faint Essence of Aether.

You'll want to check the value of Sharp Black Crystal Shards (unless you've got a bunch laying around already, I suppose) as it might actually be cheaper to use Oquilla Piece of the Old Moon. 

You can grab Oquilla Piece of the Old Moon from any Old Moon Manager store located in any major cities, 

There are a few different uses for Brimming Essence of Aether, here's how they can be used: 

Brimming Essence of Aether
1	Attempt Growth for Destruction/Protection/Life alchemy stones
2	Combine Vell's Heart or Khan's Heart with a Destruction/Protection/Life alchemy stone
3	Separate a combined alchemy stone

Alchemy Stone Polishing works the same as before, using pure metals, metal ingots, plywood, sturdy plywood, special crops, and high-quality crops.

Combined Alchemy Stones

Combined Alchemy stones are a new feature after the devs stated "we wanted to ensure that Alchemy Stones would no longer be content difficult to properly enjoy.”

This was bacause previously players had to choose between Vell's Heart and the sheet stats it provides and any other style of Life Stone, combining the two removes this issue. 

Combination Materials (Example)	Effect After Combining (Example)
++ Vell's Heart + Resplendent Alchemy Stone of Destruction + Brimming Essence of Aether (Simple Alchemy)	Vell's Heart's displayed AP increase effect + Resplendent Alchemy Stone of Destruction effects

Here are some important things to know for combining Alchemy Stones: 

• Blessed or Exalted alchemy stones can only be combined after you extract the reform stone first.
• Behelit's Heart can be combined with or separated from Splendid, Shining, or Resplendent alchemy stone without extracting the Crimson Behelit Alchemy Stone Appearance.
• Alchemy Stone Growth can be attempted with Behelit's Heart when combined with a Splendid, Shining, or Resplendent alchemy stone.
• Vell's Heart combined with a Splendid, Shining, or Resplendent alchemy stone cannot be changed to the Behelit's Heart appearance using the Crimson Behelit Alchemy Stone Appearance.

Combined alchemy stones can be separated via Simple Alchemy. However, only alchemy stones that have not been upgraded can be separated.

Changes to Existing Alchemy Stones

Alchemy stones were divided into a wide range of types, from the "Imperfect" to "Shining" prefixes, with each prefix further split into White, Green, Blue, and Yellow grades but this has become less useful over time.

To make the Alchemy Stone system more intuitive, the devs have systematically consolidated these overly fragmented Alchemy Stone types to make things easier to understand. 

• Alchemy stones with the prefixes "Rough" and "Polished" have been removed.
• When you grow an Imperfect alchemy stone, you will obtain a Sturdy alchemy stone.
• Imperfect-tier achemy stones is white grade, as before.
• Deleted alchemy stones with a "Sturdy" to "Shining" prefix below yellow grade.

They've also adjusted the Central Market prices of existing alchemy stones along with some other minor changes: 

Alchemy Stone Growth

Merged the Alchemy Stone Polishing & Growth tabs into one single tab and added the Ancient Anvil system for Growth attempts. You can now also attempt Growth even while an alchemy stone is equipped.

Even if a Growth attempt fails, the alchemy stone will no longer grade down or be destroyed however, the accumulated EXP will still decrease upon failure.

Now they've added the feature to check the success rate for Alchemy Stone Growth attempts. Growth success rate, Agris Essence (Ancient Anvil), and the required amount of Brimming Essence of Aether by tier are as follows:

Vell's Fine Powder now also recharges more for Destruction, Protection, and Life alchemy stones so it restores more charge than before. All Alchemy Stones are now recharge-able as well.

What do you think about the changes to the Alchemy Stone system? Let us know!

Why not check out some of our other guides while you're here?