Tinkering

The art of Tinkering was reintroduced to the world of Norrath as a secondary tradeskill in EverQuest II with Echoes of Faydwer (LU28). For a categorical list of all tinkering-related articles, see Category:Tinkering

Becoming a Tinkerer

Unlike the original Everquest, one does not need to be a Gnome to become a Tinkerer. One simply needs to already be at least a level 10 tradeskiller in any tradeskill, have the Echoes of Faydwer expansion, and visit a Tinkering Trainer or Master. The trainers can be found on the docks in Butcherblock Mountains or in the treetop city of Kelethin.

Leveling Up a Tinkerer

Tinkering is a secondary tradeskill. Thus, you do not gain levels in Tinkering like you do in the primary tradeskills. Instead, you level it up by gaining skill points - similar to your attack or casting skills (i.e. parry, focus, etc.). The maximum skill points you can earn is based on the same formula as all skills (5 x Level), using the higher of your Adventure or Crafting level. That means a level 60 Adventurer OR Crafter will have a maximum of 300 skill points, 350 at level 70, 400 at 80, and so on.

What you can craft and what recipe books you can scribe are based on your skill points. You have a chance of gaining a skill-up every time you craft a Tinkered item. In repeated tests it was found that if you "grind" crafting you get a skill up about every 4-8 craft runs. If you wait about 15 minutes between each crafting attempt every one results in a skill up. This makes it appear that the possibility of leveling up in Tinkering is based on time between level ups and little else. This was tested with only 5 tries of grinding versus 5 of waiting, with a variety of difficulty items, but the results were 100% as stated. Further testing is needed, but it seems unlikely this is random chance. Difficulty of item had no apparent impact.

Gaining Skill-Ups

Gaining a level 76 (376 Tinkering) skillup from a level 12 (60 Tinkering) item.

You don't need to craft the highest quality (i.e., Pristine) of a given item to gain a skill-up. In fact, you can gain skill-ups just crafting the lowest quality. It doesn't appear that the chances for a skill up are any higher if you go all the way to pristine. However, as you craft Tinkered items, a portion of one of the materials (specified in the Examine window as a "Byproduct") is returned to you upon completion; crafting to higher qualities yields a better return on these "byproducts".

Also, it appears you can gain skill-ups in Tinkering even when crafting items that are trivial (greyed out). It appears that there is no level limit to gaining skillups. Your chances of gaining skillups, however, will most likely be higher when crafting items closer to your level.(Click the blue links to see the examples.)

What Does a Tinkerer Make, Anyway?

A Workbench.

A Tinkerer can craft a large variety of items items that range from tools that give small bonuses to crafters up to resurrection items and dumbfire pets. Tinkering recipes are extremely resource intensive. Beginning recipies often use up to 10 or more Loam, Soft Metal, Gems, Hard Metal, and Coal. Unlike main tradeskills, the secondary recipes will often return a portion of the used ingredients to the crafter, based on the amount used in the recipe and the quality item produced. Other than the amount of resources returned to the crafter, there is no difference in what quality item is produced. This includes the stats of the items and appears to include the chance of getting a skill gain.

For a list of tinkered items please see the Tinkering Recipes page.

NOTEs:

• shortly before LU33, a skillup bug was found and fixed.
• With LU33 in late March of 2007, loam components and slagged components were halved.